How to Find the Right Singing Teacher
How to Find the Right Singing Teacher
A search for singing teachers on the Internet today will yield thousands of results. How do you narrow down your choices and weed through those options?
There are many different teaching styles, techniques and methods to choose from, and you may need to interview and have trial lessons with several potential teachers before deciding on one to help you along your singing journey. (Voice training is an important investment, so be willing to take the time to do the leg work when it comes to reaching out prospective teachers..) Going into an initial meeting equipped with some knowledge and accurate information about what you should be looking for in a voice teacher and what to expect based on your training needs and goals will help you ask the right questions and to intelligently evaluate the teacher's responses.
It’s important to remember that there are quite a few different methods and techniques that can be used for voice training. The method taught depends on the teacher and his or her training. In order to ensure that your money is not being wasted on a bad teacher or on a style of teaching that doesn't work for you and your needs, monitor your progress closely. If several months go by and you aren't seeing any improvement in your problem areas, you may need to switch teachers. (Your lack of improvement may not necessarily reflect an individual teacher's skills. Rather, it could mean that the way in which you learn best and the way in which the vocal instructor teaches are mismatched.)
However, be careful not to quit too soon because, even with the most skilled instructors, it will often take months before notable improvements in range, strength and control begin to be seen. Everyone develops at a different pace. Some voices are a little 'stubborn'. Some students simply take longer to grasp technical concepts and then to successfully apply them to their singing. Singing students may also sometimes hit temporary 'plateaux' and setbacks in which their progress seems to slow down or even stop before they enter the next phase of vocal growth; kind of like a growth spurt.
Do not settle for substandard lessons. The voice, as I have already cautioned, is a very delicate instrument that should not be entrusted to ignorant or inexperienced hacks who have strange philosophies about what produces a good singing voice.
Below are a few important considerations to make when searching for a vocal instructor.
GOOD REPUTATION
One of the best ways to find a good vocal instructor is through word-of-mouth within the music community. Other singers are often the best sources for reliable information on who is effective and worth their fees. Talking to singers who are active in your local music scene, calling universities with music programs and music instruction schools in your area, contacting music industry organizations, and checking with choir members from your local churches or school choruses may produce a good list of reputable teachers for you to interview.
I first came to an awareness of my instructor while I was in a musical theatre production. The actor who was playing the lead male character had never acted on stage before, but his voice was so impressive that he was the perfect casting choice for the play. He had unfailing control, great range and a beautiful tone, whether he was singing soft ballads or songs in a hard rock/heavy metal style, and whether he was singing lower in his range or higher, and I would get goose bumps all over whenever I heard him singing. I was curious to know more about his training, and that curiosity earned me a business card and a referral to one of the best, most reputable vocal technique instructors in the area.
It is not likely sufficient to take at face value what a teacher says over the phone or on his or her website about his or her own teaching success rate. Even a website with numerous student testimonials and success stories may be misleading, as these testimonials may not be authentic, or they may represent only the positive responses that students have written. Websites and blurbs in vocal instructor directories that are written by the teacher himself or herself are like a flattering resume - impressive, but not necessarily reflective of what a former employer (or student, in this case) might actually say about that person's past work. Be careful not to choose an instructor on the basis of his or her claims, promises or guarantees.
Consider also that a teacher may boast a long list of 'successful' students, including vocalists from famous bands, and may charge exorbitant fees for lessons, but these credits and expensive lessons do not necessarily provide proof that these voice coaches are teaching good technique. They may be charismatic, and they may have indeed helped many of those students on one level or another - these students may even attribute a great deal of their vocal success to their teachers - but they may have played less of a role in the vocal development of those rock or pop stars than one might presume. (Many of these singers were probably already famous before they began taking lessons with those teachers, which is how they could afford to take lessons with them.) Upon listening to the actual technical vocal capabilities of these students, it is very often discovered that they actually do not sing very well at all. Do not let the mention of a few famous singers convince you that a vocal teacher is going to teach you safe and healthy vocal technique.
Keep in mind that a reputation is built over time. A new teacher may not have had the experience and knowledge when he or she first started out teaching, and may not have produced the results in his or her first students. (Everyone is new to their careers at one point.) However, as the years go by, a teacher with potential will have acquired more knowledge and skills, and will have begun to see greater success in his or her students. The teacher's recent reputation is more relevant.
KNOWLEDGE
Don't be easily impressed by a teacher who sounds as though he or she knows what he or she is talking about upon your initial interview or lesson. He or she may be no more than the vocal instructor equivalent of a used car salesman… or a parrot. Throwing around common or popular vocal terminology doesn't necessarily mean that a singing teacher will teach you good technique. Again, it would benefit you greatly to enter the meeting already equipped with some head knowledge about technique so that you can ask direct questions and evaluate what the teacher says in light of what you already know about healthy singing. If the technique or vocal training described by the teacher sounds a little 'quirky' or downright bizarre, then go with your gut and continue on in your search for a more suitable instructor.
The vocal terminology (e.g., projection, support, placement, vibrato, etc.) that students generally hear can be confusing, and misguided teachers who lack knowledge can pass along that faulty thinking to their students, potentially causing vocal damage. It isn't sufficient for a teacher to throw around common singing terms without also having a grasp of what they mean and how they can be explained and applied.
If a prospective instructor uses terms like 'projection', for instance, be sure to find out if he or she truly knows how desired volume is correctly and safely achieved. (Many people incorrectly assume that making one's voice heard requires shouting, or at least singing more loudly than is sometimes comfortable. This kind of faulty thinking and poor technique leads to vocal strain and fails to emphasize the value of balanced resonance along the vocal tract and clear tone to create natural, unforced volume.) Personally, I never use the term 'projection' because it suggests to singers that forcing out more volume is necessary in order to be heard.
Your instructor should be able to demonstrate some knowledge and understanding of the physiology of the voice - the mechanisms involved in correct breathing, and how sound production comes about. These are the very basics of what a singing instructor should know.
If you ask for the reasoning behind an exercise, your teacher should be able to offer a full and adequate explanation for the purpose of the exercise - what specific technical goal it is intended to accomplish, and how it goes about doing so. If the teacher's answer involves a shoulder shrug and an explanation that she is merely playing an exercise that she sang during her lessons many years ago, that teacher is probably not very knowledgeable about how to train a voice.
CAPABILITY
Your voice instructor should be able to demonstrate with a certain degree of skill the exercises that he or she is expecting you to sing. No one would walk into a music studio to take a lesson with a guitar teacher whose knowledge of technique and music theory are purely, well, theoretical. That teacher would need to be able to do more than merely direct the student to play. He or she would also need to be able to practically demonstrate the techniques that he or she is attempting to teach to the student. Many students learn best through practical demonstrations that they can then imitate.
The same holds true of voice instructors. (Mind you, just as a competent piano teacher doesn't have to be able to play at the skill level of a concert pianist - an extraordinarily rare calibre of musician - a singing teacher doesn't necessarily need to have had a successful international performance career in order to be a worthy, skilled teacher.) Your voice instructor should be able to do more than simply hear you sing and make either subjective or objective judgments about your performance, as though he or she were a judge on American Idol. While being able to hear whether or not something sounds 'good' doesn't necessarily require that one have any singing abilities, training a voice does require that one understand the physiology and acoustics involved, and know what to listen for - the finest details - and how to correct problem areas. It is not sufficient to think of singing merely as either good or bad, and a voice as either pleasant or unpleasant, and those who merely listen to singers tend to base their critiques on emotion, not technique.
Note, however, that having tremendous technical ability does not guarantee that a singer will make a good teacher. A teacher needs to be able to convey his or her knowledge in a way that makes sense to his or her students. For example, if a teacher wishes to address overall weaknesses in the student's tone, such as overly breathy, nasal, or 'throaty' (pharyngeal) qualities, being able to explain and demonstrate what is meant by these descriptions would be helpful for a student who is having difficulties hearing and evaluating his or her own tone. Becoming a good singer is about developing an awareness of one's apparatus and the sensations necessary to produce desirable tones in order to gain better control, and this goal can't be achieved if a teacher's instructions are unclear.
You want to find someone to train you who is both skilled as a vocalist and knowledgeable about singing and vocal anatomy. Also, he or she should be able not only to explain concepts in a way that will help you to understand them and to apply them, but do so with patience, flexibility and creativity. (Trust and comfort levels are very important in helping you and your teacher work together as a team.)
CREDENTIALS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Not all good instructors have formal educations, like degrees from Berklee College of Music or Julliard or graduate programs in voice pedagogy, nor extensive performance backgrounds that have brought them international recognition. (Their are countless variables to explain why some people 'make it big' while others do not, and technical abilities very seldom determine success within the contemporary music scene.)
Be cautioned also that not all voice instructors with degrees from university vocal programs or teaching certificates from workshops (for methods that require courses before they are certified to teach that particular method) can sing well or properly. I have also worked with students who have developed vocal damage, (such as strain and vocal nodes) through improper technique that was taught to them at those very same universities. This is not to suggest, by any means, that all singers who graduate from university vocal programs don't sing properly. I am merely informing my readers that formal credentials are not always to be trusted above other signs of expertise, such as good reputation, accurate knowledge, solutions, and results.
I would caution anyone searching for a vocal instructor to be especially aware of that teacher's training. While it isn't necessary for a good teacher to have a degree from a prestigious music program or university - again, these degrees don't necessarily guarantee that the graduate has developed excellent or even correct vocal technique, or that he or she has an aptitude for teaching - the teacher should at least have taken voice lessons for a reasonable length of time with a skilled instructor, and have developed good vocal skills.
Ideally, you'll want an instructor who has years of vocal training behind him or her. Take special note of the type of training that he or she has, and who he or she has studied with. Take the time to research your potential teacher's teachers, if possible, to get a better idea of the quality of his or her own training and background. Typically, the technique that the instructor teaches is also the technique, (or sometimes a modified version of it), that was taught to him or her.
Beware the teacher who is self-taught or whose training has been solely via books, instructional DVDs and other recorded vocal programs. These singing teachers may have developed good vocal skills on their own, or they may not have. Having never had another skilled, knowledgeable and trained teacher listen to them and ensure that they are singing correctly, they may have developed inaccurate assessments of their own vocal abilities and may have received some misinformation about the singing voice. If they have developed strange notions about the voice and how it works, they will pass those ideas on to their unsuspecting students.
There are teachers out there who have never taken voice lessons themselves, and have acquired all of their knowledge about singing via the Internet (e.g. researching and reading discussion forums, etc), picking and choosing which bits of information make the most sense to them and which bits of information fit with their personal philosophies about singing. In some cases, the teacher has even taken the step of purchasing pre-recorded vocal lesson programs from other instructors. Without the benefit of having had a live teacher to ensure that they are indeed learning correct technique, however, these teachers may not have acquired any real skills. Also, the quality of the teaching that these self-professed teachers have received may not be great. (Many of the instructional DVDs available are not very good, as the technique being taught is quite questionable or even potentially injurious.)
Some teachers rely on their own performance experience, claiming that years of singing with a professional band have automatically given them the expertise necessary for teaching others. Essentially, these teachers are self-taught, and have used themselves as guinea pigs, experimenting with different techniques and exercises to find what works for them. Then, they proceed to teach those same vocal 'tricks', which may or may not be helpful and safe, to others. Being a good, qualified teacher requires more than just the assumption that all voices are the same as yours and will, therefore, respond to the same approach and methods as yours did.
While it is possible that a singer can teach him- or herself correct vocal technique, I would like to think that a student desiring to take lessons would want to find a teacher whose knowledge about singing is broader and more reliable. It seems imprudent and unnecessary to give money to someone to teach you what you could just as easily learn on your own from the Internet, (just as that teacher did). Some of the information on the web is accurate, and some of it is not, and a student has no way of knowing how much of the incorrect information the self-taught teacher has absorbed and will pass along to his or her students.
I know of some teachers who claim to teach a certain singing technique (e.g., bel canto), but who have little or no formal training in this technique. They teach a distorted and inaccurate version of the technique, rather than a true or pure version of it because they have not studied it enough formally to know, understand and teach the technique thoroughly. Oftentimes, the teachers may claim to teach a certain technique because that technique or method has a good reputation or is well known by prospective students around the world, and the teacher then relies on the good reputation of the technique itself to make them more appealing. (I know of a very successful and famous voice teacher, for example, who claims to teach bel canto. However, a quick listen to and viewing of his sample videos of a webcam lesson reveals that he does not apply true bel canto technique to any of his own singing or teaching, and it is evident in his explanations and instructions to his students that he doesn't have a very good understanding of any of the classical technique concepts. Someone who is not trained to know what to listen for might easily be duped, though.) A student of voice should look into the teacher's background and see whether or not that teacher is qualified to be teaching that particular method or technique.
There are some who believe it necessary for a student-turned-teacher to be 're-trained' to be a teacher. Indeed, learning requires a different kind of focus and different skill set than teaching does, and many aspiring vocal instructors would greatly benefit from taking courses in vocal pedagogy. However, just as not all graduates from teachers' college end up being effective school teachers, a course or a degree in voice pedagogy will not guarantee that an individual will demonstrate skill and be successful as a vocal instructor. There are many individuals who are educators by their very nature, and who become excellent teachers because they possess a great deal of natural talent and ability in this area. They absorb information about the voice, understand it thoroughly, have exceptional diagnostic (listening and observation) skills, produce results and develop good rapports with their students. In my opinion, these kinds of naturally gifted pedagogues are no less qualified to teach than the mediocre teacher with a Master's degree in voice pedagogy who simply cannot produce results or retain students.
ASSESS YOUR BUDGET
Not everyone can afford to take private lessons with the most sought-after instructor in the country. However, even if you must limit your options for a singing teacher based on affordability, you should still choose your teacher wisely.
The top vocal coaches and technique instructors in the music business can be expensive ($100 per hour and up - I know of one who charges $300 per hour!). A professional opera teacher, for instance, would likely have a higher hourly rate than a part-time teacher at a local music store where lesson fees are typically set and regulated by the store's owner. This is the case because opera teachers are often highly experienced, both in teaching and in performance, and expert in the unique technique required for classical singing and in operatic repertoire, language and interpretation, whereas singing teachers at music stores are typically less experienced, less trained, and more abundant, and their fees are intended to be inviting to new students.
Private lessons in a teacher's private (often home) studio are generally more costly than those at the local music school, as well. These teachers have usually completed their tenure and have 'graduated' from teaching at music stores. They also often have superior performance experience and teaching resum�s over that of the twenty-year-old who teaches at the music store part-time to pay for his college expenses, and have already built a consistent student base through their reputations and years of successful instruction. A teacher who can successfully acquire and retain enough students through reputation and word-of-mouth to earn a living will likely be one who can produce results in his or her students. You will probably pay more per lesson, but you will also likely be receiving top quality vocal instruction.
While the phrase "you get what you pay for" may apply with some singing lessons, I should note that more affordable doesn't always mean bad or inferior, and that more pricy doesn't necessarily mean better. Very often, a teacher whose lessons are very expensive is relying on his or her reputation as a performer, music producer, etc., which does not guarantee that his or her lessons are actually worth the money. Sometimes these teachers develop a following - and a waiting list - on the basis of their past fame alone. Famous doesn't necessarily translate into superior knowledge or instruction. It is possible to find reasonably priced, quality voice lessons. Music instruction schools and lesser-known private instructors are your best bet if you have a limited budget. These teachers will aim to keep their prices competitive and reasonable in order to make their lessons accessible to more potential students.
Learning the basics of good singing can easily happen at a local music store. Some stores do employ instructors with extensive teaching experience. Generally, it is most advantageous for a teacher to use the services of a music store to acquire new students because the stores are visible and well advertised, rather than have to actively seek out students on one's own for building one's own home studio clientele. Also, these same experienced instructors simply may not have an appropriate space of their own in which to teach, and opt to take advantage of the studio facilities offered at the local music store at a rental rate that may be lower than that of a commercial space. (In most music stores, a portion of the lesson fee is reserved for the store, and covers the teacher's rental of the space as well as the store's expenses for advertising, etc., and its 'finder's fee'. The teacher does not actually receive the full amount that the student has paid for the lesson.)
Beginners can take advantage of the geographical convenience and business hours, as well as the affordability of such lessons. However, a more advanced or serious vocal student may require a teacher with greater experience and expertise than can be found at the local music instruction school or music store.
ASSESS YOUR GOALS
The 'two for the price of one' teachers who address both technique and song execution may be the solution for less serious students who are anxious to begin singing right away. Be cautioned, however, that there must be a healthy balance of technique building and song singing present in one's lessons. If the teacher stops a student at points to address errors in breathing, posture or the tone that is being created, for instance, it is a good sign that he or she is just as concerned with correct technique as he or she is with getting students to sing songs in which they might be interested. (Some teachers, worried that their students might find technique training boring or tedious, may employ this tactic of allowing their students to fill up their lesson times with song singing in order to keep the students' interest so that they don't look for another instructor.)
If you are merely interested in improving enough so that your children will cease pounding on the bathroom door and begging you to stop singing in the shower (or strangling the cat), then just about any competent singing teacher will do. Nearly everyone can improve with lessons that focus on the basics of good singing, like correct breathing and tone production. With little pressure on yourself, you are bound to enjoy your lessons while improving your singing. Group lessons may also be a pressure-free, affordable options.
However, if you are serious about perfecting your skills in order to become an elite professional singer, you may wish to be more selective in your choice of teacher and choose a reputable, highly experienced technique instructor to start out with. Regardless of the style or genre in which you aim to sing, a good technique instructor will be invaluable to you in the early years of your training. I suggest not wasting your time and money on cheaper lessons with an inexperienced instructor if you fully intend to switch later on to someone better just because you think that it will cost less overall to train your voice. You may end up wasting more time and money having to learn a new technique or correct improper technique taught to you by your first instructor. You may need to be willing to pay a little more for these lessons and commit to studying with your instructor for longer, but the rewards (in the form of a healthy, skilled, trained voice) will be well worth it in the end.
COACHING OR TECHNIQUE?
More often than not, 'singing teacher', 'voice instructor' and 'vocal coach' are generic titles that are applied to all vocal instructors, regardless of their method, approach or focus. This can make it confusing for a new student who has specific goals and needs and requires a certain kind of teacher to help him or her reach those goals and meet those needs. Take some time to read the article on this site entitled Vocal Coaching or Vocal Technique Instruction - What's the Difference? for an explanation of the main differences amongst teachers and for more guidance on assessing your particular needs as a student of voice.
Regardless of the individual singer's long-term goals, it's imperative that a vocal student begin by focusing primarily on developing proper technique. Without effectively supported and managed breathing, good tone, control and a reasonable range, a singer will be limited in terms of what he or she will be able to sing.
Once you are skilled enough to begin applying your newly acquired technique to songs of your choosing or to hire a vocal coach, if you so desire, choose one who specializes in your particular genre. There are many nuances to various styles that only a teacher who is passionate about a particular genre and expert in it can teach. Ideally, you want someone who can guide you to maintain the purity and the feel of a particular genre, but who will not force you into a stylistic 'box' that precisely matches his or her own. He or she should encourage your stylistic originality and celebrate your particular personality and unique vocal qualities, helping to draw them out of you and helping you to express who you are. (We all have vocal artists whom we emulate, yet we have our own unique voices and skills.)
Also, as an added bit of cautionary advice, beware the singing coach who attempts to mold his or her students to the point where they sound overly polished, tentative and controlled, mechanical and flat in quality. A natural voice that is bridled due to its being micromanaged or 'tamed' by a teacher's direction - I'm not referring to the desirable kind of control that one achieves over one's voice through technique training and voice strengthening - will lack quality, richness and passion. It is possible for a singing coach to make a student sound worse by stripping his or her voice of its natural lustre and forcing the student into a box that doesn't fit who he or she is individually.
CONSIDER GEOGRAPHY
One very important consideration when choosing a singing teacher for some students is the distance that they will have to travel to get to their teacher's studio. Depending on their particular goals - whether they are interested in sounding a little better on karaoke night or wish to seriously pursue a professional singing career - they may desire a shorter drive or tolerate a longer one. Professional opera singers, for example, are often willing to drive for hours or even travel the country or world in order to study under the most gifted master teachers in the world. In greater metropolitan areas, the dedication to a lengthy commute should be unnecessary, as there are generally many skilled teachers to choose from, but finding the right instructor for you should always be the first consideration.
Many teachers, including myself, offer on-line lessons - see Skype lessons - which, in theory, eliminate the need for commuting or traveling, and may also offer greater flexibility in terms of the teacher's hours due to time zone differences.
PRE-RECORDED LESSON PROGRAMS
I must caution anyone considering purchasing recorded vocal lessons on CD or DVD. Given my emphasis on the value of feedback and individualized plans for approaching every student's unique needs, it should come as no surprise that I do not suggest hiring as your teacher a small round disk that plays some arpeggios and professes to be a real singing teacher. While you may appreciate the convenience of being able to do your lessons whenever you choose - and even in your bath robe and bunny slippers! - in the absence of direct feedback and individualized guidance, you might possibly be wasting your money, and potentially making your singing technique worse, not better.
Many 'graduates' of these recorded versions of lessons end up suffering the same kinds of vocal damage due to improper technique that others with poor 'live' instructors do. Although the teacher who has recorded these lessons may actually know a thing or two about singing, the inexperienced singing student does not yet know enough about good, healthy technique in order to discern the good teacher from the bad, or to give a flawless and trained assessment of his or her own progress, or to know how to read the body's cues (biophysical feedback) for signs of well- or poorly applied technical concepts. I've met countless singers who think that they are breathing correctly, when indeed they are not, and I've heard even more singers who think that their overly nasally or breathy tones are quirks that others will find appealing. I can list countless examples of students whom I have taught who simply could not hear in their own voices what I am trained to listen for, and who were surprised when I pointed out their technical and tonal errors to them because they had not been aware of them before.
Do invest in the ongoing expertise of a teacher with whom you take lessons in person. The voice is too delicate an instrument to be entrusted to a pre-recorded, money-making gimmick or scheme. Vocal study cannot be treated like an on-line college course. If a teacher is not available to provide feedback, answer questions and correct mistakes in real time, an inexperienced student is left to learn on his or her own only what he or she can teach him- or herself, which is limiting.
I would also caution those who take lessons over the telephone with a live instructor on the other end. While the feedback of a trained professional may be on the other end of the line, that instructor cannot see the student's body, and thus may miss improper breathing techniques, improper posture and evidence of tension building up in the body, particularly the jaw, for example. (A highly skilled teacher will be able to ascertain a great deal about the voice and the singer's vocal tract posture simply by listening, but problems may still be missed, which could delay or even hinder progress.)
Sometimes a professional vocal instructor will provide practice CD's for his or her students to use during the week between lessons. These CD's will generally include the same exercises that the students practice with the instructor during lesson times, and will often be tailored to the student's skill level (i.e., beginner, intermediate or advanced). It is important that a student of these instructors not allow others who are not studying with the same instructor to use these CD's, as they will not necessarily understand the technical concepts or have the skills required to sing the exercises, and could suffer vocal damage due to poor technique and attempting to do exercises that their voices are not yet ready for.
WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT A VOCAL INSTRUCTOR TO TEACH
In order to effectively teach - that is, produce desirable results in his or her students - a voice instructor needs to be able to identify technical errors, diagnose the root cause of those problems and then provide practical solutions. Many teachers fail to study the common causes of technical problems that lead to limitations and injury in their students' voices and they don't learn the corrective devices for them, so their students never find solutions and don't progress at an acceptable pace.
I've read countless stories of students who have taken lessons for years with their teachers but have not seen any significant improvements. In most cases, their lack of progress is a reflection of their teachers' incompetence, as they have failed to adequately explain to their students how singing works and directly address the student's technical errors. It is my belief that a student can't learn the art of singing without first understanding and developing the technique that will enable him or her to sing with true skill. For example, if a student is unable to access the head register, the teacher needs to be able to explain why - that is, what is causing this limitation in the student's range, (such as a raised larynx caused by a retroflex tongue or poor vowel modification). The teacher also needs to be able to assign appropriate exercises that will target the problem and eliminate the root cause of it so that the student will then be able to experience vocal freedom. If a student can't access the head register, then he or she will not be able to learn how to develop full, vibrant head voice tone, nor learn to bridge all the registers effectively. The singer's artistry will be limited unless the teacher can correctly diagnose and help their students resolve their technical problems.
A good teacher will offer scientific information to his or her students so that learning to sing is not a mystery or a stab in the dark. If a student of voice asks questions regarding why the teacher is having him or her sing a certain exercise or assume a specific vocal posture, the teacher should be able to give clear, intelligent answers. (It is my opinion that a teacher should freely offer these explanations at the time that the new exercise or technique is introduced - to explain the purposes for the exercises - rather than waiting until a student makes an inquiry about its purpose, as the trusting student may not think to ask. A lack of curiosity on the student's part should not be taken as an invitation to avoid providing complete teaching, or taking a complete approach to teaching.) Applying a combination of both methodology(sometimes called, though incorrectly, technique) and an understanding of the principles behind that methodology will help a student progress more consistently and safely, and ultimately develop a healthier approach to singing. (If a teacher does not have an answer to a student's question about why an exercise is being assigned other than, "This is what my teacher used to make me do.", this teacher may be woefully lacking in knowledge about the human voice and how to properly train it.)
Please note that because most singing teachers are vocal coaches, the focus on technique training, diagnosis and solutions is often missing in their training and in their approach to vocal instruction.
Although their approaches may differ - various exercises may be used to accomplish the same goals - all good teachers should instruct their students in the same fundamental singing skills. Below, I have compiled a generalized list of what those technical skills are. (I won't impose my own particular methods or exercises on anyone who doesn't study with me.)
Breath Management: A voice teacher should explain to his or her students how to support the tone of the voice with a steady, controlled, gentle stream of air. The specific musculature involved in breathing should be pointed out, and the mechanism should be clearly explained. Why breathing is important to tone production - a steady stream of air rising from the lungs is essential to producing a steady stream of tone at the laryngeal level, where the vocal folds that produce sound are located - should be explained.
There are many teachers who have a poor understanding of how to use the breath effectively and safely. Some brush over breathing technique altogether, assuming that their students will find it boring and be anxious to move on to the 'singing' aspects of lessons or that they will simply figure it out on their own over time. Some teach that it isn't necessary to focus on breathing while singing because it will come naturally. There are some teachers who may even deny the correctness of internationally accepted techniques for managing the breath because they themselves have not figured out how to use the body's musculature to regulate the outflow of air from the lungs or have been taught dangerous and incorrect practices, such as extreme muscular control that leads to pushing the breath out. These teachers who avoid teaching breath management skills to their students are doing their students a grave disservice because they don't understand just how critical to good tone and skillful singing effective breath management is.
To learn more about the type of breathing technique that a good instructor will teach, please read Correct Breathing For Singing.
Registration: All human voices are subject to the natural vibratory patterns of the vocal folds. In other words, all voices have registers. The number of registers that a singer can access is a subject for debate, and not all singers can access the same number of registers, (with untrained singers being able to access fewer than trained singers), but it is a scientific and phonetic fact that all speakers and singers have vocal registers.
Any teacher who either completely ignores registration or outrightlly denies its existence is not doing his or her students any favours, as a lack of understanding of how the vocal folds adjust to different pitch demands can lead to incorrect and injurious navigation of the vocal range. (Most commonly, teachers have their students 'muscle' their way up through the upper passaggio, carrying the lower mechanism of the voice up too high, which causes pushing and strain, and creates a 'shouty' vocal quality.) The opposite may true, as well; that a teacher should not place so much emphasis on the events of registration or on separating the registers that the student never learns to achieve a fully unified or even scale from bottom to top.
Each register has its own unique qualities, and its own particular training needs. A major goal of vocal training is to learn to create seamless transitions between these different registers so that the voice doesn't 'break' and sounds like one smooth instrument from the lowest part of the range to the uppermost part of the range. This requires making adjustments at the laryngeal level, as well as with breath pressure. For more specifics on what you should be taught about vocal registers, read Understanding Range, Registers and Type: A Glossary of Vocal Terms and Good Tone Production For Singing.
Vocal Posture: Vocal posture doesn't just refer to the alignment of the back, neck and head. Elevation of the zygomatic (cheek) muscles as well as the soft palate (velum), maintaining a lowered and relaxed larynx, correct positioning of the tongue and jaw and shaping of the mouth in order to maximize resonating space, to free up the larynx and to create ideal acoustical configurations of the vocal tract all fall under the category of vocal posture. All of these elements affect the quality of the singing tone, and should not be overlooked in any vocal training. Vocal posture also affects vocal ability. Whenever the vocal tract is configured in ways that deny normal phonemic laws and inhibit natural physical functioning, the singing voice will be adversely affected.
A good teacher will be able to help a student find optimal resonance, freedom of production and beautiful tone. Many teachers lack knowledge about how to achieve these goals, or have incorrect ideas about how to achieve them. If a teacher asks a student to assume vocal postures that are uncomfortable and unnatural to the singer, there is a good chance that they are also incorrect and will cause tension and injury. For example, lowering the jaw excessively in a vain attempt to produce more volume and a larger resonating space in the throat actually forces the temporomandibular joint to come out of its socket, closes the throat, prevents the vocal folds from approximating (closing) correctly and robs the voice of its overtones. A good teacher will know enough about the laws of acoustics to avoid instructing his or her students to distort the phonetic aspects of the voice.
Tonal Balance: A good teacher will address many issues regarding resonance balance, especially tone production errors such as breathiness, hypernasality, throatiness (pharyngeal tones) and pressed phonation, all of which create imbalance in the tone and potential injury to the vocal folds. Allowing a student to sing in any of these faulty phonatory modes is highly irresponsible as they are related to and caused by unnatural or inoptimal vocal tract posturing. Correcting tonal imbalances requires both an understanding of what is causing them and practical methods for addressing and eliminating them. Furthermore, an understanding of formants (overtones that are present in the vibrant, healthy voice) and how to shape and adjust the vocal tract to create optimal acoustical relationships between them is essential to creating fully resonant, warm, clear tone that has carrying power.
Read Good Tone Production For Singing and my follow-up article entitled Singing With An 'Open Throat': Vocal Tract Shaping to learn more about the intricacies and nuances of tone production.
Proprioceptive Awareness: Every singer experiences specific sensations during balanced, healthy singing that are unique to that individual. These sensations, along with internal hearing, serve as identifiable and repeatable indicators of whether or not a singer is achieving balanced tone. A good teacher should help his or her students become aware of the sensations associated with good resonance; that is, help the student to build his or her proprioceptive responses to sympathetic vibration. Singers discover their own resonance sensations by systematically working through resonance balancing exercises.
When a student of voice learns to rely on these indicators of good tone, he or she is then able to analyze the quality of his or her own tone. If equipped with the knowledge of how to adjust resonance balance in order to reproduce these trusted sensations, the student becomes more self-sufficient, and will progress much more quickly.