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American Idol Part II - Stop Fireworks and African Dance Safari
PLEASE START SINGING!!!

As I mentioned in my previous blog, at the beginning of this season of American Idol, I thought it would be stronger then ever. At least the auditions did suggest that finally the judges chose the top American singers to compete amongst each other. As the show progressed to the top 12, not only their singing abilities started to subside, but more and more showmanship started to thrive. They did everything, but not to much singing. We’ve seen fireworks and have witnessed the African Dance, but singing…? What that had to do with it? Evidently, Not Too Much! The judges were extremely fascinated by the African Dance, but didn’t not pay much attention that the voice of the female contestant which was quite limited and definitely very pitchy. Then the rock and roll contestant came along and O’ Boy! We had the whole “Cirque Du Soleil” on stage. I’m trying to recall what he was singing, but for the life of me I cannot remember. One more time again the judges were fascinated and especially with

American Idol - What's "Singing" Got to Do, Got to Do With It?
Dancing and Prancing Performance Prevailing Over Singing Quality Performance?

I've been watching American Idol quite precisely for at least the last decade and this time watching the auditions, I said, "Finally, the singing quality is becoming quite strong and definitely more listenable than ever before." Little did I know. After that last 12 "best" were chosen, the quality of singing all of a sudden subsided substantially. How so, nyou may ask? I do't know for sure, but judging by previous experience of watching my own client on the "Rockstar Supernova" television show of 2006 and my other client on "Canadian Idol" of 2007, I could certainly say that somebody was so called "helping" them to "achieve their dream"by trying to teach them in the last minute (whether it was a vocal coach or producer) some new "vocal tricks". Both times watching my own clients on the above designated shows, I nearly fell off the chair while listening to their "new and improved" version of their

Child Stars via YouTube - A New Trend to Discovering New Talent?

A long time ago Citytv launched " Speaker's Corner ". Anybody could stop by and verbally express their opinion about anything. Some people were actually singing, while hoping to get noticed and make it big in the music business. And YES...BINGO! The band " Barenaked Ladies " were noticed, picked up by music industry professionals and then the band made a very significant mark, becoming icons in the music industry to date. Sounds like a fairy tale, huh? But that happened and it's real. However, at that time it was quite sensational. Today, we all own computers and we all can easily and quickly access YouTube . In a manner of speaking, it is a "Speaker's Corner", but in the convenience of our own home or at our desk at work. With that to be available, the well known manager,  Scooter Braun was surfing the internet and YouTube in particular, when he discovered a young boy who is now the well known artist, Justin Bieber . The " Biebermania

Voice Loss or Voice Limitations: How often does that happen? And the question is... why?

Being a Non-Surgical Voice Repair Specialist for over 35 years now, I have seen a lot of cases where the full or partial loss of voice took place. There were different people, just the ordinary want-to-be singers or speakers and some were definitely active professionals. There were different causes and different diagnoses, but what was in common was the misuse and overuse of the vocal anatomy in general. Mainly, that was happening due to the wrongful application of one's voice; speaking or singing. The conventional vocal coaching suggests to people who want to learn how to use their voices “correctly” to drop their jaws down, to bend their knees, and feel really grounded and use their vocal and other parts of their anatomy as much as possible. What do they accomplish by doing all of this? The limitation of the vocal range; used, abused and strained vocal cords; and the sound which is evidently crashing down and dying at the performer's feet. Not very pretty, huh?! Moreover, I

The Music Producers (Part 1): Who are they... Jack-offs of all musical trades?

I've been in the music business, here in Canada, for over 30 years. I ran my professional vocal school , which is now a division of 4 A.M. Talent Development & Artist Management Group Inc., as well as, our own independent label, Royans Universe Records for over 27 years.  Over all this time, I've been vocally training people (estimated over 18,000 students) and also recording a lot of demos (first tapes and then CDs).  From time to time I was attempting to do the full productions with some of my prominent and talented clients, where I had to engage the services of a Music Producer, while myself, I was trying to play the role of Vocal Producer. "Vocal Producer?!!!" You may exclaim, "What's that?". For years, I was trying to answer this question to the best of my abilities and especially to convince and persuade those music producers who I have been (or potentially would be) working with. Some of them had no concept of it, outright; others had dif

Non Surgical Voice Repair II: Might Herbal Remedies Be Instrumental in Susan Boyle's Case?

In the first article, “Non-surgical Voice Repair. What’s that? Does it apply to Susan Boyle as well now...?”, I described the Sony artist’s performance on The View as being an unfortunate precedent. In that article, I was talking about her (in my opinion) beautiful, however improperly used voice and about my revolutionary Vocal Science technique, which could (no doubt) remedy that problem. Sometimes a performer may severely damage his/her vocal cords, larynx and even the whole vocal box while using the incorrect technique. In this particular instance then, the performer’s “instrument” is at stake.  In North America we have an expression, “He/she has a nice voice” (or good/great voice and what have you). That’s wonderful, but it’s only a description of the instrument. What about knowing how to “play” it? Imagine if Liberace, who had a famous great pink grand piano, suddenly would start playing it with his elbows? Funny, hah! But the singers with good voices, including Susan Boyle, are d

Non-surgical Voice Repair. What’s that? Does it apply to Susan Boyle as well now...?

Almost everybody knows now what happened to Susan Boyle on the television show “The View”. The question is why, and could it have been prevented? Being a vocal mentor and world renowned non-surgical voice repair specialist for over 35 years, I could say with absolute certainty that YES! It DEFINITELY could have been prevented if Susan, as well as many other renowned vocal performers, actually knew what they were doing with their voices and were using their voices upon design and not just by praying and keeping their fingers crossed while on stage (playing it by ear). You can clearly see the fear on Susan’s face about a minute before the disaster happened. She obviously knew intuitively that she would not finish that show, as she felt the restriction in her vocal box and knew there was no more space left to go anywhere except even deeper down into her throat where her vocal cords split and what I call “vocal impotence” had occurred.  Horrible!!! And every singer’s nightmare!!! But it c