I have been teaching voice lessons online since the start of my career 30+ years ago. Because the lessons are virtual singing lessons, the online platform provides me with access to teaching singers internationally, even as far away as China. It is an honor and privilege to be able to meet and work with so many different nationalities, and the countless that live in different states across the USA. It’s with virtual singing lessons that make this all possible.
I used to teach both in-person and online before the Pandemic and Covid-19 lockdowns. Once those lockdowns began, I moved all of my students online. Many were skeptical and apprehensive about it. But what I asked of each of those face-to-face singers is that they give these virtual singing lessons just one shot before they determine whether this will work or not; how effective voice lessons online might be, maybe even more so, than when we met for those in-person lessons. One lesson was all it took for those face-to-face students to become avid believers in voice lessons online and to realize that these lessons were just as valuable as any lesson I ever gave in person.
Virtual singing lessons work so well because I have a very gifted ear, otherwise known as a clairaudient ear. That means I can hear, see, feel and sense through listening to sound alone when a singer sings what is going on that is creating problems. Most teachers cannot. I can diagnose issues the singer is encountering after singing just five notes of any given vocal exercise, or the first phrase of any song.
Usually the issues a singer might be facing all boils down to bad habits that they’ve cultivated in efforts to compensate for what they know they don’t have or feel lacking in their voice to achieve the desired results. This almost always is the result of employing misperceived ideas about how to use the diaphragm for support. It isn’t the diaphragm that is causing the problems. It is the misuse of the amount of air you take in and/or the lack of development of the muscles and cartilages that are responsible for the stretch of the vocal cords (a different size stretch) for every single pitch the singer sings.
This is where, as a teacher, I come in. I will teach the singer precisely how to achieve what they are trying to achieve without having to manipulate their body in unnatural and uncomfortable ways. One of the goals is to teach the singer how to become their own teacher. One can only do that if they have been given all the right tools to work with as to how to self-correct when practicing on their own. That means learning what is right way from wrong.
When singers come to me for these virtual singing lessons, they already know when it’s wrong. How do they know? Answer: the body always tells the singer when it is wrong and when it is right. If it is too hard, it’s wrong. If it is easy, it’s right. If the singer feels the neck straining, tightening, or squeezing shut, it’s wrong. If the singer finds themselves losing so much air that they can’t sing all the way through a phrase, it’s wrong. If the singer feels fatigued after singing just two songs, it’s wrong. But if it is effortless, easy, and fun, it is right.
Singing is supposed to be easy and not feel like a chore or just plain hard work. The hardest part of learning how to sing properly is going from being taught what is wrong (which once pointed out, the singer feels immediately) to understanding what makes it right, easy, and effortless. It is all that stands between the wrong and right that boggles the mind until the singer reaches the 50/50 mark.
Once the singer reaches 50/50 it means they are doing it right half the time and there is no going back. Why? Answer: because by then the singer has too much information. They now know when it is wrong. They feel it and hear it on playback. So once at 50/50, the percentage only goes up from there.
Those that were driving to me from within the LA County area would get stuck in traffic for 45 minutes just going one way. Now these students have become advocates of taking virtual singing lessons with me because it comes with the additional benefit of no drive time, no traffic, and taking these voice lessons online from the comfort of their own home.
View my other blog posts on: