» Slice of Singing: Vocal Blog

The Screen Actors Guild has honored me by inviting me to teach for the SAG Conservatory program. I will be teaching Quantum Leap Monologue Prep, a course that connects the actor to the voice of the character. An actor’s voice is essential to craft. The missing piece for many actors is honest connection to the character’s voice. This workshop gives you techniques that help you live honestly and...

Summertime! For me summer as a kid was swimming and water skiing with lots of time for practicing singing. It was the best! Do you have a young singer in your family? One who is dying to learn to sing, to become a star? I have the perfect program for you. It’s inexpensive, educational, cutting edge vocal technique training that is accessible to everyone. SingLikeYouSpeak.com offers 3 option...

The human body, barring congenital defect or system-altering accident, is a perfect vocal instrument from the moment of birth. As all parents know, an infant can coo, cry, babble and scream all night long without vocal fatigue, hoarseness or strain. Watch a sleeping infant to see the ribcage open and contract, the belly rise and fall as the baby naturally breathes diaphragmatically. Infants and yo...

A friend of mine, Elaine, called me recently in a panic, said she desperately needed my help. I responded immediately, of course I will help you. What’s up? What can I do? Elaine was terrified because her oldest son wanted to go to college for… [SCREAM!!!]… Music. Even worse than that, vocal music. He’d been accepted into the music education program at Ithaca College in central NY – a f...

I have the privilege of living in the greatest city in the world – New York City. Any night in the week you can see and hear top performances: singers, actors, musicians. Performers that are in the news or performers you haven’t heard of for years. The latter was the case last night. The 92nd Street Y has a series, Lyrics and Lyricists. This show honored lyricists/script writers Betty ...

There’s a saying, ‘Everything old is new again.’ Lip syncing is nothing new. The difference is that years ago no singing star would ever have thought of lip syncing instead of singing on stage. A singer loves to sing, loves the power of the vibrations moving though you out to the audience. This video is a different, you might say ‘twisted’ way to use lip sync. The re...

Time. Our most precious commodity. As a singer – a musician – practice is what we do. (Hopefully) Practice is the time when we make vocal technique a part of our brains and bodies. And you all know the more solid your technique the more fun and freedom you have with your singing. Practice is time well spent. Some singers can’t stop practicing and love every minute of it. Other s...

Singers who experience jaw tension – that’s probably most of us – not only have the physical pain association with jaw tension, but also the tension that is added to your voice that doesn’t sound all that cool. But what’s a singer to do? If you read my two previous blogs, you would have read about a meditative breathing exercise that I begins all of my students’...

Jaw tension is the enemy of singing with freedom. But how do you let go when working on the computer tightens the jaw, and driving a car and dealing with everyday stress enters the jaw muscles and grips them hard? In my last blog I shared a technique to use when going to sleep at night. Say to yourself, ‘breathing in I release my jaw, breathing out I release my jaw.’ The Sing Like You ...

Jaw tension is one of the biggest evils perpetrated against vocal freedom. But jaw tension is a fact of 21st Century life, so what ‘s a singer to do? Let me tell you a short, true story. Many years ago when I was under a great deal of stress, I was experiencing daily headaches, pain and clicking in my jaw. I was miserable. Next trip to my dentist I asked if he had any suggestions to relieve ...