Jeanie’s Blog

Recently I posted a blurb which caused so much trouble I took it down. That’s the trouble with the truth…..it can be very unpopular. Most people put up with things because of fear. They are afraid of looking bad, afraid of being judged negatively by others, afraid of rocking the boat, causing ...

I have just heard about a substantial college music theater training program that is being narrowed to the point of making all the training there ridiculous. This is important to everyone everywhere because it shouldn’t happen at all, and it is happening and at a place that has “a reputation” it doesn’t deserve, but ...

A student arrived recently with a degree in music theater freshly planted under her belt. Lovely young woman, lovely voice, very musical and expressive with a song. She was missing a whole bunch of ingredients in her vocal technique that should have been there. Why would that be? Was she just ...

I am very strongly committed to the idea that singing teachers should sing well in whatever style they teach. That this takes commitment, dedication and desire is a given. That the standards of the singing are measured by those other than the teacher, meaning the teacher stands up in public and, from time ...

Those of us who have taken the time and spent the money to learn about working with injured voices by re-training them after illness, injury or surgery appreciate the MDs who trust us and refer people to us and Speech Language Pathologists who understand how to work as partners alongside us when working with vocalists. There ...

I make a lot of noise on this blog about ignorant singing teachers but we all need to address the throat specialists who don’t know what good singing teachers do, as this is a serious problem, too. Wrong Assumptions About Teachers of Singing Most older MDs who specialized in otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) had no motive to understand ...

If you think you want to learn to sing by “taking a few lessons” then go ahead. You might find a bit of information helpful, as long as you are a pretty good singer in the first place and as long as you are only going to sing at church. If, however, you expect to ...

The new rule is: all good training for the voice is functional training. No more “classical” training, anywhere. If you sing classical music (i.e. opera, art song, chamber music, orchestral solos, early music (renaissance, baroque) and oratorio), then you train for that. Singing Verdi is not the same, in any way, ...

I once met someone who told me she was an opera singer. We became casual friends and I had occasion to invite her one year to a party at my home. At my house, if there is a party, there is singing. All kinds of singing, all of it fun and kind-hearted. ...

There is no place to run. There is nothing to do except face yourself. The world as you perceive it exists because you perceive it in your field of awareness. In a sense, there is no absolute “there” out there at all….just the one that you perceive. In this century we have increased ...

By definition, being unconscious means you are not conscious. Conscious means aware of one’s existence, feelings and thoughts and in a waking, not comatose, state, and aware. If you are not dead or in a coma, you are conscious. The question then is, are you aware? And if so, of what are you ...

It is a common premise in classical vocal training to be told “don’t listen to yourself” or “you can’t hear yourself like others do” so don’t try to hear yourself at all. Students are ENCOURAGED to pay no attention to the sounds they make. HOW STUPID IS THAT? There are many studies in Speech ...

Seeing what I wrote on my previous post, I would like to contradict myself, because today I saw yet another young person is who living the same 45 year old model that I experienced. What kind of profession makes no changes in 45 years?????????? Teaching singing. Those who read this blog regularly already know this ...

Having just returned from the NATS Internship program as a master teacher, I must say that I am greatly encouraged that we are going a new way in the profession. Amongst my three colleagues I sensed no rancor towards Contemporary Commercial Music styles, although they were all strictly classical in orientation, and amongst the ...

We have all had students who are talented, personable, motivated and perhaps even very musical who do not improve after taking lessons for quite some time. Why? Why would someone not “get it” if they are motivated, trying hard, practicing, and have the ability to play another instrument or do another artistic discipline, ...