This fall I started a series of free courses for beginning singers to address the basics of the voice in a fun and safe environment (your home! Zoom!). It was a lot of fun. I’ll definitely do it again, but these were the major aha moments for the folks who showed up:

1. Think like an athlete. You can’t run a 5k after years of no physical activity. Most of us understand this and give ourselves the grace of patience while we work toward our fitness goals. The same goes with voice. You must warm up, and you must give yourself the grace of patience while you work toward your vocal goals.

2. There’s nothing wrong with you. Our culture doesn’t support amateur singing. We emphasize who’s going to be the next star in the competition, or who’s really bad, and then we humiliate them on national tv. Life is not so extreme. There are a lot of opportunities in the gray space to explore your voice and sing in your community.

3. You’re not tone deaf. Everyone who came in thinking they were, found that they could in fact hear pitch. Only about 2% of the population is tone deaf.

4. Make weird noises to get to know your voice. You’re allowed to. Explore your highs and lows, sirens, ha-ha-ha’s, oooo’s, ahhh’s, and eee’s.

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