Day: April 30, 2025

In the previous article, entitled ‘How Not to Become a Singer’, I outlined, in a humourous and sarcastic way, many of the problems that hinder most aspiring singers. In this month’s column, I would like to seriously offer you a different approach which will hopefully help you learn how to reach your full potential as a singer. Whenever I conduct one of my educational seminars, I always start by saying to the audience that I did not come here to prove anybody wrong or to prove myself right; I came to offer something different and you can accept it or reject it. And on that note, I would like to talk about two things that may at first seem different or even rather conflicting in nature: Science and Spirituality. Your first response may be something along the lines of “I hated science in high school” or “I sing rock music not gospel.” Therefore, I would like to invite you to open your mind and entertain the possibility of seeing yourself and your voice in a completely different way.

I call my method of vocal instruction Vocal Science because I believe that I have developed a proven scientific method to producing sound and producing the best possible vocal performance. The first point to understand is that sound is a physical material body and it travels as such upon the laws of physics and geometry. The second point to understand is that you can compare your body to a very complex, high level computer, and your anatomy and physiology represent the hardware. As you probably know, software is essentially a set of instructions, and hardware is useless unless you have the proper software running on it. Your brain is like a computer’s CPU and everything you do (i.e. walking, talking, eating) is essentially the process of running software. The act of singing works the same way and your voice is the output resulting from your physical hardware and your software, i.e. training or lack thereof. Unfortunately, we cannot simply drive to Future Shop and buy the software that will make us a great singer (or painter, athlete or doctor). We acquire our software through learning. There are two ways you can learn: through your own experience or by having someone teach you. When I start instructing students, I not only have to give them the proper program, but I have to DEBUG or UNINSTALL the previous software or deal with a “VIRUS” on their system that they have somehow caught. Then through the method of visualization and special exercises we can access the cell in the speech center of your brain which is responsible for the voice (singing and speaking) and input the instructions for it to do exactly what we want it to.

In 24 years of teaching, I have discovered that there are four components that make up the mechanism which allows your voice to reach its fullest capacity: Physical Support of your body, structure, placement of the sound and, as a final outcome, the projection of the sound to its aimed destination. Complying with these components will guarantee that there is no pain or strain on your vocal anatomy.

There is one thing that sets human beings apart from complex machines running algorithms: our spirits. In many ways, singing is a lot like the martial arts. Most Martial Arts are not only techniques for fighting or self-defense, but are also philosophies of how to live your life. They consist of good technique and a spiritual component. I approach singing the same way. Good technique is the basis upon which a singer’s spirit is free to soar. It is your spirit (along with your completely individual physical body, i.e. no two people have the exact same DNA) that makes you different from anyone else and makes you unique. (Why try to sound like Celine Dion or Mick Jagger. The world already has one of each.) Only when you sing with proper technique are you able to project a voice that is purely yours and reflects your individual self. It is your spirit that separates a technically good performance from one that is truly authentic. Many of my past and present students have not only developed good technique but have improved in all aspects of their life or have changed their lifestyle completely. They are healthier, more positive, and more fulfilled. The process of learning proper balance for singing will reflect in more balance in your life. Conversely, a singer with incorrect technique cannot give a truly special performance because their spirit, i.e. voice, is inhibited by “bugs” or “viruses” in their software. By experience, many people are coming to me and dying to express their emotions and release their voice. I help them to discover and uncover it and let it soar. The congruency of the physical sound and the emotional rapport with the audience produces the desired total performance, i.e. combination of technical skill and artistic merit.

Vocal Science is at its most basic an alignment of the subconscious mind, conscious mind, and physical body, which are then put into total integration and synergy with each other. This is the formula for the ideal vocal performance. By using specially designed exercises with the appropriate repetition, you can program your mind so that when you sing you will perform many of the technical aspects of singing subconsciously. Seventy-five per cent of your performance will come out on automatic pilot and you will need only a small amount of conscious effort to put your performance in place. Your physical body is the condition of your hardware; your spirit is the individual intangible that will make your voice and performance something that is unique and reflective of your state of being. The release of your spirit into the performance of a song is dependent upon using the correct technique.

The act of singing is then a combination of good technique and your individual self. I have titled the book which I am in the process of writing: Vocal Science: Flight to the Universe, to reflect my belief that a scientific approach to vocal technique is what will allow your voice (i.e. spirit) to take flight and soar. I will expand upon these ideas and provide more detailed information in the following chapters.

How NOT to Become a Singer (And Work Harder at Doing It)

I thought that in this chapter I would vent a little of my frustration and have some fun while sharing some of the insights I’ve gained over the years regarding myths about learning to sing.)

Since everyone knows it takes years of arduous work to become even a moderately good singer (myth #1), for once I’ll go with the status quo and add what I know to it, so as to assist people in working harder at taking even longer at it. Most people have this under control, so this article is to keep it that way and is also for those few who may be breaking this long tradition (like myself) and doing it faster, easier and more naturally.

The first point is to be sure and drop your jaw while singing (a little is good but more is better) because it traps the sound in the throat preventing it from being lifted off the larynx to the upper palate, thru the four main vocal chambers or cavities and outward with anything close to your maximum power.

The second, and equally important point, is to sing from your diaphragm and push your stomach out. This prevents the upper diaphragm from expanding fully, therefore limiting your air supply and increasing the likelihood that you’ll run out of air depending on the length of the note or phrase you’re singing. An excellent way to train yourself for this is to lay on the floor and find yourself a nice thick book to place on your abdomen (the Toronto yellow pages works great) and “pump paper” up and down until you can stick that stomach out so that even a punch won’t phase you. Then you’ll be sure that the upper diaphragm will never open fully.

Next you should sing with your speaking voice i.e. sing each syllable of your lyrics using your vocal cords with your chin down and without any support or structure to it (“closing” each syllable) which characteristically produces a “pear” shaped opening inside the mouth and cuts the sound short making it less than truly sing-able. This will help avoid lifting the sound off of the vocal cords, bouncing the sound off the upper palate (“opening” the syllable) and projecting the properly structured sound outward which produces a round “apple” shaped sound inside the mouth and making the sound, unfortunately, more sing-able. (This is also, by the way, why people with accents tend to lose them while singing. More about this in future issues.)

While we’re on the subject of the shape of things, be sure and breath only through the nose because it tends to make the shape inside the mouth more elongated or banana shaped and the sound more nasal. Great eh!

Another way to make more work for yourself singing (and have less as a singer) is to make certain that as far as your head goes, you sing only with your jaw and mouth including your tongue and lips. This excludes the use of your facial muscles and reduces the likelihood that any resonance in those nasty head cavities I mentioned earlier will take place causing your sound to be amplified (God forbid) and unavoidably reflected off the upper palate and projected outward to the audience.

Tilting the head back is very important since it directs the trajectory of the sound away from the audience. This is particularly useful in bands because it not only means that you will have to put more energy into getting the sound out to the audience but it also means that you will be directing some of the sound back behind you to set a proper example for any of your band members that might be developing a “natural” singing voice.

Bending your knees is a great technique for limiting your power as a singer. Since sound is a physical thing, bending your knees changes the ratios relating to your height and the arc of the trajectory for the sound will cover much less distance , which is what you want right?

Another very relevant issue that I would like to cover in detail in the future and that I’ll just touch on here is diet. One of the single most important causes of throat problems with singing is mucous. Sound can’t lift off of thin air, it lifts off the vocal chords. Dancers don’t dance on carpet, they dance on hardwood floors. This is so they can get a proper lift. In the same way, you can prevent a really sharp “lift” with each and every note you’re singing if you have lots of mucous and phlegm on your cords and in your system. The best foods to eat to get this way are animal products especially beef, pork, milk, eggs and cheese, although all dairy products will do a really great job of getting you there. Foods to avoid would be mucous burning foods and herbs (cayenne tops the list) or fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes and anything else whole and unprocessed that doesn’t have a face.

One of the best ways to practice not becoming a singer that I personally know of is to sing scales. If you look even superficially at the songs you’re singing, you’ll see that they are composed of a certain finite number of specific combinations of sounds, durations and pitch. Singing scales has nothing whatsoever to do with developing yourself to be able to vocally anticipate these in any song. So sing lots of scales and don’t worry, no one either in Russia (my teachers were the best available) or here in the west has ever made any connection between scales and training the voice to do what’s needed to sing properly to me ever. So there’s no danger of you becoming accomplished fast with this approach. (Personally, I developed my own set of exercises based on this subset of sounds, durations and pitch that train the voice to anticipate any part of any song of any style easily but you don’t want to hear about it.)

Finally, be sure and spend time working each of these exercises individually and never collectively because even the thought of integrating or harmonizing the various aspects of your singing might slow you down in your efforts to slow down your singing progress, and that would never do.

So, until next time, work long and hard, and whatever you do, if you want to avoid rapid easy vocal development at any level, stay as far away as you can from me and the Royans School. Or turn the page and learn “how to become a singer”.

Vocal Producer in the Recording Studio – What’s That?
Does it have a Meaning and Significance Conveyed in the English Language, or Should I Perhaps Communicate in ‘Avatarian’?

Everybody knows now that after the premier of the movie ‘Avatar’, people started to learn what’s called now ‘Avatarian’ language.

If you ask me, they’ve spoken Avatarian for quite a while now and even much before the movie was premiered. I certainly have difficulties to understand some of my potential clients and, seems to be, our languages are not corresponding with each other, since I’m still speaking pure English, in a better understanding of that word.

Similarly, when I’m still speaking English, and trying to plead to the music industry professionals, music producers included, they think that I speak Avatarian, whatever that’s supposed to mean. They’re simply unable to understand why they would need a vocal specialist/vocal expert/vocal producer for God’s sake, in the studio with them. Meanwhile, some of those producers who never sang a note themselves ever before, are trying to give instructions to the vocalists how to produce the certain sounds to their satisfaction.

Obviously, if we’re talking about Celine Dion or Peabo Bryson, then granted, they just needed the direction from their producers, as they were extremely vocally sound and did not require extra vocal care. But that’s the exception of the rule, especially if we’re talking about up and coming artists. Those music producers, at best, know what they want to hear, but in the majority of cases, they do not know how to pull out the best performance from the vocalist of almost any calibre.

That’s where I come in and try to explain that I can do exactly that, and while obeying the instructions given to me and the artist by the producer, nevertheless, produce exactly what was asked of both of us. It sounds very simple, but not easy at all. Not easy, because the majority of those producers are getting into competitions with me playing the role of the vocal producer – instead of being thankful for a very much so needed skill in the recording studio, they’re simply being ignorant.

All of this also reminds me of a television show Rockstar Supernova in 2006. Needless to say that my most talented student Lukas Rossi has won this competition with the flying colours and put to shame the bass player Jason Newsted of Metallica, who in some similar to Avatarian language then, was trying to explain to Lukas how to release his ‘gift’ while dropping his jaw down to his knees to look and sound like a ‘pregnant ballerina’. Lukas, to his credit, was very much so resistant to those comments, as he knew better than that. His argument back to all of them involved in the production was, ‘I’ve been singing for over fifteen years now and never lost my voice’. The hired vocal coach and Jason Newsted were insisting that Lukas would ‘open his throat’ to produce what they were looking for. All of those comments were completely against and irrelevant to all of what Lukas knew by that point and what made him a successful artist in the first place.

I could compare all of this to the precedent of me coming up to Tommy Lee, the greatest drummer of all times, and telling him to lift his drum stick in a certain way while myself never having played the drums in my entire existence. How valid would my comments be and what expertise would I base my comments on?

Meanwhile, back to Rockstar Supernova television show, quite often, before the beginning of the show, there were scrolls showing up with the saying, ‘Lukas knows some kind of unknown vocal technique. Let’s find out what it is’. They found out alright, and to their credit still chose the best of the best, Lukas Rossi.

However, on a positive note, there are engineers and producers that are still in existence who embrace exactly that – the coaching, consulting, expertise and production in the studio during the vocal session.

I’ve been working in Canada in numerous studios for over 30 years now. From one very prominent engineer/producer, I’ve learned that in the old style console, there is a magic button – fader – which could do wonders, especially if it’s done manually, hands on console. That’s what the old school producers and engineers call ‘Classic Mix’ or ‘Vocal Ride’. Almost three decades ago, I was offered to ‘play’ with that button and now I think I mastered it as good as nowadays’ population mastered the Avatarian language (lol).

Just recently I sent my production to one of the prominent producers in UK, who, seems to be, has a much more open mind and more than adequate expertise. The version with no rides was vastly different from the version with rides and he acknowledged that. Yes, the fader button could be mistaken for the volume button, but not only volume and dynamics could be achieved while subtly and with care and knowledge moving that button along the vocal lines.

Working with that magic button creates dynamics, inflections, emphasis, separation of the syllables and other benefits, which come out and become apparent once I am done with it. Since I do it manually (hands on the console) you can literally hear and sense my feel on top of the artist’s performance.

The UK producer added after listening to the demo sent to him of my up and coming artist who he will be working with down the road. ‘Riding the vocal is a great technique as it usually means you can get away with less compression and, like you say, bring out particular details of the performance.’

That said it all, pretty much, and confirmed my belief, one more time again, of my usefulness in the studio above and beyond producing the sound and extracting the best possible and authentic vocal performance out of the artist.

What does the Vocal Science™ method entail?

And what does it mean: “Vocal Innovation and Modernization”, and why, in this case, it takes place…? 

The answer is:

• First of all, Vocal Science™ Method and its revolutionary voice/vocal technique allows the voice to work at the fullest capacity possible with positively no pain or strain on the vocal anatomy.
• Second of all, It works wonders for the healthy voice, but if the vocal cords or the vocal box in general are already damaged (or pre-damaged), this technique will help to restructure the voice into a different set of muscles (facial/sinus cavities), which will play the role of the natural amplifier or resonator, while simultaneously being put to work in full conjunction and coordination with the abdominal muscles and where the latter will provide the support for the sound to be lifted off of the vocal cords and off of the vocal box, thus in turn, the use of the throat, larynx and the vocal cords will be minimized and practically eliminated.
• In the case of the Non-Surgical Voice Repair, the natural herbs and remedies will be administered to greatly aid the healing of the vocal anatomy, which presumed that the latter had been released from the harmful pressure of the sound via the application, nevertheless, of revolutionary voice/vocal instruction.

Now My Reader, this is your riddle….  How does Vocal Science™ Method compares to conventional vocal coaching?

The answer is – IT DOESN’T!!!

Conventional vocal coaching suggests to do the exact opposite of the above – i.e., the useless exercises and scales are offered, which are drowning the voice lower into the anatomy and, thus, disturbing the anatomy and inevitably causing its damage.

Those exercises are not applicable to any singing (and of course to proper speaking) and therefore, nobody was ever able to figure out how to apply those, no doubt, “doomed” exercises which are not leading, by any means, to any desirable results. 

Question – Does the Vocal Science™ method suggest to the artist to change their “natural”, life long adapted habits?  

Answer: NO, IT DOES NOT. However, the experience shows that while going through the process, the artist stops not only the bad vocal habits, but also naturally conquers bad habits like smoking, drinking and using drugs, whereas, no doubt, they affected the flora of the throat. In fact, the Vocal Science™ technique is such that the vocal anatomy is engaged in the absolute minimum capacity.  

So, even in an undesirable scenario, where the artist employs bad habits such as smoking, drinking, using drugs or what have you, the Vocal Science™ Method and technique will be applicable and highly usable even in the cases described above.   

With that said, it is not mandatory for the artist to change their familiar lifestyle and feel miserable while adapting Vocal Science™ Method and its very unconventional vocal technique.  

THE VOCAL SCIENCE TECHNIQUE POSITIVELY WORKS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

Since 1976 (graduating from St. Petersburg Music Teachers Collage) Vocal Science™ Method was born and took its first steps. 

Today, in Century 21, via decades of extensive experience and expertise the Vocal ScienceTM Method leaped to the next level of, so to speak, “Forensic Science.” 

During that tremendous jump, it got fully reimagined and modernized and thus got consistent in its nature with Century 21 and possibly… Century 22!