Is it normal to know you are better than someone else?

Question

I have taken voice and piano lessons since I was in third grade. I am a junior in high school now. I have been to All-State four times, and two colleges have already told me they want me to come sing there. My chorus and drama teachers always tell me how good I am, how much they needed me, etc. I have never had a main part in a musical. I know that some of the people who get main parts are not as good as I am. Am I wrong to want a main role and to feel cheated when lesser trained people get bigger parts?

I'm sorry, I guess I should have realized how the question would sound. "Is it normal to think you are better than someone else?" would be more appropriate.

Let me explain my situation a little more. I have taken voice and piano since third grade, and have participated in Festival ever since, getting Superiors every year but one. I have been to All-State four times, and I was an alternant Soprano for GHP last year, only missing it because I screwed up my sightreading. I sing in two chorales: the advanced in school, and a highly recognized chorus outside of.

I have been lectured many times on humility, and I believe I have it.

As far as colleges goes, I sang in front of the Director of the Atlanta Opera at Brenau, and was asked to come back and audition. The other was from Piedmont College.

I just feel frustrated sometimes when others "worse" than I am get main roles. I try to tell myself it's coming, but it's very frustrating.

Answer 1

channel your frustration into practicing more, and making everything perfect so that when the time comes you'll blow everyone away.

untill then be patient, your time will come.

if you don't know the term prima-donna, look it up. I'm not saying you are one, but just be coincious of it. Everyone loves a humble person.

Answer 2

Is it normal? Absolutely. At many times in life, one looks around and wonders what the heck is everyone else thinking, but that doesn't solve your problem.

Why don't the directors choose you? Ask them. Politely. Humbly. But ask them. The reasons a director casts a particular person rather than another can range from the creepy (the director has a thing for an actress) to the political (this actor's father is sponsoring the show) to the artistic (I want someone who looks like a lizard for this role) to the mundane (I need someone shorter than my leading man).

If you want to be in musicals, keep developing your craft - singing, acting, and developing positive relations with other people in the theater. The last one is very important. Having directed a production in which the lead actress was at odds with most of the remaining cast, I can tell you that though she was a great performer, I'd work with her again (or some of the other cast since it wasn't just her not acting professionally).

So whether or not it is wrong to feel cheated when people with less training get bigger parts isn't helpful. If you are in theater, you will audition, sometimes you will get the role, sometimes not and the reason could be the director just got off the phone after having an argument with a loved one and won't like anybody who performs that day.

Fair - no. Life - yes.

Answer 3

Lesser trained people need more training or practice that's probably why they get the part.
To answer the question you asked yes it is normal to know you're better than someone else
as long as you're not bigheaded or egotistical about it!
I am a great cook but lesser trained cooks get
jobs I be much better at than they are! Yes I feel cheated too but they need the experience more than I do!
No U aren't wrong to want a big part. If U really want a main part then pay for it or move to someplace and get so popular there that they will give U the main part!
Enjoy the challenge of doing whatever U need to do get what U want. Once U get it then U will need another want (desire or goal) to go after! That's what life is about isn't it!
Get the Drama Magazine in Magazine Stores or Get on a Radio Amateur Talent hour
Put an add in the Paper of Your Ability and
let people know what U want! U don't have to do it in your own school do U? If the school you got to isn't giving U want U want why continue it? Go to a School that Gives U What U Want! You may have do or take somethings U don't want to get what U want! Do favours to get what U want! There is another way.. this
way I believe is wrong: Blackmail to get what U Want!

Answer 4

There is this little thing in the arts called politics. You have to be just as charming off stage as you are on stage. Judging good singing is very subjective, and there are always going to be singers better than you, just as there are singers worse than you. None of the people you audition for have the same way of judging you. They cannot say definitively who is the best from the myriads of other singers who may be better than you, or worse than you.

Keep practicing, keep auditioning, and keep getting parts. You will get the main part when you have put in your dues, just like any other singer. Become friends with the casting director, the conductor, the choir director, the theater director, any director. Go bowling or golfing with them, or whatever floats their boat.

In this business, it's who you know, and not what you know, or how much training you've had, or how much better or worse you are than the next singer.

And sometimes, it's just stage presence. You can't teach that to anybody. Maybe the worse singers have better stage presence than you. Who knows. The point is, it can be any number of things unrelated to singing.

Answer 5

More than just singing ability goes into getting a lead role. For example, musicals like "Anything Goes" and "42nd Street" and "A Chorus Line" are all "dancing musicals": the leads must must must be able to dance. How is your dancing? Or there are things that are intensely acting oriented; "The King and I" or "The Last Five Years" all require intense chemistry between the two main leads, and in "Jeckyll and Hyde" the main lead has to be able to act both roles. Maybe you're not that good an actress... yet. You can improve on both acting and dancing the same way you improved in singing, by taking lessons and classes.

Then there is the fact that lots of directors play favorites. In my high school our theatre director's son got cast in every musical, despite his numerous behavioral problems. Wonder why...

Then there's the fact that physically you may be wrong for a role. If you're going out for the lead in "Annie" but you look 20, too bad for you, even if you're the best singer auditioning.

It's normal to be able to objectively consider yourself more talented vocally than someone else if you've heard a recording of both of you singing alone. But even just singing next to someone in choir is misleading because sound different to yourself than you do to others. Keep in mind, though, that if you know you are more talented than someone else, the higher you get working on your voice, the sooner you will meet people (that's plural) who are more talented than you, and who will know it.

Answer 6

In terms of getting a part in a musical, it could have more to do with your stage presense or the actual sound of your voice. Or politics. You might be more talented and more educated in music, but that doesn't always get you the part.

As someone who has been through the all-state, all-eastern, all-nationals circuit, beware. I went to a very prestigious performing arts college, and after being top ranked on my instrument for years in high school, I got a very rude awakening when I got to school, and I was strictly average. Right now, you're a big fish in a small pond.

Of course you're going to feel cheapened when you don't get a part, but what you need to remember is that if you truly are talented, much bigger and better things will be awaiting you.

Answer 7

i totally hear you and i will tell you why. because i am in the same situation. i have been a guitar player since i was 8 i am 19 now thats 11 years. when i was in high school i started playing bass for the jazz band because there was no bass or guitar player and a bass is more important than a guitar. then a guy came and he knew nothing of the instrument and they gave him the guitar parts instead of me who knew the instrument upside down. many many times i played in front of everyone and proved i had way more talent than this guy and still i didnt get to play guitar until my senior year when i played guitar for one song which i had to share with him. for four years he received help from a profesional guitar played the school hired to teach him. and i received nothing. at the concert however we took turns every so many bars for solos and guess what. my solos were far better than his and still the director would cut me off to stop me from building a momentum. you know why? because he wouldnt have been able to keep up the energy going.

that is exactly the same thing thats happening to you. you are far too talented to have any real competence. it is perfectly ok to know you are better than someone else. as a matter of fact it is absolutely ok to BE better than someone else, to KNOW it, and be PROUD of it!
Now i will explain as to why you don't get the recognition you deserve. Fact: You are better than your schoolmaets. Fact: compared to you, they look bad. they look horrible, pathetic. This is good for you, but not for the school, or group as a whole. they can't have one single great singer and a bunch of crappy ones so what they do is they put the second best or other in the main parts and give you lesser important ones so that you can help and support the even worse ones.. get it? you might be thinking.. but why dont they jus tell me that?? because if they tell you that they are afraid that you will resent them for using your talent and stopping you from being the best you can be and they are afraid you will quit on them. they also may not tell you how good you are because if they do they are afraid that you will become cocky thinking that you know it all and then you will have an attitude that no one will stand.

Now the good part. My advice =)

even though you are extremely talented, you are not the only one that started singing since little, you are not the only one who is being recruited by colleges, you are not the only one who went to All-State multiple times, remeber those guys that participated in All-State with you?? well, you will see them again and you will compete with them in college. then you will have some REAL competition and that is what u have to get ready for. secondary roles in a musical are not as important in the big picture. you dont have to be the best in your school, you have to be the best in town, if you have worked with professionals you probably have heard this phrase but ill say it anyway, you have to "dig in" you have to "step up" and you have to "hit it". when you are looking for a gig you wont be placed in a secondary role to helpo someone else, you will be put there because someone else was better than you and that is not where you want to be, you want to be in the top. Yes, in the top, where you belong.

good luck in the future n let me know if this helps

Answer 8

It is perfectly normal to think you are good.

Music is a fickle "profession". People play favorites and people get parts for various reasons. Talent is only about 10% of the equation. I've seen people get parts for the following reasons:

1) talent (often important, but not always)
2) right hight (such as leading woman not taller than leading man)
3) right weight (such as no portly leading men)
4) right hair color/face shape/body type (Annie born with curly red hair means not having to buy a wig)
5) look the part (or like a famous person who played the role)[like Maria looking like Julie Andrews)
6) know the casting committee members (they like to give roles to people they like)
7) know the director (they like to work with their friends)
8) have sex with the appropriate people (there is some truth behind that casting couch stereotype)
9) have sex with men/women (which ever is the culture of the group) [I had a friend not get hired at a major opera company because he was straight]
10) have friends in high places (people that can override the director/casting committee)
11) have parents/spouse/company that makes large contributions to the school/opera company/performance group [just wait until you get into colleges - it is rampant]
12) has done the role before (they're a good risk because they already know the role)
13) reminds the director of herself/himself when they were young (wants to give them they break they wish they had)
14) they are willing to sell a lot of tickets (every group needs money)
15) they fit the costume that was used the last time the show was done by that group (costumes are expensive to make and alter)
16) they have really good "dirt" on someone high up in the show (no need to make you mad and have the dirty laundry aired)
17) they have an agent that thinks they're great (and they put their respected name behind the person)
18) they get one good review (so they must be good, right?)
19) they have a phenominal audition (some people are great performers and horrible auditioners)
20) they have connections to bring in show sponsors (back to the money thing)

That's just 20 - every reason you can possibly think of has probably happened.

If you know you are good, wait and your time will come. Don't get hung up about what you do and don't get picked for. You're only in high school If you feel locked out of the school productions, go find a community theater. They're always struggling for good talent.

If you go chose to pursue voice after high school, and are fortunate enough get into a really good program (like Indiana or Julliard) you'll find out really fast that there are a lot of good singers out there and you're just one of the crowd. If you want to know how good you really are, audition for Indiana and Julliard. If you can get in to either one, then you have room to brag.

Answer 9

Your feelings are normal but may be misdirected.
It sounds like you have been preparing yourself throughout life to succeed. By your wording it doesn't appear you lack self-confidence (this is good). You are in the business and know that it is not always one thing that you need to be good at, but possibly many different things that you need to have. Try taking a different view of your auditions. Try to discover what it is the casting director is looking for in a voice, appearance, and attitude.
I am willing to bet that since you have a good voice, you also posses unique traits such as your appearance or attitude that for the parts you auditioned for you may not have been the best fit. BUT because of these unique traits there is a main part out there that will fit you. You just keep auditioning, discovering the parts and you will succeed.

Answer 10

the people who get the bigger roles might have stronger voices, or a better personality for the role. you might come across as a little conceited, etc when you audition, as well. if you would tone down the attitude a little, maybe the directors, etc would see that you are right for the part. you're not wrong to want the bigger roles, but you sound a little judgemental and conceited. i don't know what you sound like (vocally), but just keep trying, and go along with whatever comes your way.
good luck, hope i helped. also pay attention to any constructive criticism that comes your way from your teachers.

Answer 11

Sure. I know I am better than just about any hammered dulcimer player in North America, without all the tests and recitals.

BUT - If that knowledge means resting on your laurels, or becoming a snob, you won't be very long. And even if you are the soul of humility, always check the rear-view mirror - the next best act is right behind you. The performing arts are littered with the once-great.