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Many people (like I used to) mistake bad vocal habits for artistry. Eg. Wobbling vibrato, or slurring up to a higher note. Technically, if you CANNOT control when you do NOT want to have them, then they are simply bad habits. A sound in singing, is only mastery when we know how to add, or remove, as we intend. We require technique, using the right muscles, when we train how to NOT have wobbling vibrato, or slurs when we don't want to. And there are many reasons why we don't -

When I was a little girl, I have this memory of getting into a quarrel with an elderly neighbour whose kitchen faced ours. I remember myself as a feisty little girl with a loud voice, and apparently rude, because I was told off by my mother and grandmother that I should not have spoken to the elderly neighbour that way. Without the full context, I have no idea whether I reacted because she was teasing me (as some older people do, pressing children's buttons just to get a reac

I chanced upon this ‘live’ performance by Billie Eiish and thought that it’s such good classroom material to dissect for singing students: Disclaimer: I am neutral about her; I do like her songwriting abilities and how she emotes herself as a recording artiste. This is strictly an objective analysis from the angle of a vocal teacher: Timeline BreakDown 0:08 When she started singing the verse, you may observe that she was slouching (and hence closing her body). It sorts of sti

This is a concept that comes up all through my whole life - be it putting myself out there as a singer-songwriter back in the days, or coaching vocals to my students over 2 decades. It can come up as: - not wanting to present certain looks (eg. without makeup on social media), or sounds/concepts ("is this really what i want to let the listeners hear and feel about me? The secret ugly part of me") - looking into a mirror (straight on to our singing faces) - feeling the cringe