Friday, August 29, 2014


REALITY. What is it? Is this too profound for a Friday? No. You have the whole long weekend to contemplate this. Visual reality is acquired through your eyes, but what do your eyes NOT see? You don't see anything microscopic or telescopic, but it is there! Have you ever looked at blood cells through a microscope? I have. Have you looked at the rings of Saturn through a telescope? I have. Without a telescope, Saturn looks like a bright star-no rings. Without a microscope you can see blood, but not the cells. You can't even see germs with the naked eye, but we know they are there. You cannot train your eyes to see what they cannot see. If you haven't looked through the scopes mentioned, your reality of microscopic and macroscopic is merely objective, NOT subjective. "Things" are there, whether seen, felt or heard. We have evidence.

Eyes are wonderful but ears are amazing, if they are trained.

You can listen to a band and a singer doing a song and take it all in as a whole. With training and practice, you can not only hear one specific instrument in that band, but you also can write down perfectly every note played by that instrument. You can hand the manuscript to a true professional and it will be pretty much identical. I have transcribed entire arrangements, so I have subjective reality on this. What else? You can hear all the chords in a song and you can even hear the voicing of chords with experience. What's more is you can choose how to hear as a whole, OR: individual parts, chords, voicings, rhythms, and more. What's more? Form. You can hear and understand the entire piece in verses, choruses, bridges, or movements. There are even forms in lyrics and other devices, such as those you hear in poetry or prose. Ears+mind can equal a very profound and analytical understanding of music. OR if you can do all those things, you can also do another thing. You can sit back and just listen and enjoy. Over time, however, you hear without analysis--you just get it and it transcends thought.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Put Up

Try putting people "up", instead of putting people down.  The most progress is made in the shortest period of time when the good, the right, and the excellent are acknowledged.  You can only build on success.  

You cannot build on failure, but if you pay careful attention, you'll notice that the most successful people usually have also failed many more times than unsuccessful people are willing to fail.  The phrase "trial and error" didn't come into existence by chance.  

It is the wash, rinse, repeat method to success.  You see what is working and do more of that.  You see what is not working and avoid that.  You'll get farther faster by putting yourself "up".  Acknowledge the good, dwell on the good, focus on the good.  Acknowledge the bad for a few seconds and move on.  Learn from mistakes; that is all the significance they have--a learning tool.

Tuesday, July 08, 2014


Do you want higher notes?
If your voice cracks or breaks as you go up in pitch, there is something very wrong.  Can you sing high notes with strength  AND with ease?  You could if you would have been trained correctly.  

I can help with this and it can start as early as today.  Unless you have physical injury, swelling, or damage to your voice, range is safely expandable.

Do you need and want more endurance?
Does your voice get tired or give out on you after you sing for a half hour or an hour?  Concerts, gigs and recording your voice require better endurance than that.  You have to have great endurance and strength.

Your endurance and power can safely be improved when you discover the safe and effective way to do this.

Do you want to sing in tune?
How you hear and what you hear have everything to do with being able to sing in tune.  You can hear perfectly and still sing out of tune if you haven't connected your singing to your musicianship.  

It doesn't have to take a long time to sing in tune, once you are shown how to listen and what to listen to.  Some practice will get your pitch better from the very first day.

Do you want better time and rhythm?
Do you hear time as it is or are you missing something?  Why do some drummers have excellent time and others don't?  This also applies to singers.

Rhythm and time are very mathematical, but you don't have to know very much math to improve.  If you can count to four and if you can count to sixteen, your time and rhythm can get better.

Do you want better tone quality?

Can your tone actually be improved?  If you don't have scar tissue on your vocal folds (vocal cords), you can improve your tone.  No one wants to hear your voice if you don't sound good and that includes yourself.

Effective exercises can help improve your tone quality.  This is one area of technique, which can and does involve proper use of breathing.  Every singer and every player of wind instruments, who are professional, know the importance of breath control.

Is this all?

Not even close, but improvements in these categories alone, can make huge improvements in how you sound.

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Online Singing Lessons

Online singing lessons can be every bit as effective as singing lessons in person.  To qualify this more, singing lessons using Skype, Google, or FaceTime can be as effective as the teacher or vocal coach is effective.  Granted, the quality of sound is slightly less than in person, but it is better than a phone by a long shot.

What does the vocal coach need to hear?  EVERYTHING, but it is not necessarily dependent upon sound quality, per se.  Everyone does not perceive pitch the same way.  Everyone does not hear at the same "depth and breadth" of sound, either.  A vocal coach with a developed relative pitch can be very good.  A vocal coach with perfect pitch has an excellent level of sound and pitch perception.

Knowing what was sung and knowing precisely what is heard is totally necessary for helping identify the source of a singer's pitch problems.  Is it incorrect melodic intervals or is it a weak "harmonic ear" causing a singer to sing out of tune?  Singers who also play a piano or guitar oftentimes have a more highly developed "ear" but not always.

Most singers seem to not want to spend the time and effort with ear training--except for the excellent ones.  Ear training especially for singers is almost nonexistent, which is why I have taken the time to develop singer-specific exercises.

Whether online or in person, the exercises I have developed are as effective equally.  The much neglected musical "ear" is the key factor in singers singing out of tune (Pitchy, off key).  It isn't hard to handle and also doesn't require months to make it better.

Online singing lessons can be used for the various other factors for better singing, if the vocal coach is competent. is my newest website. is my email address to contact me.

Sunday, June 22, 2014



 The answer depends on two things: 1) What does the vocal coach know and 2) What can the vocal coach do?

Some vocal coaches only work with vocal technique and to the exclusion of musicianship.  Some vocal coaches work with vocal technique but exclude anything having to do with style.  If you want help with style, you may have to hire a separate person for that.

What if your musicianship is weak and it manifests that by your singing out of tune (or "pitchy").  All the vocal exercises in the world will not necessarily improve your "ear".  I've heard singers who have studied with the most expensive vocal coaches in the world and they still cannot sing in tune.  If you cannot sing in tune, you will not be hired.  You can blame a thousand other things but you will not be hired if you sing out of tune.

At $500 an hour, would you expect a vocal coach to be able to assist you with style and musicianship? You would think so but it is not necessary the case.  How about $450 an hour?  $300 an hour?   WAKE UP AND SMELL THE B.S. !     (Bad Singing)  I refuse to tell you the names of those vocal coaches but remember those prices and you might get a clue.

Some vocal coaches brag and drop names of the singing stars with whom they have worked.  If you don't know better, you might think that a coach made the career for those singers.  Not so.  They might have helped with an issue but don't be so naive as to think that a career was made by a vocal coach.  Professional working recording and concert artists look for help when they need it.  Most were already working before finding the coach.  To take full credit for a singer's success is a little (or a lot) egotistical.  Even if you teach someone proper technique, the singer has to practice and USE it.  Many more hours are spent in practice and performance than in lessons.  That is simply reality.

Do you need a vocal coach?  You probably do, since you are reading this.  Select one who is familiar with singing mastery and knows how to achieve it.  If you're feeling especially strong, have your prospective coach take a little test.

SINGING MASTERY                             TEST

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Obliterate Stage Fright

Why Is Your Stage Fright Still Here?
Does any of the following sound familiar to you?
  • Your hands shake every time you get in front of an audience.
  • Your voice shakes every time you have to speak or sing to an audience.  
  • You practice and rehearse and you feel you are ready, but you have no confidence.
  • You want to run away, instead of stand and let people stare at you.
  • You know there are lots of people who look comfortable on stage.  They look like the love it and are having a great time.  Not you, though. 
  • If any of the above sounds like you… then you're most likely in the right place.

People who have never been on stage will give you all kinds of suggestions, but probably never used any of them, themselves.  They have not felt what you feel.   They know to not get on a stage because they would probably just run off the stage.  They also think that your stage fright is funny.  Is it?

It's NOT your fault! This is what doesn't work!
  • You try to picture people in their underwear, but your imagination is broken or something.  You can see they are all dressed.
  • You take a drug or you drink.  You see a video of yourself and are embarrassed out of your mind.
  • You get counseling or hypnosis but it doesn't work for you and you run off stage and cry.
  • You talk to other performers and they say they don't have stage fright.  You know they are lying and they don't want to help you.  They tell you to "will it away".
  • You look over peoples' heads and they feel excluded.  You feel disconnected from the audience.

There Are THREE Kinds Of Stage Fright

There are actually three stages of stage fright and they are related, but each is different from the other. 

What's The Next Step? 

Thursday, January 09, 2014


When you see a beautiful painting, sculpture, or other work of art, and you feel a certain feeling about it, how does it make you feel?  Does it actually MAKE you feel, or, do YOU make that feeling?  When you hear a song, watch a dancing performance, or see someone, whom you find beautiful, and you feel something, that feeling was already in you and you relaxed enough to allow that feeling to be felt.  When you love someone and you know they love you, there are some "extra" feelings there and you relax and you not only love the person, but also, you love your love and you love her/his love all the more.

It's letting down the barriers, releasing the inhibitions, knowing that it is safe to love and to be loved, that allow us to be elevated to our true selves, our honest selves, our pure selves.  When we've stopped blocking others, we transcend and ascend to our higher selves and therein we reconnect to our own true power and potential.

There is a place of peace inside us all.  How do we get there?  Relax, let go, and trust.  When you find your unique self, you also find that you have something to contribute to others, which no one else can ever do.  Your unique "you" is as good as, as talented as, as perfect as anyone you have ever met.  When you admire another person, you are also seeing the good in yourself, that you maybe forgot was there.  It is there.  It is always there.  You can ignore it, cover it up, pretend, lie, or walk away from it, but it is there.