Various Posts

Once upon a time in the ancient days of the middle of the 20th Century, we had the idea that singing sounds should represent the sounds found in life. This unique idea, that what people sound like when they are emotional in real life might also be how they sound when they are being emotional while singing, now seems quaint. Nevertheless, it was the standard for many years.

What we have now is loud for loud’s sake. That has been so for about 60 years, so it isn’t going to go away. We have lost something in that, however. When people get passionate, or angry, or frightened, the pitch generally rises, the volume increases, and the vocal quality changes in each case. Angry doesn’t sound like frightened. We can recognize similar differences in our pet cats and dogs. My pet cat had a “I don’t want to go to the vet” moan, he had a “feed me now” meow that was very insistent, and he had a “hiya, Jeanie, welcome home”, chirp. Once in a while he would go into a kind of cat serenade which always struck me as his being very pleased with his catness. Occasionally he did this while I was teaching and the students always remarked, “what’s up with him?” I would laugh and say, “he likes himself a lot”.

In losing emotional clarity we lose the capacity to be honest. It’s really hard to find someone who sings from a place that is direct enough to touch the heart. When the volume is high and the pitch is high it seems “exciting” but in what way? Exciting good? Exciting angry? Exciting frightened? Anyone’s guess.

What is it that is being expressed in Idina Menzel’s version of  “Let It Go?” If it were in a foreign language could you tell at all what feeling was being expressed in this song by the vocal quality alone? Happiness, encouragement, hope, admonishment? Yes, Ms. Menzel’s rendition of the song is impressive but that’s because the key is so high that it is amazing that she can sing it at all. If you watch her do the high notes you can see that she is at the max of how much her mouth can open and her jaw can drop. What this expresses is discomfort but it’s hard to say if it is the character in the song or the songstress who is singing.

If you listen to the young Judy Garland sing “You Made Me Love You”, the emotion in it is unmistakable. There is a sense of longing, of wistfulness, of teenaged “angst” in it that was just beautiful. Same with “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” sung with direct feeling about what the words mean. I can only imagine what would be done with this simple beautiful song if it were being produced now. It makes me shudder to think of it.

Without all the amplification, how would “Let It Go” read? Would anyone want to hear the song in a lower key? What does it really convey in terms of what the words mean? It’s not the song that’s the problem, it’s what is being done with (and not being done with) the song that is the issue and what all that is doing to the singer. Does she have to sing this way? I have no idea. Does she want to sing this way? I would imagine so. Why? Maybe it’s the money or the fame or both. Maybe it’s a feeling of “I can so I will”. Maybe there is no answer, even for her.

I am just giving everyone some food for thought.

Take a sound holiday. Spend an hour without talking. Just listen. Really listen. Take in all the sound around you. Go for a walk. Go someplace and just listen.

We are surrounded by sound. It comes at us from all directions. Most of the time we don’t pay much attention, especially if we are hearing more or less the same kinds of sound repetitively. We react to sudden sounds, loud sounds or sounds that are unpleasant, due to our very old programing in the brain to be alert to something that could be dangerous.

We who teach singing are first professional listeners. It is crucial that we listen and learn to do so expertly. Yes, we also look, but mostly what we depend upon is how we hear. Oddly, audiology has been divorced from voice practically from the beginning of the days of both sciences. Perhaps that was because both of them are complex and they had to be separated for convenience of examination. Don’t know. Now, however, we have almost no data about how hearing impacts singing except in very broad categories. Clearly, being around loud sounds all the time causes you to lose your hearing, as does age. We don’t know, however, how hearing capacity impacts what we can do with what we hear. Maybe some people are better at hearing than others, even within normal ranges? Maybe 10% of the population are “super hearers”? What would that be like?

Alfred Tomatis, an otolaryngologist from Nice, had such ideas but he was not involved in the mainstream community of voice science research. He set out on his own. He has been dead quite a while but left behind two books that are fascinating in that they look at hearing as if it mattered. His work has been continued by others who have influenced how it is disseminated, so it may be that what is out there now has evolved. If you know, please alert me.

Take a “sound” trip. I would be interested in knowing what you discover. Send me your comments.

We are living in a time when being ignorant is considered to be a good thing. That is really scary, but it’s true. The populace is afraid of science, convinced the government is the enemy, and believes that the Republican party has the interests of the poor as a part of its platform.

We are living in a time when singing (generally) is at a low in terms of the kind of people who become successful at the highest levels in CCM styles (they are mostly the same) and the expectations of what it means to be a good singer (really, no one seems to actually know). If we use the human body’s own responses as criteria, you don’t need outside experts to tell you how a person “should” sound. The body will tell you how it sounds when the machine is working efficiently. It will reveal the sound it has inside when it has a clear pathway to do so. It only has to do with “style” when you already have an instrument that will give you all of what you are seeking in the first place.

The sounds that we respond to best are the ones we hear the best. Those are the sounds that we describe as being “resonant” or “reverberant”. They are the sounds that are distinctive and emotionally authentic. Good luck finding something that isn’t electronically altered, enhanced, or changed. Who knows what singers actually sound like live with no help? NO ONE. Good luck knowing what the vocalist’s voice is on its own.

People are often like sheep, being told what do to by the shepherd and then doing it. It takes a lot of guts to question what you are taught and see for yourself whether or not it’s true or if it works in your own life. If you believe, as I do, that everyone is responsible for their own life, good and bad, then you have to believe that in the end everyone is also responsible for their own voice and what they do with it. Many people have been taught in a way that ends up being either useless or damaging but the ones who really want to sing will keep going until they overcome the ignorance of their teachers and find a way to do what they want.

Rather than defend ignorance, or defend not knowing because it’s hard to know, question everything. Question. Everything. Accept nothing until you have investigated it for yourself in your own life.

Over the years, I have been sent people who are already in a show who are in some kind of vocal trouble. The producers want a “quick fix” for the singer. They want the person to get “better” by having a “few tips” or a “few sessions”.

This reflects the idea that singing is something you can either do or not, an old wives’ tale still believed by many. It also is enormously disrespectful to those who want to sing who don’t have much intellectual information about what it takes to be a singer (anyone without training or exposure to relevant pedagogy). It reflects an “acting first, singing second” attitude. It could also reflect an “acting first, second and third” and, “oh, yeah, you sing right?” attitude. You would think that couldn’t possibly be true in the Broadway community but it has always been true, it’s just more prevalent now than it once was, and that is due to the music. There are many more composers today who have been successful somewhere in the entertainment industry who write music that ends up in a Broadway show who compose for their own voices and stop there. They don’t write for the voice as an instrument, they just write for themselves and expect everyone to be just like them. They don’t even know that there is a way to write for the voice. More of that “don’t know that they don’t know” problem.

Of course, investors (producers) can come from anywhere as long as they can pony up enough money (a lot of money, actually). They don’t need to know one single thing about “show business” or any aspect of it, they just need to be willing to fork over those dollars with a smile. In fact, the likelihood that any of them know about the nuts and bolts of theater is quite small unless they have been investing for a long time. So, who decides about the singing? The Music Supervisor or Director, the Casting Agent and maybe the lead Producer, maybe. Guess what, they typically don’t sing either and are predominantly male. This combination doesn’t make for great odds that excellent singers will have more success than so-so singers who are better actors. And, of course, none of that matters if you are “a name”, brought into a show to sell tickets, regardless of whether or not you have any clue about what you are doing other than taking up room on stage. Ah-hem.

So, the  “quick fix” continues. It can’t really work unless the performer is quite able to make changes easily. Sometimes that happens.

If you are a student with a degree in music theater from a college and you have been taught to sing with classical vocal production, and have been given sight singing and theory classes instead of dance training, and you have studied classical music history instead of music theater history, if you have have been required to be in a chorus but not required to be in an acting class, you will find when you arrive here that your training may not have prepared you for the realities of The Great White Way. You will have to do your own version of a “quick fix” if you want to get a job.

A medical doctor who is an ear, nose and throat specialist, may also specialize in laryngology or the care and treatment of the larynx and of the voice. This is a small category within the profession at large. Many of the laryngologists (but not all of them) deal with professional speakers or singers. Some laryngologists are very knowledgeable about the demands of singing in any and all styles but some are not. Some understand the basics of classical singing, but some don’t. Some have had singing training but many have not. You are on your own to find one that has the kind of background that serves your needs best.

If a patient is sent to a doctor by a teacher of singing who wants to have the student’s vocal health checked, that could be a good thing. It’s not true, however, that a singing teacher who sends a student to a laryngologist for a vocal checkup will automatically understand the doctor’s diagnosis or what to do with the diagnosis during a lesson when it arrives.

Doctors often assume that a teacher who is on faculty at a major university or conservatory automatically understands how to work with a voice to be sure it is healthy, but this is a mistaken assumption. Teachers who are hired for university positions often have major qualifications in musical performance and may be familiar with various kinds of repertoire and languages as well as musicianship or acting skills, but they typically do not need to know one single thing about vocal health or vocal function. They may not even know that the vocal folds make the sound. This is changing, thankfully, but very slowly. Therefore, if a doctor assumes that a teacher of singing “knows how to work” with a student who has “vocal health issues” because of their professional credentials that could be a very wrong assumption, and that could be dangerous.

The doctor would have to ASK the teacher, do you know how to work with vocal folds that have pathology? Where did you learn how to do this? How do you know your work has been successful? How many injured or ill singers have recovered their professional-level skills while working with you?

Doctors also need to know that some classical singing teachers will tell a student who has been singing music theater that their technique is “bad” or “tight” when, in point of fact, the technique is very useful in music theater but not applicable to classical singing. If you have a pop/rock vocalist as a patient and you send them back to a classical singing teacher, that might prevent the singer from learning to sing pop/rock music healthfully and, if the student runs into problems again, both you and the student would wonder why the vocal lessons “didn’t work”.

So, doctors, take the time to find out about who we are and what we do and please don’t make the easy assumption that people who are “famous” know what they are doing as teachers. Please don’t assume that someone who holds a high level position at at conservatory or university knows how to work with an injured or compromised voice. Please do not think that classical singing technique will fix every kind of vocal problem.

If singing teachers want to change the impressions of the medical experts, they have to start speaking up to the laryngologists and making sure they know what’s what with us. If you want to help, send this post to your ENT.

 

Educate: from the Latin Educere: to lead out. To bring up.

One who educates leads the way by shedding some light on the path. We bring others up by extending our hand. Hopefully. If you have a teacher who does not help you see the route, or help you walk upon it, question why you would work with that person.

Some have said that the word person comes from “per” (from/for) and “sonare” (to sound). We are our sound. Each human being is a sound, ringing in the universe. We are vibration and as long as we are alive we are vibrating, as is everything else in this universe. Elements have an atomic number which  uniquely identifies a chemical element. In an atom of neutral charge, the atomic number is also equal to the number of electrons. The atomic number of molybdenum is different from the number of plutonium. Each has its own weight. Just like you, they are all unique. They cannot be reduced down to a smaller component without destroying them in their original state.

If you teach something you need to know about it in every way. You need to understand how to draw someone out into that topic and help them make it their own, little by little. If you have not walked the path yourself, many times, and you have not discovered the hills and valleys you can’t really point out the hazards and the safe resting places. You cannot lead. You are not educating anyone.

To light the road you must be yourself full of the light of wisdom and you must be willing to be a sentinel shining the beams of knowledge on those who come to you in a dim foggy state. Remember that making yourself a true educator — one who offers his or her understanding to others is a great privilege. Be a shining star for your students. Draw them out, bring them up into the world of knowledge. Educate them.

 

 

An injured professional vocalist. What an awful combination of words. What does it mean to someone whose life rests on singing to have that singing become impaired?

When an athlete or performer gets injured, much more is involved than just a loss of skills.  When you are the product and your body is responsible for being the deliverer of the product, and when that process gets interrupted, all of your life patterns are also in question.  It is not only frightening and demoralizing to lose your ability but it is embarrassing, as there can be an implication that somehow you have “done something wrong” to cause the injury or illness. Again, awful.

Sometimes the medical profession approaches a singer with injuries as a bunch of symptoms that need to be treated, not necessarily as a whole human being who needs to be supported. There is a big difference. If I was an MD, I could see you as a human being with many resources and see you taking advantage of a wide variety of methodologies to restore yourself to function. In viewing you this way, I might suggest a much broader range of therapies to try to help both you and your voice to return to normal function. If I  can only configure your vocal issues as symptoms that need to be treated, I might be more constrained in what I would recommend.

A qualified laryngologist might treat a serious vocal fold injury, whatever the cause, with an injection, surgery, or perhaps medication. A few MDs might suggest acupuncture or visualization as a support to healing, but that would be rare. If the doctor was not familiar with singers or singing (and some ENTs are not) there might be no consciousness whatsoever about how the chosen treatment could impact singing in a professional vocalist. Even though the treatment might be deemed to have been “successful” and the vocal fold might be restored to normal “speaking voice oriented” use it might still not work well for high level singing. The singer could be blamed for being “neurotic” instead of being supported for experiencing that, “yes, the speaking voice is better, but I still cannot sing”.

In coaxing an injured professional voice back to function any and all means that are reasonable are also appropriate. Massage by a qualified licensed massage therapist, acupuncture, yoga, visualization, energy healing, prayer, and all manner of speech and singing training aimed at normal function……all equally possible as pathways to improved function, IF, and it is a big IF, the person is open to all of them and has access to qualified, experienced experts in each field to facilitate those pathways efficiently. Additionally, psychological support, emotional and spiritual support are also very much recommended, so that the human aspects of being in this process is acknowledged and addressed with compassion, understanding and encouragement. For some, that might be “fight hard” to get things back to normal or as close as to normal as possible. For others, it might mean finding a way to sing at a lesser level of skill but one that is still professionally acceptable. Everyone has their own set of needs and goals.

Coaxing an injured voice back to a professional level of function is a big deal. It requires that the vocalist have the idea that recovery is possible, compromise would be acceptable as part of that possibility and that anything can happen. The vocalist would also need to accept that the process is slow, time-consuming, and demanding of both persistence and patience. It also requires the vocalist to have a network of friends and family to offer support throughout the process.

I have met many people in my life who wanted to sing but for various reasons gave up trying. Sometimes it was because they had a painful or difficult experience singing or being trained to sing. Sometimes it was because their own opinion of their ability was low and the comparison to others was daunting. Sometimes it was because their vocal folds were ill or injured and they were not able to recover their ability to sing through normal means. Sometimes it was because they became demoralized and did not have the wherewithall to continue trying to get back to singing.

Coaxing an injured professional back to some kind of singing is a very important service to offer. It takes a special teacher to do that. If you are someone who is struggling, I urge you not to give up. Look for what you need until you find it!

 

If you are truly full of gratitude – for life, for your health, for your spouse or partner, for your pet, for anything at all — that gratitude will flow into a sense of wonder at life itself. It will also become spontaneous generosity if it isn’t stopped from being so.

Generosity. What’s generous? If you are a millionaire, giving away a hundred dollars means less than nothing. If you are from a working class family a hundred dollars is a lot of money. It’s not the amount, it’s what the amount means. If I am starving and I give you half of my loaf of bread, but you are a princess and give me half of a banquet, is that the same?

We speak of performers being generous. What does that imply? How can a performance be generous? Isn’t it all the same when someone gets up to act, dance or sing? After all, they’re there.

On the contrary, a performer’s generosity has to do with how much of themselves they put into what they do and how it feels to do it. If I am digging deep into my own life, into my story and sharing that with you through my music — if I am open to taking chances, doing something spontaneously that I didn’t plan — if I touch on something very personal that brings me close to my own vulnerability but also allows me to take your breath away — then my performance is spiritually generous. Those performances are the ones we remember for a lifetime. Such moments becomes seared upon our consciousness forever as we sit in the audience knowing we are in the presence of something special that may never happen again.

I might be a virtuoso who can do spectacular things with complicated musical patterns or beautiful expressive passages, but if I do this all day long like a walk in the park, it might not be so that I’m being generous. If I know that my voice might crack, if it might become less than perfect as I sing, and if I can’t depend on what my body might do while I am performing but I get up and don’t hold back at all, then my simple song delivered without adornment might be more generous than you realize.

In the end, if your heart overflows with gratitude for being able to sing, for making  music, for expressing yourself, the logical and inevitable consequence of that deep sense of thanks is profound generosity. It is a humbling to experience delivering such performances  and even more humbling to receive that gift from someone else through your eyes and ears.

In your world, your word is law. [long pause]

In your world, your word is law.

What you tell yourself, what you say in your mind, is so. No one can say that you do not tell yourself what you tell yourself. No one can get inside your head and make you stop saying or thinking something that you are already mentally saying or thinking. In fact, no one can make you think anything you don’t really want to accept. Yes, you could be “forced” into accepting something (we call that torture), but even if you are in prison (like Mr. Mandela) you still have the right to think the way you want to, regardless.

If you keep your word, all the time, and if you tell the truth, your word is law. This is very powerful when you understand it and how it works.

If you keep your promises to the best of your ability and honor the rare times when you break your promises by offering to make amends, people will respect you for being able to speak truthfully and back your  truth up with action. If you get into the habit of not noticing what you promise or not keeping your promises, after a while, others will begin to ignore what you say. If you lie about something and know that you are lying, then you negate your own word, you weaken your ability to trust yourself and you denigrate your own integrity. That’s about as bad as it gets. The person who is responsible for that is always YOU.

What does this have to with singing you ask? How about everything? If you want to sing authentically, you have to have an authentic sense of self. Authenticity has to do with being true to yourself. Your voice and your sense of self are intertwined. Your voice is itself when you recognize it for what it is (and isn’t) and accept it for that. You might sing all kinds of styles and all kinds of sounds, but if you lose track of your “genuine voice” you are lost indeed.

The power that each person has is the power of spoken sound coupled with sung sound such that the two become one. What is truthful in your speech in your daily life will also ring true when it is expressed through your voice as vocal music. The marriage of sound, meaning, intention, and personal expression will be perceived by others as “the truth”. It leaves a lasting impression. Unfortunately, this kind of experience is still pretty rare.

Sing your truth. Sing from your own authenticity. Pay attention to what you tell yourself and what you listen to that others say. Notice the words as they come in and go out and make an effort to speak with conscious intention. After that, singing from a place of truth and uniqueness will be much easier and it will have a far greater impact, in your own life and in the mind of your audiences.

Your word (sound) is law in your universe. Remember that.

 

Ever wonder what would happen if there was an “Olympics of Singing”? Don’t worry, sooner or later someone will think of that and make it happen.

What would it entail? Let’s see:

How many melismas can you fit into one word or on one note?

How high can you belt?

How loud can you sing?

How long can you hold one note?

How few times can you go off pitch?

How much “emoting” can you do while you sing?

Can you “relate” to the song?

Participants must not be over 30. Only pop, rock or country music are eligible styles.

 

Judges would be Rhianna, Queen Latifah, Justin Timberlake and Ellen. Winners receive coaching from Adele, John Meyer, Josh Groban and Renee Fleming. Prizes include free appointments with an ENT for one year, a CD (or mp3 equivalent), and an appearance on the Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show to talk about how “incredible” it is to be an Olympian.

It would be a very big hit. Sadly.