Blog categorized as Article

Voice Types Explained: A Beginner's Guide to Vocal Classification (And Why It's Not Everything)

Your voice type is like your vocal fingerprint – unique and personal. But what exactly is a voice type, and how much should it influence your singing journey? This comprehensive guide will help you understand vocal classification, its importance, and why it shouldn't define your entire singing exper...

5 Ways to Strengthen Your Head Voice

One of the most common requests that voice teachers hear is that singers want to improve their head voice, more technically known as Cricothyroid Dominant Vocal Production (CT Dominant). Anecdotally, I would say 90% of all students start lessons with this as their primary technical goal for lessons....

You Should Use A Practice App In Your Studio

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I don’t think it will surprise anyone on this site that when I am teaching I am focused on “the basics”, even with my most advanced students; frequently more so with my most a...

Read Before Using Singing Straws

Singing Straws have gained enormous popularity over the last few years. For those of you that have not come across the wonder of these straws. They can provide you a healthier, stronger, and more balanced voice instantly at least according to the companies that sell them. The general idea is that th...

How ChatGPT Thinks You Teach Singing

I found myself curious how well AI would be able to cover the main ideas behind teaching a student to sing, so I asked it. For this article I am using the most well-known generative AI platform ChatGPT by OpenAi. To prompt the system, I set my expectations with the system using a few questions and a...

The Importance of Ear Training in Singing

Ear training, also called aural skills, are often overlooked in the pursuit of vocal excellence, and is a cornerstone of a well-rounded singer's education. To sing with precision and emotion, one must have an acute awareness of pitch, harmony, and rhythm. Ear training hones these auditory skills, en...

The Craft of Singing Preparation: Expanding the Warm-Up Repertoire

Singing warm-ups are an integral aspect of a singer's routine, pivotal for maintaining vocal health and warding off injury. These exercises are not merely about "heating up" the muscles but also about refining and aligning the singer with optimal vocal technique.

It's important to demystify...

Decoding Vocal Jargon: A Comprehensive Resource for Vocalists and Educators

The realm of vocalists and voice teachers is a tapestry woven with a multitude of teaching philosophies and methodologies, a fact that is as enriching as it is complex. This richness has, however, given rise to a considerable challenge: a lack of standardized terminology across disciplines, includin...

Vocal Health 101: The Path to a Healthy Voice

The human voice is a remarkable instrument that requires meticulous care to stay in tune and ready for performance. Vocal health is essential not only for singers and actors but for anyone who relies on their voice for work or daily interaction. This guide will journey through the essentials of voca...

The Lifelong Symphony: How Learning an Instrument Enriches Every Age

The journey of learning a musical instrument is a lifelong odyssey that offers rich rewards at every stage of life. From the blossoming imagination of a child to the evolving passions of a teenager and the reflective ambitions of an adult, the pursuit of musical mastery is more than an artistic ende...

Why We Should Do Interval Training

Music is a language, and I’m not talking about the words we use to discuss music; music itself is a language. To learn any language most effectively, five steps have to be completed in order: Listen, Imitate, Speak, Read, Write. The same is true for singing, though we are particularly interested in ...

How to Breathe While Singing

This work is an opinion piece and reflects the views of the author.

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Everyone knows that the proper way to breathe while singing is diaphragmatic, belly breathing. Except is it really? If you are a classical singer singing opera or art songs, yeah, it really probably is. If you are singing moder...

Opinion: Modes, Mix Voice, Head Voice... What?

The world of singing is fraught with overlapping and misleading terms thrown about, typically with little or no explication. This can create a lot of confusion for beginning students and even for professional teachers. I am fortunate to have weekly chats with a mentor and colleague of mine to discus...

Are Online Singing Lessons Good?

Authors Opinion

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I like to think that online lessons are good; I have been teaching students online for years. However, many students and teachers believe that online lessons are somehow less successful than in-person lessons. Let’s take a look together at the pros and cons...

The Vocal Athlete: Part 3

The Vocal Athlete: Cool Down

You did it! You just sang through a whole show, it was amazing, you were amazing.

But now what? Well, looking at our elite athletes it is now time to cool down and stretch. The verdict is still out on this one, some research is suggesting that a cool down routine can ...

The Vocal Athlete: Part 2

The Vocal Athlete: Practice

Practice, practice, practice. One of the most important things a vocal athlete does is practice; consistent, focused, and planned practice. This is one of the areas where the correlation between athlete and singer makes the most sense. Elite athletes are always training th...

The Vocal Athlete: Part 1

You are a Vocal Athlete; just ask the internet!

Over the past decade or two, this concept of a vocal athlete has become increasingly mainstream for many reasons. There are many ways in which being a singer, and especially training to be a singer, is similar to being a baseball player, football player...