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Belt technique is controversial in the voice world. I grew up with the belief that if I did anything other than sing in head voice that I would destroy my voice, and even in 2018, I meet students and voice teachers all the time who share that sentiment. The truth is, belting can be dangerous […]

In searching for age-appropriate musical theatre songs to sing for auditions and performances, there’s a difficult age bracket–tweens and young teens–to find music for. For singers too old to want to sing “Castle on a Cloud,” “Tomorrow,” or “The Girl I Mean to Be,” but too young to feel comfortable singing love songs yet, it […]

Often, the adult singers I work with share a common complaint: they love to sing but don’t have an outlet for it outside of voice lessons. Maybe you’re an experienced singer looking for a professional-level singing organization to join, or maybe you just want a laid-back group of like-minded people to sing with. Luckily, the […]

Last month, we gave you some song choices to sing at auditions. But sometimes it helps just to see a list of what to stay away from. As with anything, these lists are flexible and highly depend on context. A song that’s overdone at Broadway auditions might be a perfect choice for a high school audition. And […]

Editorial credit: FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com Last November, I wrote a blog giving you 10 child-appropriate pop songs. Because this is such a popular topic, I decided it was time for another installment of pop songs for kids to sing. Before I start, I’d like to reiterate that I as a voice teacher I strongly believe […]

Anyone who’s worked with me knows that I don’t endorse a lot of restriction on what kids are allowed to sing. Children’s love of a song often has nothing to do with how they relate to the lyrics and much to do with how a certain melodic hook, chord progression, or beat moves them. Exposure, […]

Kelli O’Hara Memorial Day concert, by Tabercil, under CC BY 2.0 When you think of contemporary musical theatre singing, belting, or at least a conversational mixed voice comes to mind: a powerhouse bringing down the house with “Defying Gravity,” or a Schuyler sister rapping and speech-singing about New York City. And to be frank, it’s […]

You’ve sung pop music all your life, but now an audition’s come up, and you need to sing a musical theatre song. Sound familiar? If this is the case, and you don’t have time to suddenly develop a legit musical theatre voice (think Rogers and Hammerstein), it’s very important that you don’t choose your audition […]

At some point, you've probably heard someone sing in falsetto, that disconnected (usually higher) sound in males. But do females have falsetto, or just head voice? In the vocal pedagogy world, there's a lot of controversy about the topic.

I get this question a lot from loving parents who want to do right by their kids and get them the best education possible: "My daughter loves singing Adele and Taylor Swift, but should I get her classically trained first so that she can sing pop music 'correctly'?"

This month, songs by the teen Indie-pop sensation known as Billie Eilish have been making their way around my studio, and it's easy to understand why. Her dark, Lana Del Rey-inspired lyrics, coupled with her breathy, hypnotic vocals are beautiful and evocative. But singing quietly consistently, especially something as rangy as "When the Party's Over," can be extremely challenging, and in some ways harder than just being loud. That's why we decided to do something unusual and pick a song known for its quiet vocals instead of its powerful ones for our newest Hard Songs to Sing post.

It can be challenging to remember to do at first, but if you work on applying this technique to your singing, everything, from operatic singing to heavy belting, will be more comfortable and healthy.