One of the most interesting things I’ve encountered over 35 years of vocal coaching is how quickly singers can accept that something they’ve lost is simply gone because they’re getting older.
Sometimes, of course, the voice does change with age.
But age isn’t always the whole explanation.
When I began working with Geddy Lee in preparation for Rush’s Fifty Something Tour, one of the first things I wanted to determine was whether the upper range he had relied upon throughout his career was actually gone — or simply no longer accessible.
I could hear that it was still there.
That distinction matters.
After decades of performing, a voice can become deconditioned. Coordination can change. Muscular responses can become less reliable. And once something stops working consistently, the psychological component becomes significant as well.
The work then isn’t about trying to make someone 25 again.
It’s about discovering what the instrument is still capable of today — and systematically rebuilding the coordination, strength, endurance and confidence necessary to access it.
That’s an area of vocal work I’ve become increasingly fascinated by: helping long-career singers discover that their voices may still be capable of considerably more than they think.
From the Touring Voice series