What’s the right way?

I hear this a lot.

And my answer is: it depends.

I believe in the flexibility & physicality of the voice. We honor that in the studio. We also honor the ability to CHOOSE.

I want to see every singer and artist have CHOICES.

Every day is a different day. The body, the psyche, the voice respond differently for a multitude of reasons. If we believe or push the idea of ONLY ONE right way, what if it doesn’t work? Then what?

I believe in having many possibilities in the toolbox to allow for choices that the singer can practice and access.

“Just tell me the right way and I’ll do that.”

Mmmm, it doesn’t work that way. What does your body do with your breath and your voice? How does the genre and style inform that authentically?

There is no “this way or the highway”. Science is constantly adjusting as it learns more; Artists are constantly shifting as they discover more in their technique, their bodies, their psyches.

The right way? It’s yours to discover. It’s yours to create. It’s yours to embrace.

We are not robots. We are not someone else. We are uniquely and perfectly imperfect. Are there guard rails? Of course! Discover what those are vocally, artistically, dramatically for YOU.

Discover what the vocal & physical instrument is requiring of you: How are you creating and finessing alignment and cues of adjustment with the body you are in? How is the breath moving - especially the exhale? Are you discovering the alignment and accessibility to pelvic floor, and pressures through the body to support it all? What does that mean to you? What are you able to do?

If you don’t know what it means, then it’s time to find out: not just words, but action to find it in your body.

What about sound and tone and resonance? What about language and articulation? What about registration and register transfers?

What is it for YOU?
The right way is the way that works for YOU to embody what it is you are required to do.

It takes commitment. It takes patience. It takes time.

It takes exploration. It takes freedom to color outside the lines. It takes freedom to “make a mistake” and embrace a mess once or twice in a while!

It’s in the exploration and the mess that we find what we need. Trying to do it “right” stifles us; it doesn’t give us permission to find all the choices, all the possibilities, all the options we have.

Give yourself the freedom to explore. If you fight that exploratory spirit, that’s something else to explore! Why are you resistant to find your own choices? Another big question. Riddle it out. Your answers and your journey through it might be so revelatory and amazing, it will keep you going!

with fondness & fierceness,