NOVEMBER 2010

BOY SOPRANO TO YOUNG MAN’S VOICE

As I have previously noted on these pages, I was one of the fortunate few who was a “natural singer/” Whatever the vocal challenges presented by the music before me ... I just sang and there it was. The fact that it all started with me standing by the piano daily/nightly, while my sister–four and a half years older than I–played the piano and sang with me ... was obviously a substantial “leg-up!” The talent was there ... and, with her support ... everything necessary to bring it forth, as well. We sang everything from Sigmund Romberg, Rudolf Friml, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart/Hammerstein, Johann Strauss, Jr., Gilbert and Sullivan ... as well as every pop song that was currently on the ten-song weekly, Saturday Night countdown of Your Hit Parade! Add to that the songs from the American Song book in every desk in every grammar school in Los Angeles and ...well you’ve got the picture. “Shine on, Shine on Harvest Moon,” “Bicycle Built for Two,” “Columbia the Gem of the Ocean,” “America the Beautiful,” etcetera.

So ... it should come as no surprise that I never experience the dreaded “voice change” boys quite often experience as the chords lengthen with advancing puberty. I out started at about six, with high notes a fifth higher than my sister and then, with my joining the Boy’s Glee Club in Junior High School, my voice just adjusted downward with time passing, the changing repertoire and moving down in time, from tenor to baritone.

It was not to be so, for a young fella singing Miles in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, at the New York City Opera, back in the sixties. His first year with it was successful and he was in great demand--also at the Met--for his lovely voice. A few years later, however, he lost it trying to keep singing the high voice in performance ... and his career as a singer came to a crashing, abrupt end. I tried talking to him several times about just allowing the voice to sing lower ... but he was a young fella, distraught and obsessed with remaining a boy-soprano and ... he just faded from the vocal scene.

Andrew Arboleta was sent to me several years ago, experiencing difficulty with the boy-soprano role as Amahl, in Amahl and the Night Visitors. His problem--as is most always the case--was an issue of support, quickly remedied and his performances went well. His last major boy-soprano  role was with James Conlan conducting, at the Los Angeles Cathedral, about eighteen months ago, where he was one of three soloists in a Christmas Cantata, with full orchestra.

I hadn’t seen him for several months, when he came in suffering from the “I am having trouble singing those high notes ...” syndrome. I began the process of showing him how to access his “never before used lower voice,” lengthening his jaw, while opening his throat longer–palate always raised--and more open than he had ever done previously. While it took a good half hour for him to get used to the new, much fuller sound ... he left singing Younger than Springtime, from the Broadway Show, South Pacific. His mother called me several weeks later to let me know he had sung it for a prestigious L. A. youth choir and was accepted. Last week we gave the song a whole new sound and began dealing with a whole new aspect of his training.

As a boy soprano, most music directors are apparently satisfied if he can just sing the notes prettily. As a young man, singing such a song as Younger than Springtime ... he must assume a whole new vocal and aesthetic value system, when singing the great prose of Oscar Hammerstein ll. (I was the first baritone to sing the role in a major production, 70 performances at the Jones Beach Summer Theater, picked by Rodgers himself with the request. “Will you sing the high G’s every night?” “Of course.” and he replied, “You’re my Cable!”)

Andrew really got into the idea that he was actually speaking/singing the words, “for the first time,” as dialogue, each time he sang it, rather than having a particular assigned emotion for each phrase as he had always be previously been given. At almost sixteen, he has the full and easy sound of a nineteen year old. Flexible breath-pressure support, on demand ... is a wonderful and comforting concept!

If your knees are knocking each time you walk out on stage, not quite sure what will come out, how you will sound, or whether the high notes will be there when you need them ... you ought to give this technique a try, sometime soon ... If you are not living in Los Angeles … I’ll work with you on SKYPE. I am currently working with Munich, Germany, Toronto and Edmunton, Maine, Miami, Mexico City, Yuma and Branson, MO … with Andy Williams! ;-)



OCTOBER 10
- TOOLS OF THE TRADE (i.e. LEARNING REPERTOIRE)

SEPTEMBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE

AUGUST 10 - JOIN A CHORUS (Addendum)

JULY 10 - JOIN A CHORUS

JUNE 10 - HI THERE SINGERS!
 

MAY 10 - SINGING IS WORK

APRIL 10 - THE FIVE “C’s!”

MARCH 10 - LEARNING REPERTOIRE

FEBRUARY 10 - THE TIGHT JAW

JANUARY 10 - BALANCING THE VOICE

DECEMBER 09 - LOVE CAN REIGN - LINK

NOVEMBER 09 - ABSENCE OF EXCESSIVE TENSION

OCTOBER 09 - YOUR OTHER BEST FRIEND - YOUR MIRROR

SEPTEMBER 09 - EVERYONE CAN SING!

AUGUST 09 - LATENT HERNIAS AND OTHER SUPPORT PROBLEMS

JULY 09 - PRINCE IMRAN RAZA STATESMAN/ROCK STAR

JUNE 09 - ANOTHER NATURAL SINGER - DAVID BURKE

MAY 09 -DISCOVERY OF VOIC
E

APRIL 09 - I'M SICK, BUT I HAVE TO PERFORM TONIGHT  Part 2

MARCH 09 - I'M SICK, BUT I HAVE TO PERFORM TONIGHT

FEBRUARY 09 - SINGING IN ENGLISH

JANUARY 09 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 4)

DECEMBER 08 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 3)

NOVEMBER 08 -
GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 2)

OCTOBER 08 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 1)

SEPTEMBER 08 - HEAVY BREATHING ADVISED FOR JOCKS

AUGUST 08 -  THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 3)

JULY 08 -
THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 2)

JUNE 08 -
THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 1)

MAY 08 - ABSENCE OF TENSION

APRIL 08 -
THE FLAT TONGUE TECHNIQUE AND HOW DO YOU MAKE A VOWEL

MARCH 08  - THE VOICE COACHING THAT  MADE MY CAREER

FEBRUARY 08 - WHAT ARE YOU SINGING?

JANUARY 08 -
VIBRATO/WOBBLE

DECEMBER 07 - BREATHING REVISITED

NOVEMBER  07 - HOW TO KILL A COLD IN FIVE DAYS

OCTOBER 07 - A BIT MORE SUPPORT

SEPTEMBER 07 - MORE SUPPORT

AUGUST 07 - INTRO & BREATHING/SUPPORT