The subject of voice production would come up occasionally, in the artist’s lounge at the Met or the New York City Opera, or as it did one night during a rehearsal break for Faust, in Tampa, FL between Ricky di Giuseppe, Jerry Hines and myself. They were in agreement about the importance falsetto in the bringing in of high voice, while I sat there trying to understand first, their concept and second ... why they sought to use two separate vocal concepts to bridge into one strong voice with ringing high notes. They were both exceptionally gifted and strong singers ... but I couldn’t find any concrete thread of mechanics between them, that could actually define their individual results; Ricky sang with a reinforced falsetto and Jerry sang with a rotated ring in the honk, facilitated by a strong forward movement of the arch of his tongue.

I sang many, many performances with Ricky, everything from Rigoletto, I Putitani to Gilbert and Sullivan and, apart from the operatic performances with him, I sang sixty-eight consecutive nights with Jerry as Emile de Becque and I as Lt. Cable, in South Pacific one summer at the Jones Beach Theater. (As Jerry had never sung a Musical, he had asked me to coach him in the dialogue for the part.) My point is, I knew their voices very well and, while they professed to be in agreement on technique, their approach and results were technically different ... but nonetheless very beautiful and effective.

After leaving the Navy, I began pre-Engineering studies at El Camino Jr. College, in L A and sang for R. Neil Hill, the director to the A Cappella Choir. As I have mentioned previously, he was very impressed, immediately introducing me to the voice of Robert Merrill (who became me idol and de facto teacher) and assigned me to the 2nd bass section. In the four years since high school, my voice had matured but through minimal use (not much singing on a Submarine), my top note was only an E♭. It took me several months of singing before I could sing an F. As I have said, I have never known singing to be hard. It wasn’t very long before I was assigned solo parts in various pieces, Why do the Nations from the Messiah, right outta the box, as well as the bass lead in the Daughter of Jairus, etc. It wasn’t until that piece, that I realized my singing of such an emotional and passionate work, had a marked effect on the audience ... and with the urging of my mother, the lovely Charlotte, I decided to study voice.

Since I was in a college, I decided to work with the Head of the Voice Dept. After the second lesson, I came out again barely able to talk (he was an exponent of “voix mixte”). He was six foot three and had a booming speaking voice that he obviously couldn’t manage in singing ... but, by damn ... he had his Doctorate.

Over the years, I had five people “teaching” me before I was hired by Julius Rudel at City Opera, but they really functioned more as coaches. I started doing my best work after I began teaching, having had to figure out how I did what I did. It was my work on stage  that initially made so many people want to study with me and it took me years to get it all together. But, I had more than enough that made those I worked with, from the get-go ... to be dramatically better than they were.
I do now in an hour and a half what used to take weeks and weeks. I had figured out the mechanics and the coordination to make it all come together ... with flexible breath-pressure on demand.
There have been only so many ways for me to articulate my technique on these pages and I have done so for over three years, now. So ... let us, if only for novelty sake, do something different for awhile.

I get the occasional letter telling me that my blog is of significant interest to various groups of singers and they appreciate my insights and tips. I thought, for a change ... some of you might like to ask a personal vocal question that pertains to a particularly vexing problem you might have, one that perhaps your current teacher has not been able to address to your satisfaction, usually telling you, “Don’t worry, it’ll come.” or some-such.
Feel free to send me a pithy paragraph covering the essentials and I will try to pick a couple of them to address in each of the next several Tips. Your name will be used only as, i.e. “David L,” unless you have a preference. Don’t be shy ... I always enjoy a challenge.


DECEMBER 10 - THE FUNCTION OF THE MOUTH... IN SINGING

NOVEMBER 10 - BOY SOPRANO TO YOUNG MAN’S VOICE

OCTOBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE (i.e. LEARNING REPERTOIRE)

SEPTEMBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE

AUGUST 10 - JOIN A CHORUS (Addendum)

JULY 10 - JOIN A CHORUS