Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method Teachers' Association

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Spotlight on Somatic Voicework™ Teacher Heather Keens

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(Photographed Above: Jeanie LoVetri and Heather Keens)
Your work as both a singer and pedagogue has spanned several continents; can you tell us about your work in the U.K. and how this compares with the work you are currently doing in Australia?

Having been born in the UK, after Music & Opera training I acquired work in a Contemporary Opera, where I met my husband, who was the composer of the piece. He is from Australia. I worked in a subsequent five shows, which in the 80’s were considered ground breaking experimental theatre shows with music & singing. They might be termed Music Theatre as opposed to the commercial title Musical Theatre. I also toured Italian Opera in between working these shows. I did very little teaching then. The teaching work I was involved with was usually because I’d been approached for help from fellow peers who were also performing. I worked with a couple of successful pop stars on technique, etc.
I arrived in Australia in 1985 for a holiday and ended up singing with a prominent opera company as a ‘cover’ (Suzanna in Figaro). A year later we moved to Australia with the intention of staying for two years. We ended up staying for 13 years. This is where I began casually teaching singing at Universities, between shows and contracts. I taught on the first ever Contemporary Popular music course in Australia. I’ve always listened to and sung all styles of music from a young age and was able to adapt my classical teaching for other styles, focusing on technique. From there we moved to a leading Conservatorium in Brisbane, where I became a casual singing teacher on the newly re-vamped Jazz and CPM course.
On returning to the UK in 1998, I continued teaching as a part time singing teacher at a couple of leading Universities while shuffling performance work. I found that specialization in any one style or genre had become more difficult due to Arts budget cuts. I was teaching everything from classical, jazz, music theatre and pop. I decided to study again and completed a Masters of Voice in London to increase my pedagogical knowledge.
I returned to Australia in 2013, where I’ve continued performing, teaching, running workshops and being an adjudicator. It’s a very creative environment, however, with as much talent as anywhere else in the world. [Read more…] about Spotlight on Somatic Voicework™ Teacher Heather Keens

Spotlight on Somatic Voicework Teacher Dr. Elisabeth Ann Benson

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(Photographed Above: Jeanie LoVetri and Dr. Elizabeth Ann Benson)


You are currently writing a book, what can you tell us about your upcoming release?

  I have been interested in different vocal pedagogy methods ever since I started teaching. I started at an excellent community music school, and my students really wd at an excellent community music school, and my students really wanted musical theatre. I had three lovely degrees in classical singing, and had only really taught classical previously. Because I worked for a school, I had to teach any student that they put in front of me in the style that each student wanted to study. I learned very quickly that I didn’t know enough, and I set off on an adventure to figure out how to belt and how to provide solid technique for my students in any genre of music. It took some time, but I found my way. 
I have formally trained in three major methods. As I studied these three methods in detail, I began to see common threads among them, but also some significant areas in which they differed. I believe that a book that identifies these commonalities and differences among major methods would be really valuable to the voice teaching community. I have gathered a huge amount of data from exemplary teachers about what they are actually doing in the studio, particularly when it comes to CCM singing. Many of the CCM books that are available are vague about how people are teaching vocal technique. Moreover, there are many different approaches. I am interested in the nitty-gritty details, and I think other teachers are too. My hope is that it will be published sometime next year. [Read more…] about Spotlight on Somatic Voicework Teacher Dr. Elisabeth Ann Benson

My Throat Hurts

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Imagine that you are a singing student who has been taught a method that leaves you with your throat feeling pain. It actually hurts when you practice or perform.

Imagine, also, that when you complain to your teacher, you are blamed for being unable to understand the great pearls of wisdom falling from his or her mouth. It’s your fault, of course, for being a student who can’t “get it.”

Is this actually an imaginary scenario? No. Sadly this is a real, present moment experience happening to singing students all over the world. Those who do not understand the throat and the function of the larynx and who have the hubris to teach singing based on faulty information (or no information) approach the students of the world, who are ripe for abuse, putting them in a terrible situation. The very people who should be helping singers to free their throats and voices are doing the exact opposite. To whom do these students turn? Another student? The internet??

This is meant to help those students:

If your throat hurts when you sing (or speak) STOP. Something is wrong. If you cannot get help from your singing teacher, go to a laryngologist (a doctor who specializes in treating the voice), or a Speech Language Pathologist who treats voice patients. If you can, stop taking lessons with anyone who tells you that you should ignore the pain and keep doing the same thing even if it hurts. If you cannot stop taking lessons (for instance f you are in a school situation), do not do what is being asked. Try to do something — anything — other than what you have been doing when you sing that is different and might help you be comfortable. It’s your throat, do not make it hurt on purpose in order to “learn something” about singing. If your throat hurts when you sing (or speak) STOP. S T O P.

And to the teachers of singing:

Singing is one of the great gifts of the world to those who sing and to those who listen. It is an art and a skill. It has to be regarded with respect and honesty. Teaching someone to sing is also a skill and it requires a broad range of knowledge that take years to learn. If you do not really know what you are doing, teach with very careful awareness and NEVER, EVER do anything that causes vocal or emotional harm to another. DO NO HARM!!

I do not look much at the “voice teacher” groups online because so much of what appears there is outrageously low grade. People who have no idea at all about what they are writing espousing ideas that are simply amazing in their lack of accuracy. They argue with each other, trying to “prove” who is “best” or “right”. Stunning, really.

If your singing teacher does not sing well, meaning she can’t apply what she is trying to teach you to herself, (and there is no medical reason why this is the case), if he cannot give you a solid explanation of why you are being asked to do something or why it doesn’t work, run away. Especially if he can’t tell you why what you are doing is wrong that causes your throat to hurt and, more importantly, what to do to stop that behavior, RUN AWAY!! P.T. Barnum said it best, “There is a sucker born every minute.” Don’t be one of those people!

Gratitude

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You need only be exposed once to someone who has had a laryngectomy to understand how important it is to be able to speak. While it is certainly better than dying from laryngeal cancer, it is a terrible loss and staying alive becomes much harder. Since the larynx is responsible for keeping the lungs protected by the action of the vocal folds and the epiglottis directing food and drink past the lungs into the esophagus, and for the vocal folds being able to close so one can run, walk up stairs, and lift heavy objects, amongst other things, not being able to speak is only one of the things that has to be confronted when the larynx is compromised or removed.

Even severe laryngitis can be uncomfortable if it continues past a few days. Having to whisper or be very raspy can interfere with being heard and understood. If it lingers, only a few of us can manage easily in that situation .

Yet, truly, who gives thanks for this vital part of the body on a regular basis? On a day given to gratitude, does anyone think to be grateful for the ability to make vocal sound? And, if you sing, you may not realize that your entire career depends on two tiny pieces of gristle, not longer than your last joint on your pinky finger and much smaller than that in size. You may not understand that all your notes, for your entire life, depend upon the function of your vocal folds in response to your decision to sustain pitches in music. And, yes, it is possible to continue to have the ability to speak but lose the ability to sing. Julie Andrews is possibly the most famous example of such a person, but it can happen to anyone. Singing demands more of the vocal folds than typical conservational speech and you can discover this, sadly, when they no longer do what they once did easily, and there is no help to be had that will heal the problem completely no matter what medical expert treats it.

Those who deliberately teach singers to scream without any regard for vocal health, or who teach singers to deliberately manipulate the internal structures of the throat and larynx, are doing a terrible disservice to both body and voice, yet there are many who teach in this way. That the profession of singing teaching at large does not object to such instruction but, in fact, often embraces it wholeheartedly, is a disgrace, but this, too, is a fact.

Those who teach singing are not required to adhere to any tenets by outside objective experts. If you tell a young or inexperienced singer to squeeze the aryepiglottic sphincter (if you can locate it in the throat) or to retract the false folds (ditto), or to curb the vocal folds (as if they were a puppy) or to tilt the cricoid cartilage (which doesn’t move volitionally at all), or to sit on the back of the tongue and the jaw to prevent the larynx from moving up when that is part of its natural function, and if you then expect the student to both understand and comply with any of these instructions, only to find that they struggle, you must ask yourself why you would continue to teach in this manner. Why?

Why not just help your throat do what throats do? The structures in the throat, all of them, need to be free to move. (Singing freely requires no such deliberate maneuvers or restrictions.) Instead, why not be grateful that you can sing whatever you want and however you want by respecting the way the body is designed to function so that both can remain in excellent shape for your entire life?

Please be grateful for your voice in all of its many expressions from your first lusty cry as a newborn until you exhale your last breath. Do not wait until it is lost or impaired in order to be thankful for what you already have. Give thanks every day, starting right now.

Choosing Words Carefully

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In most spiritual traditions the “masters” are of few words, carefully chosen. They understand the power of words, as spoken sound, to influence. Strongly spoken words carry emotional and mental power and have an impact. Singing magnifies that experience.

Any authority figure must learn to choose words carefully and to pay attention to the consequences of the words uttered. You cannot take them back. Words once released last for as long as the person who heard them carries them in their own mind. Written words can last for thousands of years and effect millions of people.

We have now a President who speaks with no regard whatsoever as to the truth of his statements or the consistency. He is oblivious to the damage his complete lack of command of language causes and how it weakens both what he says and his own image. The country suffers because the truth is construed as lies and the lies as truth. Such is the damage than can be done by words uttered blithely and by an individual who either can’t tell the difference between truth or falsehood, or by someone who doesn’t care about it in any way.

If you teach, you simply cannot afford to be indifferent. Certainly you cannot come from that point of view when teaching singing which is spoken word come alive. Music well written and beautifully sung allows us to share the landscape of our inner lives. Those who are listening and open can be transformed, sometimes forever, by receiving this gift.

Therefore, we must ask ourselves what we really want to say and what it means. We must own the words, the sentences, the thoughts and the emotions, and when we sing, we must own the notes and rhythms, too, as part of our communication.

Not everyone is highly articulate. Some do not have diverse or broad vocabulary. Some people don’t bother to determine if what they want to communicate is what gets communicated. The only way to know is to ask. “What do you think I was saying? What did I just communicate? What did that mean to you, if it meant anything at all? What kind of a reaction do you have to that?” You cannot know if you don’t ask or if someone doesn’t volunteer to tell you without being asked.

A great deal of success in life is precipitated by knowing the right questions to ask. There are people who never question anything ever. If they end up in power, at any level, it is really scary.

In your life, try always to find the best words to express your thoughts. Take time to think about which words are the ones you need. Don’t press forward to say whatever comes to mind just because it’s easy. Choose your words with care and, following this further, when you sing, do so with clear intention.

You cannot retract what you say (or write) so be willing to take responsibility for your utterances. A song is words come alive through music. With both, make your choices carefully.

Being Sold A Bill Of Goods

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We all know that it’s very easy to sell something to someone who has no information than to have success with someone who is knowledgable. The Simms Clothing company has as its motto, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” They mean, of course, that people who are knowledgeable about high quality clothing will recognize the bargains at Simms’ as being good ones.

If you don’t know what “high quality” is you can buy “off the shelf” and think you are getting a bargain when you are just being ripped off. But quality costs more because it is quality. When it comes to services rather than goods, that’s even more importantly true.

If you “price shop” for a service you are making a big mistake. Singing teachers are not brands of laundry detergent. It would be much more useful to save up for one or two lessons with a well-established, highly regarded expert than to buy whatever is “inexpensive” in bulk. You might learn more from two really excellent lessons from a master teacher than from a dozen from someone who barely knows what’s what.

If you are being told that you can learn “all you need to know” in a few short lessons you should be highly suspicious. Be wary of all “the 10 best tips” people. There is nothing worthwhile that can be learned through 10 best tips, or 40 best tips, or even 500 best tips, although that larger number might be more useful, especially if the tips came from a real expert.

Recently I had a student who had studied seriously elsewhere and came to me with a number of significant technical problems. Breathing and coordination issues, tone quality problems and lack of awareness just generally. This was a large-framed person with an overly forward sound, a tight throat and less than stellar control over either body or throat. Still, progress was being made, sometimes significantly, and there was talent there and a lot of vocal potential. Then, just as things were beginning to turn around, the student disappeared to work with someone else. Happens. Is that other person going to know what to do? The best odds are only 50/50. That’s quite a risk to take if you have just started to get over your problems.

But some individuals like their problems. They enjoy the struggle. They identify with it. Maybe their “not-so-great” vocal behaviors were not, in fact, unconscious or accidental but deliberate. Maybe the singer has no clear idea of what encompasses good vocal production or free singing. Maybe someone else was very flattering in lessons and that ploy worked well enough to pull the student away.

In the end, you do not have an unlimited number of years to get things right and get out into the world as a professional singer. If you come to New York City and you have various technical issues you can’t spend forever fixing what’s wrong. There are too many folks who arrive here without those challenges who are your competition and they will be spending time learning rep while you are trying to figure out how to use your voice and body properly and get a better, freer sound. The worse off you are, the more you are vulnerable to becoming the victim of vocal “snake oil” salesmen.

If you get sold a bill of goods because you did not do “due diligence” regarding investigating your singing teacher comparing him or her to others with more experience, more skill and a more reliable reputation over many many years, it becomes your own fault if you get taken advantage of as you study. Be careful. Think. Use your eyes and ears.

Spotlight on Somatic VoiceWork™ Teacher Jamie Leonhart

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Somatic VoiceWork™ Teacher Jamie Leonhart talks about her upcoming performance and more!

You must be getting very excited for your upcoming performance of Estuary at Feinstein’s 54 Below (Tuesday, September 26th at 9:30 PM). What inspired you to write this story?

I’m so happy to talk with you.  And yes,  I amreally excited to perform ESTUARY at Feinstein’s 54 Below.
In a way, I backed into writing ESTUARY.  Soon after my son Milo was born I started feeling “different” about performing; I was having a hard time focusing as an artist, even while songwriting,  and it was very upsetting – as if my equilibrium was off and I couldn’t figure out how to rebalance.  I was functionally working as a singer, but not moving forward with my own music, and honestly, I was losing the sense of joy in performance that I’d had for so long.  [Read more…] about Spotlight on Somatic VoiceWork™ Teacher Jamie Leonhart

European Adventures, Huge Celebrations and LoVetri Institute 2018!

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(Photographed Above: Kate McGarry, Michelle Rosen, Robert Doyle, Jeanie LoVetri, Benjamin Czarnota, & Jason Aquila (collaborative pianist) at the faculty recital, LoVetri Institute 2017)

At the end of August and beginning of September, Jeanie attended the Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOC#12) in Ghent, Belgium, where she presented a workshop on belting. The conference attracts participants from Europe and a few others from South America, Asia and the USA (10 people from the United States were there). She has presented at past conferences in London, Florence and Prague. Prior to the conference she and husband Jerry enjoyed Ghent and Bruges, and after the conference visited Brussels. Next was London where she presented Somatic Voicework™ for 55 participants in London at Arts Education, a college in Chiswick. She was able to visit with colleague and friend Mark Meylan, a noted singing teacher in the West End, and to connect again with others in London in the voice community.
RIght: Jeanie LoVetri in Ghent, Belgium
Left: Jeanie LoVetri working with a participant at her workshop in London, England

Next up later this month is a visit to the DC/Baltimore area to do a Teacher Support Group and Teacher Training Day with Somatic Voicework™ teachers. There is also an open evening for those new to the work. 
     Plans are in the works for a return to Brazil and Australia and a possible return to London in 2018. Jeanie is also busy planning the 2018 residency for the LoVetri Institute next summer at Baldwin Wallace University. After this year’s great success, she is eagerly looking forward to year two with new guest faculty. The dates will be July 21-29, 2018, so mark your calendars and save the date.
     This month, we are so lucky to feature an interview with Somatic Voicework™ faculty, Jamie Leonhart. Jamie will be presenting her original show, ESTUARY: An Artist/Mother Story. The show is truly breathtaking and will be playing at Feinstein’s 54 Below on Tuesday, September 26th at 9:30 PM. To book tickets, please click here & enter the discount code: JAMIEL5. 
     We are thrilled for the success of Jamie’s work and her contribution to our community and the artistic community of New York City! Please book tickets right away, not to be missed!

 

Highlights from the 2017 SVW Institute and Residency.

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Accomplished singer, Faith Howard, blew us away with
her spirit and kindness.

Broadway Veteran, Melanie Vaughan, was kind enough to share her experience of
Somatic Voicework™.

Elise Besler tells us about her experience at the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework, her thoughts on Dr. Adam Rubin’s presentation on vocal health & Thomas Murray’s musical theatre masterclass. 

Gina Razon, Soprano, discusses using Somatic Voicework in both a Classical and a CCM context.  [Read more…] about Highlights from the 2017 SVW Institute and Residency.