Hello all, My studio has moved from the east side of Rockville to the west side at the border of Potomac and Rockville. The location is near the intersection of Seven Locks Road and Montrose Road, two minutes from I-270 Exit 4. The exact location will be sent by email when you schedule an appointment.
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Sane Singing Pre-Order Available Now!
My book will be available beginning June 1. Click through to Amazon to reserve your Kindle version. Pre-order print and Kindle versions for 6/1 shipment!
Songs Without Words, Sounds That Become Songs
When I was a kid in Churdan, Iowa, I used to get on my bike and ride out to the cemetery on the east side of town. It was a quiet place to roam and think about things that seemed elusive at other times. Time seemed to stop while I walked or hung out under […]
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
An inquisitive and articulate colleague of mine recently brought up some great questions about how we frame our experiences. It was a pretty interesting angle. She asked this question: If we say that we learned to be better teachers because of having bad training or other adversity to overcome, is it because it’s true or […]
New York Lessons June 16
I still have space on Saturday, June 16 at The National Opera Center in Manhattan! Please contact me to inquire about a lesson time.
Sane Singing Release Date: June 1 2018
The cover design was finalized today and the content files are being prepared as I write this. This three-year project is coming to fruition! I will keep you posted about pre-orders and outlets in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your support!
Nasal “OO” and Other Diction Trends in Popular Music
Over the last decade I have noticed some diction trends in popular music that are peculiar, given the sounds of American English. Look up “hip singing” on Youtube and watch the videos by Madeline Tallman. They are hilarious and accurate in explaining how to acquire trendy pop diction. The three trends below are the ones […]
The role of an audition judge
I have a suggestion for judges at every level, from middle school festivals to the Met auditions: You are on the best ground if you report on what you hear, without giving ways to fix it. You do not know the context of that singer’s study, their history, their challenges, nor their ability to translate […]
Growing Pains
Hello comrades! Let’s talk about “growing pains”. Sometimes there is a season for something really cool in your professional life, and then a few years later, it’s not so sizzling anymore. I think this can be due to growth, and not to a fault of the thing that we were originally excited about. Examples from […]
“Natural” singing and genres
What is “natural singing”? Sometimes we say that someone “is a natural” or that the music seems to come so “naturally” from their throats. What does that mean? If we listen to the following singers – a lead in a traditional Chinese opera, a country singer in a noisy bar, and a Lieder singer in […]
See you at the NATS Conference!
I was pleased to hear that my proposal was accepted for a poster session at the biennial conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, which takes place June 22-26 of this year in Las Vegas. Several people have asked me “What is a poster session?” At a poster session, each presenter has a […]
Continuing education for singing teachers – broad or deep?
When pondering training possibilities, the question for me is “Go deep, or go broad?” I tend to go deep (into one approach) when I find something especially resonant. When I was younger I wanted to know everything from everyone yesterday (going broad rather than deep), but now that there is less pressure on myself to […]