The first questions I often ask new students are: “What do you wish your voice was able to do?” and “What do you wish your voice would stop doing?”. Many singers assume they are stuck with the default setting on their voice and don’t realize (until they take lessons) that there are often easy solutions to the things that have been bothering them about their voices for years. Of course, some of these solutions can take minutes and some of them need months or more of consistent work. Nevertheless, almost anything they can think of has a do-able fix. Working with a teacher can open up a world of possibilities for their voice.

Even professional, working singers sometimes are unaware of how much they have shaped their singing around their vocal limitations. When pro singers are sent by their agent or record company to work with me, they often express a concern that voice lessons might change what is unique and marketable about their sound. As a teacher, I feel it is ultimately my job to keep a singer working, so I agree I don’t want that to happen either. Instead, I explain it this way: some artists can make something beautiful with only a few, limited, colors on their palette; but what if they had access to every possible color? They would still have the tried-and-true colors but would now have the choice to add in more if needed.

I’ve often asked students, “Did you do that interesting thing with your voice because it was your choice as an artist, or because that’s the only thing your voice could do at that moment?” Inevitably those same artists observe that they like their voice more and feel more “at home” in it after we’ve worked together. Adding more artistic choice will always benefit any singer.

So now, let me ask you those questions:

• What do you wish your voice was able to do?
• What do you wish your voice would stop doing?
  
• If you have an answer to either or both of those, book a lesson with me so you can find all the colors available to you.