JUNE, 2009
Last month I wrote about Dr.
Charles Schatz and our discovery of a voice
he never knew he had ... until a couple of
months ago ... at sixty-six. He is
progressing wonderfully well and now has
about four songs in his diverse repertoire.
We will begin O du mein holder Abendstern,
from Tannhäuser this week. Yes ... it is an
full lyric baritone, not unlike my own.
June was a month of riches. It always amazes
me how many people there are walking this
planet with wonderful vocal potential but,
by not having had a musician or three in
their respective families and at least a
piano, there was little or no singing of
consequence ... and the voices lay dormant
for many years.
Such was the case of David Burke, who was
sent to me by my buddy Seth Riggs, just two
weeks ago. Tall and slender–six feet
four–attractive and “oh so smart!” I always
ask my students if they have played sports,
as it gives me an idea of what to expect
with their coordination potential when being
given my breathing/support technique. On
this, he had little to report, but his
academic achievements were considerable. He
is an high-level electronics technician who
works with satellites. Figures.
He virtually understood immediately my
coordinated Mind dictates, Body implements
concept and within minutes was producing a
full-out, open and naturally resonant
baritone, the quality not inconsistent with
my own. As with Charles before him, he had
never had a voice teacher ... so we had no
bad habits with which to contend. He is just
a bloody natural! During the last fifteen
minutes of the lesson–I always give an extra
half-hour for the first one, no extra
charge–he was singing lines of ten to
fifteen seconds in duration, fully forward
and focused ... with virtually all of the
vowels ringing and spinning in the same
place. He didn’t know it was hard!!! So ...
I took him higher, having explained about
the passaggio between E flat and F, but
assuring him that it would be of no
consequence, if he just continued to lift
and grow as he rotated the tone forward. The
smart-aleck did the sixth interval, G to the
D, then the E, the F and then ... the G ...
time after time. It was a full baritone, the
vowel a little fuzzy on the G ... but they
were all high G’s. He really had no concept
of what he had done. Most singers take five
or six years to get to the point ... he had
already reached! The most exciting thing to
me its that here are millions of natural
singers out there waiting to be discovered.
I get ten to fifteen a year. Oh yeah ...
did I mention Dave is forty-seven?
I had been a singer all my life. I didn’t
sing all that much in the four years I was
in the Navy, but on my last submarine, the
Irex, my Underway Surface watch station was
in the Conning Tower, a half hour on the
Surface Search Radar, a half hour on the
Helm–I would be steering the boat–and a half
hour off. When on the Helm, there was so
much noisy air coming down through the
Conning Tower hatch from the Bridge, I
thought I could sing and nobody would
notice. Well what a surprise on the day I
left the boat for my discharge. There were
six or seven of my shipmates standing by the
brow as I was leaving. We all shook hands
and as I turned to leave one of them said,
“We’re sure going to miss your singing?” I
turned back and asked what he meant. It
turned out the air racing down through the
hatch though the lower hatch to the Control
Room and back to the two engine rooms to
feed the engines, had carried my voice back
through the boat. He told me that when I
would sing, guys would come into Control and
just hang around while I warbled ... and
then just on about their business when I
stopped. I had no idea ...
When I returned home, I enrolled
at El Camino Jr. College, in pre-Engineering
… and joined the A Cappella Choir. My top
note was an E flat so I led the bass
section. It took me five or six months, with
the help of Robert Merrill records, to teach
myself how to sing an F … and another seven
or eight to have the G! Now I teach all
voices how to sing the G … and higher in the
first lesson.
I have one more like David, who came in last
month ... also kinda neat! Three in a month
... now that’s a good month!