As you may have
noticed ... I took a bit of a hiatus from my
Tips ... for several months. It was as a
result of my having skimmed through the
“fruits of my monthly labors of love,” first
begun on August, 2007 and having realized
there are only so many ways I could
verbalize a given subject, while still
maintaining the freshness I feel every time,
every day when I teach it! It was amazing
... I understood every word that I wrote ...
and, it all made sense! However, my biggest
realization was that, while I had virtually
laid out all of the aspects of my precise
technique-the very technique I have used for
all of my professional career-as a vocal
“blueprint” in a clear and concise manner,
interspersed with a number of pertinent
anecdotes that moved the subject along, I
felt I had written it all ... but it somehow
seemed, incomplete. I had felt that-if a
student is really motivated and yes, has the
various gifts of musicianship and
musicality, desire and perseverance-he/she
can very probably become a pretty good
singer just from the information contained
in all those of those Tips ...
Then I recalled
my having once turned down a firm offer from
a publisher’s rep, to “put your (my) 334
page book on the shelf for $27." I had
turned it down because I felt it needed a
DVD of my demonstrating my technique, to
infuse the text with my personal energy ...
and he declined. (That’s one of the dumbest
things I ever did. It hadn’t occurred to me,
at the time, that I could have put a rider
in there to contact me for a DVD ... It
simply hadn’t occurred to me and ... I felt
another offer would come along ...
But there it
was, the one vital element missing from the
equation; it is the personal energy and
immediacy my presence brings in a
lesson, as well as my seemingly intangible
“sense of moving through the music” that
enhances the student’s opportunity to
utilize yet another facet of his/her talent;
to begin to imitate all that I demonstrate
both facially and with respect to my bodies
involvement in the support process. In a
relatively short time, they are able play
off my energy and my voice, which has its
full sound and the high notes with which I
sang at the Met and all my other venues.
After spending
fifteen or so minutes explaining my
Breathing/Support technique (August, 2007),
I make a resonant, focused sound
instantaneously, lifting and growing through
the first sound and get my student to join
in. I have them vertically open their
throats with a yawn (AW vowel), mouth long
and narrow, to raise the palate and then
have them sing a full sound ... it takes a
few shots, but very soon, they have joined
me ... and the student’s voice easily
doubles in sound within minutes. After the
first half-hour or so, they are not as
intimidated as they were at first and soon
they are just singing along with me. (For
the ladies, I sing in a full falsetto up to
an F, an octave and a fifth above middle C,
and their hearing me in the pseudo soprano,
they join me, quite often in a part of their
voices they have not previously been able to
use.) Most had never before had that much
Flexible Breath-Pressure ® support available
so had never been able to open their throats
that fully, their soft palates that high.
The results often are startling to both of
us ... and their respective sounds have
grown fuller, bigger and brighter ... in the
first forty-five minutes of their first
lesson.
I reiterate ... The answer is
just too simple; they are playing off my
vocal and body energy as well as my sound
and ... instead just standing there alone,
trying to sing what I have asked … all by
themselves, self-conscious and timid!
They are singing with me in a fuller voice,
with much longer phrases than have ever done
before, because I am singing with them. And
... they simply don’t quit; they sing as
long as I do, with much more breath control
than they had ever before used! It all
happens relatively fast because I don’t
really give them much time to think too much
about it ... as they essentially are too
busy making better singing sounds than they
had ever made! Yes ... I said all of that
stuff twice ... because it is what happens!
First time students with natural ability are
singing their first song by the end of the
first session, those not quite so gifted ...
it takes a bit more time. With those who
have been singing with bad technique, it
takes longer ... especially if they are
breathing backward and distending their
Belly Buttons, in an effort to support. But
… they always go out the door singing better
than when they came in. That’s my
cast-iron promise, my mantra! I had two
of them last week ... but all is on the way
to being better. Twenty years ago, it took
me quite a bit longer to get that kind of
result ... Not any longer!