What makes a vocal performance musical? Music can be broken down to four basic elements: rhythm/duration, pitch, timbre, and dynamic. As vocalists, we spend a lot of time focusing on pitch and timbre, but can fall short on the other two elements of rhythm and dynamics. The difference between a singer who’s just a singer and a singer who’s also a musician is mastery of all four elements of musicality. In this article we’re going to look at dynamics, including a series of exercises to help you develop your use of them.

Chances are, you’re spending an unusual amount of time at home right now. Whether you’re quarantined or just practicing social distancing to protect yourself and others, you likely have more time on your hands than usual. This is a great opportunity to make lemons into lemonade and use this extra time to love your voice.

I get asked this question a lot by my students and clients. We are what we eat and if we want to perform at our best, we need to eat well. Many foods cause our bodies to produce excess mucus, leading to throat clearing and difficulty singing and speaking. So from all the many tempting, convenient food choices out there, what’s the best food a singer or speaker should eat before performing to make us focused and performing at our very best?

One of the most common misconceptions among singers is that voice lessons won’t help them learn their chosen style of music.  Many fear that a vocal coach will force them to change from their preferred style to a genre that doesn’t suit them.  This very thing happened to me with my first singing teacher when I was sixteen, so I can understand this anxiety.

Everyday, more and more people want to know how to sing for all kinds of reasons, but some people question if they are too old or too young to learn.  The question of age and singing comes up a lot and this is my perspective on it. As a vocal coach, I know firsthand that our voices do change as we age.  However, it’s also true that our singing voices don’t fully mature until we’re in our 30s. That’s great news for singers wondering if they are too old to learn to sing.

Many students seek out voice lessons to improve their karaoke performance. Some students love it so much that they attend weekly karaoke sessions and events with their friends.  They’ll often say that, even though they love singing, they feel shy and unsure of their voice, and that they believe they can sing better but aren’t sure how to accomplish this. What’s the key ingredient their singing needs?   

When we see and hear professional singing, something makes the singer inside us want to join in.  We’re constantly surrounded by the sounds of professional vocalists - on streaming services, in our cars, even over the speaker in the grocery store - so it’s no surprise so many of us want to know how to sound like a pro.