My previous post stirred up quite a bit of activity. That’s great. Pretty much everybody who commented was of the opinion that the demonstration of how to sing opera was severely misguided. That is also a very good thing. But I want to go deeper into this topic of how we create the sounds we…
Author Archives:
A Christmas Story
I received this story in a newsletter and wanted to share it. There is something inspiring in it, at least to me. Plus, it tells the story of how one of the most loved Christmas stories came to be. Hope everyone had a nice holiday. ————————————————————- True Story of Rudolph A man named Robert L….
NOT How to Sing Opera
I came across this on YouTube while looking at different vocal instruction videos. I’m just sampling what is out there because I’m working on launching a video instruction service. I saw the headline “How To Sing Opera – Lesson 1 – The Key is Kermit”, and I thought, “this will be interesting.” Well, once I…
Q&A – Opposite Concepts Effective for Different People
I am an old man, nevertheless I still enjoy singing and I can throw down a good Di Provenza or Valentin Aria. My question is that all my life my singing teachers and fellow singers kept telling me that the voice should be placed high and forward. So I tried to place my voice high…
Q&A – Voice Placement
I have been having contradictions about “voice placement“, some encouraging forward placement during singing, while others even stating that there is nothing like placement, either forward or ‘backward‘. Plus, I have been trying to train my soprano and tenor singers (choral) on how they should use their voices accurately (especially the vibrato), but I am…
Remembering 9/11
Today is the tenth anniversary of the day the world changed. At least that is what many are calling it. And I guess it is an accurate description. It certainly changed my world. You can never really know what things would be like if your life took a different path, but I can say that…
Q&A – Vocal Fry
Had a conversation with another teacher today and she said the following: “When the folds ‘fry’, they rattle against each other – this is why it is also called glottal scrape – and there is a lack of periodicity in their vibratory pattern. It is harder on the instrument than breathy phonation, which science shows…