HOLISTIC VOICE TRAINING IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE!

How do you TRULY combine your desire to sing with actually getting onstage and doing it? I know for most people this desire, while super exciting and titillating, can also bring up a lot of fear, anxiety or even nausea. So let’s just think about it (while stakes are low:)…Where do fears live? Fear often lives in your body and your mind. That mixture of “butterflies” of excitement, stomach cramps of uncertainty and thoughts of “I suck!”/”I can’t do this!” are just a few examples of fear showing up in your body and mind. 

So maybe you notice these physical/mental signs but you really don’t know what to do with them. It’s like your body has a mind of it’s own. No pun intended. So what’s a good way to say access your body and interrupt this steady stream of butterflies? Research has shown that one of the most efficient and effective ways to ”train” your  mind is by connecting to your breath and body. 

But we’re talking about singing right? The thing is your voice is also inside your body. So even your voice requires your conscious thought. Practicing vocal warm ups to work on pitch, improve tone quality and clear vowel sounds as well as emotional intention and confidence in a song. These are all things that require thought. 

In order to make an impact on your singing, your singing dreams and even your singing fears, you need to acknowledge the fact that your voice is an integral part of your body. Therefore in order to truly address the full spectrum of who you are (or want to be) as a performer, you will benefit most from an integrated approach to training your voice. Holistic voice training aims to address the various aspects of your vocal freedom, singing desires and unconscious/conscious fears. There are multiple ways to get there but almost all include the breath, movement and self-awareness.

I don’t know if this is exactly you. But very often when I talk to prospective students and ask them what it is they are attracted to about singing they often say things like they have always loved to sing, always wanted to learn more about their voice or wondered what kind of vocal potential they have. 

Then when I ask what else they are interested in working on, they often list a bunch of things related to their singing fears such as:

-feeling insecure/terrified to sing in front of others
-feeling worried about singing on pitch
-clueless as to how to make a song their own
-being told their voice/presence was too much/too big
-being told by a teacher or person that they couldn’t sing

So when a new student shows up, they arrive with both the desire and self-doubt and part of my job is to help guide them to work through both. The holistic voice programs I offer work one on one teaching beginners to professionals healthy vocal technique for all styles of music/experimentation while also staying true to the person’s emotions. We do this by taking time to learn how to free the body and breath for more confident singing and stage presence.

Because I feel SO passionate about wanting to offer people more tools to interrupt their singing/fears next year I am going to be offering a NEW component in breath and body awareness. This will be a group experience to help students in my programs as well as the general public learn how to access more grace and grounding. To find out more, email here and let me know if this article resonated with you in any way.