Previously…I compared being a working professional singer to a tennis player…each making a living and a life by doing what he or she loves to do, and while they dream of stardom and fortune, they play by the rules of the game of the present moment.
In Tennis, there have only been 6 players in the history of the sport, who have won all 4 Grand Slam Tennis Events. And only 2 of those 6 have won on 4 completely different surfaces! Those 6 players are well-known all over the world, while there are thousands more players who make a good living playing tennis, and while they will win a tournament here and there, are not widely known.
Good, all around tennis players, just like good all-around singers can make a living doing what they love, and what could be better than that! Not everyone’s gonna end up at the top of the game or in the record books, and that should NOT be the goal anyway. The goal is to do what we LOVE more than anything.
This book is geared toward Jazz Singers and Singing, which is a specific genre and has with it very specific set of rules that the singer should follow to be considered a true pro!
And, by the way, when I talk about singing Jazz, I am not referring to what they call “Smooth Jazz”, or “New Jazz”.
I don’t even know what that is, but the songs and styles I hear, either of which are referred to with that moniker are NOT Jazz in this author’s humble opinion. Elevator renditions of a Jazz standard, played by John Tesh is NOT Jazz!
When I talk about Jazz, I am speaking with reverence about an art form created, in the cotton fields down south by singing slaves; nurtured by the melodic stylings of Louis Armstrong and the chaotic expression of Ornette Coleman, and continuously expanded in its rhythms and harmonic patterns by people from Scott Joplin at the start of the 20th century, to Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane in the mid-20th century, and Chick Corea, and Wynton Marsalis into the 21st century! And does not include anything played by Kenny G or Yanni!
Jazz is one of America's greatest exports.
It is the first truly American musical genre, and was recognized by Congress in 1987 as a national treasure.
Thanks to countless performers and innovators over the course of centuries, jazz has risen to become one of the most respected musical genres in the world.
And if you wish to sing jazz and be called a singer of jazz, don’t just learn how to scat…study the history of jazz and connect with its soul.
It’s more than technique, it’s so much more than dexterity, It’s a pure and unadulterated American Art form to be respected and to be proud of!
And there are rules that don’t exist in other musical forms…rules of behavior on the bandstand, rules of understanding the particular language of jazz, and well….that’s what this book is about!
I’ve been a voice teacher for 30+ years. There are literally thousands of us in the world, and, as in any educational field, some of us are better at it than others.
I don’t claim to be the best voice teacher out there. There are better technicians than I for certain; many classically-trained vocalists who understand the anatomical aspects of singing far better than I do, and whose methods, I think, should definitely all be attempted by the aspirant to see which works best for him or her as a student of voice. Trying on singing methods is much like trying on songs to sing, or trying on coats for that matter. You try different ones on until you find the one that FITS!!
Learning from a teacher is totally subjective. The bottom line is, if you “click” with your teacher, you are able to learn from that person. If you don’t “click”, then it doesn’t matter how accomplished he or she is, how many famous clients he or she has taught, or how expensive or inexpensive the fees are.
The fact remains that you cannot learn and get better as a singer with a teacher or coach with whom you just don’t connect.
Personally, I spend just about 6 weeks training voices to sing, the reason being that 6 weeks is the maximum amount of time it takes to put certain principles of singing on auto-pilot, such as; the breathing, the sound creation, (diaphragm control), the body’s resonation centers, and the Seven Deadly Sins of Singing which are to be avoided.
That’s pretty much all of what I teach to beginning students. I leave it up to the individual singer to practice the drills I design for each specific concern he or she may have about his/her voice. If the student is dedicated and seriously committed to his/her singing, the 5-10 minutes a day of drilling is not much to ask, and the results are amazing!
But, almost any decent voice teacher can do that for a student.
Where my joy and fulfillment lies is in the performance aspect of singing…and in helping a singer to discover his own voice, his sense of musicality, purpose, and ultimately, his total power through his vocal performance to alter Energy, and subsequently, Matter!
And while I am no scientist, everything I teach, write about, or talk about with my students is based on empirical knowledge, that is knowledge which has been informed by my own personal experience.
So when I say that a performance can move energy, I say it because I’ve seen it happen…and often!
This principle is widely known and accepted in the world of sports, where a particular athlete’s performance can so move the observers’ that they in turn will literally send him or her the positive energy required to accomplish the goal at hand.
This is true in almost all sporting events, but most easily understood when a single athlete is performing a feat, like playing tennis, golf, diving, or standing at the plate with a bat. The crowd becomes a “partner” in the process of achievement and each member of the observing crowd will literally feel the joy or agony of the result…as deeply as the athlete himself.
In tennis, for example, when a player is an audience favorite, the opponent will want to start the match with a flair of winning points, specifically to “take the crowd out of it”, meaning to quiet their cheers and leave the favored player with no energy with which to fight except his/ her own.
Baseball fans are celebrated as the “10th man on the field”.
And for a singer, there is nothing more meaningful and deeply felt than the audience’s applause, that symbol of love and devotion that all artists crave. For some, once they have experienced the feeling of a standing ovation, they can never be satisfied with anything less ever again.
There is, however, a price to be paid for that kind of love!
Or perhaps a more appropriate way to put it is…there needs to be a certain reverence shown to the art form itself for its ability to produce joy, and sadness, exhilaration, and despair, hope, and love that nothing else can produce.
We as singers of song, need to be profoundly and utterly grateful for this gift we have been blessed with by the creator of all that is.
We didn’t invent it. We didn’t manufacture it, and we can never take it for granted or treat it with egotistical arrogance or stupidity!
And I have written this book to demonstrate what I believe is the appropriate way to carry this gift and cherish it, treasure it, and guard it, lest it be taken away in a flash!
So we’ll talk about how to work with musicians, writers, producers and promoters in a way that honors your talent…but also theirs!
In addition, we’ll be covering some helpful hints on dealing with fans and customers. (This section will be quite amusing, and sometimes scary, so be sure to stick around for that!)
And we’ll discuss your ability and willingness to adhere to the rules of the road on a bandstand…in other words the things you need to know…which are so much more than just the song you’re singing.
So off we go…into the world of the professional singer/musician!
TO BE CONTINUED…
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