Yuri Sabatini Singing Teacher

Yuri Sabatini Singing Teacher
Voice coach in London

Saturday 20 February 2010

Richard Miller

Do you know this gentleman?

Many people got recognition for their work, in many fields of human progress. He deserved it much more than others in the art and disciplines singing, yet to many he is unknown.
Not that this surprises me, after all the teaching of singing is one of the more confused and less structures pedagogies, an area in which ignorance and false assumptions reign above all.
It is incredibly rare to find a voice teacher who knows his subject. Everywhere you see "singers or musicians who teach" what they know or what they do, some after taking a course or reading a book that give some information and show some exercises which supposedly will help you improve your technique, others relying on what they "think" is right. Too often, those are erroneous or incomplete information, but the many novices, the less informed students (alas!, even the "professional" singers can be count in this statistics) fell prey of these and pass it on.

A good singing teacher, above musical preparation, ought to have a good vocabulary - based on a sound knowledge of acoustics, phonetics, physiology and anatomy - with which he/she can deliver the message to the pupil in plain words. Knowledge makes you free. And capable. Yet, amongst "singing teachers" there's the belief that you should away of it, by sticking to what you've been told and "works for you".
Like in any other case, beneath such convictions there's fear. Fear to discover that the method you adhere to may be wrong, or not the best solution.

I see many teachers teaching the same thing day after day... if a student doesn't improve, it's his/her fault and not the teacher's!
Too often I hear the most absurd affirmations.
Too often a see students not understanding what their teacher means.
When specific problems arise, those teachers can't really tell what cause them or how to sort them out. They keep insisting that their way will cure the problem with time... and the result is another talent, another talent, another voice, another possible career ruined.

Well, believe me: one who reads the books of Richard Miller is exposed to the "real world", to make a parallel with "Matrix": you take the red pill, and he shows you how deep the rabbit hole goes...


He left us in 2008, after dedicating his entire life to research and to study the techniques of singing... His legacy puts us in the position to be of real help to those who want to improve their singing and their knowledge of how the voice works in cultivated singing.

I would have loved to meet him, to thank him.
His work made me a competent, professional singing teacher. Moreover, he helped me free my voice, he taught me to sing and how to do it better and better through constant study.

May he get recognition, cause much help is needed in any college of music and in too many private studios around the world where the situation is, let's put it like that, improvable!

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