February 27, 2019 at 9:39 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
TK gathered ideas about choral singing — Chamber Singers/Sing for Joy! – take note- we are so lucky!!!
“Singing Changes Your Brain” Stacy Horn
When you sing, musical vibrations move through you, altering your physical and emotional landscape. Group singing, for those who have done it, is the most exhilarating and transformative of all. It takes something incredibly intimate, a sound that begins inside you, shares it with a roomful of people and it comes back as something even more thrilling: harmony. So it’s not surprising that group singing is on the rise. TK Goodie!!!
According to Chorus America, 32.5 million adults sing in choirs, up by almost 10 million over the past six years. Many people think of church music when you bring up group singing, but there are over 270,000 choruses across the country and they include gospel groups to show choirs like the ones depicted in Glee to strictly amateur groups.
As the popularity of group singing grows, science has been hard at work trying to explain why it has such a calming, yet energizing effect on people. What researchers are beginning to discover is that singing is like an infusion of the perfect tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits.
The elation may come from endorphins, a hormone released by singing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. Or it might be from oxytocin, another hormone released during singing, which has been found to alleviate anxiety and stress. Oxytocin also enhances feelings of trust and bonding, which may explain why still more studies have found that singing lessens feelings of depression and loneliness.
A very recent study even attempts to make the case that “music evolved as a tool of social living,” and that the pleasure that comes from singing together is our evolutionary reward for coming together cooperatively, instead of hiding alone – every cave-dweller for him or herself. So voice lessons are like cave dwellers hiding alone?? I don’t think so!!!!
The benefits of singing regularly seem to be cumulative. In one study, singers were found to have lower levels of cortisol, indicating lower stress. A very preliminary investigation suggesting that our heart rates may sync up during group singing could also explain why singing together sometimes feels like a guided group meditation. I have certainly experienced that.
Study after study has found that singing relieves anxiety and contributes to quality of life. Dr. Julene K. Johnson, a researcher who has focused on older singers, began a study to examine group singing as an affordable method to improve the health and well being of older adults. Yea!!!
It turns out you don’t even have to be a good singer to reap the rewards. Hmmm.. According to one 2005 study, group singing “can produce satisfying and therapeutic sensations even when the sound produced by the vocal instrument is of mediocre quality.” Singing groups vary from casual affairs where no audition is necessary to serious, committed professional or avocational choirs like the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
If you want to find a singing group to join, ChoirPlace and ChoralNet are good places to begin, but if you can’t find one at any of these sites, you can always google “choir” or “choral society” and your city or town to find more.We have 11 groups in Bloomington! Group singing is cheaper than therapy, healthier than drinking, and certainly more fun than working out. WOW
It is the one thing in life where feeling better is pretty much guaranteed. Even if you walked into rehearsal exhausted and depressed, by the end of the night you’ll walk out high as a kite on endorphins and good will. COOL
September 19, 2009 at 5:00 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Volunteer State Singers: Read this and answer the questions. What are YOUR responsibilities?, your goals?, your reasons for choosing to sing? Be ready to “dive in” and try new ideas. TK October 1, 2018
What is your responsibility in a voice lesson?
Come to your lesson with a specific agenda.
Don’t be afraid of trying something new in the way of making sound. No one expects you to be perfect the first time out.
Never give your power away.
Experience is almost always the best teacher.
Trust your own instincts.
You are in charge of your own life.
If you don’t run your own life, someone or something else will.
You are unique. There will never be another talent or voice like yours to be heard or experienced by others, so with the help of your teacher, decide how to connect to your voice. Share it in performance.
Discover who you are at your very core. Express that to the world through your voice.
Risk being who you are and ask for what you want. Believe you can have it and then be ready to receive it.
It works!
July 20, 2018 at 2:20 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Eleven pieces of paper were taped to the walls around the Seymour High School choir room.
The messages included “Random acts of kindness,” “Move, soar, sail,” “Just do it,” “No one can make you feel inferior without consent,” “How you do anything is how you do everything” “and “Positive attitude, charge ahead, enjoy yourself.”
CAP students at IU: Remember these sayings! especially “How you do anything is how you do everything!”
These were among the thoughts Thomas King, assistant professor of music at DePauw University in Greencastle, shared while talking about vocal technique with three different choirs.
King’s hope is that the students apply those thoughts to music and life.
“It’s so that they realize that each one of them is an individual and needs to start at this point and go somewhere with it,” he said. “And if it’s not in music, that’s OK, too. It’s just in life.”
King has an extensive background in music education and performing. He has given voice lessons since 1970, and he taught high school choirs for 11 years. He’s now in his 28th year of teaching at the collegiate level. Also on his résumé are several operas and musicals.
Read the full story in Wednesday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.
January 3, 2017 at 6:00 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
There have been over 27,000 visits to my web site.
My various roles over the years I most CERTAINLY have had fun
Anguished Witch, Hansel & Gretel, Roxy 2009
Witch Atlanta 1978
KISMET, summer stock St. Louis, 1969
King Kaspar Atlanta 1978
Old Deuteronomy CATS Roxy 2009
The Conferencier in CABARET – Germany 1984
1969 Handsome Prince in Snow White, Muny
Wenzel – Bartered Bride – Atlanta 1985
Fridolin – Rose von Stambul – Germany 1983
Eisenstein – Fledermaus – Atlanta 1979
Tannhäuser – Tannhäuser Spoof – Germany 1985
Tannhäuser
Magic Flute Santa Fe 1968 Slave
Conferencier in Cabaret 1984 Germany
w/ Gateway Chamber Orchestra 2012
Witch Hansel and Gretel, Roxy 1998
Longfellow 2013
Polenblut Operetta Germany 1984
Old Arithmetic Man 2014 Ravel “L’enfant et les sortilèges”
December 17, 2015 at 7:00 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
I was engaged to teach voice at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University-Bloomington, for the SPRING semester of 2015 and I continued for FALL 2015, SPR 2016, SPR 2017, SPR and FALL 2018. I was Visiting Professor of Voice, substituting for three different voice professors on sabbatical and on performance leaves. To be teaching at my own alma mater (from 1968-70) was thrilling indeed.
FALL of 2015 I taught Vocal Literature and German Diction for Singers at DePauw University School of Music and in SPR 2016, I taught Vocal Literature and French Diction. In FALL 2016 and SPR 2017, I taught the same courses AND a few private voice students as well. FALL of 2017 and SPR 2018 I taught German Diction, then French Diction, still at DePauw University.
Tenors Again starring Vicki King, Randall Black, Jeremy Easley & Thomas King
Attend our faculty recital MONDAY, November 14, 2016 at 7:30 p. m. at DePauw University, Thompson Recital Hall.
To those add the beautiful, lyrical melodies of Fauré, the stately songs of Purcell and the deeply moving songs of Franz Schubert, Clara and Robert Schumann. 
