Teach Voice by Chris Johnson

You can blow singers minds when you have some powerful tools under your belt!

And the journey through learning them is so fun, where the weeks are full of these breakthroughs.

I couldn’t be happier supporting these guys, and I'd love to show you these tools too.

If you’re a singing teacher and you’d love to know how we do it, book a free call and I’ll show you!

Message me ‘CALL’ and I’ll send you the deets.


15m

BREATHY singing and the SITTING analogy...

The argument that breathiness in singers isn't healthy use is a common one. In a recent workshop for teachers, I shared this sitting analogy around breathiness (see clip).

It's not a problem on it's own, but what goes around it can make it a challenge. But we can work with that, rather than default to correcting it... because the pop world is firmly with it!

It's the same for lots of ways of singing where variety is missing.

And we never know when we'll need that variety. It might not even be in singing...

..it might be when we need to call out in an emergency...

.. it might be when we're on a noisy stage with rubbish sound...

.. even playing a team sport where you need to communicate across a field.

That's where singers who haven't built in some variety in their capability can come unstuck.

Just building in 20-30% variety in voice qualities (like call, whoop, groan, cry etc) is enough to keep a voice working well without training the singer out of their signature sound.

Are you a singing teacher exploring your options? Let's talk and I'll show you exactly how you can stack breakthrough after breakthrough with your students. Book a free exploration call here:
https://calendly.com/teachvoice/free-zoom-discovery-call-ref

BREATHINESS in singers - workshop for TEACHERS - last day to get it for £17 before earlybird ends.
In 'Clearing The Fog' I'll share actionable tools to help singers with unwanted leaky, airy tone that holds them back from their goals.

I'll also share how to work WITH breathiness to help it be more sustainable, because it's a very valuable stylistic thing!
I'll also talk about what we can help singers avoid doing, so they don't burn out.

It's 90mins of value for any level of singing teacher who wants more tools in heir belt for this common coaching scenario.

If you'd like to check out the full details, go here and grab it while it's open.
https://go.teachvoice.com/clearing-the-fog/

Teachers... here's another mini-training challenge for your students and VOCAL CONTROL.

Teeny bit more difficult this time (see Pt.1 down my time line).
It calls for breath that is flexible and not forced.

With a gradual increase in intensity, but now it's in the wobbly part of the voice:
Lower voices - E4 > Bb4 approx
High voices - F #4 > D5 approx

Very useful once they can find the ease between the changes, but keep the environment positive because it be FRUSTRATING!

Best for your intermediate students... and yourselves!

Let me know below how you get on or if you have something similar you use in your lessons.

Exercise credit: Mary Saunders Barton

SINGING TEACHERS... try this with your students this week 👇

Just somewhere comfortable down the bottom of the range.

These 3 sounds are some of the most fundamental settings we can use in voice.

So, when singers have a little trouble with finding new vocal 'colours' in general... this could show you why.

When different parts of this movement are difficult, it can help highlight areas to work on for us teachers:

⁍ Breath has to be adaptable to find each colour, especially to go in the reverse direction!
⁍ There needs to be an ability to let the voice 'chill' and thicken, or the fry part can be missing.
⁍ Belting can be difficult because the clear part sounds nearly as warm and airy as the breathy part.

In my teacher training program, this exercise helps teachers show singers how to locate these fundamental settings. And to apply them to singing in the different parts of the range.

Also, it's a quick assessment so we can decide what's going to help the singer, fastest.

Save this video and let me know below which part your singers seem to struggle with most. We can have a dialogue about why that might be!