If an exercise makes my singing better in some way, should I care about WHY it works? Everyone can certainly benefit from an exercise if they know WHEN it works.…
Tag: technique
No pain, no gain. You have to want it more than anything. You need to have some serious drive to be an artist. You can’t just do this for fun.…
The metaphor of peeling the layers of an onion has been used a lot for teaching singing, especially in regard to reducing interfering tensions. For me this is truest when…
I began watching some of Michael Trimble’s videos on YouTube and learned early on that he advocates for the belly to move in during inhalation. This flies in the face…
For the first installment of this series let’s talk about the commonly used word “spin”. I refer to a sung sound that has vibrato and a sense of ease. We…
Teaching voice cannot be as objective as teaching piano, because the instrument is ourselves! This creates all kinds of psychological, physical, and acoustical differences among singers. Look out for this…
You know what would fix so much even if nobody believed in registers or science or climate change? This: Everyone needs to be able to go from softer to louder…
There are a heck of a lot of reasons to bring out old exercises periodically. An exercise can feel (and sound!) quite different after time away from it. Sometimes we…
When I am working with a student, especially in the first few sessions, I try to be a silent observer as much as I can. For example, we start an…
Working with limitations and alterations teaches me a lot. Here are some that have helped me shake habits of overdoing, among other classes of vocal faults. Exhale most of the…
My wonderful voice teacher Virginia Grasso told me, “You have to teach yourself how to sing.” and also that a singer must eventually “have one or two, maybe three thoughts”…
There are vocal functions that require excellent balance and flexibility that don’t involve lots of fast notes. These are the vocal equivalents of tight-rope walking, as opposed to trapeze. Slow…