As a Opera singer there are a lot of people ask me why pavarotti could sing beautifully even though he couldn read music.
There is some spontaneos stuff in opera, although it requires lots of precision. Pavarotti during his career there is a coach who guide him what is written on the scorre matters.
As a singer you also have a space where you are allowed to do it free,
And our work is to know when we can do it freely, and where not. need to catch the original meaning, emotion as possible we can.
and we need to make as natural as possible.
But what is natural ?
There are different parameter about singing naturally.
The first thing we learn is how to pronunce well, Need to be aware how to pronunce every vows and consonance clearly and make sure there are supported by a good breath, ease but with compression.
How to do it?
Normally we think sing it naturally means we should follow our way of speaking,
In a way there is right.
But actually most of people doesn’t use their natural voice when they are speaking. so most of us we don't really recognize our natural voice.
Or we imagined our character in real life that isn’t compatable as our true-us becuase of some reason.
And I always think, our mental state could affect our quality of voice….sometimes we make different sound when we are more tired, or more happier and so on...
So it’s not quite right for us to sing with a speaking voice. Or it would be more correct to say that we have many ways of speaking, but we need to find the most beautiful one. its about esthetic.
There is another reason why we shouldn’t think only about how we speak in singing.
Because usually the verses follow the melody line so we are obliged to pronunce a very long Vowel.
it’s like doing a slow motion. so immagine to speak in a slow motion.
But speak in a estatic way, how to understand which will be the beutiful way of speaking, i usually take referrence from an old movie or a presenter on news.