Being a Voice Teacher

As many of you know, I've been trained through the Transformational Voice Institute (www.transformvoice.com) to become a certified voice teacher, and better singer myself. I'm on the faculty and taught Voice Lab last summer in conjunction with my treasured colleague, Nevada Jones.
I wasn't expecting to have my first private voice student so soon...but the opportunity presented itself when I first met David, an artist I admire. I wanted a painting, and he wanted to improve his voice. David is not only an artist, but art teacher who frequently speaks in public forums, and at the age of 50 had never really liked his speaking voice. Plus, he had a wounding experience as a young would-be singer, in a would-be band, in his early teens.

David suggested we exchange a painting for voice lessons.

The painting has been hanging on my wall since we first made this arrangement, and I am IN LOVE with it. Look at the colors, the movement in this exquiste piece of art. Flamenco dancers in Barcelona, Spain, inspired David to paint this...and the thread/cord you see moving through the dancers is his painted interpretation of the music they were dancing to.

We had our third lesson today. I simply could not have been more pleased with his progress, and I couldn't ask for a better student. David is taking the lessons to heart and rehearsing in between our lessons. He's highly aware of his rib cage expanding, what we call the "plop" when breathing in and the belly expands, his onsets (the first sound coming out in voicing a vowel) have dramatically improved...his vocal folds are no longer being shut together...rather the sound comes out on the breath. He's already started to understand diction and registers. He's learning and incorporating so quickly, I hope I can keep up with him!

I write this today because I was frustrated after our session last week. I was concerned I wasn't giving my student what he needed. There was some backward breathing going on...in that the tummy was contracting while inhaling, the rib cage was collapsing, and there was a lot of tension in the shoulders, etc.

But I must have done something right, because in David's rehearsal over the week...he got it! We worked more and more today on speech, elongating and sustaining phrases, even a bit into diction and registers.

I have one awesome student here who is taking this work to heart. He's made incredible progress, and I simply couldn't be more happy! Mainly I'm happy for him. But I'm also happy for me...my teaching is getting through, despite the frustration and doubts I felt last week.

Yeay!!!