Why is American Idol against voice lessons?

In an ad in a magazine awhile ago (I forget what or when), there was a picture of Fantasia and something along the lines of, "Never had a voice lesson in my life," like that was a really impressive thing.

And if anyone remembers Briana Davis from the last season (the girl that hit a high note singing Phantom), she mentioned that she had recently started taking voice lessons, and Paula says, "You don't need them, honey."

I thought voice was good for anyone to take no matter how talented they might be, not just for people that can't sing...

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Because people without voice lessons are more likely to sound horrible, which leads those montages and hilarious reels of bad singers auditioning. Too many people make it in the music business without voice lessons, so I guess they see it as unnecessary for success.

At TWoP, they started calling Briana Davis (Phantom girl) "Rainbow Brightman". To this day, that still makes me laugh.

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Updated On: 10/9/05 at 12:41 AM

I don't understand how so many people are making it in mainstream music without any actual vocal talent.

I don't get how people actually enjoy listening to digitalized talk-singing over a cruddy guitar riff.

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See, now I read the Fantastia comment to say that she's proud to have this singing career, never having had a voice lesson. Not in terms of being "against" them or something, but just that she's lucky, or whatever.

Just me.

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Thats why I've yet to audition for AI. Everyone tells me I should but I just say "Why... so they can tell me I'm too broadway-ish?"

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orangeskittles, I know! its so ironic that they use it like an insult, it pisses me off when I watch it. I completley agree with your comment on rather sounding too broadway for them than too pop-ish for broadway. I don't know about that show...for me its like I listen to so many cast recodings that have such strong talent that I'll watch that show and think....what is this?

NOT that I agree with this, but you have to understand that, mostly, the music business, that is, pop, rap, alternative, etc..., ar NOT interested in real talent. They want DIFFERENT. They search for that LOOK or SOUND or QUALITY that is different from the norm.

NOT that I agree with this, but you have to understand that, mostly, the music business, that is, pop, rap, alternative, etc..., ar NOT interested in real talent. They want DIFFERENT. They search for that LOOK or SOUND or QUALITY that is different from the norm.

And here I thought they were looking for the next clone of a clone of a clone.

Anyway, if you're sensing an anti-voice lesson sentiment, I wouldn't be surprised. There's a certain school of thought (you see it in punk rock, for instance) that says that any formal music education ruins you, because music is supposed to come from the heart, or some such thing. As if learning technique impairs your expressivity. Any classical musician with half a brain knows that isn't true, but people seem to find the savant of sorts to be a more interesting story.

I think we're able to find more trained singers in the R&B genre, opposed to the pop & rock genre.

The late Aaliyah - had extensive training in voice, dance, and even acting. She went to a top performing arts High School, and She also continued to train throughout her career, and up until her death.

And did that hurt her from being a big star in the music world? Not at all.

Now THAT was talent. And I know of plenty of other glorious voices in this genre - that may not be popular - but have lovely trained voices.

Rath, when it's used by Simon, "too Broadway" it's quite often a euphemism for "too gay". I figured that out during one audition when he said it to one guy that didn't sound anything like the Broadway style, but was definitely had an effeminate style to his singing.

I understand what you mean about Broadway styles being different than pop music; I'm not expecting the next Carol Channing to come off of a reality show. But considering how often the judges use this statement when it isn't appropriate, it makes me wonder if any of them have even heard a Broadway singer.

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Updated On: 10/9/05 at 02:49 PM

I agree with what Rath said... it's not a comp to find Broadway singers, whether they are good or not. They don't want to hear that style, it doesn't fit them comp.

Also, going with what someone said about it taking the expressiveness away, it is like that in a lot of music sometimes. That raw, untrained emotion is something many styles of music look for and once you get trained, it isn't there. It is a big rock and punk thing...

Also, in Jazz it is a big thing too since originally a lot of Jazz wasn't really made up of composed music or played by literate musicians. I wouldn't doubt that it was the same for many Jazz musicians, being too literate means you were less a musician or something. However, it's obviously not true and Jazz evolved, cuz look at Swing in the later eras of Jazz. That's greatly literate and composed music (you have to compose music for a huge band like that) and it's still amazing jazz.

So it's the same for other musics... for some reason being untrained gives you that raw edge and expression trained musicians don't have. It's not necessarily true, but seems like it is the idea behind it. Music will evolve tho and maybe the more popular music will be more trained in style. And you won't have pop, rock and punk singers (and others) untrained... maybe being trained will be a good thing. Who knows.

Anyway, sorry for the lengthy response. That's all I have to say about this lol.

But on the topic of AI - the first episodes are hilarious, I love them!

There are those pop singers that think voice lessons take away from your natural tone.

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