Jeanie’s Blog

No matter how old you are, it’s never too late to work on your singing. The muscles respond to exercise. The production of vocal sound is physical, therefore, if you work at it, you can improve. I am happy to report that more and more training is aimed at function (rather than resonating your ...

I met a rock singer recently. He had an interesting story to tell. He has a degree in music composition and has sung in a rock band for 20 years, writing a lot of the band’s music and singing lead. They toured a lot, in Europe and South America, but here, too, in smaller ...

So, you have a student in front of you who wants to belt. You are teaching in a college, you have juries to contend with. The kid has to sing “classical” for the juries. You don’t know how to belt, or if it’s safe, but the big musical at her church this ...

There are so many things in life that we can care about. There are so many things that we shouldn’t care about. It is an endless list with all kinds of components. There are things we care about that are strictly personal, things that are a concern to our immediate family, things ...

There is, in this world, such as thing as specialization. There are many people who are “elite” at what they do, and they got that way by being concentrated on one thing and one thing only. There are very, very few exceptions where someone might be equally good at two things, but, generally, ...

Singing is a sensual experience. It’s like eating cold chocolate ice cream on a hot summer day. It’s like settling into a warm cozy chair in front of a blazing fire. It’s like swimming in a crystal clear bay on a gorgeous Caribbean beach. It’s like snuggling your favorite little one ...

I have said many times that there is no mystery to singing, and of course, there is plenty of mystery. I have to admit that I contradict myself not only in this but elsewhere. That’s because truth is often paradoxical. Sometimes two seemingly opposite things occur simultaneously. Life is full of ...

The human voice has limits. Human beings, from the smallest to the largest and tallest, can only make a certain range of audible sounds. The longer and bigger the throat, (and the larynx/vocal folds), the lower the voice. There are people who claim that the voice can cover 8 octaves (that’s in ...

I had the great pleasure this evening of hearing Ann Hampton Callaway at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in midtown with three amazing musicians, Ted Rosenthal, on piano, Jay Leonheart on bass, and Victor Lewis on drums. The room is gorgeous and was packed this first show on a Saturday night. Callaway was in ...

By definition, an artist is someone who creates. The creation comes from the inner vision of the artist. If the depth of the artist’s vision is significant, that which is revealed could be unlike anything that has existed before. The difference between this kind of creativity and that of an inventor is ...

If you have ever answered the phone and heard on the other end, “Hi”, and the voice was low in volume, descending in pitch, shaky in tone, and belonged to your child, spouse, parent or close friend, you would have known within seconds to ask, “What’s wrong?” How is so much information conveyed in ...

There are fewer and fewer “purists” in the music world. More and more we see styles blending. Willie Nelson says there never were any, that the PR people just made them up and maybe he’s right. Music is music, right? I am one of those folks who thinks that styles evolve but that ...

Most people sing in an undifferentiated mix. This means they have a middle voice but not much energy either very high or very low in whatever range they have. Training is supposed to develop the response of the instrument such that it can go higher and lower with ease. A few people ...

The idea that vocal exercises are physical exercises is relatively new. That there is no “magic button”, no “find your voice by doing this”, is not one that most singing teachers generally accept. If you rely on breathing exercises or “placement” or “resonance” exercises to fix things, or you are a “vibration ...

I can’t think of a more beautiful thing than teaching talented people to sing. As much as I enjoyed working with absolute beginners who had never sung for the many years that I did that, and as much as I still enjoy working with children, people who are getting back to singing after a ...