Jeanie’s Blog

If you are a good artist, you will serve the music. That means you will not only understand what the words mean, literally, you will understand what they mean to you. You will also understand how that meaning effects you, what it does to you emotionally and how that emotion (or state of mind) shows ...

OK, to continue from yesterday’s post. Does knowing that you have an engine in your car make you a better driver? No. Does knowing that your piano has strings, hammers and a sounding board make you a better pianist? No. Does understanding you have a heart that beats all day long make it beat more efficiently? That would ...

Why is it so hard for singing teachers to decide anything concrete? WHY???????? They can’t decide that you have to know even one single factual piece of information. The argument for this is that people have done very well learning to sing by knowing nothing and teaching only flowery images for technical training. Great. For all ...

Symposium for Voice Performance and Pedagogy An intensive weekend program and conversation about current issues of vocal health, pedagogy, and musical style, including contemporary commercial music JANUARY 31 to FEBRUARY 2, 2014 Oberlin Conservatory of Music 39 W. College St., Oberlin, Ohio 44074 Master classes intended for teachers and students Lectures covering current issues of contemporary commercial music (CCM), vocal wellness, ...

When I attended the lectures of Eckhardt Tolle last year one of the questions he was asked was “how can we make the world a better place”? The answer Tolle gave was for each of us to be as present as possible, one moment at a time. Simple, but profound, advice. If you think about it, ...

Some systems of teaching singing are based upon holding onto the muscles in the throat deliberately while singing. This makes people feel in control and gives them a sense that they can “make” their throats do what they want. Why anyone would want to sing this way is a mystery to me, but I think ...

It is necessary to have a system of teaching that is both clear and fluid. (Chiarofluido?) Rigid systems or methods have a set way of teaching and individuals are not allowed to vary from the set principles in any way. There is “one right way” and that way is the “best”. Things have to fall in ...

If you were being stared at, scrutinized, and told to do things you either had never done or were new to doing, would you feel really safe? Would you wonder if maybe, you might be “doing it wrong” or “not be good enough”? Would you think that maybe the person looking at you and listening ...

It seems that the world has not been stopped by the publication of my article in Karen Hall’s NATS Journal of Singing “Independent Studio” column wherein I stated that “there is no such thing as classical training”. I expected backlash (which is perhaps yet to come) because I haven’t yet been so bold, although I ...

Each style has its own group consensus about what it perceives itself to be. It has its own lingo, its own professionalism, its own protocol. The people who inhabit the world of a particular style develop a perspective about it and about how it relates to the outside musical world and the world at large ...

Either you have control over your body and its functions when you sing or you don’t. If the control is fluid and the sound free, that’s all you need. Some people have that with almost no training, some work hard to get there, but either you get there or you don’t. There are so many people ...

Do you think the average person knows what sophisticated singing is? Since many people thought that Obamacare was different than the Affordable Care Act, I guess not. The folks who think of boxing as a cultural experience are not probably the same ones who enjoy refined vocalism…….although, perhaps, there are a few who have very ...

“I can’t make that sound, I will hurt my technique.” “I can’t make that sound, I will hurt my voice.” “I can’t make that sound, it will damage my singing.” “If I make that sound, I will sound too different. I will lose myself.” “If I sound like that, no one will like my singing.”   On and on. All of ...

Have you studied singing only to be completely frustrated? Perhaps several times? Have you had teachers who left you confused with funny terms and ideas? Have you left a lesson tired, hoarse or demoralized? Have you been blamed for failing to improve in a lesson? Have you been told that your “breath support” and “resonance” were at fault? Have you ...

It is nearly impossible to ignore an accident. Even if you don’t want to stare, it is hard to take your eyes off something dramatic, unusual, powerful. Someone screaming on the street, a car crumpled in a heap, a powerful explosion’s leftover debris, a swirling mass of flood waters hurtling past, taking things along with ...