Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Personal Touch of Private Voice Lessons

The Personal Touch of Individual Voice Lessons

Weekly time spent singing with a voice teacher and identifying what is going on with your voice right now is invaluable.  Outside ears and eyes help identify where you are that day or week and professional guidance and diligent work can take you to the next level.  Although we establish good vocal technique using proper breathing, support, and vowel placement, sometimes it takes time to get there.  Through dedicated practice and patience you can develop a beautiful singing voice.  It is not an overnight (or couple of week) process.

Persistence is the key as your body is your instrument.  Muscle memory develops over time and helps you sing with consistency throughout your range with a stronger, more balanced tone.  Just like training to run a 5K, your body remembers what it should do and needs to do to create a stronger sound.  It pulls on its resources, muscle memory!

If you are pursuing singing, there can be no rush!! There is no reason to wait to begin the journey but no rushing the development! Vocal muscles develop with the natural athleticism they have. If you try too hard or go too fast, it is dangerous. -Susan Eichhorn Young

Our bodies and voices change on a weekly basis (sometimes daily) because our lives are continually changing.  Your technique may be working wonderfully and a few days later there may be some troubles in a particular spot.  You may not notice it on a consistent basis but sporadically.  Has your muscle memory kicked in enough to know what to do when you are not feeling 100%?  Are you an adolescent going through puberty therefore in constant change?  Weekly voice lessons can help you identify what is going on quickly and provide you with solutions.

What we hear while we’re singing just isn’t true, so we are always dependent on someone we trust to take the role of our ‘outside ears’.  Renee Fleming


How do you trouble shoot on your own?

There are a few questions you can always ask yourself:

Have you been eating differently?  Did you stop drinking enough water?  Stayed up late a lot?  Has your posture changed?  Not worked out recently?  Are you stressed?  Did you go to a concert and sing too loudly for too long?  Do you have a cold and need techniques to sing above it?  Find a voice teacher you trust to help you.

For more information regarding voice lessons visit http://www.susanandersbrizick.com/ or sign up for my free newsletter.