Can a Voice Teacher also be a Vocal Coach?

Barbara Valente — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 02:22:59 +0000

There is some confusion around the difference between a voice teacher and a voice coach. I call myself San Diego Vocal Coach and I am, in my humble opinion, both. This maybe not technically correct, but here is why I feel I am.

A voice teacher is first and foremost a technician. They should understand, in depth, singing technique. Voice teachers give an understanding of breath support and resonance by guiding students through vocal exercises and breathing exercises. They also help you put that technique into practice in your chosen repertoire. I have my Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance and I have a deep understanding of singing technique. I also am a professional, active singer and I am able to sing in and teach multiple genres.

The ‘definition’ of a vocal coach is a pianist, conductor, or music director who is an expert in a chosen type of repertoire, usually either musical theater or classical. They coach your selections from the standpoint of musicality, phrasing and interpretation. They are generally not singers and, while they often have some knowledge of vocal technique, it is not their job to teach you how to sing correctly. It’s their job to help you take your performance to the next level once you’ve worked the technique with your voice teacher.

Although my piano skills have little to be desired, I consider myself both a voice teacher and a vocal coach, because in this day and age, we do have the luxury of having access to tracks. I also have been a music director and a conductor. Therefore, I am able to work on musicality, phrasing and interpretation with my students while I teach technique. I also often hire accompanists for my student’s sessions. Don’t get me wrong, a fine pianist who is a vocal coach is invaluable. I often send my clients to these coaches for extra refinement and another opinion, but I chose San Diego Vocal Coach as my calling card years ago, feeling that in this age of ‘Googling’, that this title would best represent me.

Why Not Everyone Can Learn To Sing

Barbara Valente — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:11:21 +0000

Can Everyone Learn To Sing?

Something that really troubles me as a professional teacher of singing is when I read or hear voice teachers exclaim “Anyone can learn to sing”! Especially when they are selling an online program and marketing to everyone for profit. This exclamation is disingenuous and, to me, points to greed as a motive. Everyone would like to be able to sing, right? This goes without saying. So telling people that if they buy this “learn how to sing’ program, that they may be able to someday sound like Kelly Clarkson, is hogwash and potentially destructive to somebody who is truly tone deaf.

What’s The Cause?

Yes, certainly everybody can learn to phonate on an elongated pitch, aka sing. And they can even learn to produce beautiful tones. But can people who suffer from the inability to hear the pitch accurately learn to phonate in tune? That is the big question. Can the ability to hear the pitch and then match that pitch be taught? The answer is no. If a person has amusia, also known as being tone deaf, they will never be able to sing in pitch, and hearing someone phonate off pitch is not a good sound to take in. Period.

Amusia effects 4% of the population and brain scans of people with amusia have revealed that there is a weakened connection between the part of the brain that processes sound and the part of the brain that is responsible for higher-level thinking. Brain imaging used to measure the density of connecting nerve fibers between the right frontal lobe, where higher thinking occurs, and the right temporal lobes, where basic sound processing occurs, showed thinner white matter, suggesting a weaker connection. There are varying degrees of tone deafness. People whose pitch-discrimination thresholds were worse than one semitone (around 32 Hz in this test which tests your threshold at 500 Hz) were identified as tone-deaf. Those whose thresholds were between half a semitone (16 Hz) and one semitone were identified as slightly tone-deaf.

Someone who is slightly tone deaf can learn, with aggressive ear-training exercises, to sing in tune, however it is a very tedious process and requires patience. A good, honest voice teacher will be able to speak candidly with their potential student, giving them realistic goals depending on their degree of amusia. I personally do not accept any student into my studio who has acute amusia, and I am very honest about the reality of their singing capabilities if they have even a mild case of tone deafness. Giving them false hope will only cause them pain and cost them money better used toward something that they truly can excel in.