- The Healing Power of Song December 19, 2012
It broke my heart yesterday when I read in the NY Times that one of the teachers who survived the Newtown horror shepherded her kindergarden students into the closet where, to keep them calm, she had them quietly sing Christmas carols. These children were not harmed, since the gunman died before he could get to ...
- Common Sense and Singing December 16, 2012
It often strikes me that there is very little by way of common sense in the singing teaching community. So much has been handed down through word of mouth experience, one to one, that the general expectations of the community are largely resting on hearsay. Common sense says to question things that are not proven, ...
- Transitions December 15, 2012
The idea that we should have smooth transitions between registers is an old one. Most classical pedagogies espoused the idea that smooth transitions were a sign of “good” technique and a mark of skill. In the pedagogies that say you should only sing in one register or that there are no registers or that each note ...
- Talent, No Lessons December 12, 2012
Many years ago, when I was about 16, my mother attended some kind of “women’s gathering” at which she sat next to someone she did not know. Inevitably, they started to talk about their children and the topic of singing came up. My mother mentioned to the woman that her daughter was studying voice. The ...
- Dinosaurs of the Future December 11, 2012
I wish I had a crystal ball to look 200 or 250 years into the future. I would love to know what singing will be like then. I often wonder, if we continue as a society (and sometimes I doubt that) what will endure? When we look art and music history we see many works that have ...
- Music Changes, The Larynx Stays The Same December 8, 2012
Over the last 100+ years, music has changed an enormous amount. What someone would have heard in 1912 bears very little resemblance to what he would hear in 2012. Going back even further, what someone would have heard in 1712 is enormously different than what we hear today. Yes, music has definitely changed. What about the ...
- Substantial Versus Surface December 5, 2012
Very occasionally, I encounter someone who “wants a few lessons” to (a) get a gig, (b) go to an audition, (c) get into college, (d) help with their high notes, (e) help with their “breath support” or (f) help them with their break. I decline to work with such people. They think that they can fix ...
- It’s Never Finished December 4, 2012
Singing training is never finished. Like life, it goes on. When you are very young, you begin by learning the basics. You have to study for quite a while before you know what you don’t know. It doesn’t come with rules (although that would be nice). You have to keep going to find out if what ...
- I Can’t November 29, 2012
When a singer says to me “I can’t” I believe her. If I go to a dance class, and I tell the dance teacher, “I can’t lift my leg high enough to put it on the bar,” and she tells me, “Oh yes you can, you’re just not trying. Here, let me show you how much ...
- The Importance of Science in Vocal Pedagogy November 28, 2012
The importance of science in vocal pedagogy. We are not going to go backwards. We are not going to stop investigating how the body makes voiced sounds and what happens when we make them. We are not going to go back to the days when making music was only ...
- The Light In The Darkness Still Burns Bright November 27, 2012
It might be hard to believe but it was way back in 1983 when the New York Singing Teachers’ Association presented the first workshop on Broadway and Popular Singing: How To Sing Without Hurting Your Voice at Donnell Library (which is long gone) to a sell out crowd. Two weeks later, because this event was ...
- Opera Arias and Art Songs That Aren’t November 23, 2012
I recently attended a concert that presented a range of art songs and CCM music. It was sung by very good classically trained singers and covered R&B, blues, jazz, and opera arias. The presentation of the 10 singers was well done, in terms of staging of the material, and the jazz musicians (piano and bass ...
- Maintaining A Default November 21, 2012
Once you get someone into a new default position, which can take a lot of work and time, it’s important to emphasize the idea that you have to do maintenance to keep it going. Particularly if the default is not the most natural position for the person, it’s essential to do regular practice. If someone has ...
- The Larynx Has To Move November 20, 2012
The idea that the larynx should stay down at all times is incorrect. The idea that laryngeal stability is produced by keeping the larynx from moving is wrong. The idea that the larynx should be held down is dangerous. Yet, these ideas are very popular in current classical vocal pedagogy circles. They even show up in ...
- First You Do, Then You Don’t November 16, 2012
In order to get somewhere with functional training, a teacher has to pull in two opposing directions and that is confusing to the student. It is very well stated in William Vennard’s book Singing: The Mechanism and the Technique. The teacher has to get the singer to be both flexible and strong, and the mechanism ...