Vocal Training Quotes

I wish I had covered all my tracks completely cause I'm so afraid Is that the light at the far end of the tunnel or just the train?

If you would understand this secret, you must first understand the distinction between training an animal and educating one. Trained animals are relatively easy to turn out. All that is required is a book of instructions, a certain amount of bluff and bluster, something to use for threatening and punishing purposes, and of course the animal. Educating an animal, on the other hand, demands keen intelligence, integrity, imagination, and the gentle touch, mentally, vocally, and physically.

The elements of voice and style are braided together like twine, consisting of these attempts to copy other artists, or an instrument, or even the sound of a bird or passing train. Added to these characteristics are emotions and thoughts that register as various vocal quirks, like hiccups, sighs, growls, warbles—a practically limitless assortment of choices. Most of these choices are made at the speed of sound on a subconscious level, or one would be completely overwhelmed by the task.

It takes courage and strength to be sensitive to things and even more strength and courage to own up to it or be vocal about it. Robots, the only things with a perfect lack of emotional capacity, are easily controlled, and I suddenly realized that’s why the military often trains people to suppress their emotions. Unfortunately for them, humans aren't machines. We feel, we love, we cry, we despair, and we rejoice. Anyone who’s ever tried to convince me not to feel is someone I shouldn’t have trusted. The only reason you should shut off your emotions and emulate a robot is if you're doing horrible things. How fatal my decisions have been. How many people would be loving, rejoicing, and feeling right now rather than crying indefinitely in the depths of the afterlife? If only I’d figured this out sooner.

Kingsley could ‘do’ the sound of a brass band approaching on a foggy day. He could become the Metropolitan line train entering Edgware Road station. He could be four wrecked tramps coughing in a bus shelter (this was very demanding and once led to heart palpitations). To create the hiss and crackle of a wartime radio broadcast delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt was for him scant problem (a tape of it, indeed, was played at his memorial meeting, where I was hugely honored to be among the speakers). The pièce de résistance, an attempt by British soldiers to start up a frozen two-ton truck on a windy morning ‘somewhere in Germany,’ was for special occasions only. One held one's breath as Kingsley emitted the first screech of the busted starting-key. His only slightly lesser vocal achievement—of a motor-bike yelling in mechanical agony—once caused a man who had just parked his own machine in the street to turn back anxiously and take a look. The old boy's imitation of an angry dog barking the words 'fuck off' was note-perfect.

Despite the occasional backlash, I’ll continue to speak on this topic until people stop assuming that this debate is about whether or not to allow women into combat. Women are already fighting in combat with or without anyone’s permission, and they’re doing so valiantly. What they aren’t doing is being trained alongside their comrades-in-arms, given credit for doing the same jobs as their counterparts, given promotions to jobs overseeing combat operations, or being treated like combat veterans by people back home (even some in the Veterans Administration). Not every man has the skill set or warrior spirit for combat. Not every woman does, either. But everyone that does have that skill set should be afforded the opportunity to compete for jobs that enable them to serve in the way their heart calls them. For some people, that calling is in music or art. Some are natural teachers. There are those who will save lives with science. I was called to be a warrior and to fly and fight for my country. I was afforded the opportunity to answer that call, and because of that, I have lived a full and beautiful life. People will always be afraid of change. Just like when we integrated racially or opened up combat cockpits to women, there will always be those who are vocal in their opposition and their fear. History will do what it always does, however. It will make their ignorant statements, in retrospect, seem shortsighted and discriminatory, and the women who will serve their country bravely in the jobs that are now opening up will prove them wrong. Just like we always have.

Scientology, a fundamentally narcissistic philosophy that demonizes doubt and insecurity as products of the "reactive mind," is a belief system tailor-made for actors. The Training Routines that are part of early Scientology indoctrination have been compared to acting exercises: students are taught to "duplicate," or mirror, a partner's actions; project their "intention," or thoughts, onto inanimate objects; experiment with vocal tones, the most dominant being a commanding bark known as "tone 40"; and deepen their ability to "be in their bodies" without reacting to outside stimuli. In auditing, Scientologists re-create scenes from past lives. Some processes focus directly on members "mocking up," or visualizing themselves, in different scenarios.

Deming preferred Peter’s old headphones because they were a bigger buffer to the world. The blank streets and large trees became comical when paired with a soundtrack, made him an action hero instead of an abandoned boy, and Planet Ridgeborough blew up. Platinum flowers morphed into oscillating lines and dancing triangles, electric blue snare drums punctuated a chocolate bass line topped with sticky orange guitar, turquoise vocals whipped into a thick, buttery frosting. He played and replayed, played and replayed. As he walked down Oak Street he shut his eyes and pretended he was in the city with his mother.She looked like him, he looked like her, they looked like the other people they saw on streets and trains. In the city, he had been just another kid. He had never known how exhausting it was to be conspicuous.

glasses as bait, place the child where he can easily reach them. Look him squarely in the eye. When he reaches out to grab them, don’t pull back; don’t defend yourself. Calmly say, “No.” If anything, lower your voice; don’t raise it. Don’t sound more serious than usual. Remember, you are establishing a vocal pattern to be used the rest of his youth. If he reaches out to touch your glasses, again say, “No,” and thump or swat his hand with a light object so as to cause him a little pain, but not necessarily enough to cry. He will pull his hand back and try to comprehend the association of grabbing the glasses with the pain. Inevitably, he will return to the bait to test his new theory. Sure enough, reaching for the glasses again causes pain, and the pain is accompanied with a quiet, little “No.” It may take one or two more tries for him to give up his career as a glasses snatcher, but he will. Through this process, the child will associate the pain with the word “No.” There quickly comes a time when your word alone is sufficient to gain obedience.

you'll wonder again, later, why so many psychologists remain so vocal about having more and better training than anyone else in the field when every psychologist you've ever met but one will also have lacked these identification skills entirely when it seems nearly every psychologist you meet has no real ability to detect deception. You will wonder, later, why the assessment training appears to have been reserved for the CIA and the FBI is it because we as a society don't want to imagine that any other professionals will need the skills? And what about attorneys? What about training programs for guardian ad litems or anyone involved in approving care for all the already traumatized and marginalized children? You'll have met enough of those children after they grow up to know that when a small girl experiences repeated rapes in a series of households throughout her childhood, then that little girl is pretty likely to have some sort of "dysfunction" when she grows up. And you won't have any tolerance for the people who point their fingers at her and demand that she be as capable as they are it is, after all, a free country. We all get the same opportunities. You'll want to scream at all those equality people that you can't ignore the rights of this nation's children you can't ignore them and then get pissed when any raped and beaten little girls and boys grow up to be traumatized and perhaps hurtful or addicted adults. No more pointing fingers only a few random traumatized people stand up later as some miraculous example of perfectly acceptable societal success and if every judgmental person imagines that I would be like that I would be the one to break through the barriers then all those judgmental people need to go back in time and prove it, prove to everyone that life is a choice and we all get equal chances. You'll want anyone who talks about equal chances to go back and be born addicted to drugs in complete poverty and then to be dropped into a foster system that's designed for good but exploited by people who lack a conscience by people who rape and molest and whip and beat tiny little six year olds and then you will want all those people to come out of all that still talking about equal chances and their personal tremendous success. Thank you, dear God, for writing my name on the palm of your hand. You will be angry and yet you still won't understand the concept of evil. You'll learn enough to know that it's not politically correct to call anyone evil, especially when many terrible acts might actually stem from a physiological deficit I would never use the word evil, it's not professional but you will certainly come to understand that many of the very worst crimes are committed by people who lack the capacity to feel remorse for what they've done on any level. But when you gain that understanding, you still will not have learned that these individuals are more likable than most people that they aren't cool and distant that they aren't just a select few creepy murderers or high-profile con artists you won't know how to look for a lack of conscience in noncriminal and quite normal looking populations no clinical professors will have warned you about people who exude charm and talk excessively about protecting the family or protecting the community or protecting our way of life and you won't know that these types would ever stick around to raise kids you will have falsely believed that if they can't form real attachments, they won't bother with raising children and besides most of them will end up in prison you will not know that your assumptions are completely erroneous you won't understand that many who lack a conscience keep their kids close and tight for their own purposes.

*What’s happening?* This young man was crazy, unhinged, having shot fire at men in the cellblock... “What’s going on?” Robert growled, vocalizing Marcel’s own sentiment. The flames in the air dissipated, doused by raindrops. The boy waved them forward in a beckoning gesture. Robert grasped Marcel’s arm and pulled him along, forcing him to step out of the pool. A memory surfaced in Marcel’s mind. His ‘training’ session, where he’d been forced to use ice magic to torture a prisoner as Bertrand and the Law Officers watched, judging if he could kill or not. Seeing the boy’s look of fear, Marcel made a horrific guess. *Was this one of his training sessions?* Marcel’s blood ran cold. He and Robert were being brought up for the sake of demonstration.

Nina doesn’t sound like she has any vocal training, but there’s something strangely, hauntingly beautiful about the way she sings to Cecelia.

Up until now, I’ve been hesitant to use the Winchesters’ television. Not the huge home theater, obviously, but their “normal” TV in the living room. It doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal, considering Nina and Andrew go to bed early. They have a very specific routine every night. Nina goes upstairs to put Cecelia to bed at precisely 8:30. I can hear her reading a bedtime story, then she sings to her. Every night she sings the same song: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. Nina doesn’t sound like she has any vocal training, but there’s something strangely, hauntingly beautiful about the way she sings to Cecelia

According to a study conducted by the Oxford African American Studies Center, hip hop is part of and speaks to a long line of black American and African traditions. Many observers also make a connection between rap and West African griot tradition, the art of wandering storytellers known for their knowledge of local settings and their superior vocal skills.

Brandon explained that initially his team was surprised to learn that when a sports or training coach is vocal, verbally encouraging a trainee—“do one more; come on, you can do it; keep up the energy”—performance is significantly lower than the results achieved with a quiet but attentive coach.6

Later on in the day, Shrader was just getting her bag ready to go home when Fallon pulled her aside. “Come with me.” He said. “Where?” “Oh, just a place. It’s really nice and I think you’ll like it.” Shrader nodded and Fallon disappeared as quickly as he had come. They met at the school’s front doors and Fallon began leading the way to wherever he was taking Shrader. She was curious, very curious to where he was taking her, but Shrader dared not to ask. Fallon kept a steady pace, and he seemed confident so Shrader seemed to somehow trust him. They passed the park, and every possible idea that Shrader could think of. She knew Fallon’s plan. He was going to take her somewhere where she’s never been before. “Here we are.” He says as they stand in front of each other. Shrader looks around. “There’s nothing here but the grass and some railroad tracks.” “Exactly.” Fallon says. “These railroad tracks have the power to hold the explanation that a human being cannot say. For example, in the 50s, African men used to lay on the railroad tracks and protest against segregation.” “What happened if a train came?” Shrader asked. “Then they would die. They wouldn’t move, because they wanted to prove a point. If they would’ve moved before the train reached them, then the protest wouldn’t have made any sense. People sacrifice to do the things they believe in.” “So what are you implying about us?” Shrader asks. “You explained to me a long time ago how badly you wanted to be heard. You believe that words should stand tall, and not just vocally. So, what I am implying is we lay on these railroad tracks to be heard. Let people know that we are the voice for the forgotten voiceless.” “And if a train comes?” Shrader asked carefully. “Then we die.” Fallon said as he laid against the tracks.

Being a good owner involves accepting that dogs come with some limitations and respecting those limitations, so that we don’t place dogs in situations where they are likely to fail. Avoiding Pitfalls and Staying on Track Remember to look at the entire dog, not just one body part or a single vocalization, and to also look at the situation to get an accurate read of the dog’s emotional state. Dogs understand some words, but they can’t understand a full conversation. Gestures and body language are clearer ways to communicate with dogs. Clear communication takes attention and effort, but is well worth it! Not every dog can succeed in every situation. Watch your dog for signs of anxiety or aggression and change the circumstances so that the dog doesn’t get overwhelmed. If something seems like it’s about to happen, step in. Either remove the dog from the situation or change what’s happening. What Did We Say? Sometimes our dogs must feel the way you would if you were dropped into a place where you don’t speak the language and no one speaks English. Dogs primarily use nonverbal communication. Learn to read dog body language. Listen with your eyes as well as your ears. Using visual cues and training techniques based on positive reinforcement will help you be more successful in communicating with your dog. Not every dog can do every task or succeed in every situation. Pay attention to your dog and make smart choices.

The Rooster taught me to wake up early and be a leader. The Butterfly encouraged me to allow a period of struggles to develop strong and look beautiful. The Squirrel showed me to be alert and fast all the time. The Dog influenced me to give up my life for my best friend. The Cat told me to exercise every day. Otherwise, I will be lazy and crazy. The Fox illustrated me to be subtle and keep my place organized and neat. The Snake demonstrated to me to hold my peace even if I am capable of attack, harm, or kill. The Monkey stimulated me to be vocal and communicate. The Tiger cultivated me to be active and fast. The Lion cultured me not to be lazy especially if I have strength and power that could be used. The Eagle was my sample for patience, beauty, courage, bravery, honor, pride, grace, and determination. The Rat skilled me to find my way out no matter what or how long it takes. The Chameleon revealed to me the ability to change my color for beauty and protection. The Fish display to live in peace even if I have to live a short life. The Delphin enhanced me to be the source of kindness, peace, harmony, and protection. The Shark enthused me to live as active and restful as I can be. The Octopus exhibited me to be silent and intelligent. The Elephant experienced me with the value of cooperation and family. To care for others and respect elders. The Pig indicated to me to act smart, clean, and shameless. The Panda appears to me as life is full of white and black times but my thick fur will enable me to survive. The Kangaroo enthused me to live with pride even if I am unable to walk backward. The Penguin influenced me to never underestimate a person. The Deer reveals the ability to sense the presence of hunters before they sense you. The Turtle brightened me to realize that I will get there no matter how long it takes me while having a shell of protection above me. The Rabbit reassured me to allow myself to be playful and silly. The Bat proved to me that I can fly even in darkness. The Alligator/crocodile alerted me that threat exists. The Ant moved me to be organized, active, and social with others. The Bee educated me to be the source of honey and cure for others. The Horse my best intelligent friend with who I bond. Trained me to recover fast from tough conditions. The Whale prompted me to take care of my young ones and show them life abilities. The Crab/Lobster enlightened me not to follow them when they make resolutions depending on previous undesirable events.

It is not enough that you see things from that person’s perspective or understand what they are feeling. You also have to visibly confirm to the speaker that you are listening. There are multiple ways to do this. The easiest one is to vocalize your reactions with phrases like “Wow, that’s wonderful!” or “I’m sad to hear about that,” or “That sucks. I can see why you’re frustrated!” But what if the person’s message or feelings are unclear or you don’t know how to react out of fear of being misunderstood as indifferent? You can easily confirm that you are paying attention by nodding or using filler words like “mm-hmm” or “uh-huh.” The goal here is to assure the speaker that they have your undivided attention and that you are following their narrative. This is important in situations where the person is not only telling a story but giving you instructions for performing certain things.

This sensorimotor interplay, movement and contact, is the basis for learning any new skill. This is what is going on, for instance, when infants are indulging in the endless exercise of vocal movements—spitting, smacking, blowing, cooing—what we call “babbling.” In the course of these vocal tract gestures, [the infant] produces sound patterns which resemble the vowels and consonants of his parents’ language as well as those of many foreign languages. Most importantly however, he is being flooded with sensory feedback. His every unintentional variation of vocal pitch, quality, or loudness, every movement of the tongue or lips in the midst of a vocal sound, produces simultaneous changes in sound and in tactile-proprioceptive sensation. Perhaps one reason why infants can master some simple speech movements, complex as they are, by nine or ten months is simply this fact of inevitable, simultaneous auditory and tactile-proprioceptive feedback from the vocal tract.5 Children who have poor sensation in their mouths and lips do not learn to talk normally, no matter how much training they are given. “To learn normal motor patterns for speech a child must not only hear the speech of others, but also he must hear and feel his own speech movements.”6

During long or difficult sessions, Alex may request students to "go away" or he occasionally states "I'm gonna go away," climbs off his training chair, and tries to leave. After such an interaction, attempts to continue training are usually fruitless.

Everybody loses. We all got bruises.

If we train our mind to become peaceful and loving, then whatever we say and do will be peaceful and loving, and will inspire peace and joy in those around us. Say we are in a garden, appreciating its peace and beauty; our mind will naturally become relaxed and joyful. The more peaceful our mind becomes, the more it will be filled with joy. Then our vocal and physical expressions will also spontaneously become caring and soothing for others. All our actions will become sources of true service for everyone we engage with.

Mastering the Art of Breathing: The Secret Behind Powerful Performance Breathing is something we do every moment of our lives, yet most of us never think about how we breathe—or how we should breathe. For singers, actors, athletes, and even public speakers, breathing technique is one of the most essential skills to master. It’s not just about taking air in and out; it’s about using your breath to support your voice, improve stamina, control emotions, and enhance overall performance. Why Breathing Technique Matters Proper breathing allows you to control your voice better, project sound without strain, and maintain energy throughout long performances. It also helps reduce anxiety and tension, especially during high-pressure situations. In singing, breathing affects everything—from tone quality to pitch control. A well-supported breath can make your voice sound fuller, more stable, and more expressive. Without good breath control, even the most talented singers can fall short in performance. The Foundation: Diaphragmatic Breathing Also known as belly breathing or deep breathing, diaphragmatic breathing is the foundation of all professional vocal techniques. Instead of shallow breaths that only expand the chest, this method engages the diaphragm—an essential muscle located just below the lungs. Here’s how to practice it: Lie down or sit up straight with your shoulders relaxed. Place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach. Inhale slowly through your nose. Focus on expanding your belly, not your chest. Exhale gently through your mouth, keeping your chest still. Repeat for several minutes a day to train your body to breathe efficiently. When done correctly, the breath feels deeper and more satisfying, and you’ll notice increased breath capacity over time. Breath Control and Support Once you’ve mastered basic diaphragmatic breathing, it’s time to work on breath control—the ability to manage your air supply while speaking or singing. This doesn’t mean holding your breath; it means learning how to release air gradually and steadily. Try this simple exercise: Take a deep breath using the diaphragm. Blow out a steady stream of air while making a soft “sss” sound. Aim to keep the sound consistent and even, without sudden drops. This helps train your muscles to regulate airflow, which is crucial for long phrases or powerful notes in singing. Tips to Improve Your Breathing Technique Practice daily. Like any muscle, your diaphragm improves with regular use. Warm up before performances. Gentle breathing exercises prepare your body and calm your nerves. Stay hydrated. Dry vocal cords can affect breath efficiency and vocal tone. Watch your posture. An upright, relaxed posture allows your lungs to expand fully. Avoid shallow breaths. Focus on breathing into your lower lungs, not your chest. Conclusion Breathing may be natural, but breathing well is a skill—one that can transform your voice, boost your confidence, and elevate your performance. Whether you're an aspiring singer, a stage performer, or someone who wants to speak more clearly and confidently, investing time in mastering your breath is one of the most powerful things you can do.