Kate's Voice

It’s almost summer and some of you have a goal to study voice while your schedule is more relaxed.  Others of you may have decided to skip the vacation and do something closer to home that you’ve been wanting to do for a long time…like studying singing.  But how do you make sure you are not wasting your time with a teacher?  After all, anyone can hang up a shingle and say they are a voice teacher.  There is no FDA for regulating those who teach singing.  So here is a little guide to finding someone who can really help you.

When someone has trouble singing the way they want to, a voice teacher tries to identify the problem and  help the singer sing again…or better…or finally!  It is curious, however, that there seem to be almost as many ways to describe and fix problems as there are singing teachers.  Certainly there seem to be many techniques out there and trying to identify whether or not a particular teacher can help you can be as difficult as herding cats!  Yet every singing teacher seems to think they have the answer and, like merchants in a bazaar, they hawk their wares with authority and charismatic charm.  Often, we singing teachers cling to the belief of the one true way, which is ours, of course, and stake claim to singing methods and teaching ideas that cannot really be claimed at all.

Any teacher, whether they teach singing or biology, is a product of their teachers and their personal experiences.  Therefore, though they may teach a particular approach, their way will actually be unique.  I worked with Seth Riggs for many years and before that I worked with one of his proteges…and several people who had no connection to him at all.  I certainly believe in what he taught me as it really made a difference in my voice, but it is not the only thing I learned about singing that worked for me!  Speech Level Singing is not a software that any “certified professional” can plug in and therefore teach just like Seth.  However, it is good for those teachers who are certified as it gives them some referrals, and it may be good for you IF you find a teacher who can really teach that technique AND is also someone you feel you can trust with your voice.  Those two requirements are not always found in the same person AND speech level singing is not the only technique that works!!

So, how do you find a singing teacher that will really help YOU? Here are some simple steps to follow that will make the search a little easier:

1.  Get references.  You can do this several ways.  Call a local college or university and find out if any of their voice teachers give private lessons, or have students who do.  Or go to a musical theater production or a nightclub or coffee shop and listen to singers with the idea of identifying one you’d like to emulate.  Then go backstage and talk to them about their singing teacher.  Or go to recitals or concerts at universities and colleges and listen for singers who have a lot of range, nice tone, good diction and good stage presence.  Find out with whom they study and get the contact information you need to reach that singing teacher.  Eventually your sleuth work will lead to a list of singing teachers with whom you may want to study.

2. Take some lessons and record them. Call the singing teachers on your list and schedule some lessons.  It’s a good idea to take lessons from three or four singing teachers before landing on the one for you.  Commit to their instruction, at least for a time to see what results or better understanding you get, if any.

3.  Ask questions. Ask how long the singing teacher has taught voice.  What is important to them in developing singers’ voices?  What are their students doing with their voices?  Where do they sing?  What makes a good singing voice good?  What do they expect of their voice students?

4.  Consider how well you get along with each singing teacher.  Ask yourself if you can learn from them.  There are many approaches and many personalities. You must find a teacher that suits your personality and your style of learning and one who gets good results.

5.  Listen to your recordings. Try everything the teacher asks you to do even if it seems strange, and ask questions if you don’t understand or wonder why you are making those strange sounds!  And by the way, you WILL make strange sounds!  Work with each recording for a week at home.

6.  Select your teacher after comparing each one and your experience with them and their instructions.  Then, commit to their instruction wholeheartedly and practice, practice, practice!!

It will take a month or two to find the right singing teacher this way, but you will have a better shot at finding one from whom you can learn.

Years ago, I was performing a role in a show when I came down with a bad case of laryngitis.  I did not have a cold, and it wasn’t clear to me how I had contracted laryngitis, but there was no doubt that my voice was gone.  Since the show needed to go on and I didn’t have an understudy, I did what any good singer would;  I went to see a laryngologist who gave me steroids.  The steroids cleared up most of the symptoms and I finished the run that weekend as if there had been no problem with my voice…mostly!

On the Monday following the show’s closing, I woke up to find that the laryngitis was back even worse than before.  I absolutely had no voice for days.  Subsequently, I learned that this can happen with the use of steroids because they don’t actually cure the problem.  They mask it.  I wasn’t too upset however because I needed the rest, but when two weeks went by without any significant improvement, it was time to return to the laryngologist.  After looking at my vocal folds with a laryngoscope he told me that it looked like I had been singing in a smoke-filled bar for hours each night! I needed extreme vocal rest. Since I had NOT been singing in a bar at all, or anywhere else for two weeks, he suggested that it must be allergies and prescribed an antihistamine along with the rest.  Eventually, the laryngitis went away, but it was still another few weeks before I was completely healed.

Looking back, it is clear to me that allergies were probably an important part of the picture, but I also know that I was going through a difficult personal time as well.  If I lost my voice today, I might ask different questions of the situation than I did at the time. Instead of running straight to the doctor, I might stop a moment to ask myself first what I needed to say that I was having difficulty saying.  I might ask myself something like “If you could find your voice, how and where would you find it? And if you could say anything you wanted to say without being worried about what someone else would think, what would you say?”

The part of ourselves we call our “voice” is more than muscles and sound.  It is how we express ourself in the world.   In fact, it is fascinating to know that our phsyical voice creates an image on an oscilloscope as unique as a fingerprint.  Your “voice” is a representation of the unique person you are.  It is a metaphor for your personality and ideas. In writing a blog or a book, your opinion is still your “voice.”  You can still “speak” in an e-mail.  You have a “voice” even when it is inaudible.  Therefore, when we can’t speak physically, it might be useful to look at the deeper issue of blocks to our personal expression for the underliying answer to the issue.