Jeanie’s Blog

Ever listen to someone sing and come away unimpressed? Of course. We all have that experience very frequently. Sometimes while listening to very famous singers. What is it that impresses us? Why does something leave an impression? EMOTION. What we react to, what we care about is emotion. Without ...

This feeling inside…….I get it every time I think about the many great singers who have sung all over the world in styles that have nothing to do with classical music. Over the last 100 years, audio recordings of all kinds of people singing all kinds of music have been made and heard by ...

The best way to understand something is to do it yourself. Learning about it is different than learning it, no? Anyone who has done an activity that requires a high level of physical skill and coordination understands that it takes a long time to develop mastery over that activity. It could be ...

If you live in New York, where your singing students can audition for a Broadway or Off-Broadway show, a national tour, a major record label, or appear at a major concert venue, or if you live in a big city that has opportunities for your students to become professionals in major venues of any kind, ...

“Theatrical singers with excellent vocal technique and versatility. (Broadway, pop, classical, world beat, R&B). Females should be versatile sopranos/mezzos with strong Broadway-Pop belt, possible classical background. Males should have high baritone/tenor range”. (Back Stage casting ad, June 19-25, 2008) The university I just left has a policy of “not teaching to the ...

“Theatrical singers with excellent vocal technique and versatility (Broadway, pop, classical world beat, R & B). Females should be versatile sopranos/mezzos with strong Broadway-Pop belt, possible classical background. Males should have high baritone/tenor range…. (Back Stage casting ad, June 19-25, 2008) One of the university programs I was associated with has a policy ...

Did you know that we have lots of teachers of singing who still believe that resonance and breath support are all you need to sing any kind of style? You did? Thank goodness! Did you also know that most singing teachers do not know what vocal exercises do? Did you know that most ...

There is so much emphasis on breathing in singing training. You must “support the tone” no matter what. Unfortunately, so few teachers really understand what that means. It’s not surprising, then, that they don’t know much about assisting their students to improve their breathing behaviors. Let’s start with the basic information. If ...

You cannot learn technique through songs. I know many people think you can but it simply is not so. You can learn to play baseball by playing baseball, but it helps if you play catch from the time you are small and practice hitting and catching balls and developing your ability to run and slide ...

To anyone familiar with bodywork, the idea that emotional memory and trauma is held in the body is not new. I have done so much bodywork, healing, meditation, movement therapy, and process-oriented work, however, that I forget this is generally an unusual idea in the population at large. I knew that I had had many ...

Singing can be a path to spiritual growth. This takes the concept of spirituality in its broadest context. The human spirit lives through the characteristics of one’s life. Honesty, loyalty, truthfulness, courage, dedication, perseverance, patience, compassion, responsibility, humility…..these are qualities that reflect the highest and best attributes of humanity. The artistic ...

How do you tell someone they don’t know that they don’t know? Is there some easy way to point that out? If you don’t have any comprehension of local custom in a foreign country, say, and you make a hand gesture that is considered obscene, and others are outraged at your behavior, but you have ...

Whenever I do a workshop or class out there in Singing Teacher Land I get all kinds of feedback. Sometimes people I work with come up afterwards to shake my hand and thank me for the session, sometimes attendees tell me how much they have learned. I’ve had really glowing responses that massage ...

There is an unacknowledged war going on in the world of singing teachers. There are two groups, subdivided into two more groups. In the first divide, there are those who teach classical singing technique and repertoire and those who do not. Of those that do, there are those that also teach other styles including ...

It has come to my attention that many teachers of singing spend their entire careers at a college or teaching in a junior or senior high school. Some of these teachers do not have a “private practice” outside of their school jobs. This makes for a strange relationship to singing and singers. People of ...