Breathing for Singing In general, I don’t teach too many breathing exercises to my students. In my opinion, all singing exercises are breathing exercises. Many singers who are trained with a lot of breathing exercises often to build tension into their singing; however, insecurity around breathing creates mental and emotional uncertainty in a student’s overall ability to […]

Better Singing With Vocalises — Étude is a French word, meaning “study.” Most études are short musical compositions which present the musician with specific technical challenges, the mastery of which develop the particular skills for which the étude was composed. It is common for great instrumentalists to include playing études in their daily practice. In vocal music, an étude […]

Powerful Singing: Volume Vs. Intensity One thing that seems to cause confusion in singing is the difference between intensity and volume. Often a singer will try to get an intense tone by pulling their chest voice higher and higher through their range. This, over the short term, can cause vocal strain; and over the long term it can cause vocal […]

How Frequently To Take Voice Lessons I sometimes hear a new or potential student tell me that they, as beginners, would like to come in for a lesson every few weeks, and then once they are more advanced they will bump it up to weekly lessons. This is actually the opposite of how things should work, […]

How Long Does Vocal Training Take? The one question that wins out as the most frequently asked question of all is “How long will these lessons take before I can sing well?” My answer is always the same: “I have absolutely no idea.” Success in vocal training really depends on several factors, including: a) the student’s inherent […]