Singers aren’t real musicians?

It's a myth, but why do people believe it? And what should voice teachers do about it?

First of all, singers absolutely are musicians. I should know. I’m a singer, and I am a musician. How can someone who makes music not be a “real musician”? Singing is music, so by definition, singers are musicians because they make music. But there’s still this perception that singers lack the advanced technical and theoretical musicianship skills of instrumentalists—that singers aren’t good musicians.

This is a prejudice that I see all the time, firsthand. This is the scenario that always happens: I’m collaborating for the first time with a classical musician. I’m singing, they’re directing and/or accompanying. We’re rehearsing something I’m seeing for the first time, so I’m sightreading, or it’s something extremely complex that I’m singing correctly. After a while, maybe after the rehearsal is over, they ask me, “Okay, what instrument do you play?”

I always refuse to understand at first; “I’m a classically trained singer,” I say.

“Yeah,” they press me, “but what instrument do you REALLY play?”

Arghhh and then even though they phrased it that way, I have to admit that, yes, I originally took music lessons on piano, and I learned music reading and theory from piano lessons. They smile knowingly. Then I tell them I’m also an organist, which always impresses people, and that somehow makes me feel a little better about not being able to do anything to dispel the myth that singers can’t have highly developed musicianship skills unless they’ve studied an instrument.

Singers absolutely CAN and DO develop musicianship skills like advanced sightreading and understanding of harmonic theory without studying another instrument—some of them. I’m sad to say that the myth isn’t entirely a fiction. But it’s not because there’s something wrong with singers or singing, it’s because singers too often don’t receive enough (or any!) instruction in those skills. And, what’s worse, singers themselves become infected with the “not a real musician” mentality and don’t believe those skills are within their grasp.

The very fact that there are successful singers out there making music that people love hearing, and doing it without the aid of formal musicianship skills, proves that there’s more to being a musician than knowing all the complicated abstractions. Those rules and regulations help us musicians communicate and work together effectively; they’re very useful and beneficial, but they’re not, ultimately, the most necessary component of music making. The most necessary component is expressive artistry. Music is auditory art. At its core, music is what you hear, and if someone can create beautiful, expressive sound with their voice, then they are without doubt a musician.

The negative perception of singers as poor musicians holds back so many artists from doing their best work, and it keeps many of them from setting a high bar for themselves for the attainment of musicianship skills that could help them collaborate and create more efficiently and with deeper understanding.

Fellow music teachers, we have a responsibility to our developing singers to make them into knowledgeable musicians with well-rounded skill sets. We have to prepare them to communicate and collaborate with their instrumentalist peers and colleagues. I don’t just mean music reading and formal music analysis theories—singers need to know how to identify by ear aspects of pitch, harmony, and rhythm, and they need to know standard language to talk about those things. We teachers need to present and explain all those concepts and keep explaining until our singers can understand and use them. If they can’t learn it the way we’re teaching it, then we have to teach the way they learn.

And, just as importantly, we have to help each of our singing students believe they are as much a musician as any instrumentalist. Singers deserve to see themselves as real musicians. And if they don’t, they will never have the confidence to pursue their musicianship and artistry to the highest level.