If you are a singer, or you find that your attempts to sing are not as successful as you dream they would be, you must realize like with learning anything else, there are methods and skills to acquire. Singing is an intricate art form, combining natural talent with extensive training and technique.
So what does this journey entail? It starts with recognizing that your voice is an instrument, and like any instrument, you need to understand its mechanics. You’ll begin by learning the anatomy of your vocal apparatus, including the lungs, diaphragm, larynx, and mouth.
Once you’ve got the basics down, we move to understanding posture and alignment; a crucial step for producing strong and clear tones. The shapes of the tones are critical to the clarity of pitch and sound you are producing. Breathing is your base, so while studying with me you will learn to work with these elements to create and experience a holistic alignment of expression in your singing practice.
In my opinion, vocal health is just as vital as technique. I’ll guide you through the habits necessary to maintain a healthy voice—staying hydrated, avoiding strain, and understanding the signs of vocal fatigue.
Finally, this section wraps up with the mindset needed for vocal training. Don’t worry too much about getting everything perfect from the start. Embrace the learning process, as each exercise and technique you master leads to improvement in your overall singing ability.
Moving forward, in the next section, we’ll jump straight into the specific vocal techniques you need to focus on to turn your singing aspirations into a musical reality.
I love my piano and my students love my Petit Baby Grande as well. I am not a parent and have never had children, but when the children come through my door and into my studio I feel so honored to be a part of their developing “creative process”. A child is so receptive to music and learning something new. They sit at my Petit Baby Grande and wonder. I can tell that their fingers are tingling, egging to play anything that comes to their mind… I am so excited and thankful to meet them there, and share my joy of playing the piano with them
In teaching children piano I have noticed a dramatic development in the self-awareness and self-esteem of the children over time. The ability of the child to also compose soon after the start of lessons is astounding, and with the grasping of some fundamental elements in music theory, a good portion are very comfortable coming up with their patterns, and can easily create their own music, leading into a natural set of composition skills.
The more the teacher gives the child to explore using the tools (piano techniques)I find that this can and will keep the child engaged in an ever-evolving creative pattern, creating something from nothing which ultimately gives the child a creative outlet and a stronger sense of being. Being a music teacher/coach and having also been a student, I feel that this a more practical way of teaching, because the teacher has the assurance that the child has made a personal connection with the instrument, and most often will always have the piano to go back to.
The piano is also an instrument that all musicians turn to.
I for one have used the Piano for composing, also for accompaniment for others and for myself, performing, and using my Nord keyboard for performing and recording with my Logic Program.
Jana Szabo directs student and Shifty Sailors member Ted Ravitz to warm up his vocal chords with scales. On any given day in Jana Szabo’s studio, her students sing and push their vocal ranges to the limit.
But for Szabo, “student” is a flexible term that includes both 6-year-olds and 80 year-olds.
“In any community I live in, I need to know that the people, especially the children, aren’t left behind in the arts,” Szabo said. “I was spoon-fed the arts when I was young. I feel obligated to make my community feel the same way, regardless of age.”
The Clinton-based vocal coach has been training singers young and old for 30 years. She brings a flavor of the theatrical West Side of Manhattan to South Whidbey, having grown up in the area listening to the likes of conductor Leonard Bernstein and other Broadway legends. Her background in the Big Apple and being surrounded by music teachers from Julliard sparked her interest in teaching the arts, and she’s never looked back.
These days, Szabo lives to ignite the same passion in her students. She also performs at local venues and works with South Whidbey theaters.
“My interest is in knocking on the door of my students’ own creative potential, and unlocking that doorway using music as the key,” Szabo said.
Szabo’s students range from kindergartners in need of a creative outlet, to retired vocalists, to those in prominent Whidbey groups like the Shifty Sailors and Joann Quintana Band. She says not all vocal coaches are open to working with students of such an age range, with some turning down students they see as too young to have perfect pitch, and others who focus on nurturing young vocalists.
There is no “cookie cutter” method of teaching for Szabo. There isn’t a magic formula or strict code to get her students to the level they want to reach. For example, she doesn’t confine herself to teaching jazz vocals, despite jazz being a large part of her musical heritage. Her training sessions can look much different from one another depending on who her student for the day is.
“One of the great things about Jana as a vocal coach is she’s flexible with her training methods,” Joann Quintana, lead singer of Joann Quintana Band said. “She’s actually come to my band’s practices a couple of times to make the lesson more relevant to my performances.”
Vocal sessions are particularly personalized when it comes to her youngest students. During her vocal sessions with Amelia Rochholz, 6, Szabo will instruct her pupil to sing in front of her reflection in either a mirror or video recording device such as an iPad. Szabo says it’s a way to get the little ones attentive and engaged, since they enjoy seeing themselves perform.
Things look a little different for Rochholz’ 8-year-old sister, Emmalynn Rochholz. The older sister was drawn to the Broadway style of theatrical singing, and is as much of a dancer as a singer. Given Szabo’s Broadway roots, she was able to incorporate dance and mold the sessions perfectly for Emmalynn. As it turns out, Emmalynn Rochholz is a better singer while dancing.
“Jana is extremely flexible with my girls and comes up with creative ways to teach them effectively,” the Rochholzes’ mother, Kristin Hummel, said. “She lets my oldest daughter choreograph her own dance routines to the songs that she creates. It’s been the perfect creative outlet for both of them.”
Szabo says the most important thing in training vocalists young and old is to focus on the individual. She believes some coaches, trainers and educators focus more on their own achievements, where the end goal is to train students their way and mold them into the artist they think their students should be. Szabo leaves that up to the student. For some students such as Shifty Sailors member Ted Ravetz, vocal sessions are for finding his own voice and growing more confident in his own abilities. For others, it’s about fine tuning their singing to fit dance or a backing band.
“I want my students to have control over what they do,” Szabo said. “I can’t teach each student the exact same thing. Otherwise, they’re not molded into the artists they think they can be and the teacher doesn’t learn from the student in return, and that’s important.”
Kyle Jensen / The Record — Szabo is a trained vocalist, director and pianist.
My life as an Artist keeps expanding me, and bringing me to “New Horizons”. There is always a “New Horizon” for the “Artist” and there are so many reasons why this is evident for me. The Painting, that I have painted for myself keeps painting itself into a larger more beautiful scape. This is the “Way of the Artist”.
There are many reasons why I feel that this is evident for not only myself as the Artist but for all in lieu of being an Artist. The paintbrush keeps painting the painting, the Singer keeps singing the song, the Sculpture keeps sculpting the sculpture. And each time, this Artists’ world expands.
As a child, on the beach, I was always looking to a new horizon… Living as an artist from childhood, my first and “Primal” form of expression, a child spun into her imagination mostly, often found gazing at the “Starry Night Sky” in amazement and questioning its magnitude. The Artist ~ questions everything. In writing, in dance, in acting, in singing, in playing the piano…questioning, as my imagination was always expanding. The unknown pathway most times has been my safest place, sailboat sailing the seas of creativity to always take me safely to a new Creatively Inspired destination.
Another fascinating element I have discovered is, that the more I teach the more I learn. The more I witness the passion, will, and desire in my students, their fiery passion young and old to attain more skills in achieving their creative ideas, confirmation of my personal experience is shared.
The creative “essence” is always available to us, we must recognize the presence of this energy, this place to begin. In lieu of Art and Artistry, the abstract is lying dormant or active in the imagination. Slowing time down can be a way in discovering what parts (elements) exist, then perhaps we can see what is there to develop, work on with tools. Skills are acquired with recognizing the need for the application of new tools so that the craft, art form may develop! As an Artist on my journey, there has been absolutely no way around working without tools which = technique.
No matter what the art form of what one’s playfield is… the parts of the piece (the process) matter more than the end result. If we live in the spaces of each particle while creating, then we can be equipped and ready to mold, build and play in this “Artform”. If one takes the time, then time can slow down so that these steps can be taken and fine results will be achieved. Allow space for your Creative Mind to explore the possibilities of the Gifts you have that might lay dormant. We are all Artists, one has to be to live life…..so consider Living out Your Creative Expression, and Living it will bring you to meeting the ARTIST IN YOU!
My “Joy of Singing” is apparent in my Daily Walk. Singing is and has been the “Door” to the “Healing Power” in my Life over the many years! “Singing is, I believe ~ the easiest way to Express ones Deepest Joy, + many other e-motions.” It has the power to “Transmute, and Transform” the Singer and the Audience as well!
I truly believe that “Singing” ~ the “Joy of Singing” is a Rich and Full experience ~ For the one “Singing”.
“Singing a Song”. The Dancing of Tones, the Resonance of Tones in the Body Electric ~ your ability to sing in a structure, or simply improvising a story about your day ~ whatever ~ and however it may look it is all “A Weaving of Feelings in Words falling onto Sound Scapes”. “Tone Poems” if you will!
Let’s look at this together for a moment:
If you or a given person thought that you were supposed to “Sing the Song”, and there was a specific method to the “Madness or Mystery” of “Good Singing” that you felt not attainable, not reachable ~ then you must let go of that “restriction” ~ for it has nothing to do with You ~ please “Just Sing”! “Let Go ~ move your Body ~ find the Sounds that come ~ and Sing them. Begin with an Inhale and an Exhale, add Sound to the release and movement of your breath! “Hum your Song ~ then Sing Your Song ~ for it Is Your Song”. This is when you are sure you have Discovered “The Joy of Singing”!
The Good News is, “Singing” is not something we “Go and Do” it is a state of “Being” “Being in Song” “Becoming the Song”! Then, the “Song always Sings itself”…and it will surprise you and “Sing and Dance You all day long in and out of the Song, you are in the flow of Song”, much like the Sailboat set to Sail ~ Once it’s in the flow of Sailing ~ you are in the wind, one with the wind ~ You are “Sailing”!
Do remember the saying “When words Break into Song”? This Is very Key to look at. Words, they literally “Break” into Song! When one’s heart is so full of joy, sometimes sadness ~ and only “Singing that Song” whether it be in your car, in the shower ~ in a musical, vocal lesson, home performance, or at Carnegie Hall will make it all right, either for yourself only ~ or for you and the others you are Singing or Performing for!
“Words Break” into “Song” my friends…Words become Tones. For example; a 1 syllable word ~ the same word can become (break into) a 3 syllable word! Have a closer listen ~ Consider the difference between Speaking and Singing, friends. Light up Your World with a “Gift of Song” and you will also experience and get to know “The Joy of Singing” and it’s Healing, Soothing, Regenerative, Caring, Loving power…For it is the “Love within Yourself” that will Allow you To Explore the “Joy of Singing”….
