At the end of the day, voice work is personal and unique to each singer. The way I teach is one of many ways of perceiving, learning and internalizing the confidence to sing out! I would encourage you to find a method that works for you and stick with it. If my method works for you, go with it! If not, that’s totally ok! Explore your options in terms of understanding and internalizing technique.

There are as many different approaches to singing technique as there are songs to sing. Each teacher, each student and every singer has a way they like to perceive the sensation of their voice to create ‘good’ technique.  

CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music) is how many in the voice training world teach and provide insight into the techniques needed to sing pop, rock, R&B...essentially anything modern. There are amazing teachers and fascinating resources in the CCM community. There are wonderful programs that teach the fundamentals of CCM like Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method and Lisa Popeil’s Voiceworks program, which is accessible via CD rom and workbook set. 

There are many high-end Coaches like Seth Riggs – creator of Speech Level Singing which is a FANTASTIC method, Brandon Brophy – author of The Singer’s Instinct which was actually my introduction into CCM or Elaine Overholt –another gem! – have mastered the contemporary sound and all its intricacies.  They use methods derived from CCM and have also produced their own teaching methods. They, like me, train one-on-one and have built their own teaching style.  

Another example of an alternative approach to vocal technique is via the anatomical and practical science of it, or Voice Science. It is hugely beneficial to understand things like the vocal tract and it’s angle, the position of the larynx, the ‘weight’ of one’s phonation...etc. These are the nuts and bolts of your voice. If you are a kinesthetic learner, this is a good path for you. 

If you are curious about digging deeper into this approach, (It’s amazingly interesting) I would highly encourage you to explore the science of Vocology. Vocology is the science of singing and voice habilitation, as introduced by Ingo Titze, of The National Centre for Voice & Speech. The NCVS does research with professional voice users, voice scientists and doctors of all kinds. The work they do and have done is groundbreaking in the voice world. The brilliant folks at Voice Science Works have also done an immense amount of research on the topic. They take advanced vocal anatomy and present it in a very easy to understand way that all singers can learn from. Vocology In Practice is a valuable online hub for singers, voice teachers, music industry folks, speech and language pathologists, laryngologists and ENTs to meet, learn and exchange knowledge and insight.