- Being In Touch With Your Body January 12, 2012
What does it mean to be “in touch” with your body? If you are alive, aren’t you “in touch”? Does it mean that you can reach down and touch your hand to your knee? Why would anyone not be “in touch” with their own physical presence? Being in touch, in the sense that I usually use ...
- What’s Best For The Profession January 11, 2012
Ever wonder what would be best for the profession of teaching singing and for professional or professional-level amateur singers? I do all the time. What would be best would be that we would all use the same terminology in the same way and that it would be based in function. What would be best would be that we ...
- All Singing Teachers Are The Same January 10, 2012
Did you know that all singing teachers are the same? To our fellow professions, that’s how we appear. Think about it. Until you know an MD personally, all you know is that the individual is a doctor. Most of us have an idea of what a doctor is because there are very very few people who ...
- The Voice Police January 10, 2012
Are there any Voice Police? I wish there were. They would write tickets for singing violations and make sure that all the singers are obeying the law (of vocal function). Wouldn’t that be good? No, probably not. We need diversity in this world and we need the messed up, the troubled, the difficult and the truly ...
- Study The Successful January 7, 2012
I would like to ask, again, for a large-scale, in-the-field study of professionally successful, vocally healthy singers that would examine their vocal patterns and parameters. The study would look at those in musical styles that generally have loud volume requirements which would be: 1) opera/traditional music theater, 2) rock/pop/contemporary music theater, 3)gospel/R&B It would include only those vocalists ...
- Doctors January 3, 2012
Over the last two decades singing teachers have worked to be able to understand medical terminology, vocal health, medical treatment of singers with illnesses, and of what happens in surgery. We have educated ourselves about ailments like reflux and learned how allergies effect the vocal folds and sinuses. We have looked at photos of ...
- A Plea About Terminology January 2, 2012
If I could make “the rules” I would pass one that said: NO MORE NEW TERMINOLOGY ALLOWED! The need to name things run deeply in our collective consciousness. Oliver Sacks explained this beautifully in an essay long ago in which he stated that by naming things we make them real to ourselves. We distinguish that one ...
- The Confusion About Classical Singing January 2, 2012
On my travels, I frequently hear “I am classically trained” when I talk to singers or teachers of singing. This is said with some level of emphatic emphasis. “Classically trained”. Is this a thing? Can someone find me an unequivocal explanation of what “classical training” is? All you need to dispel the idea that classical training is ...
- The Confusion About Belting December 29, 2011
Why there is so much confusion about belting? Why is everyone so confused? There are quite a few “research oriented” teachers who either teach belting from a “I don’t do it but the students can” point of view (!), or “I can teach belting even though I could never belt myself” attitude, or a “belting is ...
- Any Fool Can Start Over December 27, 2011
What does it take to produce an old work well? Is it like being the person who restores great art? The person who scrapes off years of dirt and soot, cleaning and repairing, maybe even re-painting certain areas or restoring the canvas? The restorers do this so that the public can see the great work ...
- Entitlement December 18, 2011
We are entitled to some very basic things. Here in the USA we are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Even these three things can be viewed with some degree of perspective. We can all agree on what it means to be be alive. We used to think we knew what liberty ...
- Psychology and Psychotherapy December 16, 2011
Here in New York City many, maybe most, people understand the value of good psychotherapy. In the artistic community it is simply taken for granted that therapy is expected at some point in life. We forget here how much that is not the case elsewhere. A great many people have the idea that psychology and its ...
- Discernment and "Common Sense" December 10, 2011
In the Christian tradition, one of the qualities of someone who is purported to be wise is discernment. This quality implies that the individual can discern one thing from another without confusion or struggle. The idea is that someone who is wise is someone who is able to tell the good from the bad, the ...
- Introspection December 2, 2011
Some people never question anything, least of all themselves. They assume that they are just fine, thank you very much, and that if things in their life are not quite right they should just ignore them or blame something (or someone) else for what’s wrong. If you have been taught that strength means that you should ...
- Muscle Memory and Conditioning November 30, 2011
When and if we actually understand vocal function fully (and for the most part, teachers of singing are far away from such a reality), we might be able to establish some kinds of norms for voice types, for CCM styles, for age groups and for vocal health in performers. If we were to successfully take that ...