Radio and television mirror (Nov 1939-Apr 1940)

At last! In an absolutely unique series of articles that cut straight through all the old taboos, Hollywood's most successful vocal coach tells how you too can become a star blame for this. How can they learn? Only by digging the knowledge out of the solid rock for themselves, or by taking a chance on an expensive vocal coach. And how can they learn what goes on inside the minds of talent buyers? Only by the bitter experience of losing out on jobs they wanted desperately to get or hold. I'm going to try to do something constructive about it: to shortcut this bitter period for the beginning singer. If you want to be a singer and don't know how to start, I'm going to try to show you. If you are determined to be a singer, and had started before you opened the pages of this magazine, I'm going to try to help you avoid mistakes and difficulties that still lie ahead in your unguided path. Before we begin, let me point out something that has, perhaps, Tiever ■ Gone is the old exaggeration of gesture, the bellowing that was necessary a few years ago. occurred to you. It's just this: the technique of singing for money has turned completely upside down in the very recent past. There is now, and always will be, a demand for glorious voices in opera and on the concert stage, yet 99 per cent of the singing which the average American hears and enjoys comes to him through the agency of a microphone, in one or another of the streamlined forms of modern entertainment which are here to stay. The accent today is on intimacy, and gone is the old exaggeration of gesture, the vocal mugging and bellowing which was not only accepted, but necessary under the conditions of a few years ago. It's modern science rather than lung power that carries today's entertainer over the distances to the cheap seats. Unfortunately, a great many singing instructors and almost all FEBRUARY, 1940 writers on the subject have ignored these changes. So did the buggy builders. As the professional singer, you will be in the business of furnishing entertainment. Baldly, to get money from your customers, the listening public, you must give them what they want. Here I'll give you as artistic a training as the public taste will permit, but when the ■ Do you sing without obvious strain? People don't like to watch you puffing and panting. artistic and the commercial considerations come in conflict, the commercial will get the call. Now then, here are the tools you need before you go any farther. A pleasing voice; a natural sense of tone and rhythm; something in the way of looks or personality ; an emotional awareness (by which I mean simply a zest for life, which translates into an ability to feel what you sing) ; and a genuine liking for popular music. Have you these tools? Let's ask a few questions about YOUR VOICE AND when you ask yourself these i questions, be honest in answering them. Is your voice pleasing to most listeners? In other words, do people like to hear you sing? Somebody must have heard you — not necessarily radio audiences — your friends, your family, your fellow-members of the Junior League or the Employee's Mutual Benefit Association. And remember, I said "Do they like your voice"; not, do they admire it, or marvel at its technical excellence, but do they like to listen to it? There is a very real difference. Do you produce tones without obvious strain? The public dislikes to tighten up its tummy muscles and strain with you as you puff and pant and belabor your way through ■ When you're getting a start, don't disdain beauty contests. After all, what can you lose? a number. You don't need a big voice nowadays: the "parlor" voice of light but even volume throughout its effective range, free from objectionable breathiness, is actually better suited to the microphone. You should have a comfortable range of an octave plus two or three whole notes (Their register doesn't matter, because you can choose the key in which you will sing.) Even less range will do in a pinch: Ruth Etting got along with just an octave. Is your voice free from the quaver of a faulty vibrato? The vibrato is primarily a pulsing variation in pitch; an emotional quality of natural beauty in some voices, but a cultivated one of doubtful attractiveness in others. Is yours a waver over which you have confident control, or a quaver which gives the effect of uncertainty? Do you sing in tune and in rhythm? Do you stay on pitch without too much difficulty, and is your attack sure and true? If you sing along with phonograph records, do you stay in tempo with them easily, or do you find the orchestra constantly getting out of line? If the answers to these questions are honestly favorable we are ready to go ahead, at least on songs of average voice requirements. But if you feel that your voice, our raw material, is not yet up to these standards there is another question which you will ask. That is: Should you engage a voice teacher? Now, the only purpose of voice training as far as it affects getting started in the popular field is to see that your tone is true, that you breathe naturally and sing without visible strain, that you have the ability to keep time, and that your voice has a pleasing quality. However, some instruction on voice culture ( Continued on page 70) 25