Hilerie Klein Rensi, Voice Teacher

Voice exercises used to make me want to quit singing.

And the worst part?
I actually did them.

Religiously.

I was told to repeat the same exercises over and over until my voice eventually “developed.”

But nobody could answer the question my brain kept asking:
“What am I actually looking for?”
So I kept repeating exercises while building muscle memory for tension, effort, and disconnect.

And honestly?
My voice got worse.

Until….. I found a master voice technician who stopped giving me random exercises and gave me a very specific goal instead:

“Put your thumb under your chin and swallow.
That hard muscle pressing down? That’s tongue tension.
When you sing, it shouldn’t do that.
Go practice until it doesn’t.”

Suddenly practice became a puzzle instead of punishment.
I had something to feel for.
Something to notice.
Something to discover.

I practiced for HOURS a day because my brain finally understood the assignment.
And within six months, my voice doubled in size.

Before you practice another vocal exercise, ask:

What’s the goal?
What am I feeling for?
What am I listening for?
How will I know when I’ve found it?

Because repetition without awareness can reinforce the wrong coordination just as efficiently as the right one.

What’s more important: the singing or the story?

I think a lot of us singers accidentally learn to present our voices instead of communicate through them.
And honestly, it makes sense.

We spend years training technique, chasing beautiful sounds, trying to “get it right.”

But eventually there has to come a moment where the technique becomes so natural that the story can move to the front.

Not: “Listen to me sing beautifully.”
But instead: “I need you to understand what’s happening to me. And I will do it on these pitches that happen to be a beautiful melody.
That shift changed everything about the way I perform and teach.

Singers: where are you on this? Voice first? Or story first?

Voice teachers: how do you teach storytelling in your own studios?

If you hate the sound of your voice… there’s a reason.
And it’s probably not because you’re untalented.
Most singers don’t actually lack confidence.
They lack understanding.
When you understand why your voice feels strained…
why your breath disappears…
why your jaw tightens…
why certain notes feel trapped…
your voice stops feeling random.
And the less random your voice feels, the more you begin to trust it.
That’s where confidence comes from.
Not perfection.
Partnership.

Most singers notice resonance, but never realize they can work with it.
You’ve probably felt it before: low notes buzzing in your chest, higher notes feeling like they shift into your face or head. That feedback matters.
Because when everything feels stuck in your throat, your throat is usually trying to do all the work.
Resonance is one of the ways your body teaches you where sound is vibrating most efficiently. And for many singers, when the vibration feels higher, freer, and less trapped, singing suddenly feels easier.
Less pushing. Less gripping. Less forcing.
Sing what you want to say and let your resonance help you do it.

What if healthy singing isn’t about forcing your voice to become something else…
What if it’s about removing the things blocking the voice that’s already there?
Most singers are rowing upstream.�
More effort.�More tension.�More control.�More panic.

But your instrument already knows what to do.
Your job is not to force the river.�Your job is to stop fighting the current.

“Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream…”
Maybe we’ve been singing the lesson the whole time.

If you want help figuring out what’s getting in the way of your voice, I offer private voice & pedagogy consults through the link in my bio.

If singing feels tight, strained, or exhausting… you’re probably doing too much.

The goal isn’t to force your voice into working.�It’s to stop interfering with it.

Because every bit of extra tension you create will follow you into your sound. Every time.

Can you teach yourself how to sing?
Most people would say no. And honestly, I understand why. Singing can feel so subjective, and it’s easy to believe you need someone else to tell you when you’ve done something “right.”
But the truth is, once you understand how your voice actually works, you don’t have to rely on guessing anymore.
You can start to observe what’s happening in your instrument- what you feel, what changes, what you did to create it- and that’s what allows you to keep improving long after a lesson ends.
As you learn how each part functions- breath, coordination, tongue, larynx, resonance, registration, and JAW- I FORGOT JAW LOL… the game becomes doing them all at the same time. And that takes time. A lifetime, really.
But the goal isn’t perfection. The goal is understanding.
Because once you understand your voice, you don’t lose progress. You build on it.
That’s how singers keep getting better and better. And understand more and more…

Most singers aren’t inconsistent…
They’re copying the result instead of understanding what created it

If I could teach you ONE thing, I’d show you how to be aware of all the ways you’re already controlling your voice so you can finally direct it where you want it to go!

Your next thought matters even more than your last note. Choose wisely!

Is neck tension making your head and voice wobble? You are not alone. This is one of the most common things I see with my singers. Try this and tell me what shifts for you.