I'm curious, what did you learn that was so mind-blowing seeing that he has several books out there and a column in NATS every month? I'm not implicating anyone, but I always find it dismaying that teachers are blown away by this stuff when the information has been out there for sometime.
Randy: I know what you mean. I got great value from attending his week-long workshop, but much of it was due to the interaction with so many wonderful singers and teachers and from having an entire week during which I could focus exclusively on my craft. I also enjoyed performing in the evening recitals and getting feedback from participants. I had, of course, read his book prior to going, and had already gone through lots of personal work related to technique, so much of the information he gave was already known to me (though I did appreciate knowing more of the science behind things that I had discovered on my own). I found myself helping to show others how to work on breathing after his lessons; they heard what he said, saw what he did, but still had no idea physically how to implement the information for a practical result. Science is wonderful, but many folks still need concepts and analogies to actually learn things. Still, here's the thing: many of us on this list have much of the knowledge he imparts (we're an inquisitive bunch, or we wouldn't be here!) but MANY singers and teachers DON"T! I had many very nice and even fine teachers in my life, but had to teach myself how to breathe when I was in my 40's! To these people, his workshop is undoubtedly a revelation, and a much-needed one, and seeing things demonstrated in real life rather than just reading it is of great benefit. Yep, this is a bit dismaying, but sadly is true nonetheless. There was also a bit of hero-worship going on, (hey, we all need heros in life), with people rushing up to have their books autographed and gushing when they spoke to him, but that was limited to a certain faction.
Sharon Szymanski
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