SAMPLE CASE STUDIES

(All these successes were achieved using the callisthenic programme being advertised here)

 Michael - Presented as a 48 yr old who had not sung a tune since his voice broke. He had a very restricted baritone range of about 5 notes and was apparently ‘tone deaf’. By refocusing his voice into the head spaces, rather than the throat, he was able to sing the song. ‘Love is all around’ at his third lesson! There was nothing wrong with his hearing. The next part of the process was to steadily merge this new ‘head voice’ with the baritone range and we successfully created a standard male baritone voice which had not existed when left to nature.

Denise - At age 45 decided she wanted to sing with her new partner who was established as an amateur entertainer around local clubs and functions. The problem was she could not sing above G on the second music line and a reality check could have been quite negative. However I took up the challenge and again a complete refocusing of the voice into the head succeeded in creating a totally new soprano voice which within six months was singing successfully in public.

Sue - At age 48 decided to overcome the negativity of her school music experience and courageously came for lessons. Another case of ‘tone deafness’ which turned out to have nothing to do with her hearing. Within a year she was singing up to top G as soprano and moved on to having personal success at singing quite difficult songs (Handel, Bach, Haydn, Shakespeare songs etc) and eventually the range extended to high Bb.

Alice - At age 8 Alice had a beautiful voice which could soar up to a high D. At age 12 nature knocked a large ‘hole’ in the voice between 4 th line D and 5 th line F. Judicious use of the callisthenic ideas and exercises steadily healed the voice and the mature adult voice was in place by age 14.

Eileen - At age 64 Eileen completed a degree and also decided to attend to the voice. She could hold a tune but ran out of steam if that tune went ‘too high’ (ie anything above 3 rd space C). Once again the callisthenics extended the range and she was able to lead the congregational hymns.

Kirsten - Came with an average soprano voice but anything above 5 th line F was unstable. The callisthenics safely extended the range to high D which meant that her high Bb was quite riveting. She was able to tackle very difficult works by Bach, Bononcini, Handel and Mozart.

Sean - Came from the local pop/rock scene singing in a band doing covers and originals. This was an interesting experiment in that by working his voice across the range of bass to high alto, singing songs by Handel, I succeeded in curing his intonation problems and produced a voice which was not only performing better in the band scene but was also able to cross over and sing the oratorio solos authentically across those three ranges.

Margaret - Nature’s voice only allowed her to sing up to 2 nd line G, which meant that when singing in church she had to drop down to join the male voices. Once again the callisthenics transformed this situation and top G became the norm.

Gregg - Came for assistance to get his voice able to sing backing vocals in any band he might be in. An average baritone voice which was very soon extended right up into the soprano range and this had the spin-off effect of vastly improving the sound of his baritone/tenor voice.

Sammy - Very good treble voice at age 7 but the inevitable changes began at 13. By anticipating these changes using the callisthenic exercises I was able to show him how to cope with the breaks and within 2 months had produced a voice which was settling into the baritone range as well as keeping the top of the tenor range in place and in addition was able to sing on into the alto/soprano range so necessary for the male pop/rock voice.

Christopher - Was referred to me for urgent assistance in the singing of the ear tests for ABRSM harp examinations. He was a very good musician and had a very acute ear so his pitch perception was fine but nature had not given him the link to allow vocal matching of the perceived pitch. Not only did I succeed in creating this link, which allowed him to gain those vital marks in the exam, but a very acceptable baritone voice appeared and he was singing songs such as ‘The Vagabond’ (Vaughn Williams) and even tackling bass oratorio solos by Bach

Desmond - Presented at age 70 after a lifetime of mainly listening to the great music of the church - rapidly extended his vocal range and agility and, to his amazement, found himself able to sing Messiah tenor arias.

Edward - Nature conferred on Edward a sopranist voice somewhat akin to Ivan Rebroff (for those of us with long memories) but did not give him the same bass-voice. In fact the high voice was so dominant that he defaulted up an octave when singing standard songs. He was in effect 'tone-deaf' in the normal male baritone range and noted that he could not hear the notes in that range and this was borne out when he first tried the descending categories of the calisthenics going down through the bass-clef range. This situation was akin to my experience on the natural trumpet described above and can be explained as an inability to focus the voice into the appropriate harmonic resonating spaces in the skull. The calisthenic ideas soon brought this under control.Of course despite being very aware of the high voice he had no idea that it extended up to that top < c''' > until I presented him with the AHR level of the calisthenics.(amazingly high range,or absurdly high!!)

Marcus - click here for detailed description of six month's progress