Roger Love - Set Your Voice Free - Singing, SELF HELP

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Roger Love
with Donna Frazier
.
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
Boston New York London
Copyright © 1999 by Roger Love
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems, except
by a reviewer who may quote brief
passages in a review.
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Love, Roger.
Set your voice free / by Roger Love.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-316-44179-!
i. Singing Methods Self-Instruction.
2. Voice. I. Title.
MT893.L68 1999
783'.04 — dczi 99-10081
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Q-FG
Book design by All Points Covered
Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to
SYLVIA, MIYOKO, AND MADISON,
who love me enough to forgive
when I sometimes hit
a wrong note.
Foreword
THE VERY last thing I thought I'd ever need was a singing coach. After all, I've never
been able to carry a tune. But several years ago, a string of events led me to Roger
Love, and I will be forever grateful for the changes he's made in my voice.
Let me go back to the beginning. In December of 1996 I got a bad cold — several weeks
of postnasal drip topped off with Christmastime bronchitis and laryngitis. It seemed to
clear up, and then, one night, right after doing a great three-hour show, I got up to
leave the studio and found that I could barely croak out a "See you tomorrow" to my
engineer. I was stunned! What had happened to my voice? I'm a radio talk show host
and a virtual chatter machine except when I'm sleeping, so for me this was no casual
loss. I have to have my voice.
My husband took me to the Speech Pathology Clinic at UCLA, where they used a special
device to watch my vocal cords as they worked. As worried as I was, it was fascinating
to see my cords undulating right there on the television monitor. The cords were red and
swollen, but the diagnosis was a relief: it was simply laryngitis. They recommended two
weeks of silence. Two weeks of silence?! It was almost unthinkable.
I didn't go gently into that two weeks — this is my career we're talking about. And in
spite of what the doctors said, that this was just a virus, I kept worrying that I might be
dealing with a recurring or chronic problem. Let's just say that when you play the violin
professionally, even a slight wrist problem can loom as a huge potential threat.
I was relieved to have a voice when I was finally allowed to talk. One problem, though. I
couldn't figure out how to use it, or where it was in pitch and tone. Believe it or not, I
had forgotten how to talk normally. Afraid that I'd have another relapse, I spoke softly
and low, thinking that was the way to protect my throat. I was so careful that I became
self-conscious about every speaking moment. I didn't dare risk inflections or volume,
which robbed my presentation of all of its usual playfulness. A few program directors
who heard me during that time remarked to my company that I sounded depressed. I
probably was.
My husband thought I needed some rehabilitation to get back my confidence and vocal
strength, and our exercise trainer mentioned that his daughter was taking singing
lessons from a fellow who, she said, "is a genius at helping people with vocal problems."
That person was Roger Love. I grudgingly went, feeling as though this would probably
be about as useful as going to a witch doctor. I was wrong.
At my first lesson, Roger asked me why I was whispering. I told him I was afraid of
hurting my voice. He explained the interplay of vocal cords and air and told me that too
much air (as in whispering) damages, instead of protects, the cords. I almost fainted. He
went through a series of vocal exercises with me, an expression of great concentration
on his face, as though he could hear each individual vibration. Frankly, I think he can.
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Roger Love - Set Your Voice Free - Singing, SELF HELP

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