I'm curious, what did you learn that was so mind-blowing seeing that he
has
several books out there and a column in NATS every month? I'm not
implicating anyone, but I always find it dismaying that teachers are
blown
away by this stuff when the information has been out there for sometime.
Randy:
I know what you mean. I got great value from attending his week-long
workshop, but much of it was due to the interaction with so many
wonderful singers and teachers and from having an entire week during
which I could focus exclusively on my craft. I also enjoyed performing
in the evening recitals and getting feedback from participants. I had,
of course, read his book prior to going, and had already gone through
lots of personal work related to technique, so much of the information
he gave was already known to me (though I did appreciate knowing more of
the science behind things that I had discovered on my own).
I found myself helping to show others how to work on breathing after
his lessons; they heard what he said, saw what he did, but still had no
idea physically how to implement the information for a practical result.
Science is wonderful, but many folks still need concepts and analogies
to actually learn things.
Still, here's the thing: many of us on this list have much of the
knowledge he imparts (we're an inquisitive bunch, or we wouldn't be
here!) but MANY singers and teachers DON"T! I had many very nice and
even fine teachers in my life, but had to teach myself how to breathe
when I was in my 40's! To these people, his workshop is undoubtedly a
revelation, and a much-needed one, and seeing things demonstrated in
real life rather than just reading it is of great benefit. Yep, this is
a bit dismaying, but sadly is true nonetheless.
There was also a bit of hero-worship going on, (hey, we all need
heros in life), with people rushing up to have their books autographed
and gushing when they spoke to him, but that was limited to a certain
faction.
Sharon Szymanski
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