Joyce L  
Instruments: Voice
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Blues, Folk, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Opera, Latin, Showtunes, Spirituals, Swing, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul

I began teaching voice students after grad school. I soon learned that students progress more quickly and with more confidence if they're given a program that was constructed just for THEM; so I teach each student with specific tasks and interests depending on their unique background. At the end of each lesson, I type out a summary of what we covered in the lesson, then some specifics about what to practice, for how long, and why. Lessons include several sections: physical warmup; vocal warmup; listening ideas; singing with piano and/or backing track, and most importantly going over song form and lyrics!

There are two major philosophies I've uncovered when teaching lessons. 1. The use of descending lines to erase the "break" in ones voice. Early while studying, myself, I was taught to sing ascending, trying to maintain the same sound - this is defeating. Rather, bringing the top down is the "way to go." 2. Keeping the sound forward makes changing from one vowel to another quite easy and palpable. We generally begin by humming, getting vibrations away from the throat and into the front of the mouth. Once this has been accomplished on a single note, next we do descending lines this way, and finally, the tune of your choice! 3. Your body remains relaxed with your brain (and abdomen) doing all the work!