STUDENT FAQ’s

How do I practice? How often should I practice?

A practice session should be made up of 3 components:

Stretch and Breathe. Stretch the body, shake it and loosen it! Do a “jump check” to be sure knees are nice and buoyant (and not stiffened and locked). Now breathe in for 2, hold for 4, exhale for 10 on a shhhh or sssss. Practice increasing your exhale! This will help us to sing longer and longer lines and give us more power as singers, and you continue with this exercise and build up that resistance and strength to increase your exhale count.
Vocal Exercises. I remind students weekly that we referred to this section of our practice as vocal exercises, and not warm-ups. The reason for this is that we are building up our strength. If I wanted to run a marathon, I would commit to regular exercise to build up that endurance. It's the same thing for us, as singers! These exercises help us to build up our strength and resilience, as well as our agility (moving the voice quickly). Depending on your vocal goals, your teacher will have helped you to create an exercise routine to help you meet them. Vocal exercises should take between 10 and 15 minutes. We always start with SOVT’s (semi-occluded vocal tract exercises) which include humming, lip buzzing, straw, or the ng sound. This puts your voice in a happy place and gets you ready for healthy singing. Your teacher will recommend several YouTube vocal exercise videos that will help you to meet your goals, or the goals we have set together, if you prefer a video vs. piecemeal exercises with a recorded piano track. Both options are wonderful.
Score Study (Sheet Music Study) and Performing Practice. This is often the fun part of practice! Now is your time to take a detail look at those areas we have magnified in our lessons, that need extra attention. Go over those tricky passages. Separate out the rhythm, and speak through any sections that need extra rhythmic practice, that your teacher has pointed out and gone over with you. If you were performing in a foreign language, practice that diction! And, if you have a performance coming up, put that awesome posture into place, staying nice and relaxed, grab your focal point, and practice telling the story as you sing through different sections of your piece. Use the recorded track your teacher has shared with you, getting used to singing along with the piano part. If you were working on memorization, see how far along you can get without looking at your sheet music. It's great to start with one page, or even a part of one page. Remember to practice in front of the mirror, or even practice recording a bit of your performance, pretending you were one of your audience members. What are your thoughts after you have viewed your performance? Bring those thoughts to share with your teacher, along with any questions you may have! Practice singing in front of a family member or friend. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself. Singing is hard work, but it is a whole lot of fun, too! :)
How often to practice? Daily practice is wonderful! BUT practicing at least three times per week is ideal. If you are a young student, studying with me, you will be provided with a practice check sheet, so I can see how often you are practicing, and we can discuss it together, to see if making some adjustments will help you meet your goals! As with so many things in life, BUILDING THE HABIT is the hardest part! That’s why, when we go over your practice check sheet, I will not ask how long you practiced, and we will be focusing on building the habit in the beginning. As you become more established in your practice habits, 20 minutes is a good benchmark.

How to voice lessons work?

Our lessons are tailored to the individual needs of the student, and are structured into three main components:

Checking in: it is important to check in, say hello, and see what is going on with the student as a whole person, before we begin the process of stretching, exercising and singing. Remember that your voice is part of the whole, complete human being that you are. This is what makes our instrument unique. We are also vulnerable (as well as strong) when we sing, because our voice is a part of our human body. That's why it is very important to check in, and talk about what we have going on in our lives, any feelings of illness or vocal fatigue, or anything that the student would like to share, is valid. The teacher will take this into account when structuring the lesson.
Stretching and Exercising: we stretch out the body, and complete breathing and vocal exercises together, giving us the ability to modify are posture, vowel placement, etc., to help the student meet the goals that they may have, and to promote healthy singing. Our goal is to have a lifetime of healthy singing, and to be able to sing in different styles, especially those which light our individual fire! We can all be versatile singers, and learn to sing in different styles as we develop. Going through exercises with your teacher allows him or her to observe you as a unique singer, and help you to attend the tools to sing more powerfully, more loudly, more softly, more clearly, etc.. When we are running or working on your solo piece, we will often refer back to an exercise we've completed together, in order to bring everything full-circle. These exercises will often take us about 15 minutes to complete together in a lesson.
Solo Piece(s) and Performance Technique: now we have reached the point in the lesson where we will run your solo piece. In my studio, I prefer to allow a student to get as far as they are comfortable, and as a teacher, I am making notes as to what I hear and what we would like to go back to or “magnify”. I like to allow students to get through as much as they are able coming and I know it often feels great to be able to unleash everything and SING! :) We will then go back into the solo piece, and place that “magnifying glass” on certain areas. We will run diction, separate out rhythm, speak-sing, or even the remove the word entirely and just focus on notes and rhythm as needed. We will sometimes even perform Eurythmics together, using movement to embody any rhythms that feel tricky. We will put all of us together, and often runs slightly smaller sections of the solo, utilizing those new tools. We end the lesson with a practice assignment that is tailored to the individual student. Students are always welcome to record their lesson, as this can often help with referring back to the building blocks we are working on together!