The mark of an insufficiently skilled singer is to allow your listeners to hear you suck in air before your phrasings. Singers need huge lungfuls of the stuff, of course — the point is to not make a lot of noise as you acquire it. If you’re singing “The Star Spangled Banner,” as Amber Riley just did before the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, you don’t want to start with “Owayghh!…oh-hoh say can you see…?”

September 4, 2012by Jeffrey Wells9 Comments