When I was at the University of Minnesota many moons ago, for about a year I would take the streetcar weekly from Minneapolis to St. Paul, for classical guitar lessons. This in a time when the mention of the words "classical guitar" brought on blank looks of bewilderment from almost anyone. I can't say that I ever got even to a stage you could call competent, but I formed an approach to how the fingers picked the strings, sufficient that over the subsequent years I was able to accompany (simply) my folk song singing.

Now, 50 years later, I'm taking lessons again--vocal lessons this time! I told my teacher on the first occasion, I definitely didn't want to adopt classical singing mannerisms, that that wasn't my kind of music. That I saw three areas I wanted help in: Making the most of or maybe widening my vocal range; breath control; and to a degree, diction, but again not falling into. Those were in descending order of importance as I saw it then.

I told her recently that I had re-ordered my priorities, based on what we had done in the lessons: Now it's (1) breath control (breath control, breath control, breath control); (2) diction; and (3)range. She told me that I really didn't have a particular range problem, and that the biggest issue is breathing. And that's coming along.

Not doing too bad for a geezer of 72.

Dave Oesterreich