I love working with singer/songwriters. As a voice teacher and a songwriter myself it’s a real thrill to guide a client to the vocal freedom that informs the songwriting process with new ideas and new choices.

Today I taught one of those totally fulfilling lessons with a fairly new client. Matt, a pseudonym, has taken a couple of classes with me and then about 4 weeks ago he took the plunge into private lessons. Then today he had one of those astounding breakthroughs.

We were working on a song he’s going to be performing in a couple days. It’s a song he wrote several years ago and has performed many times, but today, Matt heard, really heard the song for the first time. He heard his own inner voice (the lyrics he wrote) and his singing voice communicating the same message. It was an amazing moment when all the elements come together to make good music.

This time when Matt sang his song, he heard his own voice ringing clear and strong. The lyrics were released through his instrument with nothing to get in the way.

How? That’s the $64 million question.

Matt and I worked first on body alignment to unlock some of the tension in his instrument. We then did a lot with sustaining the openness of the vocal tract so his breath and sound could release forward, naturally.

You see when the body is open – free of inhibiting tension and the mind is occupied with speaking every word clearly, something magical happens. Your natural instrument begins to work all on it’s own. And when that happens, art is created.

Matt learned to get out of his own way and let his brilliant vocal instrument do the job it was created to do!

The Sing Like You Speak™ approach to vocal training is unconventional because it asks you to trust your body as a perfect musical instrument. Do you sing ‘perfectly’? Probably not – I know I don’t always. But your great voice is always there inside of you – always. Your voice simply needs to be uncovered and set free.

Lately I’ve had a few students say that they felt like they were returning to their childhood voices. That’s exactly it! The voice you used before all the bad habits took up residence. Return to the natural voice is the goal of every singer.

About the author

Sally Morgan is a professional vocal trainer with over 30 years of experience. Sally is also the creator and author of SingLikeYouSpeak(TM)!

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