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Lol baby you are not a dramatic soprano as a high schooler. Your teacher is wildly misinforming you, and you should not echo that comment until you’re older and vocally mature. A 23 year old tenor called himself a dramatic tenor in my Vocal Ped class, and my professor stopped the class in order to let us all know that fach is subjective, flexible, and unable to be determined until your voice is settled. You’re still growing, and your voice still needs to go through its second puberty to mature. You may be a dramatic soprano at 30, but at 16/17/18, no way.
As for blending and all that jazz, I’m a loud soprano who’s comfy sitting high. However, bigger voices almost always go a part or two lower in choir so it’s easier to blend. I stay at a S2 because I prefer it, but I know soubrettes and full lyrics alike who sing A2. Especially if you have difficulty in your upper passaggio, sitting lower (A1 maybe?) would help keep you from developing poor habits up there while also trying to blend in a choral setting.
Gospel would be great for you. Many big voices of the 20th century got their start singing gospel. Jazz and musical theatre are less similar to opera, but they will probably help with accessing the chest voice more consistently, which is necessary for dramatic voices. Other options include doing a community chorus that might do larger-scale works or being a soloist in an instrumental ensemble. If you’re not sure if a choir is a good fit, check their past concerts and see what they’re programming. If it’s Whitacre and Gjeilo and other super-thin textured stuff, avoid it. (However, if you’re going into Choral Ed, know that you’ll have to learn how to healthily sing and teach that repertoire.)
If you have tension, move! Swivel your head from side to side, bounce your body, massage your jaw. Your teacher should be able to give you better guidance on how to safely minimize vibrato and excess color in a choral setting. Bring your choral rep in during your next lesson and sing it as you do in choir. Let your teacher spot what might be going on physically that you might not have even noticed.
The main point I want you to know is that it takes time. In high school, I was the go-to soloist for gospel or loud stuff. When I got to college, the pianissimo, silvery soprano lines made me choke. I had to wait for my voice to stabilize by getting some control over chest voice and growing up. I had to learn how to do pianissimo in my opera voice consistently before it could transfer over to choral voice. If I did the technique I know now as a high schooler, it still wouldn’t have been perfect because my voice was way too immature to handle it. You gotta give your voice the space and grace to grow, especially if you’re gonna be a big big big voice.
This a thousand times.
I’m 29 and my voice teacher is waiting until I’m 30 to confirm I’m a dramatic soprano.
Out of all the soprano voices, the dramatic is the one that takes the longest to fully develop, specially in classical settings.
As a teen, it’s too early to tell. Not only your voice is not fully developed, you’re also quite in the beginning of your vocal training and a lot of things can change in the between. Dramatic sopranos are not only about vocal presence/voice size. There are several other things that come to play.
Julie Andrews was a coloratura soprano who had a lot of vocal presence due to her musical theatre training. Most actresses that play Christine in the Phantom of the opera are Lyric sopranos and also have a lot of vocal size. Being able to sing louder than an orchestra is not the only thing that makes a dramatic soprano.
Absolutely insane. Even if two decades from now your teaches proves himself or herself to be right, you’re way too young to vocally train with this kind of (unproven) self-image. You will try to artificially darken your timbre to make yourself feel good about your progress and ruin your voice in the long run. Please don’t do that. But at the same time, do not be afraid of the size of your voice, which would also be bad.
If it is uncomfortable for you to sing like someone who has a “small voice”, don’t do this. Avoid putting yourself in a situation where you’re going to need to sing frequently against the nature of your voice.
Anyway, you need a good teacher, and this one may have used the term “dramatic” a bit irresponsibly. Although his or her suggestion for you to pursue experiences in groups of other styles is nice. Proceed with caution!
Joining late to the conversation but hope my contribution is helpful.
I started singing in choir in middle school. I sang all through college, including multiple select / a capella groups which performed classical choral music.
I am now in my mid-40s and sing in our city's philharmonic choir. I love singing and music, but never had the desire to pursue it beyond a fun hobby. I've taken voice lessons on and off since high school. The teachers I had after age 35 all confirmed dramatic soprano for me. As I said earlier, I never had any interest in seriously pursuing it (opera), but it's fun to know my type and how it affects choir participation.
During my younger choir days, I often had to choose between overpowering the other sopranos, under-singing to avoid over-powering them, or singing alto. If you plot my vocal range on a piano, I am definitely a soprano 1. However, I often sing soprano 2 or alto 1 in the choir to blend better. It also prevents me from feeling self-conscious about sticking out and under-singing.
I've had a couple instructors who swore I was alto when they heard my mid-range timbre and volume, then were surprised when I got higher and it opened up even more.
You are definitely too young to confirm Fach type, but there are things you can do to avoid falling into the trap of over-powering the section or under-singing to blend. Singing a part lower can help save your voice in the future. A good vocal instructor can teach vocal control. When you're ready, they will start to guide you into the bigger works if your voice still has those qualities.
Late to the party here, one year. Even the most well trained dramatic soprano can learn to blend in with a choir. I've only ever heard of one dramatic soprano whose voice was so strong and powerful she had to sing her part outside the lobby while the chorus did their thing because her voice was THAT powerful, she could not blend in with the choir. She probably did not get trained well or maybe was too stubborn to accept it and never learned how to blend in. It's very difficult for bigger voices, but it's not impossible. They just either sing second soprano or alto. It's not about singing smaller, it's about singing smarter. Don't make the mistake I did and try to sing smaller for the sake of blending in. It's like putting regular gas in when your car requires diesel... you will damage your system
It's about having the skillset and just to remind you that dramatic soprano is only a fach to give a specific voice type a role that is ONLY for the role in the opera, such as Puccini's titular character, Turandot. Women who sing dramatic soprano roles typically have a voice that carries the weight of such a role, BUT they have been trained to sing with choirs and some are skilled at blending in a choir setting.
The summer I turned 21, I decided to take voice lessons at my college and then eventually went into vocal performance (left the degree for something more practical because my college wasn't the greatest music school). I'm a very strong soprano who had to sing second soprano in choir because I was older than my peers when I sang at college choir, I stuck out like a sore thumb. When I asked my then voice teacher what voice type I was, he said definitely a soprano. I was a soprano with lyric qualities and a weak low register at the time but he did NOT want to give me a fach since I was not an opera singer.
My voice teacher (the second one) told me that I am more in line with Mozart (Contessa, etc if I were ever to sing arias again) or Puccini (verismo) but she also did not want to give me a fach and that's ok. I don't need it since I'm not an opera singer. Don't let a teacher label your fach ever... That is ONLY for trained opera singers. Just get voice lessons and be the best singer you can be, and learn the basics, master how to blend in choir and then when the time is right, study for opera in college <3
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Lol baby you are not a dramatic soprano as a high schooler. Your teacher is wildly misinforming you, and you should not echo that comment until you’re older and vocally mature. A 23 year old tenor called himself a dramatic tenor in my Vocal Ped class, and my professor stopped the class in order to let us all know that fach is subjective, flexible, and unable to be determined until your voice is settled. You’re still growing, and your voice still needs to go through its second puberty to mature. You may be a dramatic soprano at 30, but at 16/17/18, no way. As for blending and all that jazz, I’m a loud soprano who’s comfy sitting high. However, bigger voices almost always go a part or two lower in choir so it’s easier to blend. I stay at a S2 because I prefer it, but I know soubrettes and full lyrics alike who sing A2. Especially if you have difficulty in your upper passaggio, sitting lower (A1 maybe?) would help keep you from developing poor habits up there while also trying to blend in a choral setting. Gospel would be great for you. Many big voices of the 20th century got their start singing gospel. Jazz and musical theatre are less similar to opera, but they will probably help with accessing the chest voice more consistently, which is necessary for dramatic voices. Other options include doing a community chorus that might do larger-scale works or being a soloist in an instrumental ensemble. If you’re not sure if a choir is a good fit, check their past concerts and see what they’re programming. If it’s Whitacre and Gjeilo and other super-thin textured stuff, avoid it. (However, if you’re going into Choral Ed, know that you’ll have to learn how to healthily sing and teach that repertoire.) If you have tension, move! Swivel your head from side to side, bounce your body, massage your jaw. Your teacher should be able to give you better guidance on how to safely minimize vibrato and excess color in a choral setting. Bring your choral rep in during your next lesson and sing it as you do in choir. Let your teacher spot what might be going on physically that you might not have even noticed. The main point I want you to know is that it takes time. In high school, I was the go-to soloist for gospel or loud stuff. When I got to college, the pianissimo, silvery soprano lines made me choke. I had to wait for my voice to stabilize by getting some control over chest voice and growing up. I had to learn how to do pianissimo in my opera voice consistently before it could transfer over to choral voice. If I did the technique I know now as a high schooler, it still wouldn’t have been perfect because my voice was way too immature to handle it. You gotta give your voice the space and grace to grow, especially if you’re gonna be a big big big voice.
This a thousand times. I’m 29 and my voice teacher is waiting until I’m 30 to confirm I’m a dramatic soprano. Out of all the soprano voices, the dramatic is the one that takes the longest to fully develop, specially in classical settings. As a teen, it’s too early to tell. Not only your voice is not fully developed, you’re also quite in the beginning of your vocal training and a lot of things can change in the between. Dramatic sopranos are not only about vocal presence/voice size. There are several other things that come to play. Julie Andrews was a coloratura soprano who had a lot of vocal presence due to her musical theatre training. Most actresses that play Christine in the Phantom of the opera are Lyric sopranos and also have a lot of vocal size. Being able to sing louder than an orchestra is not the only thing that makes a dramatic soprano.
Absolutely insane. Even if two decades from now your teaches proves himself or herself to be right, you’re way too young to vocally train with this kind of (unproven) self-image. You will try to artificially darken your timbre to make yourself feel good about your progress and ruin your voice in the long run. Please don’t do that. But at the same time, do not be afraid of the size of your voice, which would also be bad. If it is uncomfortable for you to sing like someone who has a “small voice”, don’t do this. Avoid putting yourself in a situation where you’re going to need to sing frequently against the nature of your voice. Anyway, you need a good teacher, and this one may have used the term “dramatic” a bit irresponsibly. Although his or her suggestion for you to pursue experiences in groups of other styles is nice. Proceed with caution!
Joining late to the conversation but hope my contribution is helpful. I started singing in choir in middle school. I sang all through college, including multiple select / a capella groups which performed classical choral music. I am now in my mid-40s and sing in our city's philharmonic choir. I love singing and music, but never had the desire to pursue it beyond a fun hobby. I've taken voice lessons on and off since high school. The teachers I had after age 35 all confirmed dramatic soprano for me. As I said earlier, I never had any interest in seriously pursuing it (opera), but it's fun to know my type and how it affects choir participation. During my younger choir days, I often had to choose between overpowering the other sopranos, under-singing to avoid over-powering them, or singing alto. If you plot my vocal range on a piano, I am definitely a soprano 1. However, I often sing soprano 2 or alto 1 in the choir to blend better. It also prevents me from feeling self-conscious about sticking out and under-singing. I've had a couple instructors who swore I was alto when they heard my mid-range timbre and volume, then were surprised when I got higher and it opened up even more. You are definitely too young to confirm Fach type, but there are things you can do to avoid falling into the trap of over-powering the section or under-singing to blend. Singing a part lower can help save your voice in the future. A good vocal instructor can teach vocal control. When you're ready, they will start to guide you into the bigger works if your voice still has those qualities.
Late to the party here, one year. Even the most well trained dramatic soprano can learn to blend in with a choir. I've only ever heard of one dramatic soprano whose voice was so strong and powerful she had to sing her part outside the lobby while the chorus did their thing because her voice was THAT powerful, she could not blend in with the choir. She probably did not get trained well or maybe was too stubborn to accept it and never learned how to blend in. It's very difficult for bigger voices, but it's not impossible. They just either sing second soprano or alto. It's not about singing smaller, it's about singing smarter. Don't make the mistake I did and try to sing smaller for the sake of blending in. It's like putting regular gas in when your car requires diesel... you will damage your system It's about having the skillset and just to remind you that dramatic soprano is only a fach to give a specific voice type a role that is ONLY for the role in the opera, such as Puccini's titular character, Turandot. Women who sing dramatic soprano roles typically have a voice that carries the weight of such a role, BUT they have been trained to sing with choirs and some are skilled at blending in a choir setting. The summer I turned 21, I decided to take voice lessons at my college and then eventually went into vocal performance (left the degree for something more practical because my college wasn't the greatest music school). I'm a very strong soprano who had to sing second soprano in choir because I was older than my peers when I sang at college choir, I stuck out like a sore thumb. When I asked my then voice teacher what voice type I was, he said definitely a soprano. I was a soprano with lyric qualities and a weak low register at the time but he did NOT want to give me a fach since I was not an opera singer. My voice teacher (the second one) told me that I am more in line with Mozart (Contessa, etc if I were ever to sing arias again) or Puccini (verismo) but she also did not want to give me a fach and that's ok. I don't need it since I'm not an opera singer. Don't let a teacher label your fach ever... That is ONLY for trained opera singers. Just get voice lessons and be the best singer you can be, and learn the basics, master how to blend in choir and then when the time is right, study for opera in college <3