Methodically Unfurling the Emotional Voice

Presented as a dialogue...

WEEK ONE

Dave: Diane said you had some ideas on voice.

Roger: That's true.

Dave: I've taken standard voice training with Diane and formally, but I'm not satisfied. I want to sing with some more soul and it's like I've hit a wall there.

Roger: I like students who aren't easily satisfied.

Dave: You've heard me with the rest of her students, so you probably don't have to be told where I am. I'm technically good but I want something more. I just don't know where to find it.

Roger: Well, the kingdom is within, as they say. There's no shortage of technically good singers.

Dave: Maybe it's a question of developing my own style.

Roger: I'll agree that copying someone else's style is pretty useless. Being a second-rate Ella would be pretty much redundant. But I don't think about style in voices as something you invent. Uncover maybe.

Dave: I'd settle for that!

Roger: But I wouldn't want to listen to somebody who sat down and designed themselves a style self-consciously.

Dave: Okay.

Roger: I think the power of our voices is what they can reveal of us, and that that's not so mystical it can't be explained, and a method of getting there be created.

Dave: I'll be impressed if you can do that.

Roger: I'm pretty sure I can help with that. As always, you'll have to do the hard work.

Dave: I don't mind work.

Roger: The difficulty is mostly psychological. To really get there you have to... deal with your own psychological defenses. I almost used the word overcome, but that's the wrong word, we want to be much more gentle than that. Do you follow me when I'm talking about psychological defenses?

Dave: A little.

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