A Quote by Johnny Mathis

Over the years, I was lucky; right from the beginning, I studied with a lady who had a lot of... she was a classical singer, and of course, they're a little bit more into, you know, preserving the voice, making sure your instrument is ready to perform.
I originally wanted to be an opera singer. I studied classical voice at the University of Washington but soon realised I didn't have the instrument or the discipline. The road for opera singers is more difficult than for actors.
She was twenty and had come to realize that, though she had a voice, she wasn't a singer; that to endure and embrace the life of a singer demands a whole lot more than a voice.
I've been extremely lucky in terms on injury. Very few injuries over the course of, this is the beginning of my 16th year. I know a lot of guys that have had a lot shorter careers and a lot more injuries, so I knock on wood every day.
I first heard Laura Branigan sing live in my brother Nesuhi's apartment, where we had gone because he had a very good piano. I immediately realized that she had a great pop voice, in the classical sense. Laura had an instinctive feel for music and melody, and her delivery was sensational. Everybody at Atlantic knew that we had a winner in this young lady, and she came through with great hits that will be remembered for many years to come. I consider Laura to be one of my best signings, and I am proud to have had such a great singer in my career in the record business. We miss her dearly.
I'm not a great lover of Madonna's voice. She's done very well with what she's got, and I'm sure my voice turns her right off, but she's not my favourite singer.
Getting signed shouldn't be the point. I made that mistake early on and I think a lot of people do. It's not something you should rush into. I think I'm actually lucky that when I went to visit labels when I was 20 years old and played and they thought I wasn't ready, it was probably a good thing because I wasn't ready. I didn't know what I was getting intoat the time. I mean, you never know exactly what you're getting into. There's a lot of stuff that's going on right now that's new to me but there's also a lot that I'm lucky to know how to handle.
Switch to piano! No. Really, if you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice. Of course, it would be best if you could actually sing with your own voice. The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. Therefore, the challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument or 'voice' that is outside of your body. I love that challenge and have for over forty-five years. As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.
"You are the actor, and I understand we already had our sit down, you explained your concept, your view," so I said, "Okay, I'm in your hands." That means that if you've got to nudge me a little bit to the right I move to the right, just from the pressure, weight, but you won't have to touch me at all. You can come and go "Okay, you want me over here a little bit more," so no pressure on us at all that's easy to do.
I went to school to learn guitar, solfeggio, and harmony. I wanted to know more about music, how it works. I wanted to take voice lessons, too, and that's when I discovered what I could do with my voice. At the beginning, I thought I would do classical and pop, but then I learned that I really liked the classical music.
You know, I have been thinking about this a lot, and of course I had great stress during all this election campaign. And a lot of times, I was ready to step away because I wasn't sure that I had enough strength to continue.
Right now I'm listening to a lot of different things but I listen to a lot of classical music. Eventually I would like to compose and perform classical.
You have 20 fights, you should know what it takes to get yourself ready. If you don't feel like you're ready, you let your coach know 'hey we need to work on a little bit more of this.'
As a guitarist and a lot of the times as a singer, I don't feel that comfortable and you really feel that when there's not an electric guitar or a nice beat to back it up. But, I enjoy challenges as a rule. I have always felt that what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger. I have learned to love with the rawness a little bit more and I know what I need to work on a little bit more as the tour goes on.
I know that people are going to recognize my voice as being different and they are going to be saying, 'Let me listen a little bit closer to see if she says something that I don't agree with.' They're probably going to pay a little bit more attention.
As the years have gone on and you start to know your character better than some of the writers and directors do, you get a little bit more of a world in which you can say, "I think it would be really great, if this year, her fate wasn't determined by the boys," or that kind of thing. You have to pick your battles and make sure that you've earned the right to talk about that.
I took vocal lessons for the first time and actually learned a lot about using my voice as an instrument as opposed to just doing what I've always done and going by feeling. I'm still doing that, but I've learned a lot of tricks and how to manipulate and play with my voice a little bit.
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