“Winterize” your voice

If you live in a more northerly clime the onset of winter can have a profound effect on your voice. As air temperatures drop the amount of water the air can hold drops as well, and this is what passes through our vocal folds with every inhalation. The dry air can draw moisture out of […]

The Mystery School of Singing

How many voice teachers have you had? Two? Twelve? Twenty? Why is it so difficult to find that one person who’s going to help you find IT, whatever IT might be? You always hear singers talk about IT as if there is a magical formula or elixer that will result in beautiful, effortless singing tones. […]

Thoughts on Singing from the great Pavarotti

Be Patient and Build a Solid Foundation “When I started serious study (age 19) I spent the first six months vocalizing only with the vowel sounds…It was not a very interesting way to spend six months, but my teacher, Arrigo Pola, believed it was essential. Over the years I have become even more convinced of […]

The Three Rs of Singing

Some people are born with their singing apparatus already aligned, and they go on to careers as fantastic vocalists. When you ask these people for singing tips they sometimes have no idea how they do it – it just comes out! And then there are the rest of us. We have the music within, but […]

Want a strong voice? Then work on a strong core!

When Jane* started voice training she was a senior in high school and very quiet. After some initial progress at two lessons per week, she switched to one lesson per week and her progress….halted. She kept at lessons persistently but after two years had made very little progress.  I was carefully checking her technique and […]

The “Old Italian Methods”

Allesandro Bonci, from the Forward of “Practical Reflections on the Figurative Art of Singing”, written by Giambattista Mancini in the 1800s, translated to English in 1912: “This work appears at a propitious moment, as not one of the many new methods has proved as good or successful as the old Italian method. If the modern […]