Sound Advice #27 – Feelings, Nothing More Than Lovely Feelings…

Occasionally, in the middle of adult voice lessons, my student will be singing and then burst into tears. Oh, no! Are they OK? Did somebody die? No, it’s usually a confluence of things, perhaps brought on by a little fatigue. It could be that the words are so moving, they bring the singer to tears. [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:52+00:00April 16th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #26 – Those Whose Work Inspires Us

I graduated from the Alexander Technique teacher training in 2002 and I immediately started sharing the technique with my singing and voice students in my Marin studio. A few years later I was dissatisfied. The technique helps people address inefficient patterns of movement that can lead to pain when sitting, standing, and walking. In singing [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:52+00:00April 6th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #25 – The Spine and Vocal Support

When you take voice lessons with me in my Marin studio, you will be introduced to the Alexander Technique. In an Alexander lesson, you learn about “the primary movement,” a tiny release at the atlanto occipital joint – or what we sometimes call the head-neck joint. This release is a small but powerful movement that [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:53+00:00April 2nd, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #24 – Voice Lesson Protocol

As a teacher of voice lessons in Marin County and a singing student myself, I have learned through the years what is expected of me (and what I expect of my students) when taking voice lessons. From a teacher’s perspective, one might view it as the “business side” of voice teaching and as a student [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:53+00:00March 20th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #23 – Finding Your Breath

They call it the “breath of life”! And most of us, unless you suffer from asthma or emphysema, take it for granted. We inhale, we exhale, we inhale, we speak. We inhale, we sing. But not all students who come to my voice lessons and singing lessons in Marin are experienced with using the breath [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:53+00:00February 28th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #22 – Singing in the Second Half of Life

I have quite a few students who come to my Marin studio for singing lessons who are over the age of 65. And, I think the phrase I hear most from them is something to the effect of “I never had to think of this voice when I was younger” or “Singing used to be [...]

By |2018-11-27T21:25:53+00:00February 14th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #20 – Fear in Life, Fear while Performing

Sometimes adults come to my voice lessons with stage fright issues and I share what I have found effective to keep nerves at bay. However, I now understand that stage fright goes deeper than just performance. Anxiety can permeate many aspects of one’s life. It may be such an engrained aspect of our way of [...]

By |2018-01-16T01:48:05+00:00January 16th, 2018|Sound Advice|0 Comments

Sound Advice #18 – Cultivating Young Singers of Questionable Talent

During a voice lesson with one of my adult students, who is also a dad, I asked whether his daughter is also a singer. She isn’t, he said, and he thought that perhaps it had something to do with the fact that when she was younger, he would tell her not to “howl” when she [...]

By |2017-12-15T20:53:00+00:00December 15th, 2017|Sound Advice|0 Comments
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