Jeanie’s Blog

The topic of formant/harmonic tuning is a very hot one in voice science circles these days. It explains a lot of what we hear as sound in various vocal qualities and gives us clearer guidelines about how the vocal tract is functioning acoustically. Knowing, however, isn’t doing. Knowing is learned through trial and error by listening ...

I just encountered this again. Sadly, there are people, even professional people, who think this. They get to a place they like and they stay there, sometimes forever. What kind of artist thinks, “I’m good enough already?” What kind of  singer has the idea that there is no further place to go? A bad one, I would say. Being ...

Some recent articles about the profession of teaching singing have strongly protested branding. Seems a few people are outraged that singing teachers have brands and give out certifications. These critics say that all the information anyone ever needs has been for around for years and that nothing else is necessary.  They are condemning and suspicious of branding. They believe that what ...

It is hard to imagine but we are currently living in an age of “post-truth.” It is difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that truth is not real but whatever someone says it is, yet this is being stated every day. This is incredibly dangerous. There is also “post-truth” singing. Hiding behind things that are ...

Most people do not fully understand the power and depth of sound as a creative force in the universe. Conscious singing, that is, being  a conscious sound-maker, or being one who brings forth the primary creative energy of the Universe, is an extraordinary experience. It is  simultaneously transformative to do and to hear. Someone singing from the depth ...

It’s never too late to find your true voice. If you are open to exploring, if you have a sense of singing, if you are willing to have that experience, age is no barrier. Recently, in a master class, I was able to help someone find his voice in a way that he never had. In ...

Some people are very accommodating. They will do their best to help you, grant your request, assist you, or even inconvenience themselves so that your needs are met. This can be very important in relationships and in life. If you sing you have to accommodate the lyrics to the music or vice versa. You have to ...

Some people have never had the opportunity to experience singing with freedom and ease, making a pleasing sound and expressing their feelings while singing. This is a terrible loss. If singing teachers were doing a good job across the board, anyone who took regular lessons for two years and practiced in between lessons, would end up sounding ...

Did you know that every vocal sound we make can be reduced to five numbers? Surprising, but true. The human vocal tract has five specific “vibrating peaks” based on the length and diameter of the open tube between your vocal cords and your lips. As you sustain a vowel it interacts with that tube and, depending on the pitch ...

I was raised by a father who was born in Pennsylvania to Sicilian immigrants. My mother was from New Orleans and was of German and Irish descent but her family had been there for at least 6 generations. I rarely saw my mother’s family. I was in Connecticut and was surrounded by my father’s family ...

Merriam Webster defines respect this way: a) a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good, valuable, important b) a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be treated in an appropriate way One way to respect music is to find out what the composer intended when she wrote it and to ...

In art, it is never OK to be good enough. It is never all right to decide to get by. No artist who is truly an artist is interested in being ordinary. An artist is someone who views life through a unique perspective, one that cannot be shared with anyone else in exactly the same way. ...

It is necessary in singing, as in life, to have appropriate boundaries. Not to have them or be able to understand their usefulness is a mistake. Even if you sing well and have solid vocal technique/function the only way to know what your voice wants to do happily is to work on repertoire. You can’t really determine ...

Would you be surprised to know that many times students are blamed for the teachers’ lack of ability to communicate effectively?It’s sad but true. They do not know how, as teachers of singing, to deliver compassionate teaching. Students come in to see me with a laundry list of “things they do wrong”. I like to hold my jaw. I like ...

Olympic Singing? Vocal Athlete? Body Type? Training As If It Mattered We all know that the beach volleyball women are very tall. We know the female gymnasts are very short. We know that weight lifters have thick, dense muscles throughout their bodies and that swimmers, who are also very strong, don’t look like them at all. It is so, then, ...