Celebrating Jimmy Moore, Sea Cliff's singing coach extraordinaire

The street was packed with cars as dozens of Sea Cliff residents and music lovers gathered at the home of Jimmy and Janis Moore to celebrate the former’s 30 years of teaching singing to local students of all ages. The singing coach was joined by nine of his former pupils in a concert featuring individual performances and duets among the singers and their favorite teacher.

Seats were laid out in the driveway outside of the Moore Music studio on Aug. 26, where Jimmy had spent thousands of hours teaching his students. Over the years he had developed his own personal style of coaching, appropriately called the “Jimmy Moore method,” which Janis explained involves learning to use one’s whole body as an instrument, rather than just the vocal cords, among other important lessons.

“When you teach piano or violin you can show students where to put their fingers and how hard to press or how soft to press or where to position the violin under your chin,” Janis continued. “But in singing your instrument is your entire body, so he teaches the kids how to eat correctly and exercise for singing.”

Moore has been singing his entire life, and holds a degree in music from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. His father had been a musician in the 1940s and ‘50s, and he and his three siblings had grown up surrounded by music.

Moore said that over the years he had numerous teachers who had all taught him completely different methods and styles, which led him to realize each person learns and sings differently, influencing the development of his own unique method. He added he believes every person can sing. “You just need to get out of their way,” he said.

“I never envisioned myself as a teacher. I believed in the old adage: ‘those who can do, and those who can’t teach,” Moore said. He added that his wife encouraged him to try and he quickly was disabused of his previous belief. “Janis always wanted me to teach and it turned out that I found out that it’s one of the most fabulous things you can do.”

Beginning the concert with a stirring rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Working 9 to 5,” Moore introduced nine of his former pupils, many of whom had gone on to work in and study music, while the others continued to keep a love of singing and performing in their lives. The various protégés performed one or two songs each, some of which were songs they loved, had written, or had specific memories from lessons with Moore.

“When you meet Jimmy you realize he’s not like most other music teachers,” Mac Ayres, one of Moore’s students and an R&B singer-songwriter, said. “All of my favorite memories of Jimmy aren’t the work we did get done, but the work we didn’t get done; all the hours of singing and playing together.”