- Sequences April 28, 2013
There are all kinds of students who want to study singing. There are those who want to sing like the people they hear on TV and on the radio or the internet. There are those who might want to be “in music theater” and there are those who actually like classical music and aspire to ...
- More About Sequential Learning April 28, 2013
If we deal in learning concepts, i. e., how we take in, process, organize, and use information, singing is no different than anything else. It is part physical skill, and part several other things. Good singing is a well coordinated behavior that either occurs naturally (in some people) or is cultivated through specific developmental procedures. ...
- Sequential Learning April 23, 2013
In singing, there isn’t really any specified sequential learning. It’s not like learning to read. First there are the letters to learn — their names and how to write them. Then there are simple words and recognizing the sounds the letters represent. Then longer words and sentences, then building grammar and finally understanding abstract concepts ...
- It’s Just Singing April 18, 2013
Apparently the idea has grown on Broadway that singing is somehow the third step sister of the triple threat skills. This is a stronger belief now than it was years ago. I don’t know why this is so, but it probably has to do with money, as what doesn’t? Many of the producers are business people ...
- Effect as Cause Again April 17, 2013
Once again I have encountered someone teaching effect as cause. If you observe that a certain successful singer holds out a note in a straight tone and then “puts in” the vibrato at the end (a typical behavior) and you instruct a student singer to copy this behavior because you assume it is (a) a choice ...
- "Supported Voice" April 14, 2013
This phrase, “supported voice” or “supported tone/sound” is used a lot in singing. It typically refers to a sound that is full and solid, has some “oomph” or carrying power and is not unpleasant. It’s not breathy, incipid, nearly inaudible, or monotonous. Amazingly, many of today’s vocalists do not think they should use such as sound. ...
- In The Hands Of A Master April 12, 2013
To continue writing about master teachers, as I did a few days ago, it is significant to realize how few teachers are masters. It assumes that the teacher knows music, performing, styles and vocal production. It assumes the teacher can determine the difference between what the student’s needs are and what their own needs were ...
- Hold It April 11, 2013
The vocal folds must resist the airflow. To do this, they must close firmly and vibrate easily while closed. They cannot be so pressed together that they become irritated, but they must learn to “firm up” enough to prevent a loud sound from being breathy or sharp. When the larynx can “hold” its position, the sound ...
- The Music Is The Message April 10, 2013
In the hands of a really skilled musician, one who has long ago mastered the art of playing his or her instrument, music just happens. In the case of someone who is emotionally open and sensitive to music in a way that cannot be captured in words, what emerges from such an individual is simply ...
- What Do We Really Know? April 9, 2013
When you come right down to it, what do we really know about making vocal sound? We have gathered a lot of information over the last few decades about vocal function but very very little of it has made its way into the hands of singers or even of singing teachers. Of the many thousands of ...
- Details April 8, 2013
I once went to a classical master class in which Elly Ameling told the audience, “If you don’t like detailed work, you won’t like this session and you should leave now”. What followed what utterly amazing. A young man was singing Straus’ “Morgen” and she made him sing the word “wogenblauen” about 30 times, maybe ...
- The Magic of Video April 6, 2013
Did you know that the most famous, the most successful and the most guaranteed way to learn to be a great singer is to purchase videos about singing through the web? It seems sensible to think that learning to sing alone, without anyone to guide you, or let you know whether what you are doing has ...
- Music From My Heart April 5, 2013
How do you know if you are singing from your heart? Seems like a simple question, no? How does one determine what heart-felt singing is? Do you really know that you are singing from your heart when you are? What does that mean? Of course, you can’t define this experience. You can write about it. You can talk ...
- The Lost Muscles of the Throat April 4, 2013
Who talks about the throat muscles? Who bothers to think about them as if they mattered? Who even knows there are muscles in the throat? Of course the vocal folds are ligaments, not really muscles, but they are pulled by muscles and they are certainly effected by muscle movements of whatever is in or near the ...
- Life Fuel March 29, 2013
If you are a singer and you know yourself as one, singing is part of your identity. This is true if you are a dancer, an actor, a painter or, in fact, in our society where work is a crucial part of one’s adult persona, if you are any type of professional in the arts. ...