If you’re just starting your singing journey you’re one of my favorite types of students! I just love building a vocal technique from the ground up by helping you explore what you can do and what you’d like to work on. Together we can create warmups and exercises to target your specific needs, and choose music that really makes your voice shine! I’ll teach you the basics of vocal anatomy like how the diaphragm and lungs work together; the way your air becomes the sounds you’ll sing; and how to turn those sounds into dynamic, expressive singing that captivates audiences.
Singing is a lifelong process, but my goal is to empower you to steer that process on your own as much as possible. There will always be things that a second perspective can teach you, which is why I still work with voice teachers myself after all these years, but you know more about your own voice than any teacher ever can, and so we'll continue to hone your technique, language, and understanding of your body, your voice, and your musicality and how they all work together to create the experience of communication through music!
These are the sessions I really enjoy because you will start to combine all of the different concepts you've learned into a vocal philosophy that will help you identify exactly what's going on to produce specific sounds in your own voice, and to make adjustments or even diagnose some of the more common occurrences like a tired or fatigued voice, vocal cord inflammation, excess tension in the body etc.
The next couple of lessons will be a bit more focused as I will have a better idea of your particular goals and the direction you want to take with your lessons. These are indeed YOUR lessons and so the ideas, vocal sensations, and goals that resonate best with you are the paths I'll use to introduce new topics. If you want to learn to sing higher notes, for example, then I will have the opportunity to teach you about placement and how imagining pitches in a different part of your body helps you to singing them with ease. If vocal power is your goal then we can talk more about breathing and explore the relationship between airflow and resonance in creating larger sounds. The list is endless, but I am here to guide you step by step!
For those who have been singing for a while, maybe had some lessons in the past, or anyone who considers themselves an advanced singer or professional, we will approach our sessions in a much more collaborative way than I would with a beginner. You may know the warmups and exercises that work best for you and so I will honor that. Think of me as a second set of ears to help you get a different perspective on what you're doing and what you might do to make it more effective and efficient. We'll spend more time on the music you want to sing, and that means more opportunities to work on the artistic elements like phrasing, musicality, expression, acting, and ways to make the biggest creative impact on your audience whether they are right in front of you or at the other end of a pair of chunky headphones. Think of this as a collaboration: you know many of the same things I do about what works and what doesn't, so I'm here to support you in finding more and new ways to communicate your message through song and really take your whole performance to the next level.
This is a lifelong journey, but it doesn't mean that you'll be paying for weekly sessions forever. At this point you have all of the tools you need and can do most of the work of improving on your own. You've developed your own voice, both literally and figuratively, and your creative vision is uniquely yours. From here I can offer you guidance and perspective on what you're doing and how you're advancing. Course corrections are absolutely necessary in our industry and it always helps to have someone on your side who knows YOU, and your vision. We'll meet less frequently at this point which will give us both time to find a new vantage point from which to approach your goals, which will have been growing and adapting along with you the whole time. I can't wait to see your evolution and explore the paths with you!
We've created a plan for the kind of performer you want to be, now it's time to get into the work of making it stick. We all know that old habits die hard, but I'm here to help keep you on track week by week so that your practice is made permanent. Not only will you be able to be objective about what you're hearing and feeling, but you'll be able to better diagnose your own observations of your performance and turn those into opportunities for individuality and authenticity. A quirk or idiosyncrasy in a performer is 100% neutral, WE are the ones who decide if it is something that holds us back, or if we embrace it and turn it into our own unique strength. Let's explore that together and discover your personal superpower.
Once we've established a plan of action for taking your singing to the next level, it really starts to get fun. Think of these lessons like a graduate course in vocal arts where we are exploring new and unique ways to approach everything you do, specific to YOUR voice and YOUR vision. This is where we can start to abandon the cookie cutter exercises of the casual singer and begin to intentionally shape the artist within.