It's a Physical Thing 

This is a very quick entry, but also a strongly salient point ...
 

This is something that the majority of people, professional musicians included, do not understand.  However, it is a #MusicalTruth with which well-trained singers are intensely intimate.  It is our deep love of our craft that propels us forward, and brings us - eventually - to mastery of our own bodies, relative to producing sound!

To quote my own teacher, the brilliant David Jones, in NY, "90% of good technique is making involuntary

Read more

Technique and Vocal Fatigue 

The following blog post was written by an excellent physician, Benjamin F. Asher, MD, FACS, whom I met at the last teacher training seminar I attended in New York City. He clearly states what I have been preaching for many years in regard to the vital necessity of learning healthy vocal mechanics.


Technique and Vocal Fatigue

April 21, 2019




I saw a singer/actor recently who was struggling with vocal fatigue. She had started an 8 show-a-week run and was concerned. She had never had any problems with her…

Read more

Choosing a Voice Teacher 

The meme below is humorous, but it comes with caveats.  And I feel exactly this way at times.  There is so much faulty information out there.  One needs to be really careful when choosing a voice teacher, so as not to find themselves in a situation wherein they are learning detrimental, damaging and just plain poor technique, which can ruin a voice.

Things to consider:  Is the person in question a voice teacher or are they a vocal coach? (There is a huge difference.)  Both have their purposes, but vocal…

Read more

Success and Satisfaction 

The meme below is advice from Martha Graham to fellow dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille.


My personal note:

We are ALL our own worse critics. Don't let that stifle or suffocate the music within you. Allow it to flow, because it is a part of who you are. To keep silent is to die, a little bit at a time.

The best thing that you can do for your self-confidence is to learn proper, healthy technique. If you struggle with the mechanics, your voice will never flow freely. But this requires work. In spite… Read more

Frank Sinatra, Jr. 

Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Singer, Composer, Pianist, Conductor, Friend
B: January 10, 1944 - D: March 16, 2016

Rest in Peace



On March 16th, I lost an old friend. I was stunned by the news. When I did the math, I realized that I had known him for just shy of 30 years, more than half my life. The photo below depicts how he looked when I first met him. On March 16th I lost one of the top three greatest influences in my life, all three of whom are now sadly, painfully gone.

 



I thank God that I took the opportunity…

Read more

Singers These Days 

So many times I have met with prospective students – in our instant gratification society – who at some point during their initial consultation ask me, in regard to the process of learning to sing, "How long is it going to take?"  I never cease to be astonished at this question.  However, over the years I have learned to ask in response, "It depends, how good do you want to be?"

 

The sad fact is that so many people these days are untrained singers who either (a) wind up sustaining vocal injury or (b)…

Read more

Et Tu, Oprah? The Marginalization of the Professional Entertainer 

I awoke at a ridiculous hour today to be greeted by an article that was posted on CBS Local (San Francisco Bay Area) about Oprah Winfrey's "Self-Worth" tour, which was ironically designed to encourage people to realize the same.  Those who know me know that I tend to have a lot of patience and for the most part I'm a pretty even tempered individual unless something extreme gets my goat, which is exactly what happened at 5:00 a.m. this morning.

Apparently, a Bay Area performer (along with many others…

Read more

Limitations and Ichinen 

Occasionally I am faced with a student who fights to hold on to their vocal limitations.  When introduced to a new vocal technique they proclaim incessantly, "But it's so HAAARD!"  As my friend Richard Bach put it in his book, Illusions, "Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them."

While pondering the subject of limitations this evening, I was reminded of the Japanese word "ichinen."  And doing a little research on the subject, I found the following excerpt from a blog article entitled,…

Read more

Prize Student Album Review 

I have to admit it, I'm feeling like a proud parent!  One of my prize students, Mike Rose (aka "The Blues Sheriff"), just had his first album, "New Sheriff in Town" reviewed.  He has been getting radio air play and his review (click on his photo) has me bursting my buttons with pride!

Good teachers care about the welfare of their students and want to see them succeed, and enjoy a healthy career.  Mike went from merely wanting "to achieve vocal mediocrity and be able to perform with consistency in [his]

Read more

Carolena Mátus - "jazz singer" by Eric Miller 

The exquisite poem below was written by Eric Miller in response to the following video posted in this article.  I was so taken by the beauty of the poem that I simply had to share it – and the author – with the world.  All spelling and formatting are specifically as the author has written them with no alterations.  It is my first blog offering to start off the New Year.

 

 

 


jazz singer
 
 
she's decorated
 in black
understated
elegant
 ready
 to deliver
 a speech
 to a
 body
that hangs
 on every word
 
 
she sways
 root…

Read more