Comments on: Ten Pieces of Inspiration #23

By: Genny

Genny — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:25:03 +0000

I was not aware until now that Frank Sinatra actually wrote a book on vocal practice back in the 40s …I won’t post a link but google “Sinatra and Vocal Practice”. The introduction talks about the kinds of training and practice that he advocated for aspiring singers.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:24:31 +0000

@David: Maybe we’re arguing about definitions again, but how is 40 years of doing something for a living not “a stupendous amount of training and practice”? I agree that it’s nonsense to say that anyone can sing like Sinatra with enough training and practice (although…I don’t think Trent said that) or that anyone who’s good at anything has made “stupendous” sacrifices to get where they are. However, even someone with a natural gift for singing (or anything else) can benefit a lot from time spent honing that talent. You don’t have to find that inspiring, but I do.

By: SwingCheese

SwingCheese — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:10:18 +0000

Oops – I guess I agree with David, although I liked Paul’s comment about hipsters and Tyler Durden :)

By: SwingCheese

SwingCheese — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:08:42 +0000

I’m with Paul: Sinatra didn’t have much vocal training when he began to sing. He was one of those rare people with an incredible amount of talent (when it came to singing) just oozing out of him. It is very difficult to sing like he did, and it would be difficult to train yourself to sing like he did. Now, that having been said, Sinatra did spend time working on improving the technical aspects of his singing voice throughout his career, and so his singing did improve. But some people just have a gift in one area or another, and he was one of those people. He didn’t have to work that hard at his singing. And I agree with you, Trent: he has a beautiful voice, and I love listening to him.

By: David

David — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:13:44 +0000

Sinatra, if reliable sources are to be believed, had almost no “vocal training” at all. He was able to sing “Fly Me To The Moon” as well as he did in 1969 because he had been singing for a living since 1929, and because he could sing very well before that. The notion that if only you had a “stupendous amount of vocal training and practice” you too could sing like Sinatra is… well, it is nonsense, and not particularly inspiring. Well it was said by the bard:

The match of Hell and Heaven was a nice
Idea of Blake’s but won’t take place, alas.
You can choose either, but you can’t choose twice,
You can’t, at least in this world, change your class.
Neither is alpha-plus, though both will pass,
And don’t imagine you can write like Dante,
Dive like your nephew, crochet like your auntie.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 02:36:09 +0000

Part of the problem with nonconformity (#3) is that too many people think it means finding what’s conformist and doing the exact opposite. The “hipster” mentality. When you realize that listening to Tyler Durden is as unsatisfying as listening to Baden-Powell, all you’re left with is actually developing your own opinions. But that’s not so bad.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:09:42 +0000

I enjoyed the Sinatra clip. Singing with “natural-sounding” vocal inflection really is difficult, because when we sing, the natural tendency is to overemphasize the vowels and underemphasize the consonants, compared to when we talk. Not that that’s always a bad thing (or that natural-sounding inflection is always a good thing), but it’s a big part of why Sinatra sings the way he does and most other people don’t.

By: frugalscholar

frugalscholar — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:06:25 +0000

I started teaching Emerson a few years ago…truly a gift to the teacher. I’ve written about him a bit too.