Posts Placeholder

Years ago the late Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, came out clearly as being “against animal testing.” At the time, that was a radical thing for a company selling cosmetics and toiletries to do. Nevertheless, it became a battle cry and made The Body Shop stand out for a long time in a crowded field of similar businesses.

I hereby today, in this blog post, declare that am I against direct manipulation of the structures within the throat while attempting to sing. I am against it in every style, under all circumstances and for all reasons. It is a mistake. Further more, I have been against this for all the decades of my teaching. This is not a new conclusion on my part.

Vocal development is precipitated by vocal stimulation which begins in the mind as a desire to sing a pitch at a certain level of loudness or intensity on a sustained vowel for a specific amount of time using a specific type of vocal quality. The movements provoked by the exercise as a stimulus are spontaneous and occur as a response to exercise. The singer often doesn’t know exactly what will come out until it does. Often there is surprise.

Currently we are in an epidemic of vocal manipulation. Making odd and unnecessary movements of the vocal folds, the larynx and the throat is part of many popular methods of singing training and consumers (voice students) are oblivious to the negative effects such maneuvers have on their overall vocal responsiveness and well-being. Yes, you can, after a fashion, force your throat to do something it has no business doing and you can get used to it and even manage it well enough, but you cannot say such training has no cost. It is painfully costly.

Further, if you regard the throat and body as being “stupid” and in need of force in order for it “do what you want it to do” you can justify treating both badly. Over time, the movements of free vocal production will go away, making manipulation the only possible response to a stimulus to sing a specific tone. That is just awful.

The popular idea that the larynx must always remain down in classical singing is unfortunate. The larynx rides low in the throat because the throat is relaxed. Keeping the larynx down restricts natural movement and makes singing harder. In the end, you lose soft tones, high notes and soft high notes (both together). Bad choice? Just ask the throat of the vocalist.

Another one is that the larynx has to come up for belting. Well, maybe, but the less the better. And should anyone do that deliberately? Absolutely not.

What about singing in any particular place, adjustment or configuration just because you can? Does it help you express music? being alive? communicate something? Unless you are doing it as a “character” probably not.

Manipulation is what’s left when you can’t get your throat to do something you would like it to do so you make it happen. That is a bad idea but it is a very very easy and common thing to do. It makes for bad teaching, bad singing and no honest, unique sounds coming from a human being’s throat. If you are trying to imitate someone else’s voice or style and you have to force your voice to copy that model, you are making a mistake. If you are paying money for someone to teach you how to do that, stop. You are wasting both your time and your money, and, in a way, your life.

If your throat is giving you trouble, something is wrong. Singing should not be ridiculously hard. If it is, something is wrong. Even if it sounds impressive or important or “beautiful,” it’s still wrong. Trust your body. It has no reason to lie to you.

Perception is all we have. Points of view, based on what we are exposed to, what we conclude from that exposure and how we regard all of it. This is what we have while we are alive in a body. We take in the world through the 5 physical senses. Some people notice or rely upon one sense more predominantly than another. The connecting ingredient in all this is language. If you cannot put words to what you are experiencing it is difficult to categorize it in a conscious manner.

Singing is an auditory, kinesthetic and visual experience. We hear sound, we feel sound, we feel movement in the body while we make sound, we have a visual feedback on the outside of the body (in the mirror or on video) and we have a mental image of how we think of it. The mental parameters of singing are personal. Which is the most important aspect of mental categorization? It is different for each singer.

If you experience singing as bone vibration, is that the best way? What if someone else doesn’t experience singing like that? Is that wrong? Could he still be a good vocalist? What if you vividly hear sound but someone else doesn’t get much from listening? Who is better off? And what about the singer who sees the music very clearly in her mind but works with a person who never visualizes sound or singing at all. All of these are potential scenarios for trouble between two people who want to try working together.

Taking in the point of view of the singer is vital if you are a teacher. If you want to communicate something and draw out that which is best from your student, you have to understand how we process information. Insisting that students learn to do what you do, exactly as you do it, in exactly the same way that you learned it or that you determine to be important isn’t good teaching. It is, however, popular teaching. No wonder the profession sometimes seems chaotic.

If you think singing is no big deal you will have trouble with someone who thinks it is very important. If you believe that singing training is a hindrance to personal authenticity and you are working with someone who holds that vocal training is the only way to develop your instrument to its maximum, you will have trouble. If you assume that singing will take care of itself and then get into trouble you may find that you need to find someone who will teach you to pay attention to how you sing, and when and what, in order to get out of that dilemma.

Most people don’t do a lot of soul-searching when it comes to teaching singing, they just leave the topic alone until and unless they have a reason to examine it. If you intend to be a professional singer (or a high level amateur) or if you are going to teach someone to sing, you can’t afford to not know your point(s) of view about singing. Don’t be asleep.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know much about wine, but I know what I like.” That can be said about many things.

Experts are supposed to be people with highly cultivated tastes, developed over long years of immersion and study, exposure and experimentation, such that they end up knowing a great deal about a topic. Since we only have so much time in a day or a lifetime, the focus of such expertise is often confined to one area — like wine — and can become both broad-based and deep. An expert could tell by smelling and tasting wine its vintage, its bottler, its age, its components and its complexity.

I wonder, then, when I am in the world of voice, why so many people who teach do not have any such breadth or depth. They display blatant ignorance by their attitudes and actions and see fit to teach in public or write in various publications. Surely, they do not know that they do not know, or why would they expose themselves as being so lacking in expertise? Sadly, this can also be said about other voice disciplines. I have repeatedly seen doctors assume they know about singing because they have gone to a few classical master classes, or speech language pathologists who assume they know about singing because they have worked on speech with singers, or singing teachers who teach belting even though they have never made a belt sound or even attempted to make one.

If science does not recognize the artistic value of singing (and I do not think it does) and if people only look at objective data (formants, harmonics, sub-glottic pressure, vocal fold vibration patterns, sound pressure level, etc.) and disregard the quality of the singing as artistic expression, how is that helpful? It’s like judging a car only by the engine without looking at the interior and exterior design. Is a Mercedes the same as a Land Rover? They are both expensive cars.

Recently, a specific method of singing has had “research” published in a science journal. The “research” was bought and paid for by the teacher whose method it was. She participated in the study while it took place, she paid two scientists to do the measurements, she choose the students herself, and she decided that the words she has made up meant something to others who have not worked with her. Of course, that is nonsense. They are meaningful only to her and her students. Nevertheless, she can now claim that her method is “scientifically proven” and that’s a sad thing for all of us. That this article was published as “science” was, in my mind, disgraceful, as it proves only that what she says she teaches, she teaches. There is absolutely no consideration by the peer reviewers as to the market validity of the sounds the singers in the study made nor the use of those sounds in the marketplace, nor of the usefulness of the premises she has “researched” to others who do not study with her. The study was clearly meant to serve as a marketing tool for her own work. If that’s science, then science is in trouble.

In a wrong-headed attempt to be “fair” sometimes people refuse to commit to something they know to be true because they don’t want to compromise their (seemingly) unbiased stance. If, however, you are an expert and you know what’s good and what’s bad, and you refuse to endorse what’s good  in public, in order to (supposedly) protect your own reputation, you are a fraud. You have no courage or integrity and you do not add to the well-being of the people who seek knowledge in order to protect themselves from harm. If you stay silent, knowing full well that one person, approach or direction is a better one, then by that silence you tacitly endorse all who are less well-qualified. You empower the weaker choice. If you know and do not say you know, you are part of the problem.

In the 1980s, the saying here in NYC was “silence = death” — a slogan created by Act Up during the AIDS epidemic to remind citizens to protest until scientists took AIDS very seriously. They did, and finally, after much protesting, science took notice and did something. That’s why now a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS is not an automatic death sentence.

If you are an expert in voice, if you know what is helpful and what is not, or even what is potentially harmful and you do not say anything either in person or in writing, you are complicit in keeping innocent people in a position where they can be victimized by those with the slickest marketing and the weakest real skills. That’s not ethical.

Sometimes people who profess to be experts aren’t. They really cannot tell the difference between one way and another or they can tell but they do not trust their own perceptions. That’s sad. If you know someone is advocating doing something in the throat that is unnecessary, like retracting the false folds (which I find a stunningly useless concept), and you think that’s not much different than working to make a more accurate sound while leaving the throat to its own devices, then you are not actually an expert. If all you can say is “I  don’t know much about voice but I know what I like,” then please do not call yourself an expert at all.

The professions of teaching singing, and that of speech science or voice medicine cannot and will not be raised to a higher general level if those who are in a position as experts to stand for something of real quality refuse to do so. If you refuse to endorse a method you know to be good, one that you have thoroughly investigated, in order to appear “unbiased,” and if seeming to be “objective” is more important than the needs and goals of your patients, clients and students, ask yourself why that should be so. Take a stand. Speak up. Share your knowledge. Have some courage! Question everything until you have an answer you can stand behind. Then, share that answer boldly and without apology. Anything less is beneath us all.

Why do so many people teach manipulation as a way to learn to control the voice? How is it that people do not even know that they are pushing and forcing when they sing and in many cases are being taught to do that as part of learning vocal skills? Why are we living in a time when loud for loud’s sake is the most common way people sing followed by incredibly soft, noisy or breathy singing? These modes don’t communicate anything. How is it that all vocalists are encouraged to sound alike instead of finding a unique way to sing?

Why do composers get away with writing for singers without a gram of knowledge of what a human voice does and does not do? Why do they get accolades and commissions when they really have no interest in writing to allow the voices of individual singers to be at their best?

So much of our present moment music is influenced by rock and pop, including rap and other percussive styles. Listening to a 1950s musical is jarring in that it lets one remember what it was like when singing was beautiful and was deeply connected to the human condition. That kind of singing is almost totally gone.

Sentimentality is considered by most educated musicians and artists as something to be avoided. That’s too bad, as “sentiment” is another word for feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia. It is related to sentience which connotes, in modern Western philosophy, the ability to experience sensations. In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. I think vocal music could use a little bit more simple human “sentiment” through a willingness to experience sentimentality, and a little less electronic distortion, exaggeration and harshness.

I have recently been shopping, hearing music in the background. Repetitive, simplistic, numbing, machine-like with a heavy thumping base. Working in an environment like that, particularly if the music is loud, is harmful to your psychological and mental well-being.

I am no prude. I am not against any music or musical form, but mindless, dull music, written to lull people into a state of catatonic stupor is not a good thing and someone (many someones) need to discuss that. Music has emotional implications and carries the power to effect people at a deeper-than-conscious level. Regardless of the style, music written without regard to emotions or to the throat and voice of the singer is of limited value. It could even be harmful.

Manipulation is a cheap trick. It produces instant results and long-term problems. It is a way for teachers to look good in the moment without being held accountable in the future. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should do it. In fact, discernment is absolutely necessary and you can’t get that in a hot-minute or even a luke warm week!

Question everything. Why not? Questions are a way to probe and test, to dig deeper and seek answers. Do not accept anyone’s word for something until you have looked into what they do, how they do it and why. It’s your voice, your body and your artistry. Don’t sell them out to make a Faustian bargain!

If you want to squeeze your throat to get instant “results” or if you want to sit on your larynx to “always keep it low”, ask yourself why you would want to do that. If you want to make your voice do something it really doesn’t want to do and if you make awkward movements and ugly sounds in order to force it past it’s comfort zone, ask yourself why you would want to do that. If you think you are limited and you need to do extreme stuff to go past those limitations, ask yourself why. WHY?

My dear friend and colleague, Eve Zanni, coined this phrase, “mugging the mentors.” When I heard it, I laughed out loud. There are so many people in this world who think they are entitled to anything they want. We used to call that being spoiled.

Yes, some people are grateful and very willing to say so. They humbly acknowledge the person who offered guidance and support. That’s a great exchange.

In my diverse and varied career, I must say that I have helped a long list of people who wanted to be teachers of singing who were just starting out. Sometimes they were looking for a letter of recommendation (or several over a period of years), or help with a book, website content, a thesis, an article, a dissertation or research. I have been interviewed countless times for various people’s needs in their own career building. I have passed on information about job opportunities and had people be successfully hired all over the country and the world, based in some part upon my connections.

And, of course, I have provided instruction in teaching using what I have gathered over the decades to help young teachers or those new to teaching to shorten the path to credibility and success. Much of the information I gathered through personal search and experimentation is not available elsewhere and cannot be purchased in any course other than mine. And, whatever I have done as a mentor, no matter how lengthy or large the project, it is or was always for free.

I have encouraged teachers to read, explore and investigate many sources as that is necessary. If they come to me for assistance or a favor, they do so entirely on their own. It is always their choice.

Sometimes, at the beginning, there was a sense of appreciation, but as time passes often my help is taken for granted. I “should” continue to help them, even years later. They feel completely comfortable taking up my time and providing nothing in return, or worse, deciding that they should stomp on me once they make a name for themselves. They are entitled to it, in their own minds. Now that they are  “big deals” on their own, there isn’t much use for me. They wouldn’t bother to ask me for help in the present moment since they are “far above that” now. And gratitude? Fuhgeddaboudit!

I have helped others do research, present research, publish papers and articles. I have helped them with doctoral dissertations, with writing books and book chapters, and with their own understanding of what they are doing both as pedagogues and authors. I have held hands and been supportive in tricky situations. I have provided career advice and made important introductions to others who were prominent in the various voice disciplines. And, yes, a good deal of this was assimilated and then used with satisfaction by the people on the receiving end. Am I thanked or even acknowledged at all for my contributions once I am no longer needed? Do they treat their other mentors this way? How could they not?

Did I get a copy of the dissertation, the article or the book? Did anyone send me flowers or a big box of fruit? Did I even get a card? Did I get a public acknowledgement of the assistance I provided? Most of the time, no. Are these people better off for what they received from me? Most of the time, yes. Do they thank the others who have done something similar? Probably not.

If you study with me, take my courses, use what you have learned and don’t even mention me or my work in your credentials on your way to being “important”, shame on you! That is a form of stealing. (This applies to all work or help from other experts who are mentors, not just me, and whose experience or generosity may have helped you.)

When you decide you are better than your teacher but you are just half her age, or when you think you can go out into the world as if what you know was deposited in your brain by angels in your sleep, or if you assume you can bury the fact that you asked for assistance and got some, shame on you. If you don’t proudly proclaim the names of those who mentored you, who let you stand on their shoulders, who were there for you when you needed a guide, who gave you the most precious thing we all have — their time — shame on you. You might have ended up with a piece of paper (or several) that put letters after your name, you might have a book or a book chapter or research or be asked to do master classes or workshops, but who got you started? Where would you be had you not met that person or those people?

Some day, maybe, you might be asked to help someone yourself. If they do to you what you did to your own mentors, if they literally mug you, you will be receiving what you dished out. Perhaps your mentees will walk away from you with no gratitude and no acknowledgement for your help. Or perhaps they will steal your work and claim it as their own (the biggest insult). You will see that what goes around comes around and when it does, you should not complain. Perhaps then, you will take some responsibility for your past actions and also have some regrets for your shoddy behavior. Then again, maybe not, since you were just fine with your own actions in the first place.

Remember, wherever you go, there you are. You can run, but you can’t hide. In the end, you can’t escape yourself. Everything stays with you, even if you don’t admit it to yourself, including what was disrespectful, dismissive, or hurtful to another. It will keep eating away at your soul — maybe even your body. That’s a very high price to pay. If it never bothers you, then perhaps you have no conscience, which makes you a sociopath. If you have justified your actions to make yourself feel better, for your own sake, take a deeper look inside!

Many of my professional colleagues who, like me, have been around the block a few times have shared similar experiences. “Mugging the Mentor” didn’t arise in a vacuum. Nevertheless, in spite of being treated badly, we are still always willing to help someone else.

I will do anything reasonable to see someone else move forward, do better, succeed, be happy. I will always tell the truth, be honest, open and caring and observe professional standards. I will state clearly that which I know to be true and behave in as ethical manner as possible. Someone else’s success, if it is based on honest hard work, can only benefit everyone, including me.

I did not use anyone else to be where I am. On the contrary, I have acknowledged every one of the many people who have helped me along the way. I do that with humble gratitude and admiration. If, indeed, it is a “dog eat dog” world, I, for one, am not interested in contributing to that mentality for even 10 seconds.

If the only prayer you ever offer is “thank you,” that would be enough.