Bill "Smilin" Stoker

William Stoker enjoyed teaching voice and would travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles during the 1940's through the 1970's. He was a highly sought after vocal teacher and coach who taught some of Hollywood's finest vocalist such as Johnny Mathis, Merv Griffin and Shirley Temple. With a full load of students in each city, he teamed up with a speech specialist and started to develop the Stoker Method for Popular Singing. For thirty years he refined his approach and when I started studying with him in 1981, he was finishing the 10th edition of his teaching method.

Bill took me under his wing and poured into me his method of teaching voice as well as his ideas, years of experience and stories of the music industry. His unique approach to articulation and pronunciation could polish a singer's performance from sounding like an amature vocalist to that of a seasoned pro. Through his use of sound recording (Bill used 1/4 inch reel to reel in 1980 because cassette recorders would not give him the quality he required) Bill would spend a large portion of his lessons having his students record, then listen and analyze their own performances. Nothing is more revealing than a captured mistake to learn from. He would play and replay a passage and would praise or critique depending on what was deserved. With Bill's keen ears you could bet that you would be hearing a larger portion of critique. Bill would let the student hear themselves and learn to correct the minutist of details. Bill was a perfectionist. His one dream was to have his method further refined and for his ideas to be shared with others. I felt honored when he asked me to carry on his life's work. With deep respect for Bill, I have spent the last thirty years sharing and expanding his ideas with my vocal students. At the end of every lesson I would hope that my students would feel how I felt at the end of my lessons with Bill; abilities refined, ideas enlarged and somewhat exhausted from the intense effort.