Just found this really great video. Pavarotti: Always remain a student!

[James Lugo]

Great words to live by, I live by them whole heartedly today. All 3 singers have great tips for maintaining a healthy voice. Starts around 3:30

 

[D.Starr]

My friends never understand that I refuse to drink alcohol if I know I'm singing in a week or so or that night.

I make sure I'm warming up and singing regularly everyday or that I'm drinking water all the time.

 

Getting a cold is a pain! and I try to avoid family and friends but they just don't understand.

 

Many of my singing friends are surprised I warm up as soon as I get up because they don't need to warm up and still sing great. You warm up? I have a beer and I'm good. HOW!? They go off and belt out G4s and A4s.

They're surprised I still take vocal lessons.

 

I really need to stretch out, meditate and steam a lot more though. I can tell if I've not drank properly the previous day, it's strange.

Friends find it fascinating that I can wake up in the morning and instantly know if I have a problem or a bump in my voice as soon as I'm up. You just kinda know. Nope, that G4 ain't coming out at this very moment so I know I have to warm up x amount.

 

 

I used to be in a mindstate that I must hurry up and learn to sing whatever and I need to be signed by tomorrow. Here I am 2 years on and glad I never got took on back then because I've come further. I'm know getting noticed by labels and scouts and feel a lot more sturdier in my sound, yes there's areas I need to work on like thinning out and having a more medium sound to go to to get more dynamics in my voice, but I just keep going on.

 

I adore Pavarotti's voice.

[ronws]

Thank you, James, for posting this.

 

I am reminded of how Enrico Caruso, in another time, could not travel as fast as singers are expected to travel today. He would get to a destination and might have a month or two engagement. Prone to allergies, he would take walks to acclimate his body to the local climate. He drank some, smoked cigars once in a while, though one does not "smoke" cigars the same way that people smoke cigarettes.

 

And like Pavarotti says, he would concentrate intensely on whatever he as doing. Breathing, vocalises, sections of the performance. At that particular moment in time, that was all that existed.

 

Singers such as Geoff Tate would often travel separately because he wanted the air warmer and not as dry as the rest of the band would prefer. I remember watching a documentary on the rally at Sturgis, South Dakota some years ago. Queensryche was to play at the Buffalo Chip and Geoff and his wife rode in from Seattle on his Harley-Davidson Road King (full bagger.) And they still do that for vacations. So, if you are ever in the Pacific Northwest at some little bed and breakfast and you are in the cafe and the guy at the next table looks a lot like Geoff Tate, it could be him.

 

And I can certainly understand how each of these singers takes such special care. That tiny little voice is their livelihood.

[VideoHere]

I love learning all about the voice...sometimes you just need confirmation or to know you aren't alone or you aren't way off on a tangent.

 

And I still say there are things about it we are just never going to figure out.

 

Funny thing, I befriended this singer on YT who sang with Lou on the D Drive CD (Phil Naro) and has a great voice.  We finally got to talk and I asked him all these questions about this and that and all he said to me was, "Bob, to be honest I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, I just sing a lot all the time. I never push the voice.  I never warm up, I just sing.

 

LOL!!!

[Danielformica]

" i never push the voice " very smart i have been telling you that for 5 years maybe you will listen to him