In Remembrance Of Jack Klugman

I loved Jack Klugman. He came to me - a fellow South Philadelphian - in the early 1990s to help him get his voice back; it had been ravaged by throat cancer and radiation treatments. His doctors told him that the chances of his voice returning were not good. Jack was despondent, but certainly not without some sense of humor. I can still hear his horribly raspy and barely audible voice saying to me, "Gary, without my voice, I have no life. Talking is all I have!! With no voice my career is gone, but so is my reason to live. Look, you're Italian, and I am a Jew, together we can to beat this!"

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Exercise Specificity And Muscular Antagonism In Singing

In my studies in exercise physiology, I learned about the principle of exercise specificity—that an exercise regimen is most effective when it simulates the muscular actions of the process that we are trying to improve. It makes little sense for a runner, for instance, to try to strengthen his calf and thigh muscles by following an exercise regimen of swimming, because this process exercises the calf and leg musculature in ways that have little to do with how it functions during running.

The same principle holds in voice training.

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Scientism

Enthusiasts for science go too far when they argue for the omniscience of science as though the discipline has finally arrived at some form of self-perfection from which all issues, of whatever kind, can be judged - absolutely - to be precisely such and such by its infallible methods. This form of intellectual arrogance - sometimes called "scientism" - is NOT a reputable scientific position, but an unscientific bias about science that many scientists hold-to almost like a faith-based religion.

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Weak, Uncoordinated Larynx Muscles And Pitch Control

Let's talk about laryngeal limitations for a moment. The number one concern that beginning singers have is the requirement to “sing-in-tune.” Let's see what this means. When you sing a note, or make a vocal sound of any kind, the vocal folds make two basic kinds of adjustments. The first adjustment involves the two vocal folds moving together (approximating or adducting). The second adjustment centers on the vocal folds acquiring specific lengths and tensions during singing.

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Frank Sinatra’s Vocal Transformation

When Nelson Riddle, the renowned arranger and conductor, first heard Sinatra sing, he described his voice as sounding like that of a “muted violin.” Indeed, his voice was thin, reedy, and lacked resonance and vocal thrust. But as Sinatra began to sing with—and compete with—Nelson Riddle’s thick and lush orchestrations, his voice underwent significant changes. It was during this period (1950s-60s) that he developed his characteristically colorful and resonant tonal quality. His voice also gained in power and drive.

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