As a singer, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Elvis and Mel Torme were my idols. All had incredible, unsurpassed, distinct vocal qualities that IMO, has never been matched by today's best male vocalist. One of the things I discovered while in Nashville many years ago was that most of them had taken diction lessons from a major Nashville studio that really made a huge difference in their overall vocal qualities. With that in mind, and after reading a couple magazine articles about this aspect of singing, I signed up at the local community college for a course called "Voice and Articulation." The instructor was one of the top female jazz vocalist in this region. She taught me a lot, which also helped immensely when I went to work as a radio newscaster and began doing voice-overs for some local car dealer commercials. One of the things I learned while enrolled in the course was voice control, which made switching from a handheld mic to a headset mic a breeze. I also used a headset mic while doing newscasts and voice-overs. Of course, those headset mics were also outfitted with high-quality headphones so I could hear the director who was on the other side of a large, plate-glass window in another room. Wow, sure brings back some neat memories. Thanks Russ.

Gary