How Do I Teach?

My approach to teaching voice has been inspired by my own teachers, informed by a range of experiences as a singer and performer, and continues to evolve.

A “typical” lesson begins with breathwork and moves to a series of vocal exercises designed to increase your awareness of your body as a singing instrument. How can you allow the voice to move freely on a stream of air, with just enough support, into uninhibited vibration and resonance ? The articulation of vowels and consonants will be integrated into these exercises as well as understood within the context of songs we choose to work on.

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If you are experiencing fear or somatic resistance to letting the voice open, it might also be valuable to embark on a series of improvisational exercises. In addition to “loosening up” and playing, areas of chronic tension and holding in the body can be unlocked. Ideally this work would be combined with the approach previously mentioned, i.e., developing a high degree of technical awareness and control and ultimately moving beyond the confines of a “pretty” or “trained” vocal sound into true voice.....always a discovery in the moment to be visited again and again.

Guiding and witnessing a student’s voice unfold and open is a miraculous and inspiring process. My goal is to lead you to an embodied voice and the pure pleasure of singing from your deepest sense of self.