Douglas Stanley & Nelson Eddy vocal technique demonstration

Infamous voice teacher Douglas Stanley demonstrates vocal technique with the assistance of Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 - March 6, 1967).

Stanley wrote several books on vocal technique with revisions as more scientific information came to light. He was really the first teacher to hearken back to the original bel canto method of developing and coordinating the vocal registers. He taught Cornelius Reid as well as my teacher. Unfortunately, while Stanley was a genius and had many things right he was also very violent and abusive - although you don't hear that in this clip. So he made a lot of enemies in the vocal world who later tried to smear him. Not because what he was saying about the voice was wrong, but rather due to hard feelings.

It is a shame Stanley was so mentally unstable because it distorted many truths about the voice that he had discovered from a scientific standpoint. Stanley tried to push the voice to its maximum and made many exercises much too harsh and violent. My teacher would later greatly revise and advance the technique, taking out things that were wrong, violent or misunderstood. He was the greatest of all Stanley's pupils together with Eddy and Jerome LoMonaco. Many people claim to teach the Stanley method or claim to know things about the approach and are completely misguided.