This year marks my twenty-sixth year of teaching. Granted, when I first started teaching voice in the mid-nineties, I only had a couple of students. And if memory serves, I really didn’t know what I was doing. Still, my first two gracious and willing singing students gave me a start into a career of voice instruction that I continue to enjoy and develop in to … Continue reading Teaching Stripped Bare // Daniel K. Robinson
As voice teachers, we commonly work on how the voice sounds, feels and how to produce the sound necessary to create a beautiful tone that can be reproduced consistently without difficulty and strain. We as a community are starting to embrace teaching techniques that allow for health, well being and good sound production within modern music styles and singing practices. We are no longer afraid … Continue reading The Importance of Rhythm in Singing Modern Black American Music Styles // Alison Crockett
Please stop creating positions for popular musics voice teachers in your mostly classical voice department if you’re not going to provide the students with the full range of resources and training they really need to be successful in these genres. Will they be required to write and sing their own songs as part of their lessons? Will there be songwriting professors on faculty to help … Continue reading Before you create that popular musics voice teacher position… // Jess Baldwin
Vocal effects have come a long way since the days of reverb chambers, tape delays, and the autotune explorations of Cher and T-Payne. As the effects have become more advanced and nuanced, vocal production has become a recognizable aspect of a singer’s tone, in addition to their vocal qualities. It’s hard to imagine T-Payne’s voice without the autotune (though we can hear it, and it’s … Continue reading Vocal Production for Singers: Using Layering and Effects to Shape Your Sound (Part 1) // Kelly Hoppenjans
One of the most frequent questions I get from voice teachers asking me advice about teaching in popular music spaces is: “What repertoire should I use?” The first time someone asked me this question, I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t actually understand what they were asking – or even WHY they were asking it. But, after thinking for a minute – I said: WHATEVER THE STUDENT … Continue reading The Thing About Repertoire // Kat Reinhert
In recent years, I’ve become somewhat of a “gender killjoy” within my vocal pedagogy community. I wouldn’t say I ever set out to be THAT person, but I’m happy to accept the role. I am myself a nonbinary queer person, and so you could say this issue is personal for me. By “killjoy,” I don’t necessarily mean that I’m out to spoil everyone’s fun, but … Continue reading The Gendered Singing Voice: Burn it all down! // Jessye DeSilva
You’ve seen personality charts. From your daily horoscope and Cosmo quizzes to in-depth analyses like Meyers-Briggs and Clifton Strengths. We love to find out about ourselves, and personality charts are all about that! They become useful tools when the light they shed can help us, professionally or personally. As a voice teacher your personality and teaching style have attracted students and encouraged them to stay … Continue reading Read the Room with the SING Personality Profile // Meredith Colby
There are many aspects to teaching Contemporary Popular (Commercial) Music (CCM) singing styles. Besides healthy production—a huge topic to be sure, and not that different from traditional Western training—contemporary popular styles vary from traditional training in placement, registers, and tonal qualities. We also focus on stylistic aspects of the many popular genres including jazz, rock, pop, R&B, gospel, blues, country, and latin styles, to name … Continue reading Four Essential Aspects for Styling a Contemporary Popular Song: Rhythm, Tone, Dynamics, and Vibrato (Part 1) // Jeannie Gagné
Has anyone gotten to know themselves a little better after this last year? I was already on a discovery journey, so maybe this self-knowing became more intensified for me. The pandemic and horror show of a year made me question my priorities and why I was doing what I was doing. I even went through a period in late summer where I was conflicted about … Continue reading Who do you serve? // Julie Dean
Join our contributors for these upcoming workshops! Moving from Appropriation to Appreciation in the White-Owned Voice Studio // Jess Baldwin & Michelle Markwart Deveaux Friday, March 12⋅11:30am – 1:30pm Jessica Baldwin and Michelle Markwart Deveaux have developed a brave space for white voice teachers of popular musics who are ready to take actionable steps toward repertoire justice. Repertoire justice is the act of educating ourselves … Continue reading March Workshops
