You NEED Vocal Lessons

A student shared this video and I thought it really spoke to a large part of my demographic of musicians I work with! If you’ve been thinking about taking singing lessons but afraid to take the plunge, listen to what he has to say! Frank is not a student of mine but he speaks to many individuals that I work with.

Transcript below:

Can you hear that? That's Mr. Softy.

Maybe I'll run out and get some ice cream before I do this. Hey, there, fellow troubadours, if you are a singing guitar player like me, who loves performing but feels like your singing could use a little boost, or if you've ever felt insecure about your voice, this video is for you. Today we're going to have a heart to heart. I've been hearing from many of you out there in the community who've expressed to me that you are timid when it comes to singing in front of others, and a lot of you have asked me if I personally have had voice training first. Let me say right off the bat that vocal lessons are a must for anyone who wishes to sing, and ultimately, they can help you overcome that fear by giving you the tools and the confidence to perform without anxiety. I don't want you to live with the regret of not performing for others. I used to be like that myself. That's why today I'm going to share my personal journey and what finally got me to start taking vocal lessons in hopes that it will inspire you to improve your own singing and get you out there performing. I did it, and so can you I'm going to share the five biggest benefits that I took from taking vocal lessons. These are changes that not only transformed my singing, but boosted my confidence and overall performance. But more importantly, even than that, it made singing fun. It made me want to sing before we get started with the rest of the video. I hope you'll consider subscribing and hit that thumbs up, because it really does help. And if you'd like to support this channel, there are links to my Patreon and other ways you could support in the description, if you so choose. So like many of you, I used to believe that singing was a natural talent. You either had it or you didn't, and I believed in that natural talent myth that great singers were just born that way, and you either were or you were not. And though it's true that there are some that are just anointed to be great singers, there are plenty of singers who do quite well, who aren't in this rarefied group. But even though I was gigging a lot, getting work, I was never truly happy with my singing. And as time went on, I noticed something was off. After my gigs, I would be strained. My voice would be tired and exhausted. I also realized that I was hiding behind my guitar and not embracing my voice. That fear of not being good enough was holding me back, and I just wasn't enjoying it anymore. Now, I had thought about the idea of taking vocal lessons, but I just kept telling myself that it wouldn't make a difference. I kept telling myself that I wasn't really a singer, and that was the biggest mistake of all. What you tell yourself is very powerful, if you tell yourself something long enough, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, and that's what was starting to happen to me. Maybe I was scared that a vocal teacher would tell me the thing that I feared the most, that I just wasn't good enough. I probably should have booked a therapy session instead.

But instead, I put my big boy pants on, and I called an old high school friend, an amazing singer and vocal teacher, and booked my first formal lesson. And in just our first phone conversation, I learned the most important lesson of all. And if you only take one thing from this video, let it be this. The turning point came when I started to understand that my voice was an instrument, and it was an instrument that I hadn't taken any time to learn about. You know about the nuts and bolts of your guitar, how it works, how to tune it, everything else, right? But you don't know anything about the human voice if you're to properly, safely and effectively use a machine or an instrument and get the most out of it and not potentially even damage it. You need to understand how it actually works. The first and perhaps most important benefit was improved vocal health. Before lessons, I didn't realize how much strain I had been putting on my voice, I would push too hard, and by the end of a gig, my voice would be completely shot. I didn't realize just how delicate the vocal chords or vocal folds are, and how all the pushing and straining on your neck and shoulders to project or reach those high notes actually does nothing to help your voice. In fact, it does quite the opposite, even simply keeping your head straight and not cocked forward, such a subtle thing and difficult thing to do when you're not paying attention. It positions your larynx improperly, properly, improperly, and when your larynx is positioned properly, you really help your vocal cords do their job without damaging them. What you don't know what your larynx is? Well, why would you that's what lessons are for also. And this is probably the worst habit of all. I never used to warm up my voice before and evening of singing, another big mistake. Your vocal cords are muscle tissue, and they need to be as flexible as possible before we ask them to perform at their best and to avoid straining or damaging them. Vocal lessons taught me proper techniques to warm up my voice. Some of them are so easy you can even do them in the car. And in the description of this video, I have some links to videos where I do just that I warm up in the car on my way to a gig. Also, I learned how to breathe and use my breath correctly, how to support my sound with my breath and how to avoid unnecessary tension. By doing that, through educating myself on how my instrument works, I learned to become aware of these tension points. Now I could sing through three entire sets night after night without feeling like I'm damaging my voice, and I could do it confidently and comfortably. It's made such a huge difference in how I approach singing and performing, and hopefully to the longevity of my singing life and my career. And with vocal lessons, you can experience the very same thing. Did anybody notice the lights back on? It wasn't me. I promise. Next up, let's talk about tone before lessons, I honestly didn't even know what my tone was. I just sang the way I always had and hoped for the best. But through vocal lessons, I discovered the unique qualities of my voice. I stopped trying to sound good, and became aware of what my sound actually was and what tools we have in our instrument to shape the tone as we sing. If you want to avoid being one of those singers who emulates the tone of the original singer, like a bad Elvis impersonator or like a bad Eddie Vedder impersonator, that ain't Elvis man, that's a nickel and dime impersonation of an Elvis impersonator. Then you want to learn what your voice sounds like, just a natural tone of it, so that you can shape it yourself. You could bring out the qualities that are unique to your tone. I bet you didn't even know that the vocal chords themselves actually produce very little sound at all. It's really just a very, very light buzzing sound. Think of it as the sound of a needle playing on a record when the speakers are turned off, some of you do remember what a record is, right? It's the resonator, which, broadly speaking, consists of the nasal cavity, the mouth, the throat, the chest, the skull, the whole body, really that is the sounding board. Think of it as the sound hole and the body of your acoustic guitar. So if the vocal cords don't really produce sound that our audience hears, what is the sense of pushing and straining? What are we really accomplishing? It makes no sense to do that. So by learning how to control my breath and use my resonator, I was able to develop a richer, more consistent tone throughout my entire range. But more importantly, this understanding invites us to experiment with different tones that live in us. To me, this was, and still is, very, very exciting. You mean, I actually have control over my tone. Not only did this make my singing more pleasant to listen to, but it also helped me feel more confident in my voice's natural sound. I didn't compare myself to anyone else, because I knew who I was, my demeanor as a performer became more relaxed, and an audience can intuitively sense that, dare I say, I was actually starting to like my voice. The fear was slowly melting away, and in its place was joy. And I want you to experience that, those of you who are from New York, can you hear that that's Mr. Softy.

Maybe I'll run out and get some ice cream before I do this. One of the natural progressions that starts to happen when we sing properly is that our vocal range expands as does our palate of sounds by learning how to use my chest voice, head voice and mixed voice, as well as proper breath support, I was able to hit notes with confidence, not to mention exploring the soft palate and the hard palate and how all of this works. I was able to explore the lower notes with more depth. I was able to get higher notes to come out cleanly and to transition between low and high more smoothly. Like many singers, I had a comfort zone where I felt safe singing, and I rarely ventured out of it. And if I knew I was coming upon a note that was in the high range of my comfort zone, I would be fearful, I would be tense, and I would push and undermine the whole thing before the note even had a chance to come out. Basically, I would do the total opposite of what I was supposed to do, because I had no idea how the whole system works. And with practice, I no longer worry as much while I'm singing, which allows me the freedom to explore and take chances while I'm performing, I give myself permission to sound bad, because I no longer believe that I am bad. Now I've touched on this in the previous points, and the whole purpose is to give us the tools and improvements we need so that we can become more confident and well, that is exactly what happened to me when I started taking lessons, little by little, as I gained more skills and techniques, I found that I had a bag of tricks that I could rely on when I was at my gigs. You see, your voice is different every day, and some days it's just more difficult to sing than other days. So let's say, for example, one day my throat was a little scratchy for particular gig due to allergies, or maybe I didn't get enough sleep the night before. So rather than being nervous about this, being fearful that I wouldn't be able to hit notes, I would be able to resort to other techniques, or be able to identify specifically where my chords are misbehaving, where they're giving me trouble on that particular day, and I could work around it, and tools that were in my tool kit that I could call upon prior to that, I wouldn't even have been in touch enough to know where specifically the problems were. Before vocal lessons, I would have just turned the guitar up and hid behind that, which inevitably would make me have to push my voice harder so that I could hear myself, and then I would strain my voice even more, a total recipe for disaster. Bottom line is this, as I started improving my technique, my confidence grew, I began to feel more in control of my voice, which allowed me to be more present during my performances. Now I could focus on connecting with my audience, rather than worrying about whether my voice will hold up or not. And that brings me to the final thing that I benefited from by taking vocal lessons, and that is artistic expression. Vocal lessons allowed me to tap into a deeper level of artistic expression before I was so focused on just getting the notes right that I didn't even think about how to convey the emotions behind the music. I wasn't free. I was thinking. And you can see that in a performer when they're like distracted with thinking about something, you can tell they don't seem relaxed, and audience can sense that with the technical aspects more under control. I felt I could start experimenting with Dynamics, phrasing and emotional delivery. This has made my performances way more authentic and more impactful, both for me and for the audience. It's like I'm not just singing the song, I'm telling the story, which is what it's all about when you're not overthinking, you could sing from a more natural and inspired place, making each performance authentic and unique to that specific moment. It's enriched the entire experience of being a musician and a performer. So if you've been thinking about vocal lessons, I encourage you to take the leap and don't wait any longer, your voice deserves it, and so do you, not to mention your audience deserves it. I hope you enjoyed this video, and as always, be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments. I'm Frank persico.