- Cause Before Effect January 26, 2015
You cannot fix vocal problems by working only on breathing, in whatever way you work on breathing. In CCM styles the most common problem singers encounter is constriction of the inner muscles of the throat. I have said this 1,000 times but people don’t want to get that. If the singer has a problem with fatigue, ...
- Square Peg In A Round Hole January 25, 2015
If all you know of the singing voice is “breath support” and “resonance” and you force all styles of music and all human sound into that mode, you are doing yourself and anyone who studies with you a disservice. Breath support is about being able to take a deep breath quietly and easily and depends a great deal ...
- Specious Arguments January 24, 2015
Belting is bad. The argument has been around forever. Classical singing, however, is good. Period. Come on, people! It’s the 21st Century. Can you not see that the vast majority of people earning a living singing are belting? Opera companies are closing left and right. Rock concerts sell out in hours. How many people are earning a living ...
- The Value of Life Experience January 23, 2015
If you do something for 20, 30, or 40 years, do you have more information about whatever it is than someone who just started? In our society, you wouldn’t think so. People fresh out of school are often regarded as being equal to, or better than, their elder peers because they have finished a degree program. ...
- Your Own Default January 20, 2015
If you are a “classically trained” singer, and all of your training was “classical”, and you are still singing decently, you have a “default” that doesn’t go away. You will sound “trained” to a knowledgeable ear at breakfast, in the supermarket, at a ball game and while you are visiting with your grandchildren. “Classically trained” ...
- All The Other Folks January 14, 2015
For every person who ends up being able to support herself through singing professionally, there are dozens, maybe dozens of dozens, who fail to do so. The reasons they fail are myriad and fall into categories both benign and pitiable. You can be a very talented singer with a great voice and also be very expressive ...
- Warm-Up Exercises January 11, 2015
I often see people asking about the best warm-up exercises. There are no best warm-up exercises. Many people do warm-up exercises because they think it’s good to do them. Others do them at random, depending on what they are going to sing. Some people do the same 5 or 10 or 15 exercises no matter what but ...
- American Voices January 10, 2015
Watched the PBS show tonight curated by Renee Fleming. All kinds of singers, students, scientists, teachers. Very nice line-up of experts and performers, showing the wide range of singing styles and vocalists we have here in the USA. This show reflects the real world. It is about where we are now. There was no attempt to ...
- Free Singing January 7, 2015
I know quite a few people who teach singing who do not know what “free singing” means. Would it be so that if you can make a sound, it is automatically freely made? As long as it comes out of your throat, isn’t it OK however you do it? If you express it, isn’t it free? Many ...
- Life Experience January 6, 2015
Is a doctoral degree the equivalent of life experience? Is it better than life experience? Can you learn in a university what you cannot learn or have not learned in life? If you are in a profession like singing, which involves doing something very specific, can you learn that in classes and from books? If you ...
- “Classical” Singing Technique December 30, 2014
What, exactly, is “classical” singing technique? If you put 15 high-level classical singing teachers from universities or conservatories in a room and asked them what elements classical singing must have, the only things they would all agree upon would be that the inhalation had to be “low” and that “resonance” had to be enhanced. They would not ...
- Pseudo Singing December 19, 2014
There is an epidemic of breathy, soft singing in jazz (and some other styles), often without vibrato. The assumption is that this kind of sound is somehow “sexy” or intimate or appealing. What appeals to us in a voice is its richness or character. We like harmonics. Soft breathy singing has little of that in it. ...
- Willingness To Do The Work December 18, 2014
Some people are simply not willing to work on their own singing even though they teach. They are not willing to put in the time and effort to confront their ability to make music from their throats and bodies. They do not want to stick with the process to own what happens as they are ...
- Relying On Outside Help December 12, 2014
If you get used to relying on Autotune or the latest version thereof, or on the sound man or the microphone, the monitors, the click track or anything outside of your own body, sooner or later, that is going to be a path to disaster, no matter how famous you are. If you don’t understand your ...
- Too Small To Notice December 10, 2014
Those of you who are familiar with classical singing may remember that when the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was new to the scene, he was widely criticized as being boring, flat and uninteresting, and that his voice was “too small” to be operatically viable. Of course, he went on to be one of the most respected ...