This book introduces a practical approach to freer and more
joyful singing. Drawing its strength and inspiration from
Gracia Ricardo's work with Rudolf Steiner, it presents anyone
who wishes to sing, as well as professional singers, with a spiritual
alternative to the mechanical and physical methods of voice training
usually available today.

The Ricardo method is based on the word. The first chapter deals
with the onset of the tone, its focus, the separation of word and tone,
and listening for the word. The relation between vowels, consonants,
words, and phrases is also dealt with. The second chapter goes on to
consider the voice, how to build and extend its range. The third chapter
develops the idea of blending the vocal registers, placement,
embellishments, resonance, and diction. Professional tips follow: on
choosing a program, stage fright, mood, and presence. Esoteric aspects
of music and singing are then dealt with in a special section.

"It is important that we sing. It is especially important for our children to
sing. Singing frees the soul, makes it flexible, and helps it soar and expand.
Singing lets the sun in-gives warmth to our lives and wings to our
spirit. Those who sing know this. To sing at all requires a certain degree of
freedom. Learning to sing in the way described here means finding ever
greater degrees of freedom in ourselves. When we sing with this freedom,
we find ourselves anew. When we sing with others, we find one another.
Singing music that lifts our souls in freedom, we open ourselves to worlds
that fructify the spirit in us. We make our souls flexible and receptive to
spiritual worlds-open to what the spiritual worlds can tell us."
- Dina Soresi Winter