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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'?"

If you've ever been to a major opera house, you may have noticed that the singers are able to make their voices carry over an orchestra without amplification. Why is this?

If you've ever signed up for any kind of singing class, you were probably told that the first step in learning to sing is learning to breathe correctly. That isn't wrong, but it isn't nearly as simple and concrete as they make it sound.

Voice teachers often have strong feelings about whether or not you should use a microphone for vocal practice. In other words, when you sing with a voice teacher or go through your practice sessions at home, should you amplify yourself or just sing acoustically? One camp, often made up classically trained singers and teachers, tends […]

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images; Adele Performs in 2017. Most of you have probably read by now (or in some cases, experienced firsthand) that Adele canceled her final two Wembley performances because of a vocal injury. Queue the long line of judgmental comments about how it’s because she “never learned good technique” or “should have been classically […]

The following was written by our Program Manager and voice teacher, Anne. She discusses how songs should be performed, much the same way as an actor would perform a monologue. Songs as Monologues: Expressing the Character While Singing The voice is a unique instrument. First, it is an instrument that is, quite literally, us. The […]

Luciano Pavarotti in Vélodrome Stadium, 15/06/02, by Pirlouiiiit Pirlouiiiit, under CC BY-SA 2.0 You’ve all heard it before: “If you can sing classical music, you can sing anything!” “Pop singers won’t be able to sing classical music, but classical singers can easily apply what they know to pop music.” “If you have a healthy classical […]

A couple weeks ago, we discussed how to sing with straight tone. After that post, I received multiple questions about the more traditionally taught topic, how to do vibrato. What Is Vibrato? In technical terms, vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch, ideally between 5.5 and 8 hertz. In […]

Sydney Opera House at Sunset, by Hpeterswald, under the license CC BY-SA 3.0 In the last couple months, we’ve discussed how to get into musical theatre and how to start a singing career in contemporary music. Today, we’ll talk about another question I get asked about a lot: what to do with classical voice training. […]