June 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Starting voice training can feel overwhelming, especially when everything’s wrapped in scientific terms no one remembers. Most singers don’t need to memorize words like “thyroarytenoid” or “cricothyroid” to improve their voice. What actually helps? Understanding what your vocal muscles do — not what they’re called.
I sat down with VTS coach Kate, a vocal anatomy enthusiast and expert, to talk about how to understanding vocal anatomy can help you coach yourself and others much better. If you are a singer, vocal coach, music teacher or director and want to understand how your voice actually works (without going to med school), this is a great place to begin.
📍Mentioned Resource: Enroll in Kate’s Voice Anatomy Course here: https://tinyvoicestudio.com/voice-anatomy-for-the-music-director
👉 Want to make practicing easier? Grab our FREE warm up track here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/free-warm-up-track
👉 Want to know exactly what your voice needs to improve? Get a vocal evaluation from our professional coaches here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/vocal-evaluation
👉 Book a 1:1 session with Coach Lara: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/trial-lesson
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
you have a low,
(00:01):
muscle that
helps you produce
low pitches and a muscle that helps
you produce high pitches.
And I don't even think you need to know
the names like to.
And CT is that way. You're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've got your
to your thyroid retinoid and your CD
your critical thyroid. Right.
But I usually just say
chest voice muscle and head
voice muscle because yeah
not everybody wants to
(00:22):
remember those words.
And honestly
it usually like as soon as I hear
like complicated
terms like that, like medical terms,
I'm like, no,
that's too complicated for me.
Hey, Voxstar,
and welcome to From Singer To Artist.
I'm Lara
(00:43):
Chapman, award winning
singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach
and the host of this show.
At VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them
the three fundamental skills
all singers need
technique, awareness and artistry.
Whether you're looking to go pro
or just develop your voice for fun.
My team and I are here to help.
(01:04):
Check the link in the description
to book your first session, or grab
some of our other resources.
All righty.
Are you ready? Let's get started.
lot more about than I do,
that's for sure.
We're going to be talking
about voice anatomy
(01:25):
and how that is
playing a role
and how that's important
for voice educators.
Like, if you're,
you know,
a choir director or music director,
you're a voice teacher.
But I assume it also applies
to just singers. Yeah, absolutely.
Just nerdy singers like us,
you know,
that have decided
that we want to learn more
(01:46):
about The Voice.
Yes. The biggest thing. Yeah.
You know,
I never in school,
like I went to school for music.
So did you. Yeah.
And I like.
And for voice.
And I never had a day
of anatomy in school.
Neither did I in
my undergraduate education.
I never learned anything
about the anatomy of the voice.
I knew that there was like a larynx.
(02:06):
I knew that there was a diaphragm.
I knew there was head
voice and chest voice and and,
like, mixed voice, I guess. Yeah.
And that was really all, like,
they taught us.
Which is crazy,
because I feel like instrumentalists know
how to hold their instrument apart
and put it back together.
I wonder if pianists know how to, well,
(02:27):
do that.
But no, I know what you mean.
You know, like it's
like people know what
the parts of the flute are.
They know, like, parts of the saxophone.
And I feel like
for some reason, singers, just because
we can't see our instrument,
it's really hard
to know what's happening with it,
but also to, like,
know the parts of it without. Yeah, ever.
(02:49):
Like a lot of singers,
I didn't get scoped
until I was in college.
I don't think,
you know, we don't see our instrument,
and we use it every day to talk.
Before I ask you
what made you want to get into it?
And why are you passionate?
Like talking about voice anatomy.
Let's first talk about why it matters.
(03:09):
Why should people pay attention to this?
And I'll click to the next
to the next episode.
Anatomy is important to know
because knowing anatomically
what's going on can help.
You know what you need out of your voice.
If you are a pianist
and there's something caught
in your piano, you can see.
Oh, I need to take that out
for my instrument to function.
(03:29):
Yeah. Right. So.
And with our voice will feel
something caught in our throat will feel.
Oh, I'm.
I'm flipping when I don't want to flip
or why can't I get that
run like, what's going on.
And there are ways that we can learn
the anatomy of the voice
to help us understand
why something could
or could not be working
in our instrument. Right.
(03:51):
It's really hard to know
because we can't physically see it.
Yeah.
Basically what you're saying
is it helps you coach yourself
better when you understand
your instrument.
Yes, and helps you coach other people to
of course. Right. Yes.
You know, so yeah,
you can troubleshoot your your own voice
or you can,
you can learn how to troubleshoot
other people's voices
if you understand
(04:11):
what's happening
at like your voice box on your voice box
at your voice box
in your voice box, in your voice
box is the correct one.
I don't know which one it is.
No, I think it is in.
that's why I love anatomy
and I it's kind of the
like base of my teaching
when it comes to being a singing teacher,
(04:33):
because when I'm thinking about
teaching voice,
I'm thinking about
three different things.
what's happening below the larynx?
I'm thinking what's happening
at the laryngeal level?
And I'm thinking,
what's happening above the larynx?
Every time I hear a singer, right.
I'm thinking about those three things
and how they are functioning together.
So, you know, like
if we're thinking below the larynx,
I'm thinking about breath.
(04:54):
If we're thinking about
at the larynx level, I'm
thinking about
how's their vocal fold closure,
how's the phonation on the vocal folds.
And then above the larynx,
I'm thinking about, like,
your teeth,
your tongue, your lips, like your,
you know, your
your pharynx,
which is like the back of your throat.
You know,
so I'm thinking about
all of that different stuff
at the same time,
(05:14):
and they're kind of all floating
in front of your face,
and you're kind of like
putting the pieces together
to figure out
what could be causing the blockage or,
you know, the
the thing, the thing
stuck in the piano, I guess. Yeah.
You know what I mean? For sure.
So that's
why anatomy is really cool to me.
Yeah. So that's why it's important.
And that's why you shouldn't click away.
Because,
(05:35):
we can all be nerds together, I promise.
You know,
I wish that somebody
would have told me that when I was,
like, in college
and younger, like,
because I was not a nerdy kind of person.
I was like, I just want to do.
I don't want to know why.
I don't want to know history.
Like, I just want to I just want to do,
but if somebody had explained to me,
like, hey,
actually, I hear you
(05:56):
and I understand
that can sometimes be,
you know, like a little boring
looking at a picture of a larynx
and whatnot.
It's not boring at all.
But, you know,
no, like 15 year old me
would have thought that was super boring.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, same,
but if I had, had
I known that like, oh,
this is actually going to help me
be a much better singer,
then I probably would have wanted
to learn about it
because I just wanted
to become a better singer, you know?
(06:17):
Yeah.
But I was never even exposed to it.
Right.
I think there is kind of like this, like,
big kind of blind spot
in, like, education of singing.
And some people don't
want to know about the anatomy,
you know what I mean?
Which is totally okay.
But it's, it's hard
sometimes because they just want to sing,
but they don't want to know
why something might be happening
or not happening, in some cases,
(06:38):
you deal
with students who,
like,
you can kind of give them a little bit,
but you're not going to give them a ton
because it's just going to
their eyes are going to glaze over
and they're going to forget
as soon as they leave,
you know what I mean?
And that's okay.
It's just like one of those things
where I feel
like a lot of instrumentalists
know things
about their instrument, right?
And like
for some reason, there's
just a little bit of a blind spot
(07:00):
in with singers, you know?
And I don't think it's it's
not singer's fault.
I think it's just
kind of the way education
yeah is created.
And I also think it's partially
because we cannot see it. Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Like,
I think
actually I think it's mostly
like systematically
because we couldn't
see vocal folds for so long.
the old pedagogues back
(07:20):
in like 1800,
like they were using little tiny,
like, microscopes
and little tiny like mirrors
to wash the vocal folds vibrate.
Wow. Yeah.
And they thought, like, our false folds,
like we're our vocal folds
for a really long time.
And just because they didn't even know,
they didn't know that
we can't see our vocal folds
(07:40):
vibrate with our naked eye. Right.
So they didn't even know that.
Yeah,
those weren't the vocal folds at all.
Those are your false folds.
Like, oh my, your voice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that.
So I guess that also answers
the question, why are you into it?
Yeah, you're passionate about it.
We're kind of killing
two birds with one stone. Yeah. Which is.
Which is perfect. So.
(08:01):
Okay, let's pretend like I'm
completely new to voice anatomy.
Okay.
I have been singing for a while.
I enjoy singing, I'm.
I'm maybe a musical director, or, like,
I want to
help somebody else
with their voice, whatnot.
What do I need to know?
What are some of the
most important things?
Like how do we get started
when it comes to voice anatomy?
Yeah, well,
(08:21):
I think thinking about it,
in kind of the, four steps that I have
in this course that I've created
is, step one is like your breath.
And I think the biggest thing
that you need to know
about breathing is that your diaphragm
is a muscle.
It is not an organ
that you fill up with air,
(08:42):
and it's involuntary in most cases.
Right.
You cannot you cannot, really control
your diaphragm
as much as people think you can.
That's the biggest one that I feel like
is such like for me when I.
I didn't know that
until I got to grad school.
Like, I just was like,
well, your diaphragm, like,
fill it up with air or,
you know, like, that's a big,
(09:03):
heavy hitter, right?
Your diaphragm is involuntary
and your abs are actually doing
most of the work with your breath.
And singing is organized exhaling.
Right.
People are so obsessed with their breathe
and people are so obsessed
with breathing in
but really breathing out.
It's organized like us
(09:24):
where the singing is. Yeah.
You're not singing when you're inhaling.
You're singing when you're exhaling.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that would be my
big thing for breathing.
Remember that it's the exhale
that's really important.
And it's not your diaphragm.
It's your core.
For your larynx,
I feel like the easiest
thing to think about
is you have a low, muscle
that helps you produce
low pitches and a muscle that helps
you produce high pitches.
And I don't even think you need to know
(09:45):
the names like to.
And CT is that way. You're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've got your
to your thyroid retinoid and your CD
your critical thyroid. Right.
But I usually just say
chest voice muscle and head
voice muscle because yeah
not everybody wants to
remember those words.
And honestly
it usually like as soon as I hear
like complicated
(10:05):
terms like that, like medical terms,
I'm like, no,
that's too complicated for me. Exactly.
Yeah.
And like,
you know,
singing doesn't
need to be complicated in that sense.
You know what I mean?
Especially when there are so many ways
that we can explain it without needing
to, you know, get the students eyes
to glaze over,
you know,
and in order to, like,
mix or belt
those two muscles
(10:26):
just need to be even they
one of them
can't be stronger than the other
because that's what we get.
That's when we get
cracks or,
flipping or I can't like, sing.
I can't belt any higher.
It feels like I'm maxing out. Right?
So having that, like,
balance in your low
pitch muscle, in your high pitch muscle,
it can be really beneficial.
(10:47):
Do you think that just naturally, like
if a student or a singer
just hasn't had a lot of training it,
that they are stronger
in one than the other,
just naturally,
or is it's usually pretty balanced?
Yes.
Mostly people are stronger.
I feel like this is kind of changed.
A lot of like,
(11:08):
voice teachers who are a little bit
older will say, oh, everybody's,
you know, singing in their head voice.
No one finds their chest voice.
And now I feel like every time,
like we have new students,
everybody always can sing strong
in their chest voice. Yeah.
I think it's partially
because we speak mostly
in like a mixy chest voice.
So in our low pitch
muscle is right on our vocal folds.
(11:29):
So it's a lot easier
to get that to engage.
Okay.
So our like, chest voice is more,
more prominent in most singers,
I would say.
So a lot of times
we need to get people
singing high, right, to balance it out
because they're singing.
They're talking low all the time,
but singing high,
we're not like really going up there
that much unless
unless we're being told to. Yeah.
(11:51):
So a lot of times
we'll get this tug of war
where our low pitched
muscle is really strong
and our high pitched
muscle is like, wait. Hold on.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, not right.
And they just can't. Right.
And then we get something
called stretch weakness.
Because our chest voice so strong
and our head voices are weak.
So we need to balance them out
(12:11):
so they can really, like,
play tug of war. Yeah.
Each other balance.
I like that you use that word.
I use that word a lot.
I love balance,
yeah, balance is a good one
because otherwise people think like,
it's like,
you want me to sing in my
in, like,
I don't want to sing really high.
A lot of people
don't really want to sing high.
And I'm like, it's
not about singing high.
It's just about,
you know, evening out your muscles.
(12:32):
Yeah, I really like, you know.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's honestly a mistake that I made
because I was so obsessed with high notes
when I first started taking voice lessons
because I couldn't sing high at all.
And then I, then, you know,
I turned music into a career
and everybody was like,
oh my God, your low notes.
And I was like, okay, I'm
going to forget about my high notes.
I'm just going to do low notes.
(12:52):
And then my voice just
started getting so heavy and it's like,
oh my God.
Like I had that stretch weakness, right?
Like I just could not
I lost a bunch of range
in my top
notes and,
yeah,
it was just really everything
just started
getting a lot heavier,
even in my belt
and in my chest voice in general.
I was just heavy,
heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy.
I know it's like that.
(13:13):
Use it or lose it thing it like,
yeah, it really is,
you know, like you could go to the gym
for six months straight
and then if you stop
going to the gym for six months,
you know, you're going to lose the muscle
that you already you,
you've built up, you know, it's,
but there's kind of an interesting thing
to keep in mind when you're singing.
It's like, well, maybe I need to exercise
my head voice a little bit more.
(13:33):
Yeah, to balance them out.
You know,
even if you don't want to sing Mariah
Carey or Ariana Grande, right?
Even if you don't want to do that,
you should still probably do it.
You know, just
just to help yourself
feel more balanced with your singing
so it doesn't get so heavy.
those are the big things.
I feel like
those are the big hitters
that are like the misinformation
about singing
is the diaphragm is not an organ.
(13:55):
It is a muscle.
It's really skinny.
It's like the
the thickness of a cereal box.
Okay. It's really skinny.
It's really skinny.
And you can't fill it up with air.
And your abs are important.
I feel like those are the big ones.
Okay.
That I like to hit on
when I'm teaching, like a 50 minute
anatomy class, it's like, okay, your abs,
(14:15):
your diaphragm
and your low pitch muscle
and your high pitched muscle.
Those are the big ones that,
like an everyday singer,
should really know,
because those are things
that most people are dealing with.
And then
we don't have to like
get into detail of like every everything.
That's why you
that's why you have an entire class,
an entire course on this.
But besides breathing and chest voice,
(14:38):
head, voice, muscle,
just so we know,
like what more is there to learn?
What are some other things that,
when we talk about anatomy
would like come up?
Yeah, definitely.
The so the vocal tract,
which is pretty much your vocal folds,
the start of your vocal folds,
all the way up through your mouth.
So like the back of your throat,
(14:59):
we call it the pharynx.
Your tongue, your teeth, your lips.
That's where most of our sound is.
If you were to, like,
just pull my head off
and have my vocal folds vibrate,
it would just sound like this.
The reason our voice
sounds like our voice
is because of our vocal tract,
our filter. Right.
So everything goes through that filter
(15:20):
to create our sound.
That's why everybody's voice
sounds different.
Everybody's body is shaped
a little differently.
Everybody's larynx is different.
It's different as a fingerprint.
Yeah, right.
So you get all these different
sounds from different people.
That's why
people will have these
really cool voices.
It's because of their vocal tract shape,
you know,
and sometimes it's just a natural sound
that they get
(15:40):
like Adele's voice,
for instance, or Gaga,
you know, like they have this
like natural sound that they're creating.
And sometimes we can have weird
or unexpected sounds if we have tension
or things like that. Right.
And there's also the soft palate.
People love to talk
about the soft palate.
Most of the time
(16:01):
your soft palate is down when you sing.
But a lot of people think
it's up, like all the time.
A lot of people think
it's up all the time,
but your soft palate is mostly down,
especially if you're singing
like, pop music.
Yeah.
You know, because otherwise we get
if the world was.
Yeah.
Way too rounded of a sound.
(16:22):
there's so much to learn with anatomy.
It's, like,
so hard to try to
put it all in,
like a quick little discussion.
Of course.
Of course I
and so that's,
that's why I wanted to talk about it,
because there's so much
that most people just don't know
that it's like it's
not just real quick, like,
oh yeah, you have a head voice
and a chest voice and you're good to go.
(16:43):
And the diaphragm is not right.
Yeah, no,
it's like there's a lot
that goes into it.
Like you said, like the larynx. Right.
But also like
the position of the larynx
is also going to change
position of your tongue.
Position of your position of your soft
palate, position of your lips.
How much teeth are you showing? Yeah.
You know how much space is
between your molars?
There's so much.
(17:03):
So when we talk about voice anatomy,
or at least in your case,
when you're teaching it,
it's not just like, here's a video.
Vocal folds.
And these are the different medical part.
Like the descriptions
like the medical names
for the different parts.
And like, it's not that dry.
No.
Kind of like way of learning
about voice anatomy.
It's all like applied, right?
Yeah.
Like, yeah, the larynx does this.
(17:25):
And here's how that changes your sound.
So if you're hearing this
make sure you adjust that way.
That's at least what I'm understanding.
Yes definitely.
And the thing
about the course that I made
is that
it is like,
here's the muscle, here's the cartilage.
Like we
there's a little bit of that,
but then it's like,
so how do we actually put this
into our teaching.
Yeah. Right.
(17:45):
Because like it's great
if you can point to it on a wall,
but like can you add it into your like
into your classroom,
into your voice studio. Yeah.
Here's like 5
or 6 examples
of how I've done it in the past
or how you could do it very well.
I love working with examples.
I find that so helpful.
Like when somebody tells me
to do something
I've never done before, I'm like,
can you give me an example?
(18:07):
And then if I have an example,
I'm like, okay, cool.
And now I can do that too
without an example.
Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed
and like,
I don't really know what you mean.
Yeah, I'm supposed to do
or where to even start. Right.
And we're also like
very audio driven
people like we hear things
and we give adjustments. Right. Yeah.
So it's good to like hear differences.
One of the things I did was like
(18:28):
Ariana Grande sings pop music,
but she also sings
like a classical leaning sound in Wicked.
So she's the perfect
example of my larynx is low versus
my larynx is high.
Yeah.
Perfect example of my larynx is low.
My soft palate is up. Right.
So you can kind of discuss and see,
see this is how this is
maybe how it would sound
if it was like this or vice versa,
(18:50):
you know,
because it,
it sounds great when you just say,
well lift your larynx.
Well it's like, well,
what does that even sound like?
Or what does that feel like?
Okay, let's hear
how Ariana Grande doesn't.
And she like adds a little bit of there,
you know,
and how thing
that sounded so much like Ariana Grande
right there.
Oh my God I love it.
all of this stuff is obviously going
to help you, like teach other people
(19:13):
how to get the sound that they want.
Yeah, but it also is just so much, like,
very useful information
to know how to adjust your own sound to.
Yeah,
but you don't get the result
that you want to get.
It's just like,
why wouldn't
you want to know all these things,
you know, like,
now looking back at this like,
almost 30 right now, it's like, okay.
(19:34):
Yeah, no, why wouldn't
I want to know these things?
I'm getting more curious
as I'm getting older.
Yeah.
Before in my teens,
I just wanted to do doo doo doo doo.
I didn't care about how the world worked.
I just wanted to do my thing. Yeah.
And so now that's.
That's changed
as I've gotten older and I'm like, man,
I wish that every kid
that just really enjoys singing
(19:54):
has that curiosity, too,
because it's
just really going to serve you.
I feel like one of the things we're born
and we're like,
educate yourself,
learn, learn, learn, learn.
And now that we're out of school
and we're,
you know, like doing our professions
and such, it's
one of those things
where it's like, wait,
I can learn for fun. Yes.
Yeah, I'm learning.
(20:14):
And you can choose
what you want to learn about. Yes. Right.
And it's not for certain.
Like, I'm not going to learn chemistry.
I'm never going to do that.
No. I'm good. Yeah.
I'm okay, I'm okay.
But like,
I like learning about the voice. Okay.
Well, like, you know,
you can do that and you can be.
You don't need to know chemistry.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, unless you're a chemist.
Unless you're a chemist.
Please know chemistry.
(20:35):
Like, I was never good at math.
And in college, we
I think we had to fulfill a math
or science credit and curl.
You know, I did not take a math class.
I took I took health and wellness.
And that fulfilled my science.
And like,
because I knew that's not my jam.
That's not my thing.
I should have known about that.
I did that math class because I was like,
I got to get that math credit.
(20:55):
And so I did math.
Oh my God,
you could have taken a science class.
Oh my God, I didn't. I'm so sorry.
I learned about mortgages.
Oh, like, this is stupid.
I don't like that.
Like the way the system or whatever,
whatever it is, what it is.
I was like, yeah,
you're paying a lot of money to the bank.
Me? That's.
But anyways, I hate it.
Math.
(21:15):
My my dad was actually recently
telling me,
he said that
when I graduated high school,
I told him that I will never, ever,
ever do math ever again
because I hated it.
So then you took a math class
at Berklee College?
Yeah, because I had to.
But even, like,
I was like, I'm never doing math again.
And but
math is just a part of everyday life.
But anyways,
you can learn about the things
that you actually want
(21:36):
to learn about as well, right?
Yes. Yeah.
When you're an adult, you have free will.
Yes. Yeah.
anatomy is really cool
and I don't blame people
if they don't like,
want to learn about it.
But it really can elevate your thoughts
on how and why
singing sounds the way it does.
You know,
it can just kind of add another
(21:57):
like filter on your on your ears.
Yeah,
I just think a lot of
people misunderstand
what it actually means
to learn about voice anatomy.
They think like maybe it's
like some sort of like biology class.
Yeah, yeah.
And in some cases, like
it is in the master's program that I did,
we did actually go to a cadaver lab.
Oh, I'm sure you did.
And I don't want to know about it. I
(22:17):
know I'm sure it was very, very funny.
It was a little spooky.
Yeah, a little spooky. Yeah.
I won't give you any details,
but I did hold a brain in my hand
in my hands.
Good. It's heavier than you think.
Yeah, yeah, it was really heavy.
Oh, it was like.
Very like dense.
Yeah, yeah.
So we did do some of that,
(22:37):
and it was actually very impactful. Yeah.
To kind of see the muscles
that you used to breathe, you know,
because we have
a bunch of inspiratory muscles.
We have a bunch, a bunch of muscles,
you know, that help us breathe.
There's so many things.
It is kind of amazing,
like scientifically amazing that our
we can sing at all. Yeah.
Because our larynx actually was,
(23:00):
like, evolutionarily, our
larynx was made specifically
to protect our trachea, our airway.
Yeah.
So we don't like choke when you swallow.
Yeah. Yeah.
So and also like if we get impacted
or anything like and then slowly
as we started to like grow
and develop as humans. Right.
We started
making noises to warn people
(23:22):
or to warn like predator, you know.
And then we suddenly were talking.
We had language like.
And then we had music
and it's kind of cool.
It's kind of cool.
Wow.
I never thought about how, like, far back
that actually goes.
But yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
But it's like a
it's like a miracle
that we can do the things that we could,
we can do with our voices.
(23:43):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
I think just like as,
like functioning
as humans is like because how many.
Very impressive.
Like there's
so many things
that need to go right for us to function
literally.
And every thing that goes wrong
and you're.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy. Yeah.
Absolutely crazy.
(24:04):
But singing is a part of that
I love that.
So with your class, with your course
that that you created, you teach people
this applied way of doing voice anatomy.
You're not going to
take them into a cadaver
like I'm
going to take you into a cadaver lab.
I'm not going to show you
any pictures of cadavers.
You will maybe see, like a scope session.
(24:27):
But that that's.
And I always give a warning,
a disclaimer,
because not everybody likes to
to see the inside
of other people's bodies,
which I understand.
Yeah,
course that you created,
you had in mind,
like voice educators and like music,
like directors.
Can you tell us a little bit
more like who
this course would be for if,
if somebody was interested
in learning more about voice anatomy?
(24:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
So the course I kind of made for
my younger self,
before I started teaching
voice full time,
I was teaching public school,
I taught middle school, music.
And then I taught
elementary school music,
and I was teaching ensembles.
And if you are a music teacher,
no matter what instrument you teach or
(25:10):
anything, there's
probably been a moment in your life,
in your first few years
of teaching where you've gone,
I hear that something's wrong,
but I don't know what.
And that happened to me a lot.
And it creates this sense of anxiety and,
like, imposter syndrome.
Yes. Right.
It creates
kind of this overwhelmed feeling of,
(25:31):
am I supposed to be doing this?
It just it can bring up so many emotions.
And I really, really struggled
with being in those situations
when I first got out of college.
Like, you can have a great degree.
You can
you can not have a degree at all.
And you can still,
you know, struggle
with like these things, you know,
and I was like, well,
I just spent all this money
(25:51):
at this amazing
college and I'm struggling
to figure out what's going on.
Like,
you know, with my with my ensembles,
with my acapella groups. Right.
I kind of created this for myself
because when I first started teaching,
I needed
I needed someone to kind of
walk me through some of this stuff.
I needed some of these exercises, like,
(26:11):
really bad.
Yeah.
So I kind of made it for my past
self, for voice, for voice teachers.
Maybe you're a first year music teacher
and you're making
a little money on the side,
so you start teaching voice lessons.
It's for it's for that.
It's for that
first job you get out of school
and you have no idea what's going on,
(26:32):
and you just need some things
to get you going
right and give you some education
around the voice. Right.
Because we don't we get choir in college,
but we don't really get
anatomy or pedagogy around it.
Around it.
Maybe you're in an acapella group.
I float in the acapella worlds.
I judge a lot of ICA, or I
(26:54):
say I'll teach at festivals
and stuff like that,
and I always bring an anatomy class
to that stuff.
And those classes are always full
and there's always a ton of questions.
Right.
And I was like, okay,
how do I get this to a place
where I can like give it
like I can give it to people.
So I created this course for
acapella music directors.
You could be in college,
you could be a high school music
(27:14):
director,
you know,
it's it's for people who just deal
with vocal singers,
whether it's in a small group
setting or a large one.
Yeah.
And I tried to make sure
that the exercises are tailored to
you could do them in a small one, 1 to 1
setting or a big group setting.
Okay.
So that's kind of why I made it.
(27:36):
I was like,
I feel like this is something
that's not getting fulfilled, you know?
And I was like,
and I feel like I can try
and fill that space.
So that's why I did it.
I needed my younger
self, really needed it.
So I made it for myself.
Yeah,
I probably would have been good
for me to go through that course
before I taught my first voice lesson.
Probably would've been good for me too.
Yeah,
(27:57):
but hey, you
learn as you go as and definitely.
And so yeah, that's great.
So anybody who is kind of like
dealing with voices one on one group,
if you're like, hey, like I'm sing,
well, I might want to learn.
Maybe you want to start teaching
voice like,
you know,
like you,
you can of course, teach voice
without having all of those.
But, you know,
(28:17):
it's just a helpful way
to kind of give you
a little bit of a jump start.
Yeah.
You know, yeah.
How does, the program work?
Is it like a self-guided thing
that you go through on your own?
Is there group things?
Is there one on one,
like how does it work?
Yeah.
So right now
I'm running kind of like a beta test
with the program. It's three months.
(28:38):
For this summer where people will.
You're all be in a community together.
I know we have a Vox
discord, and I, we have a,
You have a community
for this course, too, which is fun.
so you'll be in the community
for three months
where you can talk to other people about.
I had this really cool
wind today when I use this exercise
or I have questions,
and you're going to get a voice
(28:58):
lesson with me once a month.
So it's only three voice lessons,
but you can use it to ask questions,
ask about teaching.
We can work on your voice.
You can spend some time on you.
And then there are four self-guided,
lessons
that you can access for three months.
And you can watch them as many times
as you want for three months. Okay.
(29:20):
And they're about 30
minutes to 35 minutes each.
So it's pretty digestible
because it can be overwhelming.
I wouldn't recommend
watching them all at once.
Yeah.
Because my brain would explode.
And I always said,
like with our courses,
too, like, don't
treat them
like a Netflix show that you binge watch
because it's going to go in here
and out there.
You're not going to remember anything.
(29:40):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's kind of what
I'm offering right now is
you get three lessons,
you get the course and you get community.
And I'm hoping to get
some people to come in
and you don't do a masterclass,
like maybe Lara comes in
and teach us about something,
you know, like,
maybe, you know, like, because,
most of these people who will be in this
course are going to be pop,
(30:01):
you know, music
for pop singers, for acapella.
You know,
they want to learn more about it,
you know?
So I also wanted to make
a one on one session
where you could just be like,
I'm really struggling with this
and maybe I can help you.
I don't know,
like, yeah, you know, I'll do my best.
Okay.
At the end of the day,
I feel like the biggest thing about us
(30:22):
is that we really want to help.
We just want to help people
like, you know,
I yeah, I just want
to help teachers
feel comfortable and safe
when they're teaching.
That's kind of like the big
and help lessen
that imposter syndrome, right? Yes.
Lessen the anxiety
because I would drive to work
and I would be anxious, you know,
(30:43):
I would be in front of,
I would be trying
not to crash out in front of a room
full of like, 105th graders.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Because it's like, you could prep,
you can prep as much as you want,
but there's nothing that can prepare you
to being in front of all those people.
Yeah.
And suddenly not knowing what to do next.
(31:04):
Yeah. You know.
Yeah. It's scary. It's really scary.
Knowledge is powerful.
Knowledge is powerful.
Very much so. Yeah.
Just want to help.
Just want to help
you feel a little less
stressed in your day to day. Yes, yes.
So, your program,
your course is for three months,
and it already started
at the beginning of this month.
So if people on June 1st, on June 1st.
(31:25):
Exactly.
So if people are interested
in enrolling in your course,
it now is probably the best time to do it
because definitely,
it's not like
they're missing something
by not having started on June 1st.
I don't think so right now.
Yeah, it's a rolling,
a rolling thing,
but I am looking for about ten people,
so that's something to keep in mind.
if you want to do it, do it now
before those ten spots are,
(31:47):
are already filled
because we're filming this before
you're launching your, your thing.
So at this point,
I don't know if it's already full,
but I hope not.
So if you are interested in it,
I'll put the link in the lesson
or the the episode notes
or the description below.
So go and check that out
if you want to join Kate
and nerd out a little bit
more about narrow down the
(32:08):
yeah on the voice anatomy thing. Yeah.
And become a more confident, voice
educator and voice user because of that.
Who? Yeah. Yeah, I love it.
Anything else that you want
to let people know
about the program
or about voice, anatomy,
anything that's important?
do have a little section at the end
that is focused
on, like, voice care and like,
(32:28):
taking care of your voice, too.
So if you've got kids who are,
you know,
struggling with illnesses or reflux,
I feel like reflux
is kind of like a new hot ticket.
Yeah.
You know, there's a little bit of that
there as well, Great, I love that.
Thank you so much, Kate.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely, absolutely.
(32:49):
I need to go through your course, too.
Okay. What am I missing?
What do I not know?
Yes, I can be a beta tester.
There you go. Perfect.
Thank you so much for
letting us know about voice anatomy
and about your course again,
if you want to enroll in it,
the links in the description,
go check that out
and go hang out with Kate for the summer.
Yeah,
or you can take a lesson
(33:09):
with me at Vox Tape two.
Or you can do that.
You can always book a lesson here
with us as well.
The course that you're doing
is separate from Vox,
but chat like a part of what we do.
But it's just something
that you're really passionate about
that you wanted to do on your own. Yeah.
And so yeah,
go ahead and, you know, work with Kate
either through Vox tape or just.
Yeah.
(33:30):
In that either
way, someone's anatomy course,
if you're more in the education side,
if you're more like a singer
and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
that's fine.
But like, I just want to sing.
Yeah, definitely.
You can, you can book a session,
with me through the link below.
It's, it's also going to be in there.
Okay.
Anyways, thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you Kate, again.
(33:50):
We'll see you in the next episode.
And or maybe not the next one,
but in a future one. Yeah.
otherwise
we'll see you in the next episode.
All righty. Bye.
you have a low,
(00:01):
muscle that
helps you produce
low pitches and a muscle that helps
you produce high pitches.
And I don't even think you need to know
the names like to.
And CT is that way. You're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've got your
to your thyroid retinoid and your CD
your critical thyroid. Right.
But I usually just say
chest voice muscle and head
voice muscle because yeah
not everybody wants to
(00:22):
remember those words.
And honestly
it usually like as soon as I hear
like complicated
terms like that, like medical terms,
I'm like, no,
that's too complicated for me.
Hey, Voxstar,
and welcome to From Singer To Artist.
I'm Lara
(00:43):
Chapman, award winning
singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach
and the host of this show.
At VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them
the three fundamental skills
all singers need
technique, awareness and artistry.
Whether you're looking to go pro
or just develop your voice for fun.
My team and I are here to help.
(01:04):
Check the link in the description
to book your first session, or grab
some of our other resources.
All righty.
Are you ready? Let's get started.
lot more about than I do,
that's for sure.
We're going to be talking
about voice anatomy
(01:25):
and how that is
playing a role
and how that's important
for voice educators.
Like, if you're,
you know,
a choir director or music director,
you're a voice teacher.
But I assume it also applies
to just singers. Yeah, absolutely.
Just nerdy singers like us,
you know,
that have decided
that we want to learn more
(01:46):
about The Voice.
Yes. The biggest thing. Yeah.
You know,
I never in school,
like I went to school for music.
So did you. Yeah.
And I like.
And for voice.
And I never had a day
of anatomy in school.
Neither did I in
my undergraduate education.
I never learned anything
about the anatomy of the voice.
I knew that there was like a larynx.
(02:06):
I knew that there was a diaphragm.
I knew there was head
voice and chest voice and and,
like, mixed voice, I guess. Yeah.
And that was really all, like,
they taught us.
Which is crazy,
because I feel like instrumentalists know
how to hold their instrument apart
and put it back together.
I wonder if pianists know how to, well,
(02:27):
do that.
But no, I know what you mean.
You know, like it's
like people know what
the parts of the flute are.
They know, like, parts of the saxophone.
And I feel like
for some reason, singers, just because
we can't see our instrument,
it's really hard
to know what's happening with it,
but also to, like,
know the parts of it without. Yeah, ever.
(02:49):
Like a lot of singers,
I didn't get scoped
until I was in college.
I don't think,
you know, we don't see our instrument,
and we use it every day to talk.
Before I ask you
what made you want to get into it?
And why are you passionate?
Like talking about voice anatomy.
Let's first talk about why it matters.
(03:09):
Why should people pay attention to this?
And I'll click to the next
to the next episode.
Anatomy is important to know
because knowing anatomically
what's going on can help.
You know what you need out of your voice.
If you are a pianist
and there's something caught
in your piano, you can see.
Oh, I need to take that out
for my instrument to function.
(03:29):
Yeah. Right. So.
And with our voice will feel
something caught in our throat will feel.
Oh, I'm.
I'm flipping when I don't want to flip
or why can't I get that
run like, what's going on.
And there are ways that we can learn
the anatomy of the voice
to help us understand
why something could
or could not be working
in our instrument. Right.
(03:51):
It's really hard to know
because we can't physically see it.
Yeah.
Basically what you're saying
is it helps you coach yourself
better when you understand
your instrument.
Yes, and helps you coach other people to
of course. Right. Yes.
You know, so yeah,
you can troubleshoot your your own voice
or you can,
you can learn how to troubleshoot
other people's voices
if you understand
(04:11):
what's happening
at like your voice box on your voice box
at your voice box
in your voice box, in your voice
box is the correct one.
I don't know which one it is.
No, I think it is in.
that's why I love anatomy
and I it's kind of the
like base of my teaching
when it comes to being a singing teacher,
(04:33):
because when I'm thinking about
teaching voice,
I'm thinking about
three different things.
what's happening below the larynx?
I'm thinking what's happening
at the laryngeal level?
And I'm thinking,
what's happening above the larynx?
Every time I hear a singer, right.
I'm thinking about those three things
and how they are functioning together.
So, you know, like
if we're thinking below the larynx,
I'm thinking about breath.
(04:54):
If we're thinking about
at the larynx level, I'm
thinking about
how's their vocal fold closure,
how's the phonation on the vocal folds.
And then above the larynx,
I'm thinking about, like,
your teeth,
your tongue, your lips, like your,
you know, your
your pharynx,
which is like the back of your throat.
You know,
so I'm thinking about
all of that different stuff
at the same time,
(05:14):
and they're kind of all floating
in front of your face,
and you're kind of like
putting the pieces together
to figure out
what could be causing the blockage or,
you know, the
the thing, the thing
stuck in the piano, I guess. Yeah.
You know what I mean? For sure.
So that's
why anatomy is really cool to me.
Yeah. So that's why it's important.
And that's why you shouldn't click away.
Because,
(05:35):
we can all be nerds together, I promise.
You know,
I wish that somebody
would have told me that when I was,
like, in college
and younger, like,
because I was not a nerdy kind of person.
I was like, I just want to do.
I don't want to know why.
I don't want to know history.
Like, I just want to I just want to do,
but if somebody had explained to me,
like, hey,
actually, I hear you
(05:56):
and I understand
that can sometimes be,
you know, like a little boring
looking at a picture of a larynx
and whatnot.
It's not boring at all.
But, you know,
no, like 15 year old me
would have thought that was super boring.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, same,
but if I had, had
I known that like, oh,
this is actually going to help me
be a much better singer,
then I probably would have wanted
to learn about it
because I just wanted
to become a better singer, you know?
(06:17):
Yeah.
But I was never even exposed to it.
Right.
I think there is kind of like this, like,
big kind of blind spot
in, like, education of singing.
And some people don't
want to know about the anatomy,
you know what I mean?
Which is totally okay.
But it's, it's hard
sometimes because they just want to sing,
but they don't want to know
why something might be happening
or not happening, in some cases,
(06:38):
you deal
with students who,
like,
you can kind of give them a little bit,
but you're not going to give them a ton
because it's just going to
their eyes are going to glaze over
and they're going to forget
as soon as they leave,
you know what I mean?
And that's okay.
It's just like one of those things
where I feel
like a lot of instrumentalists
know things
about their instrument, right?
And like
for some reason, there's
just a little bit of a blind spot
(07:00):
in with singers, you know?
And I don't think it's it's
not singer's fault.
I think it's just
kind of the way education
yeah is created.
And I also think it's partially
because we cannot see it. Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Like,
I think
actually I think it's mostly
like systematically
because we couldn't
see vocal folds for so long.
the old pedagogues back
(07:20):
in like 1800,
like they were using little tiny,
like, microscopes
and little tiny like mirrors
to wash the vocal folds vibrate.
Wow. Yeah.
And they thought, like, our false folds,
like we're our vocal folds
for a really long time.
And just because they didn't even know,
they didn't know that
we can't see our vocal folds
(07:40):
vibrate with our naked eye. Right.
So they didn't even know that.
Yeah,
those weren't the vocal folds at all.
Those are your false folds.
Like, oh my, your voice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that.
So I guess that also answers
the question, why are you into it?
Yeah, you're passionate about it.
We're kind of killing
two birds with one stone. Yeah. Which is.
Which is perfect. So.
(08:01):
Okay, let's pretend like I'm
completely new to voice anatomy.
Okay.
I have been singing for a while.
I enjoy singing, I'm.
I'm maybe a musical director, or, like,
I want to
help somebody else
with their voice, whatnot.
What do I need to know?
What are some of the
most important things?
Like how do we get started
when it comes to voice anatomy?
Yeah, well,
(08:21):
I think thinking about it,
in kind of the, four steps that I have
in this course that I've created
is, step one is like your breath.
And I think the biggest thing
that you need to know
about breathing is that your diaphragm
is a muscle.
It is not an organ
that you fill up with air,
(08:42):
and it's involuntary in most cases.
Right.
You cannot you cannot, really control
your diaphragm
as much as people think you can.
That's the biggest one that I feel like
is such like for me when I.
I didn't know that
until I got to grad school.
Like, I just was like,
well, your diaphragm, like,
fill it up with air or,
you know, like, that's a big,
(09:03):
heavy hitter, right?
Your diaphragm is involuntary
and your abs are actually doing
most of the work with your breath.
And singing is organized exhaling.
Right.
People are so obsessed with their breathe
and people are so obsessed
with breathing in
but really breathing out.
It's organized like us
(09:24):
where the singing is. Yeah.
You're not singing when you're inhaling.
You're singing when you're exhaling.
Yeah. Yeah.
So that would be my
big thing for breathing.
Remember that it's the exhale
that's really important.
And it's not your diaphragm.
It's your core.
For your larynx,
I feel like the easiest
thing to think about
is you have a low, muscle
that helps you produce
low pitches and a muscle that helps
you produce high pitches.
And I don't even think you need to know
(09:45):
the names like to.
And CT is that way. You're talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've got your
to your thyroid retinoid and your CD
your critical thyroid. Right.
But I usually just say
chest voice muscle and head
voice muscle because yeah
not everybody wants to
remember those words.
And honestly
it usually like as soon as I hear
like complicated
(10:05):
terms like that, like medical terms,
I'm like, no,
that's too complicated for me. Exactly.
Yeah.
And like,
you know,
singing doesn't
need to be complicated in that sense.
You know what I mean?
Especially when there are so many ways
that we can explain it without needing
to, you know, get the students eyes
to glaze over,
you know,
and in order to, like,
mix or belt
those two muscles
(10:26):
just need to be even they
one of them
can't be stronger than the other
because that's what we get.
That's when we get
cracks or,
flipping or I can't like, sing.
I can't belt any higher.
It feels like I'm maxing out. Right?
So having that, like,
balance in your low
pitch muscle, in your high pitch muscle,
it can be really beneficial.
(10:47):
Do you think that just naturally, like
if a student or a singer
just hasn't had a lot of training it,
that they are stronger
in one than the other,
just naturally,
or is it's usually pretty balanced?
Yes.
Mostly people are stronger.
I feel like this is kind of changed.
A lot of like,
(11:08):
voice teachers who are a little bit
older will say, oh, everybody's,
you know, singing in their head voice.
No one finds their chest voice.
And now I feel like every time,
like we have new students,
everybody always can sing strong
in their chest voice. Yeah.
I think it's partially
because we speak mostly
in like a mixy chest voice.
So in our low pitch
muscle is right on our vocal folds.
(11:29):
So it's a lot easier
to get that to engage.
Okay.
So our like, chest voice is more,
more prominent in most singers,
I would say.
So a lot of times
we need to get people
singing high, right, to balance it out
because they're singing.
They're talking low all the time,
but singing high,
we're not like really going up there
that much unless
unless we're being told to. Yeah.
(11:51):
So a lot of times
we'll get this tug of war
where our low pitched
muscle is really strong
and our high pitched
muscle is like, wait. Hold on.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, not right.
And they just can't. Right.
And then we get something
called stretch weakness.
Because our chest voice so strong
and our head voices are weak.
So we need to balance them out
(12:11):
so they can really, like,
play tug of war. Yeah.
Each other balance.
I like that you use that word.
I use that word a lot.
I love balance,
yeah, balance is a good one
because otherwise people think like,
it's like,
you want me to sing in my
in, like,
I don't want to sing really high.
A lot of people
don't really want to sing high.
And I'm like, it's
not about singing high.
It's just about,
you know, evening out your muscles.
(12:32):
Yeah, I really like, you know.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's honestly a mistake that I made
because I was so obsessed with high notes
when I first started taking voice lessons
because I couldn't sing high at all.
And then I, then, you know,
I turned music into a career
and everybody was like,
oh my God, your low notes.
And I was like, okay, I'm
going to forget about my high notes.
I'm just going to do low notes.
(12:52):
And then my voice just
started getting so heavy and it's like,
oh my God.
Like I had that stretch weakness, right?
Like I just could not
I lost a bunch of range
in my top
notes and,
yeah,
it was just really everything
just started
getting a lot heavier,
even in my belt
and in my chest voice in general.
I was just heavy,
heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy.
I know it's like that.
(13:13):
Use it or lose it thing it like,
yeah, it really is,
you know, like you could go to the gym
for six months straight
and then if you stop
going to the gym for six months,
you know, you're going to lose the muscle
that you already you,
you've built up, you know, it's,
but there's kind of an interesting thing
to keep in mind when you're singing.
It's like, well, maybe I need to exercise
my head voice a little bit more.
(13:33):
Yeah, to balance them out.
You know,
even if you don't want to sing Mariah
Carey or Ariana Grande, right?
Even if you don't want to do that,
you should still probably do it.
You know, just
just to help yourself
feel more balanced with your singing
so it doesn't get so heavy.
those are the big things.
I feel like
those are the big hitters
that are like the misinformation
about singing
is the diaphragm is not an organ.
(13:55):
It is a muscle.
It's really skinny.
It's like the
the thickness of a cereal box.
Okay. It's really skinny.
It's really skinny.
And you can't fill it up with air.
And your abs are important.
I feel like those are the big ones.
Okay.
That I like to hit on
when I'm teaching, like a 50 minute
anatomy class, it's like, okay, your abs,
(14:15):
your diaphragm
and your low pitch muscle
and your high pitched muscle.
Those are the big ones that,
like an everyday singer,
should really know,
because those are things
that most people are dealing with.
And then
we don't have to like
get into detail of like every everything.
That's why you
that's why you have an entire class,
an entire course on this.
But besides breathing and chest voice,
(14:38):
head, voice, muscle,
just so we know,
like what more is there to learn?
What are some other things that,
when we talk about anatomy
would like come up?
Yeah, definitely.
The so the vocal tract,
which is pretty much your vocal folds,
the start of your vocal folds,
all the way up through your mouth.
So like the back of your throat,
(14:59):
we call it the pharynx.
Your tongue, your teeth, your lips.
That's where most of our sound is.
If you were to, like,
just pull my head off
and have my vocal folds vibrate,
it would just sound like this.
The reason our voice
sounds like our voice
is because of our vocal tract,
our filter. Right.
So everything goes through that filter
(15:20):
to create our sound.
That's why everybody's voice
sounds different.
Everybody's body is shaped
a little differently.
Everybody's larynx is different.
It's different as a fingerprint.
Yeah, right.
So you get all these different
sounds from different people.
That's why
people will have these
really cool voices.
It's because of their vocal tract shape,
you know,
and sometimes it's just a natural sound
that they get
(15:40):
like Adele's voice,
for instance, or Gaga,
you know, like they have this
like natural sound that they're creating.
And sometimes we can have weird
or unexpected sounds if we have tension
or things like that. Right.
And there's also the soft palate.
People love to talk
about the soft palate.
Most of the time
(16:01):
your soft palate is down when you sing.
But a lot of people think
it's up, like all the time.
A lot of people think
it's up all the time,
but your soft palate is mostly down,
especially if you're singing
like, pop music.
Yeah.
You know, because otherwise we get
if the world was.
Yeah.
Way too rounded of a sound.
(16:22):
there's so much to learn with anatomy.
It's, like,
so hard to try to
put it all in,
like a quick little discussion.
Of course.
Of course I
and so that's,
that's why I wanted to talk about it,
because there's so much
that most people just don't know
that it's like it's
not just real quick, like,
oh yeah, you have a head voice
and a chest voice and you're good to go.
(16:43):
And the diaphragm is not right.
Yeah, no,
it's like there's a lot
that goes into it.
Like you said, like the larynx. Right.
But also like
the position of the larynx
is also going to change
position of your tongue.
Position of your position of your soft
palate, position of your lips.
How much teeth are you showing? Yeah.
You know how much space is
between your molars?
There's so much.
(17:03):
So when we talk about voice anatomy,
or at least in your case,
when you're teaching it,
it's not just like, here's a video.
Vocal folds.
And these are the different medical part.
Like the descriptions
like the medical names
for the different parts.
And like, it's not that dry.
No.
Kind of like way of learning
about voice anatomy.
It's all like applied, right?
Yeah.
Like, yeah, the larynx does this.
(17:25):
And here's how that changes your sound.
So if you're hearing this
make sure you adjust that way.
That's at least what I'm understanding.
Yes definitely.
And the thing
about the course that I made
is that
it is like,
here's the muscle, here's the cartilage.
Like we
there's a little bit of that,
but then it's like,
so how do we actually put this
into our teaching.
Yeah. Right.
(17:45):
Because like it's great
if you can point to it on a wall,
but like can you add it into your like
into your classroom,
into your voice studio. Yeah.
Here's like 5
or 6 examples
of how I've done it in the past
or how you could do it very well.
I love working with examples.
I find that so helpful.
Like when somebody tells me
to do something
I've never done before, I'm like,
can you give me an example?
(18:07):
And then if I have an example,
I'm like, okay, cool.
And now I can do that too
without an example.
Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed
and like,
I don't really know what you mean.
Yeah, I'm supposed to do
or where to even start. Right.
And we're also like
very audio driven
people like we hear things
and we give adjustments. Right. Yeah.
So it's good to like hear differences.
One of the things I did was like
(18:28):
Ariana Grande sings pop music,
but she also sings
like a classical leaning sound in Wicked.
So she's the perfect
example of my larynx is low versus
my larynx is high.
Yeah.
Perfect example of my larynx is low.
My soft palate is up. Right.
So you can kind of discuss and see,
see this is how this is
maybe how it would sound
if it was like this or vice versa,
(18:50):
you know,
because it,
it sounds great when you just say,
well lift your larynx.
Well it's like, well,
what does that even sound like?
Or what does that feel like?
Okay, let's hear
how Ariana Grande doesn't.
And she like adds a little bit of there,
you know,
and how thing
that sounded so much like Ariana Grande
right there.
Oh my God I love it.
all of this stuff is obviously going
to help you, like teach other people
(19:13):
how to get the sound that they want.
Yeah, but it also is just so much, like,
very useful information
to know how to adjust your own sound to.
Yeah,
but you don't get the result
that you want to get.
It's just like,
why wouldn't
you want to know all these things,
you know, like,
now looking back at this like,
almost 30 right now, it's like, okay.
(19:34):
Yeah, no, why wouldn't
I want to know these things?
I'm getting more curious
as I'm getting older.
Yeah.
Before in my teens,
I just wanted to do doo doo doo doo.
I didn't care about how the world worked.
I just wanted to do my thing. Yeah.
And so now that's.
That's changed
as I've gotten older and I'm like, man,
I wish that every kid
that just really enjoys singing
(19:54):
has that curiosity, too,
because it's
just really going to serve you.
I feel like one of the things we're born
and we're like,
educate yourself,
learn, learn, learn, learn.
And now that we're out of school
and we're,
you know, like doing our professions
and such, it's
one of those things
where it's like, wait,
I can learn for fun. Yes.
Yeah, I'm learning.
(20:14):
And you can choose
what you want to learn about. Yes. Right.
And it's not for certain.
Like, I'm not going to learn chemistry.
I'm never going to do that.
No. I'm good. Yeah.
I'm okay, I'm okay.
But like,
I like learning about the voice. Okay.
Well, like, you know,
you can do that and you can be.
You don't need to know chemistry.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, unless you're a chemist.
Unless you're a chemist.
Please know chemistry.
(20:35):
Like, I was never good at math.
And in college, we
I think we had to fulfill a math
or science credit and curl.
You know, I did not take a math class.
I took I took health and wellness.
And that fulfilled my science.
And like,
because I knew that's not my jam.
That's not my thing.
I should have known about that.
I did that math class because I was like,
I got to get that math credit.
(20:55):
And so I did math.
Oh my God,
you could have taken a science class.
Oh my God, I didn't. I'm so sorry.
I learned about mortgages.
Oh, like, this is stupid.
I don't like that.
Like the way the system or whatever,
whatever it is, what it is.
I was like, yeah,
you're paying a lot of money to the bank.
Me? That's.
But anyways, I hate it.
Math.
(21:15):
My my dad was actually recently
telling me,
he said that
when I graduated high school,
I told him that I will never, ever,
ever do math ever again
because I hated it.
So then you took a math class
at Berklee College?
Yeah, because I had to.
But even, like,
I was like, I'm never doing math again.
And but
math is just a part of everyday life.
But anyways,
you can learn about the things
that you actually want
(21:36):
to learn about as well, right?
Yes. Yeah.
When you're an adult, you have free will.
Yes. Yeah.
anatomy is really cool
and I don't blame people
if they don't like,
want to learn about it.
But it really can elevate your thoughts
on how and why
singing sounds the way it does.
You know,
it can just kind of add another
(21:57):
like filter on your on your ears.
Yeah,
I just think a lot of
people misunderstand
what it actually means
to learn about voice anatomy.
They think like maybe it's
like some sort of like biology class.
Yeah, yeah.
And in some cases, like
it is in the master's program that I did,
we did actually go to a cadaver lab.
Oh, I'm sure you did.
And I don't want to know about it. I
(22:17):
know I'm sure it was very, very funny.
It was a little spooky.
Yeah, a little spooky. Yeah.
I won't give you any details,
but I did hold a brain in my hand
in my hands.
Good. It's heavier than you think.
Yeah, yeah, it was really heavy.
Oh, it was like.
Very like dense.
Yeah, yeah.
So we did do some of that,
(22:37):
and it was actually very impactful. Yeah.
To kind of see the muscles
that you used to breathe, you know,
because we have
a bunch of inspiratory muscles.
We have a bunch, a bunch of muscles,
you know, that help us breathe.
There's so many things.
It is kind of amazing,
like scientifically amazing that our
we can sing at all. Yeah.
Because our larynx actually was,
(23:00):
like, evolutionarily, our
larynx was made specifically
to protect our trachea, our airway.
Yeah.
So we don't like choke when you swallow.
Yeah. Yeah.
So and also like if we get impacted
or anything like and then slowly
as we started to like grow
and develop as humans. Right.
We started
making noises to warn people
(23:22):
or to warn like predator, you know.
And then we suddenly were talking.
We had language like.
And then we had music
and it's kind of cool.
It's kind of cool.
Wow.
I never thought about how, like, far back
that actually goes.
But yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
But it's like a
it's like a miracle
that we can do the things that we could,
we can do with our voices.
(23:43):
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
I think just like as,
like functioning
as humans is like because how many.
Very impressive.
Like there's
so many things
that need to go right for us to function
literally.
And every thing that goes wrong
and you're.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy. Yeah.
Absolutely crazy.
(24:04):
But singing is a part of that
I love that.
So with your class, with your course
that that you created, you teach people
this applied way of doing voice anatomy.
You're not going to
take them into a cadaver
like I'm
going to take you into a cadaver lab.
I'm not going to show you
any pictures of cadavers.
You will maybe see, like a scope session.
(24:27):
But that that's.
And I always give a warning,
a disclaimer,
because not everybody likes to
to see the inside
of other people's bodies,
which I understand.
Yeah,
course that you created,
you had in mind,
like voice educators and like music,
like directors.
Can you tell us a little bit
more like who
this course would be for if,
if somebody was interested
in learning more about voice anatomy?
(24:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
So the course I kind of made for
my younger self,
before I started teaching
voice full time,
I was teaching public school,
I taught middle school, music.
And then I taught
elementary school music,
and I was teaching ensembles.
And if you are a music teacher,
no matter what instrument you teach or
(25:10):
anything, there's
probably been a moment in your life,
in your first few years
of teaching where you've gone,
I hear that something's wrong,
but I don't know what.
And that happened to me a lot.
And it creates this sense of anxiety and,
like, imposter syndrome.
Yes. Right.
It creates
kind of this overwhelmed feeling of,
(25:31):
am I supposed to be doing this?
It just it can bring up so many emotions.
And I really, really struggled
with being in those situations
when I first got out of college.
Like, you can have a great degree.
You can
you can not have a degree at all.
And you can still,
you know, struggle
with like these things, you know,
and I was like, well,
I just spent all this money
(25:51):
at this amazing
college and I'm struggling
to figure out what's going on.
Like,
you know, with my with my ensembles,
with my acapella groups. Right.
I kind of created this for myself
because when I first started teaching,
I needed
I needed someone to kind of
walk me through some of this stuff.
I needed some of these exercises, like,
(26:11):
really bad.
Yeah.
So I kind of made it for my past
self, for voice, for voice teachers.
Maybe you're a first year music teacher
and you're making
a little money on the side,
so you start teaching voice lessons.
It's for it's for that.
It's for that
first job you get out of school
and you have no idea what's going on,
(26:32):
and you just need some things
to get you going
right and give you some education
around the voice. Right.
Because we don't we get choir in college,
but we don't really get
anatomy or pedagogy around it.
Around it.
Maybe you're in an acapella group.
I float in the acapella worlds.
I judge a lot of ICA, or I
(26:54):
say I'll teach at festivals
and stuff like that,
and I always bring an anatomy class
to that stuff.
And those classes are always full
and there's always a ton of questions.
Right.
And I was like, okay,
how do I get this to a place
where I can like give it
like I can give it to people.
So I created this course for
acapella music directors.
You could be in college,
you could be a high school music
(27:14):
director,
you know,
it's it's for people who just deal
with vocal singers,
whether it's in a small group
setting or a large one.
Yeah.
And I tried to make sure
that the exercises are tailored to
you could do them in a small one, 1 to 1
setting or a big group setting.
Okay.
So that's kind of why I made it.
(27:36):
I was like,
I feel like this is something
that's not getting fulfilled, you know?
And I was like,
and I feel like I can try
and fill that space.
So that's why I did it.
I needed my younger
self, really needed it.
So I made it for myself.
Yeah,
I probably would have been good
for me to go through that course
before I taught my first voice lesson.
Probably would've been good for me too.
Yeah,
(27:57):
but hey, you
learn as you go as and definitely.
And so yeah, that's great.
So anybody who is kind of like
dealing with voices one on one group,
if you're like, hey, like I'm sing,
well, I might want to learn.
Maybe you want to start teaching
voice like,
you know,
like you,
you can of course, teach voice
without having all of those.
But, you know,
(28:17):
it's just a helpful way
to kind of give you
a little bit of a jump start.
Yeah.
You know, yeah.
How does, the program work?
Is it like a self-guided thing
that you go through on your own?
Is there group things?
Is there one on one,
like how does it work?
Yeah.
So right now
I'm running kind of like a beta test
with the program. It's three months.
(28:38):
For this summer where people will.
You're all be in a community together.
I know we have a Vox
discord, and I, we have a,
You have a community
for this course, too, which is fun.
so you'll be in the community
for three months
where you can talk to other people about.
I had this really cool
wind today when I use this exercise
or I have questions,
and you're going to get a voice
(28:58):
lesson with me once a month.
So it's only three voice lessons,
but you can use it to ask questions,
ask about teaching.
We can work on your voice.
You can spend some time on you.
And then there are four self-guided,
lessons
that you can access for three months.
And you can watch them as many times
as you want for three months. Okay.
(29:20):
And they're about 30
minutes to 35 minutes each.
So it's pretty digestible
because it can be overwhelming.
I wouldn't recommend
watching them all at once.
Yeah.
Because my brain would explode.
And I always said,
like with our courses,
too, like, don't
treat them
like a Netflix show that you binge watch
because it's going to go in here
and out there.
You're not going to remember anything.
(29:40):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's kind of what
I'm offering right now is
you get three lessons,
you get the course and you get community.
And I'm hoping to get
some people to come in
and you don't do a masterclass,
like maybe Lara comes in
and teach us about something,
you know, like,
maybe, you know, like, because,
most of these people who will be in this
course are going to be pop,
(30:01):
you know, music
for pop singers, for acapella.
You know,
they want to learn more about it,
you know?
So I also wanted to make
a one on one session
where you could just be like,
I'm really struggling with this
and maybe I can help you.
I don't know,
like, yeah, you know, I'll do my best.
Okay.
At the end of the day,
I feel like the biggest thing about us
(30:22):
is that we really want to help.
We just want to help people
like, you know,
I yeah, I just want
to help teachers
feel comfortable and safe
when they're teaching.
That's kind of like the big
and help lessen
that imposter syndrome, right? Yes.
Lessen the anxiety
because I would drive to work
and I would be anxious, you know,
(30:43):
I would be in front of,
I would be trying
not to crash out in front of a room
full of like, 105th graders.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Because it's like, you could prep,
you can prep as much as you want,
but there's nothing that can prepare you
to being in front of all those people.
Yeah.
And suddenly not knowing what to do next.
(31:04):
Yeah. You know.
Yeah. It's scary. It's really scary.
Knowledge is powerful.
Knowledge is powerful.
Very much so. Yeah.
Just want to help.
Just want to help
you feel a little less
stressed in your day to day. Yes, yes.
So, your program,
your course is for three months,
and it already started
at the beginning of this month.
So if people on June 1st, on June 1st.
(31:25):
Exactly.
So if people are interested
in enrolling in your course,
it now is probably the best time to do it
because definitely,
it's not like
they're missing something
by not having started on June 1st.
I don't think so right now.
Yeah, it's a rolling,
a rolling thing,
but I am looking for about ten people,
so that's something to keep in mind.
if you want to do it, do it now
before those ten spots are,
(31:47):
are already filled
because we're filming this before
you're launching your, your thing.
So at this point,
I don't know if it's already full,
but I hope not.
So if you are interested in it,
I'll put the link in the lesson
or the the episode notes
or the description below.
So go and check that out
if you want to join Kate
and nerd out a little bit
more about narrow down the
(32:08):
yeah on the voice anatomy thing. Yeah.
And become a more confident, voice
educator and voice user because of that.
Who? Yeah. Yeah, I love it.
Anything else that you want
to let people know
about the program
or about voice, anatomy,
anything that's important?
do have a little section at the end
that is focused
on, like, voice care and like,
(32:28):
taking care of your voice, too.
So if you've got kids who are,
you know,
struggling with illnesses or reflux,
I feel like reflux
is kind of like a new hot ticket.
Yeah.
You know, there's a little bit of that
there as well, Great, I love that.
Thank you so much, Kate.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely, absolutely.
(32:49):
I need to go through your course, too.
Okay. What am I missing?
What do I not know?
Yes, I can be a beta tester.
There you go. Perfect.
Thank you so much for
letting us know about voice anatomy
and about your course again,
if you want to enroll in it,
the links in the description,
go check that out
and go hang out with Kate for the summer.
Yeah,
or you can take a lesson
(33:09):
with me at Vox Tape two.
Or you can do that.
You can always book a lesson here
with us as well.
The course that you're doing
is separate from Vox,
but chat like a part of what we do.
But it's just something
that you're really passionate about
that you wanted to do on your own. Yeah.
And so yeah,
go ahead and, you know, work with Kate
either through Vox tape or just.
Yeah.
(33:30):
In that either
way, someone's anatomy course,
if you're more in the education side,
if you're more like a singer
and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
that's fine.
But like, I just want to sing.
Yeah, definitely.
You can, you can book a session,
with me through the link below.
It's, it's also going to be in there.
Okay.
Anyways, thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you Kate, again.
(33:50):
We'll see you in the next episode.
And or maybe not the next one,
but in a future one. Yeah.
otherwise
we'll see you in the next episode.
All righty. Bye.
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