I'm privileged to work with voice teachers and vocal coaches. I teach an amazing, professional-level class for voice pros who want to appropriately serve their students and clients who sing popular styles.
This neurology-based approach to singing, NeuroVocal Method, is very new. I'm not a doctor. And my Zoom room isn't a university. As you might imagine, it can be a hard sell.
Naturally - and since I believe the voice pedagogy world at large needs to know about what I teach - I've given that a lot of thought. I've wondered about something I see in social media posts and discussions. I think the thing I wonder about may be holding back most classically trained voice pros back from learning to coach singers of microphone-based genres. It’s this:
All I need to know is how to teach “belt.”
As someone who knows a lot about singing for popular styles, this band-aid sort of approach has stumped me. Why, I’ve wondered, would someone who hasn’t had any training in how to coach singing for popular styles, and whose area of expertise is in acoustic styles of singing, think that all they need to know is this one thing? Why would they think that:
…the coordination needed for a sustainable and aesthetically appropriate high, mixed sound (a.k.a. “belt”) is something that can be taught via a social media post?
…that if they know how to teach that particular skill they are then all set to genuinely help singers of popular styles?
It was my friend Sheri, the classical singer, who finally enlightened me about why this may be so.
The reason that voice teachers with classical training and little-to-no experience in the world of popular styles think that “all that need to know is how to teach “belt” is simply this:
We don’t know what we don’t know.
When it comes to this, here’s what I mean:
Have you ever heard a non-singer say something about singing (or a singer) that made you think, “Really”???
Were you ever at a concert with someone, and found that afterward, their comments reflected an experience entirely different from yours?
Have you ever heard a style of music you’re unfamiliar with and thought, “Ew?” Even when you knew it was performed by an artist who is great at that style? Or maybe came to like that style later on?
Did you have this very-common experience in your ear training or music theory class? The teacher asked you to “pick out the bass” (or clarinet, or French horn, etc.) and you couldn’t have done that if it were life or death. You just couldn't hear it.
These examples are about learned listening.
Because although your ears catch the sound waves, it’s your brain that turns them into hearing and listening. Your brain is shaped by your experiences, as well as your intentions and your attention over time.
The desire to “...just learn to teach ‘belt’” is a reflection of that reality.
My friend Sheri knows how to listen to classical singing. She can hear every little thing and knows how to weigh it through historical context. She has very educated listening when it comes to classical styles of singing. Those ears can also hear popular styles better than the average person, too.
But my ears, which have spent thousands of hours performing popular styles, hear very differently. There is a specificity to my listening that Sheri doesn’t have. Our experiences have been different, so our listening and understanding are also different.
When voice pros trained in Western classical take my class, many of them are there to “learn to teach belt’” because most of their clients want that skill.
As they’re in the class longer, they learn about brains and how to lean into efficient learning. They learn how to coach rather than teach. They learn some of the things that make popular styles different from classical styles, and about all the rules that aren’t rules in microphone-based genres. Their learned listening changes.
As I observe it, this growth and expansion is empowering for these voice pros. It’s been described to me as life-giving, life-changing, and game-changing. It’s an amazing process and so much more than just:
“I need to learn how to teach ‘belt’”!
Meredith Colby is the author of Money Notes: How to Sing High, Loud, Healthy and Forever, and the creator of NeuroVocal Method, an approach to coaching for popular styles based on brain science.
Meredith teaches privately online to professional & adult singers, and voice teachers & coaches from all over the world.
You can get information and book individual sessions or classes from this site.
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