Freddie took singing lessons from the late great Benvenuto Finelli?

[url=http://musicguy247.typepad.com/my-blog/2016/02/ron-anderson-vocal-coach-to-the-stars-voixtek.html]Have a look[/url]

 The plot thickens

Link not working?

Fixed now ... I think.

Yep.

Excellent find.

It would be great to have an absolute timeline for Freddie's lessons, but it seems not unreasonable to assume it would have been as a result of the vocal problems he had on the Japanese Tour in 1979. There are plenty other far more informed members here who would probably be able to offer a more educated insight and I'd be keen to hear their take on it.

Thanks again.

I mean, it's somewhat accepted fan canon ([i]fanon[/i]) that Frederick was completely self-taught, but what if that was a party line to give him more street cred and reinforce the legend of an endlessly talented self-made man?

Peter Freestone often says Fred never had any lessons but, then again, he only knew Fred for the last decade or so of his life... he could've easily had 'secret' lessons before having met and/or before they spent every minute of the day together.

Maybe fred would more likely have considered it 'voice physio'

I wonder how accurate the article is. He said that Freddie could hit the high F. There's like one example of Freddie going that high in full voice (All God's People). Even at his best 5th octave notes weren't common live, also they usually were really short. The article seems to draw parallels between Freddie and tenors who could hit the high F consistently. Freddie wasn't one of them.

[QUOTE] [b]master marathon runner wrote:[/b]

Maybe fred would more likely have considered it 'voice physio'[/QUOTE]

Yes , probably it was something akin to learning proper warm up exercises to avoid injury and maybe some refinement of technique, improvements on efficiency.
I don't think the emergence of this knowledge detracts from Freddie s vocals being a wonder of nature.

I think it's fairly obvious Freddie had some vox coaching before the Crazy Tour. His technique, particularly when going for more daring notes was more of an 'open throat' method.
He kept this up throughout most of 1980 but by '81 was gradually starting to slip into old habits of closed throat and forcing the notes during live shows.
By the Magic Tour he was singing quite recklessly, I'm always amazed how his voice held up reasonably well throughout that tour.

[QUOTE]

[b]Bad Seed wrote: [/b] I think it's fairly obvious Freddie had some vox coaching before the Crazy Tour. His technique, particularly when going for more daring notes was more of an 'open throat' method.
He kept this up throughout most of 1980 but by '81 was gradually starting to slip into old habits of closed throat and forcing the notes during live shows.
By the Magic Tour he was singing quite recklessly, I'm always amazed how his voice held up reasonably well throughout that tour.[/QUOTE]

The problem is that the Crazy Tour voice didn't just appear all of a sudden, as this theory would propose.
We're gradually seeing the signs of the Crazy Tour voice rearing its head, most notably on some of the Euro-78 shows.

You're absolutely right Nitroboy and I was going to mention this in my original post.
I think it's quite plausible that he had a small amount of coaching before/during the NOTW tour. His technique is better than ever and even improves as the tour goes on. A first ever for Freddie.
But I would guess that the state his voice got into during and particularly towards the end of the Jazz tour, prompted him to get serious about his touring voice and get some serious proper coaching. Hence the dramatic change we hear later that same year.

I'd say his first solid tour was Euro/UK 77 - he's outstanding particularly in Bristol and Glasgow.

But indeed, something switches on for Euro 78 (UK especially), and by the Crazy tour (the Saarbrucken festival, even) he's really found something.

[QUOTE]

[b]Bad Seed wrote: [/b] You're absolutely right Nitroboy and I was going to mention this in my original post.
I think it's quite plausible that he had a small amount of coaching before/during the NOTW tour. His technique is better than ever and even improves as the tour goes on. A first ever for Freddie.
But I would guess that the state his voice got into during and particularly towards the end of the Jazz tour, prompted him to get serious about his touring voice and get some serious proper coaching. Hence the dramatic change we hear later that same year.[/QUOTE]

His voice improved on the NotW tour because there was a ~3 month break between the North American, and European leg.
As for the Jazz Tour, I really don't think it prompted him to do anything, but take better care of his voice (resting before and after shows).

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

...and by the Crazy tour (the Saarbrucken festival, even) he's really found something.[/QUOTE]

That was exactly spotted by the press at that point

" Freddie roars like Elvis "