11 Things You Don't Think Your Voice Can Do (It Can!)

I have the most wonderful job. I get to hear miracles take place with people's voices. These breakthroughs happen because of the team of teacher and student.  It takes both, as any good teacher knows. Just this week a happy Power, Path & Performance vocal student told me she wished everyone knew what was possible. So I told her I'd do a blogpost on it.

Here are 13 of the many surprising things your voice could do:

1. You can learn to sing without vocal strain. This blows some people away to realize.

2. You can learn to sing on pitch. Most of the time it's not even your ear that's the problem, but if it is, it's amazing what a little pitch practice can do.

3. You have more vocal range than you imagine. You can sing higher in chest voice, without strain, when you learn to use mixed or middle voice to do it. You can also sing lower than you think. You enable low notes just like you do high notes... by stretching, not crunching.

4. Your voice is capable of richer, more interesting tone than you think is natural to you. You find your full resonance by learning to open your 'voice cave' so that the vibrations from your larynx can reach all your resonators.

5. You can learn new vocal licks, and learn to use them appropriately to reach the heart of your audience instead of sounding fake. There are tricks good vocal teachers know to help you.

6. Even if you have breathing issues, you can have enough breath to sing. It doesn't take much when you do it right.You can sing long notes without running out of breath. The answer is to balance breath support and control.

7. Your voice can get better with age. As long as your physical health is good, you can find even more resonance and ability, not less, as you get older.

8. You can learn to sing in the studio with the magic you get in live performance. You can also learn to sing live as well as you record, if you are a veteran session singer. Performance coaches can do wonders!

9. You have all the voice you need to deliver a message in any style except classical, if you just know how to "play your instrument". (Don't you know a singer whose technique is lacking but whose voice moves you?)

10. You can sing "ee" and "oo" vowels (and all other ones, too) on high pitches without getting tight. You learn to modify the vowels more openly and vertically and no more squeaky highs!

10. You can get a handle on numbness and stage anxiety when you learn the psychological and body language secrets of making your performance about your audience, not you.

11. You can learn to speak more effectively...without vocal fatigue or strain. The lack of strain in the speaking voice can be life-changing for public speakers and teachers, but benefits your singing voice as well.

12. You can mend frustrating vocal breaks. I used to have the worst "break" I'd ever heard of. I conquered it and now I know how to help others do the same.

13. You can afford to train your voice. Even one Power, Path and Performance vocal lesson can help you. You can get PPP training materials online and have a vocal lesson every day if you want!

So... I'd like to hear from you. What do you think your voice can't do?

The confusion of differing vocal training methods

I've had a lot of queries about my vocal lessons which start with the question "what method of vocal training do you use?" A fair enough question, but more complicated to answer than you might think.

I teach my trademarked method "Power, Path & Performance". It is a three-pronged approach to training voices that I have developed revolving around breath, open throat and authentic communication of message. I find that when I can help a vocalist maximize their abilities in these three areas, they have all the voice they could ever need, and it almost always surprises them how much voice this is. These three areas are synergistic, meaning if something is wrong in one area, it will affect the other two as well. Thus, if you have a tight throat you are not able to focus on communication and you will have tight breath as well. If you have not taken enough breath you will tighten your ribcage which pushes the vocal cords and the throat tightens against the pressure... well, I think you get the idea. The opposite is also true-- get something right in one area and other areas will benefit.

The teaching points that separate my method from others are: my focus on this synergistic action, and that my emphasis on how authentically you deliver the message ("Performance") is equal to my focus on how you breathe and how open your throat is.

Now, there are all kinds of different issues vocalists bring to these three areas of vocal technique. There are also all kinds of ways to correct the problems, strengthen and coordinate the muscles and relax the counter-productive tension that frees the voice. Here is where the "art" of vocal training comes in. I have to ask myself what this particular student needs help with, and how best can I facilitate that help.

Most of my training ideas come from my years of observation of my own and others' voices and what makes them stronger, safer and more effective in practical application. However, I use concepts from any training method that works. I've studied all kinds of methods and teachers, and have pulled vocal secrets from everything I study. I'm still studying and intend to for the rest of my life. It is my belief that this is true of all other intuitive, responsible and effective vocal coaches.

The teachers whose products I have in my vocal training library include such diverse practitioners as Van Christy, Jeffrey Allen, Jamie Vendera, Billy Purnell, Anne Peckham, Melissa Cross, Jeannie Deva, Robert Lunte, Lisa Popeil, Joanna Casden, Dena Murray, Seth Riggs. The latest discipline I've been fascinated to discover is the body work of Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique. My hat's off to AT practitioner Ethan Kind, with whom I've double-teamed some students. I learned so much from this master.

There are all kinds of methods of training voices. Here's the truth: If there is a singer (or speaker) giving a great vocal performance to a room full of vocal coaches, each coach better see his or her training method in that performance. It's that simple... vocal training must work in practical application, or it's useless!!

Here's my two-part challenge to encourage sharing vocal knowledge:

1. Do you have a particular teacher, vocal training method or vocal training product (book, cd, dvd) that you would recommend for study?
2. Do you know (or are you) a teacher whom you believe could benefit from studying "Power, Path & Performance" vocal training?

Singing At The Piano? 7 Tips For Keyboard and Voice Synergy

As a singer who frequently plays keyboard instruments, and a vocal coach who works with a lot of piano players, there are things I've had to learn about the most efficient ways of accomplishing this musical multitasking. Depending on how you do it, playing keys can either help or hurt your singing. Here are 7 piano/singer tips for you:

• Prepare by playing and singing separately.

It's extremely important to practice your voice and your keyboard separately so you can put your undivided attention to the task. When practicing the keyboard part, just sing very lightly if at all, going over to head voice on high parts. When practicing singing, sing acapella or to a piano track you've recorded, or just play "diamonds" or simple chord changes so that you can focus your attention on your vocal technique. When you get them both right and easy, start putting them together. If there are syncopated or complicated rhythms in the piano, even this can become muscle memory as you carefully put voice and fingers together and PRACTICE!

• Get your posture right.

Sit or stand tall, retaining a flexible feeling in your spine. Slumping, for any reason, is "smooch de mort" (kiss of death) for the voice. It will negatively affect your inhale, breath support and control of breath. It will also tighten your throat. Standing or sitting...do not lean forward in such a way that you collapse your ribcage at all.

• Get your mic right.

Make sure the mic is positioned close enough to your mouth so you don't have to lean over to sing into it. Also make sure it's high enough to encourage that tall spine. This will greatly improve your breath and open throat technique.

• Get your power coming from your seat or your feet.

I see way too many keyboard players powering their voices from their shoulders. You need to center your power in your pelvic floor so you are not tempted to tighten your shoulders, neck, jaw- all of which tighten your throat and your breath. And absolutely yes, if you sit correctly, you can sing sitting as well as you can standing. But you must sit on the edge of your seat, not back into it, so that it feels the same as standing. Squeeze your butt against the seat for power. If you're standing, power from your heel.

• Secure your pedals

If your feet have to slide forward looking for a slipping pedal, you will find your performance focus thrown off, along with a possible sudden posture slippage. Ducktape can be a keyboard player's lifesaver. I keep a roll in my cord bag at all times.

• Lightly use your fingers on the keys to tip your balance over your tailbone instead of into the keys.

Don't press hard enough to cause tension in hands, wrists or fingers. Just lightly "intend" your fingers to keep you flexibly tall and open... and not slumping.

• Be a singer who is playing piano... not a piano player who is singing.

This one is a mindset issue. You have to put your priority on communicating your voice, and your playing HAS to be secondary when you're doing it at the same time. For an interim instrumental bridge, go ahead and focus on the keys, but when it's time to sing.. back to your voice and the message you're delivering.

Singing The Whole Line: The Slinky Principle

As a vocal coach I use the Slinky in my vocal lessons to demonstrate several things... here's another.

Put a Slinky in your hands and play with it for a moment. Now, think of the left hand as the "set up" of the line. If you don't have that end in your hand, the Slinky doesn't work very well, does it? If you don't set your line up, deliberately singing THAT LYRIC on THAT PITCH, your line is sabotaged.

Think of the right hand as the "follow through". Drop that end of the Slinky. Slinky doesn't work anymore. If you don't communicate and support the end of the line, the audience is left to wonder what you said (drives them crazy and not in a good way). And... your high note in the middle of the phrase is sabatoged.

When you sing or speak, set your lines up and completely follow through. And play with Slinkys a lot. And ask my students about hoola hoops and Martian Popping Things:)

Vocal Training: Why Your Audience Shouldn't Hear It

I got a very interesting comment about over-trained singers at my page on The Modern Vocalist.com:

"What I strive for: no two voices are the same. It's that unique strong signature characteristic that separates people who can sing from people who become icons in music. Take Sting for example... not the greatest vocalist, but there's no mistaking that aged husky whimper of his. Technique is important for power and control, but I find that there are too many people sounding too trained. I believe that one should incorporate one's personality into one's sound as much as possible in order to go about creating that strong iconic signature sound that no one else can recreate. Take Chino from Deftones-that guy can't sing a note- but the Deftones wouldn't be anything without him. Same goes for Trent Reznor from Nine inch Nails. I think it's a fine balance between a trained and untrained voice that needs to be found." - Timothy Ian David Lester

This is, in fact, why some people think you can know too much about music or voice. They feel that too much musical knowledge can cause a musician or singer to over-think and turn their art... artificial. Actually, sometimes they are right-- but only because they are not being taught well, in my humble opinion.

The first thing we vocal coaches should do is to interview our new student and find out what his or her vocal and musical goals really are. Do they need to sing classical songs to get into (or through) college with a major in voice? Do they want to sing what they are writing... r&b, country, pop, jazz, hiphop, alternative... we must know so we don't guide them into a style that is not where their heart is. Yes, people can learn to sing both classical and popular genres, but sometimes the jump can be hard. It's like learning to speak different languages VERY FLUENTLY. Yes, you can do it but it takes time, careful & accurate coaching and exposure to the masters of the musical genres you want to sing to do multiple genres well. If you want to sing in more than two or three genres (like pro session singers must), this is what I call "stunt singing". Does your student really want to be a jack of all trades or do they want to be a master of ... one?

I believe we need to do exactly what Timothy is suggesting... help our clients find their UNIQUENESS. This is what really sets the heart free, and sometimes gives a vocalist a career as a recording and performing artist. It really takes experimentation, a feeling of safety to try on new ways of using the voice, and feedback from someone with great intuition about how an audience would react to what they are hearing. We want an audience's immediate reaction to be: "Wow what a song- and what a delivery of that song!"... not "Wow, I wonder who this artist's vocal coach is and what method they use?"

My favorite artists actually play with their voices, sometimes "de-supporting" for a weak, sensual or sad sound... but when it's time for business they ramp up all the vocal wisdom they ever learned and deliver such controlled power that we are mesmerized with their song. They scream, use breathy or husky sounds on purpose, but ... and here's the rub... they NEVER hurt either the listener's ear or their voice. It's like an aural (instead of an optical) illusion. And it comes from being - you guessed it - very well trained.

A good example is the masterful performance of a great actor. If they are doing what they should, you never even detect the slightest whiff of "acting", do you? But you can bet your bottom dollar that they used top dollar acting teachers to get to the level they are at in their craft. According to her biography, Janis Joplin planned every "impromptu" scream she did.

A singer who is serious should be trained... by an insightful and wise vocal coach who will train them so well you don't hear "vocal training" when they sing. You hear... a song that elicits from you an emotional response. Period.

What do you think?