"I personally never observed voice lessons to help with a bad singer. Either you have a good voice or you don't. It's a gift."

Can't totally agree. Of course, you have to work with what you're born with (in that sense, it's a gift, for good or ill), but I've never heard a voice so bad that it couldn't be improved by spending some time working with a good voice teacher—learning how to use what you have effectively. In fact, I've followed a few people with voices like rusty hinges who wound up sounding pretty darned good after working with a teacher. Never make the Metropolitan Opera, but could sing a whole variety of stuff and sound good at it.

I knew one fellow who really wanted to sing—folk songs—but just couldn't cut it because of the vocal problems he was dealt from the very beginning. His vocal tone wasn't bad—he was a low tenor or light baritone, but he always sounded husky—hoarse—and a little flat. There was nothing wrong with his ear. He was practically born with asthma, and the problem was actually with his breathing. He couldn't get a secure enough lungful to sustain a tone, and along with being flattish and sounding husky, he often had to gasp for air. Too damned bad! He really loved to sing.

When a bunch of us would get together for an informal song fest, some people—even his wife—would wince when he reached for his guitar. But his old friends would darn well listen. And enjoy. Anyone who wanted to sing as much as he did ought to be given a chance. Town Hall? Hardly! But in Bob's or Elmar's living room? Let 'er rip!!

Or the girl with the mousy little voice and the precarious pitch? A few lessons can help a lot. The voice? Certainly listenable. Quite nice, actually. All she needs is a bit of confidence, and lessons can give that too her.

I've seen it happen many times.

Someone who's just tone-deaf? Well, maybe there's help there also. Often it's just a matter of practice. If one has a hearing impairment of some kind, that's one thing. But I've also seen people with a very "iffy" sense of pitch get very accurate after a little concentrated practice. My own sense of pitch was pretty good (could sing in tune right off), but when I was attending the Cornish College of the Arts in the early 1960s, I took Jean Boardman's class, "Sight Singing and Ear Training" and got a lot out of it. I got so I could identify a series of intervals when I heard them. This meant, among other things, that when I heard a song (folk song, yes. Beethoven Symphony, no.) I could pick up a sheet of manuscript paper and write it down. And pulling out a copy of Lomax's Folk Songs of North America or John and Sylvia Kolb's A Treasury of Folk Songs and learning the melody of a song right off the page is duck soup. A great help!

There is much to be gained from music lessons of various kinds.

As to the image of the hot food or the raw egg in the mouth to keep the palate raised:   Mrs. Bianchi gave me all those images to play with, along with several more. The one that worked best for me was to feel myself on the verge of a yawn. "But," said Mrs. B., "you don't want to inadvertently yawn while your singing—which could happen. Best is to yawn a time or two before you sing. It opens the throat and relaxes it."   

Don Firth

P. S. Pressed for time right now, but I'll be back later with a couple of things that I got from Mrs. Bianchi on singing loudly. But "loudly" is not the whole story. Giving your voice carrying power is what really matters. Being able to sing softly if the song calls for it, and still be heard, crisp and clear, in the back row of the auditorium—without amplification.

It can be done.