Complete Vocal Technique - Understanding your voice provides freedom 🎶

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Hi <<First Name>>,

This newsletter talks about Complete Vocal Technique, and why I have added 3 webinars on it in The singsing! Fundamentals. It includes some of the most important lessons I have learned and want to pass on to you on vocal pedagogy and it is looooooong. So if all you're interested in is subscribing, click here or scroll to the bottom of this letter!

Before I start my rant, here's an important notice: I have made the process of subscribing for the 3 webinars of Releasing a Tense Voice and SOS Voice and by doing so receiving a 10% discount a whole lot easier. Why? I noticed that the offer of these mini packages and the existence of the Package Deals - when you subscribe to allllll 14 webinars - was confusing. So I have summarized everything on 1 page: First the Package Deals, and below that, the Mini LIVE Packages.

And YES! You also receive the 10% discount when you subscribe to all 3 webinars of CVT 🥳 Click on the image below, if you want to go straight to the Mini LIVE Packages.

Now for what I have promised you in the beginning of this letter:

The Rant with capital R on vocal technique.

You take lessons because you want to master your instrument: your voice.

Here's an analogy: If you want to play the guitar, you have to understand what the frets do and how they work. Knowing that you need to place one finger on a certain spot, because it will shorten the string and it will make the sound higher when you pluck it with another finger is quite fundamental, right? Knowledge on your instrument is extremely empowering.

Then why would it be OK to take singing lessons, and not receive knowledge on WHY you need to do a certain thing in order to sing? Unfortunately, quite often, we receive mysterious vocal instructions because this is how you should do it. We are unable to link the instructions to our instrument, and as a consequence, it's very difficult to execute the task.

It the last newsletter, I told you that vocal technique is not the holy grail of voice care. Well, here's another bold statement:

Vocal technique is not a big mystery.

OK, OK, I agree that there still are a lot of thing we don't understand yet. And for everything we learn, 10 new questions come to mind. And the more I discover about the voice, the more I realize that there are a gazillion things that I don't know yet. But that's not my point and I'm deviating...

My point is that there are so many things that nowadays, we DO understand. And that knowledge is empowering! The best thing about it, is that we also know how to explain it in an understandable way to everybody. You don't have to be a voice geek or an expert in order to get it.

Everybody can learn how to sing in every style and genre.

Here's me, singing in 4 extremely different styles and genres.

PS: Too bad I don't have a picture of me singing metal. I do know how to sing - and teach - metal, though. And oh, I have to admit that the dresses are one of the big things I love about being a performing singer 💃🏽
But I'm deviating again...

Here are some things we believed to be true in the past:

We used to think that classical singing is the most healthy way of singing, and that all the other ways of singing will eventually get you and your voice in trouble. A variation on that is that you need classical technique in order to be able to sing healthily in another genre.

All this is absolutely not true. Frankly, it's also arrogant and extremely disrespectful to people that sing other genres.

We also thought that in order to sing, or - even worse - be allowed to take singing lessons, you already need some sort of talent.

You most certainly do not. How elitist.

We were convinced that a singer has to place their larynx in a low position at all times, in order to sing healthily.

This is a very wrong assumption, based on lack of knowledge.

We thought that we had a head- and chest register.

There are no such things. There is no evidence on the existence of head- & chest voice whatsoever in scientific voice research. In fact, the more people were looking for it, the more they came to the realisation that they don't exist as such. I know, chances are high that I made your head explode right now. But here's what Johan Sundberg, in my opinion still the smartest mind on voice, had to say about that, already in 1987.

Research on the female singing voice
Prof. Dr. Matthias Echternach ICVT Stockholm, 2017

All these wrong things we thought in the past come from the fact that when vocal pedagogy and voice science came to life, everything was based on classical singing. In fact, based exclusively on white and male Western classical singing. But that's another conversation...

Other ways of singing were simply not researched or looked at in those days. Next to that, voice science is an extremely young field. Not so very long ago, we did not have the fancy scanners and endoscopes we have now. We had no way to get a good look at the voice, like we have now. A teacher found something that worked for them, so they explained it to aspiring singers like that. And if that didn't work for certain singers, that meant that those singers lacked talent, intelligence and / or persistence. Frankly, they were a bad singer and there was no way they would ever learn how to sing 🙄

Yes, the concept and image of head- and chest voice can sometimes work very well in the classical genre, because it stems from the artistic prescriptions for it. When you sing an opera aria, there are very strict rules on how you're supposed to sound. But those rules have nothing to do with healthy singing, they are nothing more than a stylistic choice. And quite often, the singer needs more that this concept. They need concrete information on how their voice works. Information that nowadays, we have access to. On top of that, the concept of head & chest voice does not serve a singer that wants to sing in other genres. On the contrary, quite often it is very counterproductive or even harmful for them.

A consequence of that is that many singers have not wanted - and still don't want to take voice lessons, because they are afraid that it will mess up their sound. And indeed! If they would go to a teacher that still holds on to the old ideas, that teacher would try to make them sing with a classical sound. Not because they have ill intent in mind. I too was convinced of all these BS statements about "healthy singing". I had learned all this in the past, and I wanted to pass on my knowledge and help singers. However, good intentions do not help singers, if they are not rooted in continuous education.

So a lot of singers end up being confused, limited and even harmed. All the untrue statements I mentioned above come from stylistic prefence, lack of knowledge and education, assumptions, ignorance and prejudices.
And they have hurt many people.

They have hurt me. I even ended up being officially declared handicapped to the voice in 2005. In 2017, I shared this story in a blog. The amount of people that reacted - and still react - with recognition tells me that even though the times are most certainly changing, the fight is not over. Spoiler: I'm not handicapped to the voice and my experience has inspired me to become the voice teacher I am today.

Indeed, the times, they are a-changing. More and more vocal styles and genres are being researched. A lot of voice teachers have abandoned the old convictions and educated themselves. We are moving forward and liberating voices, one singer at the time. When I started to shed off my limiting beliefs and even conducted my own scientific voice research, I was considered a rebel in my circles and I have encountered a lot of opposition. But I knew that this was the way forward, and in the end, I was proven right.

I can now honestly say that I'm in a community of colleagues that are open to change, respectful to one another and most of all, eager to learn. Because this is how we serve the singers we are working with: By being humble and open to grow, so we can help them to sound like THEY want to sound in an empowering and healthy way.

In 2007, one year and a half after being declared genetically not predisposed to be a singer by a voice doctor, I discovered Complete Vocal Technique - in short CVT. The light went on. I became able to sound like I wanted to sound. There even was scientific research on all those beautiful, crazy, lovely, diverse sounds that I wanted to make! After 4 years of taking many CVT masterclasses and workshops for myself as a singer, I trained for 3 years to become an Authorized CVT Teacher, so I could pass it on to you. That was the beginning of a neverending amazing journey of educating myself in the latest scientific knowledge, methods and pedagogy.

Nowadays, there are many great ways of looking at the voice and CVT is only one of them. However, even though it is not the holy grail - no method is, it remains one of my personal fundamentals. So obviously, I hàd to integrate it in The singsing! Fundamentals.

Complete Vocal Technique is the last subject I offer you 3 webinars on. I'm looking forward to welcoming you to the world of knowledge on alllll the lovely sounds you are able to make! 🎶