“I was Born to Do It And was Given a Skill to Perform It“ - Patrick Chan (Canadian Figure Skater): Does it Also Apply to the Artists' Performances?

Vocally speaking, you may be born to do it, but have you obtained the skill to perform it?

If we come back to the figure skaters now, we could definitely admire our Canadian dance champions,

"Tessa Virtue and Schott Moir".

Not only they are amazingly graceful dancing on ice, but they are also amazingly skillful when it comes to the figure skating technique.

They have been vigorously training near London Ontario for many years, but, besides which, it was very clear from their very young age, that they possessed a natural talent. Needless to say, they combined the Great Canadian Figure Skating School technique with their given, evidently by birth, grace and poise. The "marriage" of the two made them not only World Champions (numerous times), but also made them Olympic Gold Medalists in 2010 and 2018.

If we go to our other, quite well known, Canadian female figure skater, Jennifer Robinson, who too has won some international competitions, but never was able to go to the absolute heights. She has been really beautifully gliding on ice, but unfortunately, 3 out of 4 required jumps and their combinations, she was landing incorrectly, or even flat down on the ice.

Needless to say, her technical merit was, by far, behind her artistic abilities and her very beautiful looks.

Obviously, somewhere there, during her development as a figure skater, the technical aspect of it was quite a bit missing, and that resulted in an, otherwise very talented performer, never being able to reach out to her fullest potential.

Now, let’s talk about singing and vocal performance.

As I mentioned before, I have been, quite religiously, watching all of those reality TV shows dedicated to singing competitions and vocal performances. By some, very strange and mysterious reason, they all, usually, start with quite strong singers. Then, somehow, the better ones are getting eliminated and by far, not the strongest ones end up in the last 10 or even 5 remaining vocal performers, striving to win the competition.

Practically, all of those shows are judged by the audience, especially closer to the end, and that tells us that the audience have no idea of what to look for. It appears to be that the audience is very musically uneducated and, sometimes, I presume that some of them are just simply “deaf” and should check their hearing, on a regular basis.

They are choosing the person that sings off-key, screaming from the bottom of their throat and the top of their lungs, instead of the person, who is not only naturally talented, but has some schooling, some class, some technique and some intelligence. Let alone the audience, even the judges, sometimes, never cease to amaze me.

Those who became mentors for the certain groups, seem to be defending their mentorship, more so then being objective to their protégés, who, of course, they have gotten attached to in the process, but still…

However, evidently, everything “comes out in a wash”, so to speak.

The lack of the technical abilities of the top chosen singers is becoming extremely apparent, and frankly, extremely annoying, as some of them are outright screaming like they have been attacked, assaulted or, at least, mugged. LOL

Others were sounding like they were trapped in a long tunnel between their throats and their nasal passages, scooping each and every note off of their guts and whatever was left of their vocal anatomy, not leaving us a hope that there will be a “light at the end of that tunnel”.

How pathetic is that…?

Honestly, my ears have been quite destroyed ever since I engaged in watching and analyzing, (via occupational hazard), the participants of certain competitions, their singing abilities and their, usually non-existent, vocal technique. The lack of the latter usually causes a pitch problem, as the voice is not placed accurately in designated muscles and, therefore, travels uncontrollably and without predicament.

My fear is, that soon (in general), singing off-key, off-tone and off-tune will become the norm and will be passed for the real thing and become the standard. Everybody’s ears are gradually getting more accustomed to at least a semitone up or down of the real note and therefore, when the singer will sing in the actual tune, it might be questioned!!!  

To say that it is sad to think this way, would be an understatement and frankly, it may become (if not already) quite tragic.

The word, “music” will soon become obsolete and probably, even sooner, will be replaced with the word, “Cacophony”.   (Please Google the Definition of the Latter).

To give you a recent example, yesterday night, my assistant and I were watching the Juno Awards 2022.
Honestly, I was embarrassed listening to singers (some of them previously well known) who were now singing out of key, trying to reach the high notes which were no longer existent in their range. Also, there were bands (of a strange nature and style), rappers (huge groups of females and males performing in very strange attire and masks) and some stupid, to say the least, comedy being presented under the roof of the Canadian Juno Awards...
Wow!! We both exclaimed!! 
I have to note that it had very little to do with music and was reminding me of some kind of a poor circus performance... 

How sad is that...?

Extremely sad... indeed!!

Thank God for the classics!

Like in a classical Ballet, there are certain standards and canons that have been established and traditionally followed. On that note, I am becoming a bigger fan of classical music and even Opera, which I never thought would happen to me. For over 42 years here in Canada, I have been teaching/coaching and producing every genre of music (rock, pop, R&B, jazz and whatnot) except classical. And I have to say that I have been enjoying it at the time.

Nowadays, hearing people literally "murdering" even the old cover tunes, not to mention the modern, so-called songs (and even the Canadian Nation Anthem), turned me off of it completely, especially in the rock genre, which became what I call, an “alternative” to music. 

As for the music industry in general, I am certainly prepared for the worst, but definitely remain to be hopeful for the best, which hopefully, is yet to come… in one of the future decades (hopefully in this century)...