Date sent: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 12:41:39 EST
Subject: Re: bad habits WAS imitating singers
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

In a message dated 01/29/2000 10:48:18 AM Central Standard Time,
RALUCOB-at-aol.com writes:

<< the people i have the hardest time getting to stop imitating are the guys
in
bands. even after pointing out how little they sound like the original (via
recording), they still try. one thing that works with some of them is, to
ask
them how many famous cover bands they can name. >>

I have a young man who is in a band. A year ago, before he began studying
with me, I heard him in a HS production of Damn Yankees and was really
impressed with his easy top. He began working with me in late August and had
had a rehearsal with his band the night before. He was extremely hoarse and
wasn't able to find his top at all. He also really sticks his chin up to
find high notes and says he can't find them without doing this.

A couple of weeks ago, I was addressing the chin problem and found out that
he had positioned his mike above his head so that he was singing up into it.
I flashed back to Rachel Lebon's session in Miami when she addressed this
very issue and told him that when you see that done in videos, it's not
real... the music has been pre-recorded. To sing into a mike effectively, it
needs to be directly in front of you. I told him that he needs to
re-position his mike. I think he's taken it to heart.

However, he is also shaking furiously (head and neck) whenever he sustains a
note. I know it's got to be jaw/tongue-related. Does anyone have any ideas
about how to fix this? He does not have the easy top he had a year ago.
Coincidentally (?), he has been in the band about a year.

I want to try Alexander stuff with him, but I need to take a workshop myself
(wish I'd gone to Boulder last summer instead of Miami a few weeks ago...)

Chris

Chris Thomas
Mezzo-Soprano
Wauwatosa, WI

"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a"