- Perfectionists and Control Freaks May 3, 2012
I’ve noticed that the people who don’t like detail are quick to call those who do “control freaks” or “perfectionists”. The people who like detail can easily fire right back that those who “go with the flow” and “let it all hang out” (cool 60s phrases, young people!) are sloppy and disinterested. Actually, I find the ...
- Damaged Voices That Work May 2, 2012
Not so long ago Dr. Robert Sataloff presented at his immensely helpful annual medical lecture at the Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice (www.voicefoundation.org) some photos of various singers’ vocal folds. Some of them looked like they had been through a “vocal war”. Messy, pink folds with raggedy edges. The mind immediately thinks, “Boy, these ...
- Pushing and Pressing April 30, 2012
Since rock music is so prevalent on Broadway now, there are a lot of people singing that push and press, thinking this is OK. It does sound more like rock singing, but many of the people who are on Broadway now are graduates of vocal training programs at the various universities and colleges. If you ...
- Who Decides? April 27, 2012
Does any one singing teacher decide what the standards in the music industry should be? Does any producer? Does any music director, or publicist? Does any one person decide who will be the next big opera star? rock star? Broadway star? TV star? movie star? What happens in the “real world” to shape our music ...
- Recovering From Vocal Illness April 25, 2012
Very little has been written about helping singers recover their singing after various types of illness. There is a great deal of research about helping people come back to vocal health in relationship to speech, but little information about how to help people recover their ability to sing or, barring that, restructure their ability ...
- What’s Reasonable and What’s Possible April 24, 2012
If we think for a moment about extreme sports, some of which will be in the Olympics this year but weren’t there even 10 years ago, we have a good analogy with what has happened with CCM singing. Sports like the half-pipe skateboarding and winter sports like ski jumps with aerial maneuvers are very risky. ...
- Fach Change April 21, 2012
In classical singing sometimes an artist changes “fach”. This word refers to the general category that artist in is in relationship to roles in opera or perhaps also oratorio. There are all kinds of subdivisions of the basic soprano, alto, tenor and bass that you find in choirs. There is lyric coloratura, light lyric, and ...
- "Just Mozart" April 20, 2012
Suppose I said to you, “This song is not hard to sing, after all, it’s just Mozart”. Or maybe I said to you, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about, it’s just an aria by Verdi”. If you were a good classical vocalist, you might look at me and wonder and rightfully so. ...
- Winning April 17, 2012
Being a singing teacher isn’t supposed to be a competition. It shouldn’t be so that teachers of singing try to beat out other teachers by making themselves the flavor of the month on YouTube. Life, of course, isn’t like that. If you are in private practice, you have to generate a lot of students all the ...
- Sensitivity April 8, 2012
Being “sensitive” can be a compliment or a condemnation. Being told, “You are sensitive”, could mean that you are seen by someone else as being “too reactive” or it could mean that you are “able to feel things deeply and easily”. You only know the meaning if you understand the context in which the words ...
- Two Tiny Pieces of Gristle April 6, 2012
Your vocal folds are two tiny pieces of gristle – ligaments – that open and close over your trachea to protect your lungs from foreign objects. The fact that they make sound is a secondary function. If your vocal folds do not close firmly you will find it difficult to do any activity that requires ...
- When Actions Speak Louder Than Words April 3, 2012
If someone says “I really like you” and then is always too busy to spend time with you, you had better question what that person tells you. If someone says, “I am interested in your work” and whenever you send them an article you have written, they never find time to read it, you should question ...
- Emptiness March 28, 2012
If you are not taught to meditate in some formal way, you may not know the concept of “emptiness”. The idea is that if you calm your mind, eventually (believe it or not), it ceases thinking, sometimes for long stretches of time. You can be very awake, very aware, and not thinking in your mind ...
- Judging, Adjudicating, and Evaluating March 26, 2012
Competitions require judges. We have them now on TV every night. Who gets to be a judge and why? Who is judging the judges? If you are a member of NATS, you might be asked to judge one of their local competitions. You may or may not have expertise, they don’t ask. If you are available ...
- Judy Garland March 24, 2012
All of us who are of a certain age have seen “The Wizard of Oz” many times. The shot of Judy Garland standing outside her aunt and uncle’s farm singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” in her sweet young voice is deeply etched in my ears and mind. This truly free, unpressured natural sound more or ...