God bless the child
Asking the question “What makes a good singer?” is akin to questioning “What is art?” In my opinion, what makes a good singer is not what American Idol hosts Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, or even The X Factor’s Simon Cowell would like us to believe.
Of course, having a good foundation — a full voice, perfect pitch, uncanny ability at proper vowel formation, full rheostat of voice range, among others — is enough for one to carry a tune. But why has Bob Dylan been doing just fine all these years even without a flawless pitch? Frank Sinatra was almost always out of tune. We recognize the pitches he hit within the scale, but which were not always entirely in sync where his band and backup were. But, boy, was Ol’ Blue Eyes one of the most beguiling singers of all time! His phrasing, emotional expression and the way he transmitted the meaning of each song he sang were simply exceptional.
It’s a fact that most amateur singers can hold their own against accomplished professionals, signifying that singing may be as collective a human peculiarity as speaking. We often hear Jackson’s commenting on an Idol contestant’s singing being “pitchy’ (although no such word exists in the dictionary), but having a good pitch does not always translate to good music.
If you can perceive any note on the scale and instantaneously name it — just like most of us seeing a color and promptly recognizing it as green or blue — then you have flawless pitch. Unfortunately, only a handful of us have this uncanny ability, and most of our ears are “color-blind.”
This brings me to Erica Denise G. Perez, daughter of PR man Resty Perez and writer-businesswoman Avie Gochoco. It’s been more than two months now since I first heard her sing an a capella rendition of Lea Salonga’s Two Words, and I still get goosebumps whenever I think of that rare experience. We were enjoying the first reunion of the staff that made up the late ‘70s Sunburst magazine in the Ayala Alabang residence of the Perezes, and those of us who were there were awed by Erica’s singing. She sang a couple of more songs and each one certainly deserved an encore.
To me, Eri, as she is fondly called by her parents, looks and talks like an ordinary teenage girl. She loves Koreanovela and everything Korean; she giggles at jokes and converses engagingly. Except for a slight limp, you wouldn’t really know, until told, the struggle that this girl has gone through early in her life.
According to Avie, Eri is actually turning 21 in June this year. “At birth,” Avie narrates, “Eri had an Apgar score (which is used to indicate the general physical condition of a baby at birth) of zero, prompting one medical practitioner in the operating room to ask, ‘Do we still need to incubate her?’ She was born with water in her brain, and this resulted in partial brain damage.”
Because she never had the seizures that her doctors feared, Baby Eri was eventually sent home. Since the water in her head drained away naturally, her head didn’t enlarge, and as her brain grew, it pushed the water out.
“At age three,” Avie continues, “she was diagnosed with mild-to-moderate cerebral palsy, an ailment I describe simply as motor and intellectual skills strongly challenged because cells in the brain were killed or damaged. Since these cells can’t grow back, the challenge exists forever. The cause is still unknown, but it brought her stiffness of the muscles of her extremities, or her hands and legs.”
Eri has stopped schooling because she was having academic difficulties and her mobility problems earned her only a few friends. “She doesn’t have any dates,” Avie grins, but her music is more than enough to keep her happy. Most of her time is now spent on physical therapy, voice lessons, singing at their parish church and making updates on her Facebook page. Eri is truly special, not in the context of what we often have used to call persons with disability. When she sings, her voice is just like a diamond spewing tiny flickers of multi-colored lights, an awesome aural experience that I could visualize as I closed my eyes to listen. Her voice is pure and clear, and more importantly, expressive. She doesn’t need to make dramatic hand or body gestures to make you feel what she is feeling. It’s always been her and her music and you can feel that obvious and extraordinary relationship; much like watching a skilled equestrianne and her horse perfectly gliding and galloping in a spectacular fashion. It’s never about pleasing her audience. Even with her eyes closed as she sings, you can feel the passion and emotion in her voice, with every word and in every note.
A good singer must be able to bare his soul and share his personal interpretation of the song, not just what his audience wants to hear. A good singer must be able to make each note float like a fresh breeze to caress the listener’s visceral passions. And for me, a good singer must be able to bring me back to the time when just my mother’s soothing voice would blanket me from fears, aches and insecurities. That is what makes Sinatra, Dylan, Fitzgerald, Holiday and, yes, Erica so blessed.
* * *
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Bien Bautista, one of the world’s top photographers for providing Erica’s photo.
* * *
For comments or questions, please e-mail me at audioglow@yahoo.com or at vphl@hotmail.com. You can also visit www.wiredstate.com for quick answers to your audio concerns.
