Feb. 05, 2007: My current teacher has me performing exercises such as lip trills, and vocalizing using a bright "Hee, Hee, Hee!", or "Nya, nya!". I’ve been with this teacher for about 8 months now, but I don’t seem to be singing any easier. What am I doing wrong?

Feb. 06, 2007 From Edward Crader: You are wasting your time with these ridiculous exercises. The voice is an intrinsic instrument. It remembers positions and the throat is not open while doing these tricks! Open vowel exercises and scales will help develope your voice!

Lip trills are for stiff lips. Unless you are going to sing a phrase of music that has a lip trill in it, why do them? As far as the other nonsense of "nya nya nya" and other exercises not related to developing your technique, they are wastes of your time and money. You are resonsible for determining if your training is effective - is it easier to sing after a lesson based on incorporating these gimmicks? I could write a book about these stupid things. This is also due to the fact that there are so many charlatans claiming they can teach voice.

Jan. 15, 2007: Why do some well known voice teachers doubt whether the passagio even exists? Why is there confusion? Thanks!

Jan. 16, 2007 From Edward Crader: It depends! Many natural singers sing through the registers from bottom, middle to the top voice without any break in the voice. This is rare though it happens. Many professional singers in opera,  say from the 50,s 60,s and 70,s that I have met have no real understanding of “How they did it”  they just sang! My hat goes off to them. However! When these retired singers begin to teach they cannot really explain how to do it??? So the teaching becomes a “hit or miss” ordeal. The voice should sound seamless from the bottom to the top. And there is a definite narrowing of the vocal chords in the upper middle voice for sopranos, mezzos and tenors - it is usually around c# to f;  baritones and basses approach the passagio lower depending on the weight of the voice and color. With proper scales the registers are smoothed out and become even.