A lifetime of performing is a large part of Marilyn Maye’s legacy. Though she is not a classically trained singer, her advice on singing technique, connecting to lyrics, and reaching an audience is something all singers in any style should heed.
This article was originally published in Classical Singer magazine. To subscribe to the print magazine, go to www.csmusic.info/subscribe.
Watching Marilyn Maye perform is a masterclass in style, stage presence, singing, and class. The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation gave her a lifetime achievement award, and Martina Arroyo, who often comes to her performances, told her, “You’re doing what we now want the opera singers to do in recitals.”
Idolized in New York City by the cognoscenti and the press, her audience is usually peppered with famous actors or singers. Why do audiences give her spontaneous standing ovations in the middle of her show? Who is she? And how does she do it?
She calls herself a nightclub singer. She prefers that instead of cabaret singer. She was, however, the first to record the song “Cabaret” on RCA, and it became a hit for her before the Broadway show opened. She turned 92 in April and was booked at Feinstein’s/54 Below for eight days that same month. She’s also performed all over the country.
After a spectacular performance at the National Arts Club (a benefit for Encompass New Opera Theatre honoring multi-award-winning opera and theatre director Bartlett Sher and Broadway star Laura Benanti) I asked her, “Do you know what you are doing onstage or is this just natural for you?” Without missing a beat, she smiled and replied, “Not only do I know what I’m doing, I teach it!” She then invited me to observe a class. A few weeks later we sat down to chat.
When you teach, you are always so kind.
Well, you don’t get anyplace otherwise, it just makes the students more nervous. The more demanding you get, the less you’ll get out of them. Don’t you think?
I get upset if they don’t learn the rudiments. In rehearsal, you need certain terminology to communicate with your musicians and not waste time. It’s important to know things such as what part of the song is the bridge (not the middle) or the A and B sections of a song. It’s rudimental but important.
When you teach, where do you start?
Nine times out of 10 we transpose the song. Some singers, who have been singing for years, work in keys too high for them to sing all the notes of the song comfortably. It’s a matter of ego, I think. There’s no ego attached to the key of a song, but some people think so.
Your voice is rock solid.
Thank you! Teaching has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me in terms of the continuity of my voice. When I’m teaching, I’m singing a lot.
Have you ever had a period of vocal problems?
No, in part because I know to sing in the right key. I really do. I’m a fourth down from the keys I sang on my recording in the 1960s. And every few years I think, “OK, let’s lower it another half step.” When you can’t make wonderful sounds or sing in tune in that higher key, you’ll discover that there’s a wonderful trade-off: richer sound and more storytelling.
I still have an upper register. I can hit high notes on an ending. And I believe in straight tones up there. You sing a lovely note and sing it in the center of the pitch. I don’t use a lot of vibrato, but I apply it at the end of a long-held note—which, I suppose, is the total opposite of what opera singers do.
You often spoke about the importance of breathing.
Oh, if I could just get people to breathe! The whole thing is about phrasing. Phrase it like you speak. There’s so much to be achieved from the lyrics by stopping and taking a breath rather than just singing one whole line.
Usually in a song there’s one subject at the end of a sentence and one little meaningful lyric in the middle of that sentence, then it continues with another meaningful lyric. One sentence usually has more than one point in it.
Determine where the breath marks are to create your phrasing—it’s just as important as learning the notes! Many times when singers come to an ending of a musical phrase, they have no breath to hold out the ending note. If they don’t take a big breath, then we’re not hearing good ending notes because they ran out of gas.
The first thing I notice when you perform is that you have the audience in the palm of your hand from the get-go.
You sing to them, not for them. It’s as if we are talking to each other.
It is directly to them, to that person and that person and that person. Not just one person. Not just looking straight ahead. There’s somebody over there and over there. You have to cover everybody. And the nicest compliment that I usually get is “I felt that you were singing directly to me.”
On the other hand, my most requested song is “Guess Who I Saw Today.” In that case, the audience has to see it’s the housewife speaking to her husband. There’s no way you can look around the room. So, you find a center spot just above the heads of the audience so that the audience can observe the fact that you are singing to the husband.
In shows, I don’t advocate a lot of patter. You hear some singers talking on and on about their life. I feel the performance is not about them. It’s about the performer working for the audience. The audience doesn’t need to know the story of your life. If they want to know your lifelong story, go to dinner with them.
Did you ever have lyrics that gave you problems?
If I don’t connect with the lyrics, I don’t choose that song.
You always arrive early, making sure that everything’s set up the way you like, chat with the technicians, and then regularly rehearse every song with your musicians.
That’s my way of warming up. And I tell my students: make friends with the technical people because they can help you—you need them!
What can you tell us about the mic?
Your mic technique is terribly important. Some people “eat” the mic, and then it hides their facial expressions. Or they physically make all sorts of microphone adjustments onstage. There’s no reason for that. It takes you away from your constant presence onstage and it interrupts the performance.
I don’t want to lose that contact with the audience. If you want to move the mic stand away, backhand it and place it directly behind you. When you want to use the mic stand again, it’s accessible to you. The audience should not be aware of all that movement. You can do all that while you’re talking or singing.
It seems that when you hit a big note that you aren’t giving it necessarily more gas, but that you have changed the color. And you bring the mic closer to you.
Exactly. Some singers do the opposite. For the big note they pull the mic away and all of a sudden, their note or notes are not amplified anymore. You want to have the power of the big ending—and I believe in big endings—if you pull the mic away then you have lost all your power. Of course, you get more intensity and correct intonation with more breath.
You look like you are having a very good time up there.
And I am!
For more about Maye’s fascinating career or her recent recordings on CD, go to marilynmaye.com.
Additional Comments from Maye’s Class
Get into the emotion of the song, but not so much that you forget to breathe where you have decided the breath is advantageous to your phrasing.
To a singer who was working too hard: if you are concentrating on “selling the song,” then we don’t see the real you; you must live the lyric.
Talk to us. Tell us the story.
I don’t want you to perform—I want you to deliver the lyric.
We need to see you, your love and your understanding of the words you are singing. Think about those lyrics every single time you sing them.
