There is one primary difference between SLS and many other popular approaches to teaching singing, and that difference has to do with what are called “Cause and Effect Exercises.” Some common methods of singing will involve teachers asking their students to do things like “Imagine a ball floating on a fountain of water,” “Act like you are smiling from the inside,” “Place the tone far forward into the masque,” etc. None of these pieces of imagery are incorrect, however the inherent flaw with using imagery when teaching singing is that imagery is not an accurate way to produce desired results on a consistent basis with each student. This is because everyone relates to imagery in different ways. If a student doesn’t understand or is not able to relate to the piece of imagery being given it can often become extremely frustrating for both the student and the teacher when the desired result remains elusive.
On the other hand, with SLS, a student is given exercises which give them the immediate experience of the desired vocal condition and which can be duplicated on a consistent basis. The student is no longer searching for nebulous results, instead they are experiencing immediate success in singing. Cause and Effect Exercises work for all singers of all levels. If a student comes into a lesson singing with nasality, high larynx, pulled chest, no chest voice, breathiness, or any other undesirable vocal condition, a well trained SLS instructor is able do diagnose the problem and give them exercises which instantaneously free their tone from the undesired vocal condition. The student has a direct experience of what the desired tone feels like. This new condition can then be duplicated repeatedly, until (very quickly) they are singing with this desired vocal condition automatically. Cause and Effect Exercises thus bypass the need to over-intellectualize, visualize, or hunt around for the desired results and thus save much valuable time in the vocal training process.
