Jeanie’s Blog

Used to be we talked about “placing the tone” somewhere “in the mask”. We talked about “vibrating the bones in the face” and “sending the sound forward”. We talked about “diaphragmatic breath support”. Now, however, people talk about lining up the first formant with the first harmonic and maybe the second formant with the second harmonic ...

Over the decades, in my meetings with other singing teachers, I have been told to my face, twice, “I have a gift from God to teach.” What, exactly, is to be made of a statement like that? Should I imply that others have that gift or is it unique to the two (unrelated) men who said ...

If a student asks, “Why?” during a lesson and the teacher responds with, “Just trust me”, the student should run away. Why, indeed, should a student trust you if you can’t answer his questions? On what planet is that a behavior that warrants trust? Trust is based upon loyalty, truthfulness, responsibility, reliability, dedication, and commitment. It doesn’t ...

One of the most deadly things a teacher can say to a student starts with the words “You are…….” This pronouncement is deadly unless what follows is positive and helpful. The labels given to students by teachers are serious and sometimes stick for life. If they are judgemental (as they typically are) the person can carry ...

It’s tough when people in high places think they know something. It’s tough when what they know is outdated or wrong. It’s tough when you can’t easily tell them that their information went by the wayside a couple of decades ago. I encounter this frequently. It seems like these people, in particular, ought to keep up ...

F. M. Alexander developed a method of working with the body, through spinal alignment, that was once regarded as being “unorthodox” but over the years, because the approach helped so many people, that opinion changed. Now, Alexander Technique is taught, with great enthusiasm, at many colleges and conservatories in the USA and perhaps also abroad. ...

Back in the mid-80s, when we were searching for something to call the first Symposium done by the New York Singing Teachers’ Association at Donnell Library, we tried Music Theater and Popular Music Styles. That was the alternative of choice then to “non-classical”. A lot of people didn’t like it. Jazz artists don’t think of themselves ...

The teachers’ organization is against certifying people. Why? Why should they care? In point of fact, if any one individual decides that their training, and theirs alone, qualifies a teacher to work with individual voices as an expert, or says that their method precludes any other method, or that their trainees are restricted in what they ...

If you are savvy, you know the rest of that title is….a dangerous thing. If you only know a little bit, is that better or worse than when you know nothing? I heard recently that someone was asking on a forum about how to work with a singer recovering from polyp surgery. One response was something like, ...

Anyone can take piano lessons or tennis lessons. Not everyone is going to be a Horowitz or a Venus Williams. Anyone can learn to do a sport or take lessons on an instrument. Not everyone is going to be a professional or even reach professional calibre. Does it mean then that only the very talented should ...

How many times have I encountered a student who has been told something that isn’t harmful, and isn’t even really wrong, it’s just useless? “Leave your voice alone and it will take care of itself” (except when you do and it doesn’t). “You are grabbing onto your high notes. Don’t do that.” (OK, how do ...

There are a lot of “methods” out there. There are lots of people who teach singing using a method. (I have one). If the method asks the vocalist to do something that throats do not do, if it teaches a vocalist to attempt to make a sound by doing something that we don’t need to do ...

What is natural singing? Think you know? Ask any two singing teachers and you will absolutely get two different answers. Ask 100 singing teachers and you will get 100 answers. Ask 1000, the same. Natural singing depends on what you consider to be natural vocal behavior. If you want to measure what is natural, do you ...

Many times in a lesson I ask a singer to describe something. In fact, generally, I ask a lot of questions in lessons. I want to know what the singer knows, what they understand, how they use what they have taken from singing and from lessons with other people. Sometimes people come in an tell me they ...

The further you delve into something the more you understand it broadly and in detail. It’s as if everything has a counterpart to the universe which runs (as far as we now know) from sub-atomic particles to multi-verses of billions of galaxies. It is truly so that the very tiny and the very vast can ...