Does Your Voice Teacher’s Genre Matter?

Say you want to sing pop music well. Does this mean you need to study with a teacher who specialises in pop.

Or maybe you wanted to do rock? Maybe a teacher who specialises in rock?

This is a common consideration when you’re looking for a voice teacher.

Here’s my recommendation:

For the majority of us, the genre of your teacher can help. But it’s not the most important thing

Look for someone who can help you build good fundamental technique first.

Let me explain why today.

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

Let me back up my claim earlier. To improve your voice and sound better.

There’s generally 2 pieces of work. Fundamental technique and developing style. let’s break it down

(1) Developing your fundamental technique

For me, fundamentals means

How well can you move through your range without changing anything else? No flipping, pushing air/volume. Just pure pitch change.

Now there’s a lot of different “approaches”, “methods”

However most if boils back down to the same things. It’s about controlling a few key muscles.

(1) Can you control the muscles that stretch/thin the voice - to sing higher

(2) Can you control the muscles that bring the cords together - to adjust for dynamics.

(3) Keeping consistent flow of air.

The better you can get at controlling exercises.

The better your singing will be.

Now the reason why I suggest you to find a teacher who can help with this is because

Fundamental technique is INDEPENDENT of genre.

Whether you’re singing pop, rock, r&b and even classical.

You’re always going to need to know how to sing higher easier.

You’re always going to need to know how to change dynamics with precision and ease.

Generally it’s the same mechanics.

It’s also where most singers are stuck not at the style level. But at the fundamental technique

I’ve found in my lessons, singers will often come up to me. And tell me they want to sing better whichever genre.

But often most of our work isn’t spent of genre specific techniques.

Rather just coming back to simple key fundamentals.

Which when they’ve built, allow them to sing the songs they like much better and with an easier time.

Now I’m not saying that there aren’t genre specific techniques. Which brings me to the 2nd part, there are definitely some which genre specific

(2) Developing genre specific style

For example in rock music they might use a lot more distortion. They might emphasise certain vowels more.

They might sing with a lot more connection.

Or maybe in R&B they’ll do more crazy runs. They might use falsetto more

Generally each genre does have more specific style choices. And often require learning a specific techniques to do. So in that case, it may make sense for you to work with someone who specialises in that sound.

Just realise that this is the last 10%

For example, try to add distortion when you’re clean technique isn’t there is going to run you into issues down the line.

Anyway! I hope this answers your question. And maybe encourages you to shift your attention to really building good fundamental technique. I find that most people aren’t spending enough time on these questions.

How do I change pitch well.

How do I change dynamics well.

If you’re interested in that, I highly recommend checking out episode 129.

Apart from that if you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

Extra Links/Resources

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🌍 Step By Step Singing Course: https://www.singingsimply.com/courses/singing-fundamentals 

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