Why is Speech Level Singing so Controversial?
Inside this video I’ll highlight four controversial parts of Speech Level Singing.
Hi I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
In Episode 93 I explained why I think Speech Level Singing (SLS) is Revolutionary.
In this video let’s talk controversy.
Everything in my videos are my opinions and observations.
I’m not a spokesperson for Seth Riggs nor Speech Level Singing.
In my opinion SLS is controversial because Seth Riggs is controversial.
First, Seth Riggs is uncompromising in his approach to teaching.
This immediately offends “The Man”, Because the world is run by “The Man!
Who?
“The Man”!
Oh you don’t know The “Man the establishment.
And often offends many others.
Seth tells of a time when he moved from New York to LA and started teaching at a Jr. College.
So that’s why I don’t get along with universities.
Although you’ve taught at them.
I’ve taught there and been fired from the best.
Well I know UCLA...oh no I’m working there.
Where else?
Well I got kicked out of Cal Arts.
Because at the end of the first semester 19 kids wanted to switch to me.
Because I was producing what they wanted.
You get results.
Well that’s the point.
But why didn’t they fire the bad teachers and keep me?
I didn’t care I was working for Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon at the time.
What did I care?
I was a New York pro.
You know I spent three years solid on Broadway and six years in New York City Opera.
I was a member of the originally company at Lincoln Center.
I have a masters in Opera Theater.
I have an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins university.
In other words I have all that make me acceptable academically.
But I knew I needed more.
I knew I needed more and that’s when I found out what to do.
I’ve trained 35 teachers in southern California and northern California and all over the country
who teach this.
Right.
And since I’ve got 92 grammy’s in my studio alone, there’s got to be something going
on.
At the semester, over a dozen students quit their teachers and transferred to Seth Riggs.
The reason was his students, within one semester, could all bridge and the other students could
not!
Instead of seeking to learn from Seth, the department fired him.
Second, Seth doesn’t teach singers to abuse their voices, even if that’s the sound that’s
selling right now.
I’m aware of a time he was fired by a producer because his uncompromising vocal standards
didn’t fit the sound the producer wanted.
However, Seth is the teacher professional singers go to for vocal rehabilitation once
they damage their voices.
Third, Seth resists science and techniques that offer no vocal benefit to the singer.
Everything Seth does is to benefit the singer’s voice and career.
What transformative exercise has science given the singer to help them succeed singing through
the vocal bridges or balancing the voice?
The Speech Level Singing technique was not developed through science, although it holds
up very well under scientific scrutiny.
It was developed to give results to the singer.
Seth is criticised for continuing to teach his view of how vocal cords adjust as the
pitch ascends through the bridges of the voice.
As he said in his book, Singing for the Stars, “We simply refer to all vocal cord adjustments
in terms of the physical sensations they produce in the singer.”
His approach works for singers.
That’s all he cares about.
But many distance themselves and are embarrassed to identify themselves with Seth and SLS because
he won’t align himself with the facts of science.
On of my favorite lines in the play, Man of LaMancha is: “Facts are the enemy of Truth!”
The truth for Seth and SLS is the results for the singer.
Personally I love the physiology and science of singing and it’s important to me.
But in terms of causing a singer to get results with their voices, it’s faster to give an
SLS exercise than an explanation of the science behind it.
Fourth, Seth is critical of university or other singing programs that can’t teach
the students to bridge.
He obtained bachelors and masters degrees at prestigious schools of music without any
professors able to teach him how to sing through the bridges into head voice.
I had similar experiences with university degreed teachers who had no idea how to teach
me to bridge.
I’m talking about Phd's in music!
Opera singers who couldn’t teach me.
I share Seth’s impatience with other techniques that don’t teach the student how to bridge
without reaching, or that default to falsetto to sing above the first bridge.
To me that’s a waste of the student’s time and money and it’s doing them a disservice.
Seth will not endorse other teachers or methods that won’t give the singer results with
a healthy voice and a long career.
Criticizing teachers and programs may be the truth, but it can cause bitter feelings and
controversy toward Speech Level Singing.
I hope you don’t mind me bringing this up or saying this but I do sometimes pick up
that there are other vocal teachers that sometimes resist your style of teaching or your ideas.
And you are regarded as the top vocal teacher at the same time other ones seem maybe threatened
or jealous, I don’t know what it is.
No no let me tell you this.
There are as many different methods as there are voice teachers.
And there is no voice teacher that has an argument with me that knows how to connect
up.
Just to say it is one thing, but you’ve got to do it.
I have no argument with any voice teacher that is connecting voices.
But those that are yelling and abusing chest and their kids they’re having breaks.
And all the little children...you know that’s terrible!
So those are the only people I’ll argue with.
Speech Level Singing is Not Controversial with My Voice
The results of SLS on my voice and the voices of my students has not been controversial.
SLS has enabled me to sing better than I thought possible.
My students are experiencing similar success.
I credit Seth, his teachers, and the Speech Level Singing technique.
The exercises in PowerToSing.com are a few of the exact exercises that helped me to learn
to bridge.
They’re most effective when you know your vocal type.
My particular vocal type is Pulled Chest-High Larynx.
Those are the exercises that help me the most.
Do you know your vocal type?
Go to PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest.
Take the quiz and discover your vocal type.
Then visit the Knowledge Center and watch the videos about your vocal type.
Download the free exercises for your vocal type and start practicing them.
They’re designed to help your vocal type improve quickly.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
You can sing higher with beauty, confidence and power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community