Whenever Alanis Morissette’s album ‘Jagged Little Pill’ calls to me I know I’m off balance and headed for trouble.  With all of its raw lyrics, the album takes me back to graduate school when I was riding what I thought were big waves fueled by a constantly shifting balance of excitement and fear.  ...

Hello There!

In March I rolled out the first of two big announcements.  That was the launch of “The Speech Revolution Accent Improvement Field Guide” program.  A three-volume online series devoted to helping global citizens be more clear, competitive, and confident when presenting in English.  You ...

In 1955 a 14 yr. old boy named Emmett Till was tortured and murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman.  No one was ever convicted of his murder and justice was never served.  The FBI recently closed this case and although the family expressed disappointment, they also express...

“I can be changed by what happens to me, But I refuse to be reduced by it.”  Maya Angelou

When researchers at Biosphere 2 in Arizona studied how trees would grow and adapt in a protected environment, they were stunned by the results.  Biosphere 2 is an enclosed ecological research facility whose or...

‘Champions keep playing until they get it right.’  - Billie Jean King

In Part 1 we talked about keeping your voice healthy.  In Part 2, we discussed getting your mind and body ready so that you convey what you want.  Before you click ‘Join’, ‘Start’, or ‘Play’ let’s have a tech rehearsal and discus...

Life as a Baguette

From my work in France over the past few years, I have been delighted to understand that when the French invented the baguette, they made it in their own image. Often a bit hard and crusty on the outside, yet soft and melty on the inside.  Both to be fully appreciated.  Sometimes...

Ahem… Caring for the voice during cold and allergy season

Given the high stress we’ve all been experiencing lately, I thought it might be nice to step away from Covid-19 and talk about something normal, even fun and light-hearted in comparison like the Spring cold and allergy season.  Spring is def...

“If Music be the Food of Love, Sing On” – H. Heveningham adapted from William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

It’s amazing what you can do with butter, flour, sugar and eggs.  The combinations seem endless.  Yet a different mixture of the same ingredients could be the difference between what gets eaten ...

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi

Perfectionism, it sounds like such a noble aim doesn’t it?  Yet whether we’re working with or under a perfectionist, or dealing with our own perfectionism, it can be crippling. 

When I’m helping pu...

In Meredith Willson’s 1957 Broadway hit “The Music Man” (in which I was lucky enough to have a leading role eons ago), a traveling salesman comes to small-town Iowa posing as a band director to scam parents out of money for uniforms and instruments.  Without any plans to do any actual teaching, Haro...