Sound Advice from Monica
When it comes to the freedom, beauty and strength of the voice, I’m always panning for gold. I like to gather nuggets of wisdom from my beloved teachers, colleagues, students, books and my own vocal practice and experimentation. If someone teaches me something, I’m always judicious, trying it out, clarifying the instruction and checking its value before passing it on. All the lessons I’ve taken through the years have led to many “ah-ha” moments and ultimately have informed my vocal philosophy. Here is a sampling of my teaching philosophy as expressed in my lessons with my students.
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 [...]
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 [...]
Sound Advice #21 – The Struggle For Vocal Consistency
The past week, two of my students who take voice lessons in my Marin voice studio expressed their yearning for more consistency in their singing. I know this desire well: the ability to have your [...]
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 [...]
Sound Advice #19 – Speaking of Which, Speech Lessons are Fascinating!
When I suffered vocal nodules in college, based on stupidly tackling difficult opera on a tense body, I took speech therapy to heal the damage. I remember doing a lot of breath work on the [...]
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 [...]