One of the major differences between being a singer and being an instrumentalist is that as a singer, both the instrument and the player are HUMAN!! So, while the pianist develops strength and agility in his hands, the piano is a man made machine that remains pretty consistent during training and performance. I use endless dance analogies for two reasons. One, I am an incredibly frustrated dancer, and two, the dancer and his instrument are both human. That of course means that there is also major psychology that goes along with the muscularity but we will address that a little later. (In great detail since you’re all nuts……..not me….I’m the teacher.)
So just speaking muscularly, vocal technique is developing the strength of your voice, and, your ability to sing. They really are two different things and the talent is more attached to the latter. In a dance context, it’s easy to see. If someone in class is overweight and weak but seems to have a sense of the movement and music, they need to get in shape and start executing the movements at a higher level. How to do that..? Take class. Conversely, there’s always someone who looks great in the tights, seems to have the movements of the exercises down , yet when the music comes on, the movement is immature and disappointing. They need to integrate the strenth into the desired artistic result. How to do that..? Take class. This always makes complete logical sense to everyone , yet it disappoints those who would like it to be much more mysterious and personal. Sorry snowflakes* , but the good news is that everything is fixable!
As I said in the homepage video, singing isn’t something that starts with lessons. You sing because you can. People sing even when they can’t, but they know it. Yes, they do!
That said, and the addition of speaking all day, means you’re already coming into this with a fair amount of muscle. So the work is really more about alignment and proportion than building from a clean slate. The alignment issue and disproportionate muscle is revealed and corrected in the exercises. The same way the dancer sees the incorrect position by looking in the mirror and corrects it by looking in the mirror, the singer will hear the lack of response by doing the exercise and will correct it by doing it again!
You’re feeling out of shape, you haven’t sung in a long time, you need to get back . How to do that?…Do the lessons.
You’ve been singing, you’re not happy, it’s not where you wanted your voice to go, you need to get control over how you’re playing your instrument. How to do that?….Do the lessons.
Lesson 1 is and will always be a main stay in my diet. It is not to anyone’s advantage to jump into muscle work too aggressively and since I like a slow warm up, I use all of or parts of Lesson 1 before some of the more complicated lessons. Start now, it’ll feel good!!!
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