Vocals

Well, my wife and daughter came to our production of Urinetown, and afterwards complimented my singing, which was a first. I am very pleased about it, since it's something I worked on very hard.

When I was in elementary school, before my voice changed, I could sing. I was in the church choir, sang Mass, sang the main villain in The Pied Piper, etc. But it seemed that after my voice changed I couldn't sing anymore. I never understood this. Still don't. It wasn't tone deafness. I could hear when anyone else was out of tune, trust me. But I had trouble carrying a tune myself.

A couple of years ago, when I was cast in a local production of Sondheim's Into The Woods, I did make an effort to improve my singing, even though I was only a choral singer. I... practiced a lot, to try to keep from dragging the chorus down. And when I was cast in Urinetown, with a brief bit of solo singing in one song, I... practiced more. I guess it worked.

I even found an iPhone app for voice training, Erol Singer's Studio, which, at its beginner level, plays scales and lets you sing into the microphone and shows you whether you are actually hitting the notes you are supposed to hit. I found this very helpful, I must say. It inspired some confidence in me, at least.

And just recently I figured out I wasn't relaxing my throat enough when singing bass. What was kind of weird was that I was relaxing it more when singing falsetto. Don't ask me why.

I you practice to get better, you may do so,
even if you'll never be Caruso.