01/27/2025
I want to share the beginning of the second chapter of my book on what makes an exceptional voice teacher. Here's the text introducing that chapter:
To be an exceptional voice teacher, you must possess a unique blend of skills, knowledge, and sensitivities that go far beyond mere musical talent. One of the big disadvantages of teaching singing is the inability to see most of what's happening. Unlike other instruments, for which a teacher can visually demonstrate proper technique, singing requires a different approach.
With singers, almost everything is hidden. Assuming full competence as teachers, our students quickly start to realize we have “x-ray ears”, if you will. We can effectively “see” inside the student’s vocal anatomy. We can hear whether they're straining their larynx, whether the long, thin horizontal gap between the dorsal area of their tongue and the back of the hard palate is too open or closed, whether their jaw is open or closed enough, whether the tongue is retracted into the mouth or forward near the teeth. This ability is a direct result of physical empathy when hearing the sound of the human voice.
Fully competent voice teachers know all of that just from hearing students’ voices. We don't even have to look to know about the jaw. We know what all of those things feel like in our own anatomy and what kind of sound would result. The minute we hear a voice our own physical anatomy feels what is happening to produce that sound. We’ve come to realize the ability to hear and understand the intricate workings of the vocal mechanism is fundamental to our ability to teach as effectively as possible.
We also understand the science behind what is optimal. Knowledge of the scientific principles involved and how the various elements of physical anatomy take advantage of them is another key to unlocking the highest level of success as a teacher. Success here doesn’t mean money or fame as a teacher. Here, success means how rapidly and well your students advance and how reliably they retain their practical ability through their understanding of what they’re doing even after not singing for extended periods.
Vocal efficiency is key for preserving vocal health, tone quality, and a relaxed but greatly expanded pitch range. This includes the elimination of voice break problems for a smooth transition through a spectacularly wide range. Without understanding the scientific principles involved, we would be unable to fully appreciate the precise connections among the various anatomical elements and how they work together to achieve vocal efficiency. This is what allows us to easily troubleshoot whatever the problem is.
This deep connection between the body and the sound it’s producing is the essential foundation of exceptional voice teaching. If you know how to sing yourself and you're sensitive to how it feels when you sing; if you're aware of what physical states your anatomy is experiencing when you feel that, then you have all the basics in place to develop this skill. In addition, though, it’s also extremely important to understand the scientific nature of sound and how human anatomy affects it.
We need to appreciate the nature of efficient aerodynamics of phonation in the larynx, its role in promoting vocal health and a rich, full vocal tone with relaxed ease. Knowing how to teach the vitalized, but relaxed, resilient tension between the larynx and the diaphragm to support this is fundamental. I like to call it an exhilarated suspension between inhaling and exhaling. “Singing on the gesture of inhalation”, “a refined internal posture”, and “drinking the vowels” are phrases others have use. Laughing, sobbing, looking at something in wonder and feeling that it takes your breath away, or that thrill you feel in the pit of your stomach when a roller coaster goes down at a steep angle are examples of how we humans experience this naturally under certain circumstances.
One of these circumstances should be singing. We teachers must help students acquire this posture habitually when they sing. That doesn’t tend to happen overnight. It doesn’t generally feel natural for most when singing as opposed to when they’re giggling or sobbing, for example. Again, I like to call it a state of exhilarated suspension between inhaling and exhaling.
This is by far the healthiest, most efficient way to use air for a given combination of pitch and loudness, and it produces the most relaxed, rich, and full tone quality. It’s especially impressive when a singer does this even when singing softly. Many fairly good singers do this at louder dynamic levels, but it turns into a breathy, inefficient use of air when they sing softly. The breathy sound also causes the tone quality to suffer greatly at lower dynamic levels. It doesn’t project well either, so the singer becomes virtually or totally inaudible in the back in the case of strictly acoustic venues.
We must understand the acoustic principles that shape the vowels, the overtone structure or Fourier harmonic series, how vowel formants modify it, and how these formants shift somewhat with pitch. We have to know how our internal vocal posture must shift with them as we move through our vocal range. We also need to appreciate the acoustic principles that provide optimum efficiency for the transfer of sound from the larynx out into the performance environment.
It's not magic. In my case, it’s the result of having had wonderful training from a world-class master, a deep understanding of the voice science involved, and tons of experience actually teaching people how to sing. Sadly, this ability is rare among voice teachers. Many rely on what I call "white magic"—an approach that's far too dependent on the student's talent to imitate the teacher. This results in an inability to teach those whose intuition in that regard is less developed, and slower progress for those who have it.
Worse, neither the teacher nor the student truly understands the mechanics of what they're doing. To be an exceptional voice teacher, one must move beyond this limited approach. We must combine our musical expertise with a deep understanding of vocal anatomy, a clear scientific understanding of sound and acoustic principles, and a productive teaching approach. This absolutely must also include interpersonal rapport as vital for unlocking and communicating all the rest.
We must develop our "x-ray ears", our physical empathy to diagnose and address issues that are invisible to the eye. Most importantly, we must be able to communicate these concepts in ways that empower our students, regardless of their innate talent level. In essence, exceptional voice teaching is a science as much as it is an art. It requires continual learning, keen observation, and the ability to translate abstract concepts into practical, actionable guidance. Only then can we truly unlock the full potential of every voice that comes under our tutelage.
Call now to connect with business.
