I think I might have finally put my finger on what bugs me about current auditions for musical theatre. I was watching a snippet of the NATS national finals today.…
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There is a popular idea that performers are blustery extroverts, or that huge personalities make great performers. If you’ve ever done community theatre, you will have seen many of them.…
I began watching some of Michael Trimble’s videos on YouTube and learned early on that he advocates for the belly to move in during inhalation. This flies in the face…
For the first installment of this series let’s talk about the commonly used word “spin”. I refer to a sung sound that has vibrato and a sense of ease. We…
Teaching voice cannot be as objective as teaching piano, because the instrument is ourselves! This creates all kinds of psychological, physical, and acoustical differences among singers. Look out for this…
In the last year, many classical vocal performances have been offered online, both live and recorded. There have been potentially interesting new operas premiered, as well as old ones re-imagined…
We are in an age where a scientific approach to pedagogy is considered extremely important. I have talked a lot about the limits of discussing acoustics and physics with a…
You know what would fix so much even if nobody believed in registers or science or climate change? This: Everyone needs to be able to go from softer to louder…
There are a heck of a lot of reasons to bring out old exercises periodically. An exercise can feel (and sound!) quite different after time away from it. Sometimes we…
As you work on your vocal technique, apply this rule ruthlessly: The exercise you are doing needs to either make you: sound better, without being more difficult sing more easily,…
Hello singing colleagues! I’m back from some time off and refreshed, ready for new beginnings after a nationally horrible first half of the winter. Powerful singing is a topic that…
Tonight I had the pleasure to attend a streaming concert of premieres of art songs, all by different composers. I love hearing and promoting new music, so this was a…