Originally Posted by Bass Thumper
Holly Holy and Longfellow Serenade are 2 of my favorites of his and I don't believe he is musically trained but self taught.
While Neil has a boatload of talent and was personally motivated to learn songwriting, according to various sources I'm too lazy to cite his skills didn't exactly develop in a vacuum:
  • He learned to play piano at home
  • He sang in the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club in High School
  • He played in his High School Band (I can't find out what instrument, though).
  • He took guitar lessons as a teenager
  • He worked in the Brill Building, famous as a training ground for many songwriters

Neil says that he didn't so much choose to be a songwriter as it was an obsession with him.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?