VocalQuarters
… with renowned voice coach Diana Yampolsky
As a world-renowned vocal coach, voice repair specialist, and author, there are few things Diana Yampolsky doesn’t know about the human voice and how to get it to perform at its peak.
Having helped a myriad of stars achieve their vocal potential, including Our Lady Peace singer Raine Maida (US Top 10, Canada No.1), Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo (Canada Gold), singer-songwriter Anjulie (US Dance No.1), and recent Interscope signee Cindy Gomez, she is on hand to help you too whatever your ability! According to Ms. Yampolsky, while 25% of a singer’s performance is grounded in talent, 75% relies on coaching.
In her ever-inspiring and entertaining VocalQuarters column, the Toronto-based specialist addresses the ways in which you can improve both your voice and vocals and stresses the importance of vocal training.
Furthermore once she puts down her pen she’s available to answer any questions you might have.
by Diana Yampolsky
”Elton John, Leann Rimes, Julie Andrews … all neglected to take out vocal insurance, all lost their voices and were unable to continue performing at their previous capacities”
Insurance is a must! No insurance? No car driving. That is the law! No proper technique? Possibly no performance.
Julie Andrews, Run of Run DMC, Elton John, Leann Rimes - all failed to take out some form of vocal insurance and all lost their voices and were unable to continue performing at their previous capacities, having to cancel tours in the process.
Regular insurance agents recommend buying term insurance, as they say life insurance is not going to give a sufficient return to a beneficiary compared with the money spent on the policy. I say otherwise!
On a day-to-day basis, our lives revolve around all different kinds of insurance, whether it’s for our car, our home, our business ... So how is it nobody in the music industry ever thought to insure their prime commodity, namely the artists in whom they are investing thousands upon thousands of dollars?
What I mean by insurance is the intellectual property being instilled in the artists, allowing them to insure the proper use of their voices in a manner that will enable them to produce a high level of performance with the minimum possible effort.
This, in turn, will save and protect their vocal anatomies for life! The artist effectively becomes a beneficiary who goes on to enjoy the positive dividends - quality and strength of the voice, assured aimed vocal delivery - throughout their artistic life. The ‘policy holders’, namely the managers, producers, record companies, are also able to sleep comfortably knowing that their artists are completely covered.
With regards to protecting their ‘assets’, I truly believe that singers and their mentors can learn a lot from the example set by athletes.
For example, a sprinter such as Usain Bolt has actually taken out quite an extensive insurance policy on his instrument – in this case, his mind and body - by having a coach that has given him the proper mental and physical instructions to enable him to perform at the highest possible level at all times. He also employs massage therapists, doctors, trainers and nutritionists that insure his body will not break down or succumb to injury. In essence, his policy insures that he will run in scheduled races and always perform at his maximum capacity.
If I could reinforce one idea it is the importance of the people behind the scenes who make all the difference in the world, regardless of if you are talking about sports or music or anything else for that matter. As an extreme example, Celine Dion claims her travelling crew consists of over 97 people, who she acknowledges are an important part of her success.
With regards to my own experience as someone who insures proper vocal performance for my clients, I would like to share with you the story of one of my former students.
Having been hired to sing on a record without having an idea of how deliver a ‘safe and sound’ performance, this person came to me for help. She was able to sing, of course, but had no control over where her sound was going and admitted that she was worried she was ruining her voice, as her throat was becoming dry and scratchy.
To help her instrument I gave her some natural herbs and remedies. To help the player herself, I engaged her in my special speech and vocal exercises, and aided her in the reading of the song lyrics in a proper fashion – using her cheekbone muscles, instead of the vocal chords, in coordination with her abdominal muscles. This enabled her to completely release her vocal box from tension and assure a proper aimed vocal delivery without any pain or strain on her vocal anatomy.
In my opinion, this has ‘insured’ my client will be able perform at her optimum capacity and comply with established standards of professional singing. Just as importantly, the safety of her vocal anatomy was also ‘insured’.
For those in the industry who did not obtain a similar type of policy in time, they may find their clients are victims of vocal disability.
In such cases, I also have personally been able to offer an additional benefit to the original policy - Vocal Disability, namely non-surgical voice repair consisting of the use of the aforementioned natural remedies, speech therapy, special low-range vocal exercises that will result in the restoration of any lost vocal abilities.
Another additional benefit to the above is Voice Maintenance, i.e. vocal tune up, mental, physical, emotional & vocal fitness. This benefit will also "insure" that above everything else, artists will be able to survive that nasty upcoming tour, where the singer is required to sing at least four 45 minute sets each night in a usually smoky environment.
All of these benefits are cashable and guarantee that everybody involved will be laughing all the way to the bank as opposed to crying all the way from the bank because somebody forgot to purchase a vocal policy which would have secured their investment.
Besides writing a regular column for HitQuarters, Diana Yampolsky is available for a special Q&A session to answer any specialist questions you might have about vocal performance, technique, care etc. Please send any questions to Diana here
VocalQuarters Archives:
•In Need of Voice Repair? Obtain the ‘Tools’ to Fix It!
•The Technical Elements of Vocal Style
•Psychology of Performance - Pavlovian Conditioning
•Vocal Speaking - The Cutting Edge
•Introductory Interview with Diana Yampolsky
