Jeanie’s Blog

“People who are famous have to be good at whatever they do because they are famous”.  – J. Q. Public Really? There are famous people in every profession. Famous lawyers, doctors, Indian Chiefs. There are many famous performers, famous painters, famous composers. There are people who have been famous for a few hundred years and people who ...

Many people understand the basics of vocal function. They “get” that the vocal folds vibrate, they change pitch, the resist the airflow, they affect registration. People understand that we breathe in the lungs, that the abdominal muscles pressure the air from below, through the viscera, as we release air while singing. They understand that the ...

While shopping today I was in a store that played “top 40s” songs as background music. I was struck by how similar all the songs were to each other and how much the voices were the same. I admit, I don’t follow these songs much so I don’t profess to be an expert at discerning ...

When you go to a used car lot to buy a car, how do you know if the car you are buying is what they say it is? One good thing that we have now is online resources. You can look up all kinds of things about cars before you buy one. How do you know ...

I had a colleague, long gone from this world, who deplored the use of the terms “the singing voice” and “the speaking voice”.  Many times I heard her in frustration say, “There is only one set of vocal folds. It’s all one mechanism. There is no need ever to say, speaking voice or singing voice, ...

By definition, a teacher evaluates a student’s progress in any given subject as part of the process of learning and assimilating new information. That evaluation can be helpful or lethal, depending on how it is delivered. We have all been on the receiving end of both. As teachers, it is imperative that we tell the truth to ...

Many decades ago I worked with a Broadway actress who was cast in a new show as the lead. She had had little vocal training and was singing music written by someone who had been successful but “hated” voices that were “trained”. He wrote all the music for himself (a kind of baritone, sort of), ...

We don’t hold composers responsible for writing music that is  difficult to sing. In fact, we allow them to write music that is frequently ridiculous from a vocal standpoint. If the singer can’t make it work, it’s the singer who is at fault. Really? People do lots of things that can either be regarded as brave and ...

A student who goes to college to learn how to become a professional singer must go to a program that offers a degree in vocal performance or an equivalent in vocal training. The vast majority of those colleges give the student one voice lesson a week, typically an hour long. In some programs where there is ...

I am a believer in leaving things alone and letting them develop on their own wherever possible. I don’t think that singing teachers should decide what high school students (or worse, middle school students) are, vocally. “You have a big voice”. I have heard this pronouncement about a 12 year old. “You are a lyric soprano.” This, from ...

People decide to do research for various reasons. In order to do good research you have to have decent questions to ask. Having decent questions requires knowledge of your subject. It’s a kind of classic catch 22, you have to know what you don’t know in order to find out about what you don’t know when ...

Dr. Perry Santos graciously gave an excellent 90-minute presentation on vocal health at our just completed Level I Somatic Voicework™ training at the University of Central Oklahoma. His information was aimed directly at the participants (teachers of singing, new and experienced) and was very “user-friendly” in that it allowed us to more fully understand vocal ...

It is very hard to create standards when no one is willing to make them. Without an organizing body taking charge of such a task, it is impossible. Individual teachers of singing cannot, alone, do this, no matter how much credibility they may have. In order to establish a “method” or approach, a governing body ...

If you answer the phone, “Hello”, and the response you hear is, “Hi,” but that response is made by someone you love and is uttered as part of a sob, you immediately know to respond, “What’s wrong? What happened”? How is that possible? In just two seconds, you knew. No visual clues, no body language or ...

In voice research done on singers to determine vocal function while singing, it is IMPERATIVE that the singing being studied be excellent. It is IMPERATIVE that it represent market standard sounds and that the examples reflect those of others who are out in the world working as singers in any given style. If I am researching ...