I know there are some singers (particularly ones trained in conservatories singing art songs, which I was not although I believe I had good vocal training)who have voices where every note in their range is exactly the same size and color which is not the case with me. I don't know if singers with these evenly shaped voices sound like they're singing more legato. Among the top singers today there are some like this, whom I frankly think sound boring (I don't want to point fingers, but most of these boring singers are American) and some who sound exciting but usually these latter singers do not have voices where their low notes, high notes, and middle register notes are all the same color. Do you have any thoughts on this?

The revered Smithsonian Resident Associate Program in Washington, DC, contacted me to sing a program of Swedish songs to go with their program of Nordic arts and crafts. It was to be performed at the New House of Sweden DC, with various dignitaries and ambassadors attending.

As we began negotiating a contract, the woman organizing the event stopped and asked, "Do you have a piano you can bring with you?"

There is a favorable ending to this story, but I will stop there…

Back in the day when I worked as a lifeguard to support my music habit, there was a woman who regularly "swam" at the pool. She was a dancer (modern & jazz + her own style) and spent several hours (3+) every day there. That in itself is a whole other story, but here's the vocal part! There were two spots that she liked to use to enter and exit the pool and one where she would spend time stretching. All of these areas developed a very greasy/oily slick to the extent that people would slip and slide when walking across them. None of us good figure out why, except that she always used those areas so we knew there was a connection. One day I noticed that she had a very large jar of Vaseline (petroleum jelly) in her bag, so we decided to watch her more closely. Before she entered the pool, she would turn around so the guard on the deck couldn't see and smear a large gob of it on her lips and her teeth, then wipe her hands on the pool deck! That explained the slick on the deck. So, being the friendly guy that I am, I mentioned that I had seen her putting Vaseline in her mouth and did she know that petroleum jelly is not something that should be ingested. Her response left me speechless! She said that her doctor told her to protect her vocal cords from the effects of the chlorine in the pool by coating the inside of her mouth with Vaseline and as she swallowed, it would coat her vocal folds and protect them!!! WOW!!!