- UNFAIR May 12, 2010
Yes, I know, life is and always has been unfair. I never liked that, I still don’t. It makes no difference. Life will always be unfair. I have so many students who were truly talented, and who worked very hard to develop their talents by taking music, singing, acting or other kinds of ...
- The Truest Tragedy May 8, 2010
What does one do when listening to a student sing and the student is in a master’s degree program at a university and sounds absolutely dreadful? What does one do when listening to a student who has just gotten a DOCTORATE in vocal performance and has not one but many obvious technical faults? ...
- All Kinds of Sounds Are Correct April 23, 2010
The only kind of sound that is not “correct” is one that is very squeezed, tight, caught, swallowed, muffled, held, or constricted. Guess what? That is what you hear most of the time, not just in beginners with no training, but often in professional singers. Even on Broadway and at the Met ...
- Letting Go April 17, 2010
When I was studying singing with my last (and my eighth) teacher, he told me “not to do anything” in my throat, just let go and sing. I thought this was the craziest thing I had ever heard. If I didn’t do anything, there wouldn’t be any sound. Sound is volitional, after ...
- Doing It All April 12, 2010
You cannot do it all. You cannot be an excellent high belter, a fabulous classical soprano, a great Broadway singer, a star cabaret performer, a great metal rocker, a sultry jazz chanteuse, and gravely-voiced country singer and someone who specializes in early music. So, how is it that classical music (repertoire) will make ...
- Manipulation April 12, 2010
Free singing is the opposite of manipulation. Anyone who teaches you to move your larynx on purpose is teaching you to manipulate your throat. No honest emotions will come through a manipulated throat position. Manipulation teaches you to hold on to the very muscles that need to move. Anyone who tells ...
- Why Resonance Is Not An End In Itself in CCM April 8, 2010
Every sound a human being makes has some kind of resonance or it would be inaudible. Classical singing REQUIRES that a singer learn to stay in the pocket of 2800 to 3200 Hz in order to be heard unamplified over an orchestra. Very high sopranos may not need to do that, however, as ...
- Mind/Body/Voice April 6, 2010
You cannot separate the mind, the body and the voice. The idea that they are separate is false. There is no voice without a mind to direct it to emerge. The voice has to come from a living body. The body can exist without a voice, but it is very difficult ...
- It’s Never Too Late March 11, 2010
There are many studies that prove muscles respond to exercise no matter how old one is. People in nursing homes can get stronger by doing exercise. Extremely obese people can exercise and when they do they not only lose weight they get stronger. It is unfortunate, then, that so many people who sing do ...
- Working With or Against Your Own Default March 9, 2010
It is very hard to incorporate your own default into teaching singing. What is your default? If you have sung all your life with one kind of instrument (which is true unless you do something radical, like voice change surgery), you make the sound you make. Your sensations and experiences are natural to you and you ...
- Talent March 5, 2010
Much is made of “being talented”. What, exactly, is talent? No one has been able to nail that down. To me, talent is the ability to do something with little or no training, and do it well and easily. Talent for singing is not hard to find. There are many people (Judy ...
- You Can Never Arrive February 27, 2010
Being a professional singer is not a destination. It is an open-ended journey that will go on until you choose to take a new pathway. If we approach singing as “something to accomplish” or “something to achieve” we miss the point. Singing is indeed athletic, in that it requires a high degree of physical ...
- Application February 26, 2010
Lots of people now know and understand what goes on in the throat and body when we sing. Lots of folks have read the scientific literature and understand vocal production and acoustics. Many of them have written books and articles and are teaching. And many of them can’t sing well. Tenors with no ...
- Individuation February 25, 2010
Muscles are supposed to stretch and contract. That is how they function when they are healthy and by doing so, they maintain good muscle tone or tonicity. Muscles that do not stretch are very tight and muscles that do not contract are very weak. Neither situation is a good one. In ...
- Repetition February 23, 2010
If the training process is done well, the muscles in the throat and body are coaxed (and that is the operating word, coaxed) into new and different configurations until they settle into efficient adjustments specifically directed at singing. The coaxing is done in very small increments over a rather long period of time so ...