What are Guideposts to Singing with Manhattan Transfer about?

Beatriz Mello asked for more info about Roland Wyatt, teacher of The Manhattan Transfer

and what the CD’s (Men’s or Women’s) Guideposts to Singing with The Manhattan Transfer consist of….

 

(These are) truly warm-up tape(s). Only vocalizations geared specifically for each voice type–e.g Roland and Cheryl Bentyne include vocalizations to open up the falsetto voice/whistle register. Cheryl didn’t usue a whistle register until Roland helped her make it a consistent part of her performances.  Tim Hauser was given vocalizations, demonstrated on the Men’s CD, that helped him to open up his bass range.  Each of the members’ lessons, include “standard” Roland Wyatt exercises as well as variable vocalizations for the extreme vocal needs of each member/voice.

Roland (15)  won a singing contest, having no vocal training, just hearing his mother’s very beautiful, open snging.  And since his mother did not want him to speak with a Texas dialect, Roland had always confused people as to where he was from…many think Britain, India, etc.(since he is African American, Irish and American Indian). He employs speech and singing exercises as a part of true VOICE development—Speech and Singing; all genres of singing.  He studied with Nellie Gardinii in Chicago at age 16, taking the bus from Dallas weekly.  His pursuit of fully understanding the function of the voice’s physiology, allowed him to work in medical teaching colleges on cadavers.  He realized that vibrating the lipis, vibrated the vocal chords;, thus, he uses the lip trill with every student to relax the voice, preparing it for singing. From William Vennard, among others, he learned to vocalize first in descending tones, then up, (and down and up, etc.)
This way, the falsetto/light mechanism is ALWAYS a part of the voice’s tone; as opposed to vocalizing upward first, and DRIVING the heavy mechaniism into the high/falsetto/light voice (e.g. pushing).

I personally, enjoying singing, and having learned by hearing Roland teach for many years, believe that the traditional vocalizing of
do-re-mi-fa-so is used basically since it’s what people continue to hear, and presume it is the RIGHT way to vocalize, without really understanding WHAT upward-first vocalizing is doing within the voice tract…adding tension.  Downward vocalizations, such as Roland and William Vennard (USC) taught wth, encourage lightness, easiness, relaxation in the voice tract, the lyric, and the voice’s overall tone…making a more “enjoyable” sound.  (My words, not necessarily Roland’s)

There’s much more to say about Roland’s zeal for Music study and the unique way he taught singers of all ages, backgrounds, dialects, musical taste/genre, etc. etc.  Perhaps the proof is in the pudding–Roland leaves a trail all over the country of singers turned voice teachers because of seeing the possibilties of vocal growth within themselves.  Roland encouaged many, many singers to teach, and many, many do..

Thank you for your time…Deborah (Debbie) Wyatt, Las Vegas, NV