Making Your Singing Feel Good
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00:00 Welcome to The Voice Vibe with Special Guest Laura Chapman
00:31 The Importance of Singing Feeling Good
01:09 Introducing Laura Chapman: From Switzerland to Vox Tape Studios
03:22 Laura's Journey: From Musical Theater to Vocal Coaching
12:20 The Vocal Journey: Challenges, Lessons, and Realizations
17:22 Coaching Insights: Making Singing Feel Good
22:33 Identifying Vocal Overexertion
24:29 Case Study: The High-Performance Singer
25:22 Understanding Vocal Range and Effort
26:26 Balancing Vocal Power and Effort
27:45 The Misconception of Hard Work in Singing
28:40 Genre-Specific Vocal Demands
30:55 The Importance of Vocal Awareness and Training
32:33 Personalized Vocal Training: The Vocal Persona Quiz
42:54 The Journey to Vocal Mastery: Learning from Mistakes
46:33 Closing Thoughts and Next Steps
Welcome to The Voice Vibe with Special Guest Laura Chapman
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Philippe Hall: Hello and welcome to The Voice Vibe. My name is Philippe Hall. I'm your host. And today I have a special guest, Laura Chapman, founder of Vox Tape Studios. I met Laura last year. We started collaborating and we've had a really good time. She is a lot of fun. We have a lot of things in common and she, she really knows her stuff.
She's a great singer, great singer, songwriter. And today I, when we talked, I asked her what she would like to share with singers out there.
The Importance of Singing Feeling Good
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Philippe Hall: And One thing that's very important to her, and I absolutely share this belief and feeling and conviction is that singing should feel good. So if you're singing, it's not feeling good.
It's a clear sign that something is off. So we're going to talk about how to make your singing feel good. Also, I'd like you to get to know Laura a little bit, and I'm going to introduce her and bring her on right now. Hello, Laura, how are you doing?
Lara Chapman: Hello. Hello. I'm doing lovely. Thank you for having me.
Philippe Hall: Absolutely. You look beautiful today.
Lara Chapman: Thank you. Just for you, Philippe, just for you.
Introducing Laura Chapman: From Switzerland to Vox Tape Studios
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Philippe Hall: One of the fun things that I learned about you when we first met, and I'm just going to mention that because we just talked about it's snowing in Switzerland, is that you're from Switzerland and I'd actually been to your hometown and oh my God, Thun, Switzerland is gorgeous.
It's this, the Alps. Around this deep, crystal clear glacier lake, and the old town is really so quaint and charming.
Lara Chapman: It is. I do miss it, but I'm so excited that I get to go home and visit my family there this weekend. I can't wait. I'm not very excited for the snow. I'm not gonna lie. But, it's okay. It's all about family, and yeah.
Tune is gorgeous. My husband, he's from Indiana. So like super flat, right? No mountains. No, like we have lakes here, but they're gross. Sorry. They're gross. Okay. Swiss lakes are beautiful. Clear blue. You can see everything. It's gorgeous. gorgeous. Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm really excited to go see everyone and see the mountains and the lakes and yeah, most importantly, my family.
Philippe Hall: Yes. No, you're absolutely right. It's pretty amazing. You get to Switzerland and you're like, Oh, this is what rivers are supposed to look like. They're clean. It's like, I can see the bottom. I can see fish. I can. What's going on? What happened to the rest of the world?
Lara Chapman: Yeah, and they're blue, right? Like, here in the Midwest, all the lakes are green, and to me, that just looks dirty.
Philippe Hall: And then Grant,
Lara Chapman: my husband, he just says, like, oh yeah, like, where you're from, that's like a friggin postcard. Like, that's exactly what people think of when they think of Switzerland, because it looks like a postcard. And yeah, I'm very fortunate to have a Grown up there and that I still get to go home and visit, uh, a couple times a year.
Philippe Hall: Yes. Well, one of these times we'll have to do a a, a voice
Lara Chapman: workshop. Yes.
Philippe Hall: There. Oh my
Lara Chapman: God, that would be so cool. Oh, don't temp me with a good time. Let's do it. .Yes. Let's,
Philippe Hall: let's definitely do it. I'll invite all my contacts from Europe and just have a really great time. Who wouldn't wanna come to, to Switzerland, honestly.
Lara Chapman: Right. .
Laura's Journey: From Musical Theater to Vocal Coaching
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Philippe Hall: So tell us how, how did you get to the United States? Obviously, um, I want to get into what inspired you to become a singer, your journey, your struggles. And, uh, tell us, yeah, how did you get to the U S first of all?
Lara Chapman: Yeah. So I grew up in Switzerland, right? I, uh, finished high school there as well. And I came to you, to the U S for college.
I first went to the New York film Academy in New York city. I studied musical theater and acting for film and TV learned that I am not born to do musical theater and that I don't love it. So up until that point, like I. I only ever really sang like pop music, like contemporary pop rock, like that kind of stuff.
And I didn't understand that musical theater music and contemporary music were very different because I had very limited knowledge in musical theater. Lord knows how I got into that school. But I did and I was like, yeah, why not dance, sing and act at the same time? That sounds great, right? Yeah. No, uh, I yeah I quickly learned that musical theater music and also the way you sing musical the Musical theater songs is very different from contemporary music.
And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no That's not for me. And even like my teachers were all like, yeah, uh, you're great, but you don't belong here and i'm like, yes I do not Uh, and so I finished my two year program. It was a two year program I finished that and then I was like, okay, cool. How can I stay in the United States?
Because I was there on a student visa and I was like, okay, well, how can I get like, yeah, how can I stay? Because once you're done with your program, your student visa expires and you have to leave again. So I was like, all right, I'm going to go to Berkeley, Berkeley in Boston, Berkeley college of music. I auditioned for that school.
I got in, I did, um, my whole bachelor's there in songwriting, music, uh, songwriting, vocal performance, and music business. And as I was, you know, studying there, I went on a spring break trip with the school down to Nashville. And I met down there with a manager and I actually got signed to that manager. Uh, when I was down in Nashville, and so I finished my summer semester, spring semester at Berkeley in Boston, moved down to Nashville to write and record and, you know, release music, perform and do all that stuff.
Um, as I was finishing up school online. So I switched to Berkeley online to finish my degree because my parents were like, you have to have a degree. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna get a degree. And, uh, so I finished school online and, you know, did the whole artist thing down in Nashville, uh, eventually moved up to Indianapolis, which is where I am now, because my husband's from here.
He has his business here. I can do my job from anywhere. He can't. So. Uh, yeah, that's why I'm up here now. And you know, like as I was performing and releasing my own music and all that stuff, I was teaching voice lessons on the side because I needed to make money. Not going to lie. I needed to make money and I was like, okay.
Um, let me just teach some voice lessons, see if I can find some clients, you know, started, um, posting like on my Instagram page, like my personal Instagram and, um, on my Facebook. And I got a couple of students and then those couple of students turn into more students and more students and more students.
And I was like, Oh my gosh. This is so much more fun than being an artist, right? Cause like when you're an artist, like in pop music, it's not just like you write music, you record music and you perform music. That is what we all think it is, but that's just like a small, small, small, small, small part of. the music industry.
And I loved that. I hated everything else. So, um, I had like this internal struggle of like, wait, hold on. Like, I always thought I wanted to be a performer my entire life. And I did everything in my life to get to that point. And now I'm doing it. And now I don't want to do it? What is going on? And I, you know, liked teaching and coaching more than being the artist myself.
And I was like, Oh my gosh. So for a good year, year and a half, I stuck to the whole artist thing anyways, just because of my ego. Like, I was more concerned with what other people were going to think about me. Then what I really wanted to do because I was like, well, they're gonna think i'm a failure because like I quit the whole music thing and Yeah, that was that was a little A little stupid from my end.
Philippe Hall: No, I I understand. I absolutely understand. I think it's The message and what you're you're communicating is really important. I mean you you you first of all I think what's really important you just you just went for it. You know, this is what I want to do I'm going i'm getting in a musical school in the u.
s I'm, really excited about this. Obviously, they thought you had talent and accepted you and you got there and you're like, oh But this isn't for me. And you're like, okay, I'm going to take where I'm at and what I've learned. And I'm going to, I'm going to go this direction. And then you went that direction, you discovered more and then you, the same thing, but this isn't exactly for me.
And then, and then there's that whole phase of like, oh, you know, they're going to think I quit, you know, the music industry and, and, and, and, and. I was not exactly the same experience. I mean, you know, I did musical theater song and dance for four decades and, and absolutely loved it. So I had a different experience.
I got there and I'm like, I'm like, yeah, let me entertain you. I thought this is, this is what I was supposed to do. And then I changed over to opera and I kept doing musical, but I started doing opera and all my colleagues like, what are you doing? I had fans, fans going, why are you in that crappy little production?
And This is what I want to do. And people didn't understand, but it was a little difficult and I have my whole checklist and then I'm, my wife helped me realize, um, she's like, do you have to sing at every one of the theaters on your list before you feel like you're actually an accomplished artist? And I thought, Hmm, she said, don't you see that everybody you're on stage with?
Has sung at some of those theaters, but they haven't sung at all of them. So I'm like, right, I'm kind of singing with the people I'm singing with the people I'm on stage, you know, my, my partner, my duet partner, my, my, my, um, Colleagues, they, they're singing at the Met. They're singing in my land, you know, in Milano, they're singing here.
And you've sung in a lot of theaters. They haven't sung yet. So. Maybe I don't have to really check every single box.
Lara Chapman: Yeah.
Philippe Hall: So it was, it was, uh, it was good realization and yeah. Also, sometimes people ask me, why aren't you on stage? I'm like, well, uh, this is what I'm doing now. And it's a lot of fun. I think I just want to communicate that I can relate and I admire that.
And I would like to communicate that to. Any clients I work with and any singers artists that are out there listening also go with it You know go with your passion You might find out that you're going to take a different direction if you feel inside that's the right thing for you Then go with it.
Obviously It's worked out for you. You didn't leave beautiful picturesque tune switzerland Thinking you were going to create Fox Tape Studios.
Lara Chapman: No, or live in Indiana out of all places.
Philippe Hall: Hey, hey, Indiana is nice. It's a nice place to live, right? But it is very different.
Lara Chapman: It's okay. It's very different. No, it's great.
And I, you know, I, no, no regrets, no regrets. I love our little home that we created here and no, I'm very happy, but no, yeah, Vox Tape and, you know, vocal coaching was absolutely not something that I thought I I was ever going to get into, uh, my mom is a teacher, so I'm just going to blame it on her. I have apparently those coaching teaching genes, so I'm just going to blame it on her.
You are very
Philippe Hall: good. You are very good. You have this great energy. You've worked with my clients in an intensive last summer, which was really fun and everybody really enjoyed it. And I love this creativity.
The Vocal Journey: Challenges, Lessons, and the Shift to Feeling Good
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Philippe Hall: I'd like to ask you a question that about something you shared with me as you were working as a singer and Tell us About your vocal journey.
It wasn't always just a perfect smooth road, right?
Lara Chapman: No, no, it sure was not. So my entire life, I was always like a very heavy kind of singer. It's very chest dominant, very heavy. And so my, yeah, I would always struggle with, you know, getting tired quickly, um, not being able to sing high. So I started voice lessons when I was 13.
I wanted to start way earlier, but in Switzerland, all the music schools there, they don't let you take lessons. before 13. So I had to wait. I was like, okay, when can I start? So I finally was 13 and I could start my voice lessons. And in that voice lesson, my voice teacher Beatrice, her name is Beatrice. I love Beatrice.
She told me about this thing, the head voice. And I was like, oh my God, I can now sing all these high notes. And I kid you not my range expanded by almost an octave in that first lesson. And I was like, this is it. This is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. I love it. Thank you very much Let's keep doing this.
So anyways, I was always a very heavy a very chest dominant singer Which you know the more I started singing like in college and you know doing productions outside of school and with the school Uh and post school right like with the whole artistic thing and everything that I did like I started performing a lot.
There was this one summer where I was playing four to five shows that were like three hours long every single week for like an entire summer long. And I had to cancel two shows, I think, because of vocal fatigue. But at the end of that summer, I was like, Oh my God, I am dead. And like, as I was playing these shows too, like I had to adjust the key of some of the songs halfway through because I was like, Oh my gosh.
And so I didn't get tired. Like what is going on? So yeah, I'm not going to lie. I did a lot of yelling on pitch and not necessarily like beautifully singing and letting the voice come out freely. It was really just more of a yelling on pitch, which is kind of sad to admit. And honestly, like I was talking.
And I was talking to, uh to, uh, one of my coaches on my team here at Vox Save Studios about my whole journey, and she was like, You know what? I can't believe all of these teachers that you worked with in New York and in Boston and everywhere that they didn't stop you. Like they just let you keep doing what you're doing.
And like no one was telling you like, Hey, you're Um, I'm saying this with a lot of love, but you're going to end up in trouble if you keep going like this. No one, not a single person told me that. And yeah, I did end up in a lot of trouble because I had a vocal injury because of all of this abuse and misuse of the voice.
I ended up with vocal pre nodules. So they're basically like vocal nodules, but they're just, I don't know. very early stage, very small, um, not calluses at all. Just little, little bumps on the vocal folds essentially. And, um, yeah, I, you know, I would always like lose my voice for a day, but it will come back and then it would turn into two days and it came back.
And, you know, eventually I lost my voice for four weeks. I couldn't speak. I couldn't sing. It was so painful for four weeks. Yeah, it was bad. And. was okay. Like, okay, I gotta, I gotta go see a laryngologist and had vocal pre nodules. I had to do voice therapy and all that stuff. And that was my wake up call, right?
That's where I was like, okay, um, I can't keep going like this. It just, it doesn't work. And my laryngologist also said, like, you know, like you can, you can keep going if you want, but you're going to end up in my office a lot. And eventually you're going to have to have surgery because it's just going to get worse and not better.
And so, yeah, I had that, that really big wake up call in my singing journey. And that's where I was like, all right, everything, everything needs to change. And that's where I started to pay attention to what singing feels like rather than what singing sounds like. Before I was always very concerned with how good do I sound, right?
I just wanted to sound good. And I wanted to reach certain notes, no matter what it took. Right. It was like, I'm going to get to that note. I don't care what it takes. I'm just going to do it. And, um, yeah, that that's when I started to pay attention to what singing feels like instead. And that's when everything changed.
That's when I started sounding better. Right. Like when singing feels good, you sound good.
Coaching Insights: Making Singing Feel Good
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Philippe Hall: Well, we gotta, we gotta say this, uh, again for the audience. Pay attention to what singing feels like and sounds like.
Lara Chapman: Yes, please do pay attention to what singing feels like instead of what it sounds like, because guess what?
If it feels good, it's going to sound good too. And if it doesn't feel good, it's not going to sound as good as it could.
Philippe Hall: Yes, this is a magical thing, right? It, it seems like magic, but, um, we're going to, let's get into that now. Um, often, If you work, you're a coach, you work with clients, you work with singers, and I remember Some of my really famous colleagues, they say, no, you have to, if the, the, the volume is in the relaxation, I'm like, what are you talking about?
How can volume be in a relaxation? Because it's, you have to like press, you have to, you know, support, support the crap out of that high note. Get it really loud. And, and they demonstrate and I'm like, how do you do it? And they say, and he, this was a colleague, it would just say, ah, this is, this is the easiest thing you say.
And I could hear the more he'd like relax in his body and the sound would just get bigger and bigger. It's like, there's, there's some secret in there and, and clients do experience that when I just point out, I'm like, okay, great. Now work 10 percent less and they do it. Yes. I literally always say that.
Yeah.
Lara Chapman: Always, always, I'm like, that was great. Now do less and try again.
Philippe Hall: But I usually tell them,
Lara Chapman: give me less volume. Right? So like when I tell them like work less, they don't usually understand what I mean, but I tell them, okay, do the same thing at 50 percent of the volume. And then that's when everything starts opening up.
The tension releases, they start to relax more and then they, then they're like, all right, that felt great, but it wasn't a quieter. And I'm like, That was the goal, right? Like, I don't actually want you to be quieter. I just want you to work less. But if I tell you to be quieter, that's when it clicks in their, in their brain for most of them at least.
Yeah. Yeah. It's,
Philippe Hall: I think about most of coaching is guiding, guiding the singer to experience the optimal balance of the sound they're after when it feels good. And sounds right and then the singer needs their mind just needs to get that happy endorphin goal. Yay And then the mind kind of locks that in but you're right often Times when you tell a singer and i'm sure somebody out there's listening is going, huh?
Sing it 50 percent less Less loud or relax or do release and don't work as hard What usually happens is everybody they singers tend to relax then Everything. So I'd like to, I'm trying to keep us, it's so easy to get distracted, but what I'm trying to say is you can reduce the volume by reducing pressure, but if you reduce your effort level and you let the whole embouchure and inside and everything you're doing on the inside and the resonance strategy, you let all that relax too, we just kind of lock stuff in.
The sound design. So it's a, it takes a little bit of understanding. No, don't, don't stop doing the good things. Just don't overpower them.
Lara Chapman: Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, especially when it comes to belting, uh, or reaching high notes, right? Like things that we consider difficult to do. That's when we start working harder than we have to.
Right. So basically all we're trying to say is like. Do exactly what you just did, right? Like do the same thing. Don't try so hard, right? Like now pretend that this is easy. It do exactly the same thing, but pretend it's easy. And that's when you get to the notes, but they're free and open and resonant and not forced and pushed.
Philippe Hall: Yeah. I like that because it's when they're free and open and resonant. You get, they get more acoustic energy. They actually carry better. They're actually louder and the whole, the whole tambourine resonance structure improves. So there has to be an amount of,
if things get too tight with the overpowering, then they lose. Resonance potential and we take out some of the effort. They gain resonance potential. It's it's almost counterintuitive at some point so how then do We make singing feel good. And how can we make that shift from? Sound sound sound over over.
Does it feel good? We're going to just talk about how to make singing feel good. So we're talking now about How much physical effort, squeeze, pressure, all those things.
Identifying Vocal Strain and Overexertion
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Philippe Hall: How do we, how, how do we identify maybe as a starting point, how do we identify if we're doing too much?
Lara Chapman: Oh, oh, that is a great question.
Uh, there's a fair chance that you are, but how do you identify it? Like, I truly believe we can all work less, right. But, um, how do you identify it? Um, I would say. Uh, obviously like pay attention, like if you're feeling any discomfort, any sort of tickle, pain, uh, you're getting tired, um, you have a small range, uh, you know, vibrato is very difficult for you to do, your voice is not very agile, like, all of those things are, Um, like symptoms of working too hard and having tension in your singing.
Right? So like extrinsic muscles, like the neck, the jaw, the tongue, the constrictor muscles, those are your swallowing muscles, right? Like those might all be engaging on you when they're not supposed to. Right. Uh, and then we have intrinsic muscles, muscles within the vocal folds that might be, uh, You know squeezing a little bit on you, especially that lovely little muscle that's connected at the end of your vocal folds That's responsible for bringing the vocal folds together to vibrate that muscle There is squeezing in a lot of people myself included I have to work on this all the time so that we're not getting too much compression too much squeeze in the vocal folds Right, but anyways, so identifying it is Uh, you know, like feeling what the singing feel like and look at your range, look at your agility, look at your vibrato.
Um, all of those things are symptoms of working too hard. And then also, you know, sometimes like I get singers, they're like, I don't, I feel good when I sing. Like, I don't, I don't really get tired, especially with singers who are, you know, performing regularly.
Case Study: The Professional Performer
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Lara Chapman: So I just did a session with, um, a performer.
He's, he has like 20 gigs a month. Every single month, he does a lot of weddings and corporate events and bars and things like that. So his gigs are all very long, right? So he plays for two, three, four, five hours, 20 shows a month, which is a lot, right? So he is so used to it that he doesn't really feel tired from singing anymore, because That's just he's built up those muscles, right?
He's got it. And so we just work together to figure out, okay, how can we make this any easier at all? And then that's when he was like, Oh, okay, I see the difference. Now I see how I was working way harder than I had to, to get the sound out.
The Importance of Vocal Ease and Efficiency
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Lara Chapman: And one of the biggest indicators that I listen for in singers is, you know, Do you feel like you're reaching the end of your range, right?
Like when we're belting notes or when we're mixing notes, like, do you feel like close to hitting the ceiling? Cause like, we can hear that. Like we, as your audience and especially people like Philippe and I, right. Like vocal coaches, we can hear when you're reaching the end of your range, even though it's not at all the end of your range, it just feels like it is because you're pushing.
Right. Um, that is one of the biggest indicators I would say.
Introducing the Vocal Persona Quiz
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Philippe Hall: Well, this has just popped into mind and it could be a nice segue into, we have a very fun quiz that you prepared. Uh, some singers, I tend to say about 75 percent of singers are overpowering and maybe 25 percent or less don't want to work or give that extra pressure.
So, so generally for the majority of singers, you're doing too much, including myself. And, and some singers just aren't doing enough. So it's very rare that I have to come on, come on, let's go there. And as soon as I get a singer to, um, let's engage their, their body more and increase the sub glottal pressure.
As soon as I get, uh, we get them to do that and they get the, the note, let's say in their belt, they're getting a forte sound. As soon as we achieve that, really the very next thing I say is, can you do that again with 10 percent less power? So sometimes, I mean, I don't think you as a singer should be afraid to, to go there because that is going to help you find your limit.
Like, okay, that's like max. And I then realized, okay, I don't need to do that much. How, where's that sweet spot, but don't be afraid of, of going there. We just don't want you to overwork all the time. But, and I'd said that for years, I, I look for, I worked with different coaches, but I would say, I just have a feeling I'm working too hard.
I sounded good. I was working, but I'm just, I'm working too hard for this sound. It should be. Easier so
Lara Chapman: that is so interesting because like I see a lot of the opposite in my students a lot of my students are like Well, I have to work hard because singing is hard right like if I want to sound as good as the greats Right.
Like think Whitney Houston, for example, right? Like if I want to sound as good as them, like I have to work hard. And when singing is hard, that's when I know I'm doing it right. And I'm like, it's actually exactly the opposite. Singing is supposed to feel easy and effortless and free and not like you're lifting a bunch of heavy weights.
That's when you know you're doing it right. Not when it feels hard. Right. Then I have this one student, his name is Shane. He's a singer songwriter. And. He, he was like, I almost feel guilty singing like this because it's too easy. And I'm like, yes, that's, that's, that's what we want to feel. That's when you know, you're doing it right.
Philippe Hall: Yeah. I'm sure the physical sensation varies a lot depending on what genre you're in. Yeah. The people that are working physically the most in singing are your death metal singers doing all the heavy effects. Yeah. And your opera singers, there's just a lot more physical demand, you know, and then somebody that's doing mostly pop or easy volume jazz and things like that.
You're never going to be needing that much physical activity. So that sensation is going to be comparatively very low. But I can tell you for, even though if I'm doing death metal effects, If it's in the right spot, it feels easy. If there's a sense of ease, I know I'm working same thing with opera. You, you are definitely investing more physical energy, but the feeling in the throat and the body when it's in that sweet spot is, is almost effortless at a different physical energy level.
So it's, it's, I just want to communicate to people singing takes coordination, it takes activity. It does take energy. But that's a, that's a difference. So no, you're not going to feel like you're laying in bed. It's, it's not that easy.
Lara Chapman: Comparatively to what you might be doing now. It's going to feel easy.
Philippe Hall: Well, I even had been to lots of open mics with colleagues and And there's, there's kind of this, this, uh, emotional support for singers that look like they're working hard. Is it such a strange phenomenon? Look at him just working. You know, the, the veins are popping out of their neck. They're screaming and they're so into it.
And somehow that gets, Some sort of respect it's some levels, but I know that the singers have been doing it for a long time They're like, oh no Yeah It's just I hope he learns to or she learns to just calm that down As they go on in their career because otherwise that It's going to lose its shine.
Lara Chapman: It absolutely will.
It's what happened to me. It doesn't mean you can't get it back because I got it back.
Philippe Hall: But
Lara Chapman: yeah, no, for sure.
Understanding Vocal Personas and Training Needs
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Philippe Hall: So you've, you've heard this fun vocal persona quiz. I put the link in the description. So if you're listening or you're watching this video later, just go to the description. There's a link in there.
You want to tell us a little bit about. What that is and how that may help.
Lara Chapman: Yes, absolutely. Well, like you said, you, you believe like there's like 75 percent of singers are like, you know, they're doing too much. And there's about 25 percent of singers that are like, come on, give me, give me a little more, give me a little more.
And I would agree. I feel like that's a pretty spot on, um, spot on, like. Split I definitely don't think it's 50 50 I would definitely say heart like the overpowers are in the majority. I'm one of those
Philippe Hall: I am not
Lara Chapman: special. I am not special. I'm one of those people. Okay Uh have been my entire life. But anyways, so that you know with the voice it's like it's really difficult to To learn how to sing off of youtube videos Or, uh, Instagram reels or TikToks or whatever, because every voice is different, right?
We all have the same anatomy. We're all built the same, but the way we approach singing. is different, right? That's why we have songbirds and powerhouse singers, which is what I would call them, right? So you are either like someone who's not working quite enough, or you're someone who's like, ah, working a little too hard.
Right? So, and then there's, there's other personas as well, but. You know, it's like, okay, we need to kind of like personalize vocal, vocal training, because it's like, if you don't have experience and you don't have a certain level of awareness already, it's really difficult to know what you need, right? Like you might be experiencing symptoms.
So you're Googling or YouTube being your symptoms. And you're like, how do I fix that? And you, you see exercises and techniques on fixing that. That symptom, but it might not be the root cause. So it might work for a little bit, but then you feel stuck again, or maybe it doesn't work at all. And you feel stuck.
And it's like, why is this not working? It's because you're not really addressing the things that you need to do to help you see improvements in your voice. So basically I try to come up with a way to personalize vocal training without. Being in a one on one session, so I came up with a couple different questions.
And you can just go through it, answer those questions, and then it spits out your persona. And no, persona and voice type is not the same thing, right? So like soprano, and tenor, and bass, and alto, and all that stuff, that's your voice type. type. Your vocal persona is, is very different. Like it doesn't really talk about your range, which voice types is, you know, like your range and what you sound like and blah, blah, blah.
But vocal personas definitely focus more on the tendencies that you have as a singer. Do you tend to push or do you tend to not give me enough? Right? Do you tend to not worry about that stuff at all, but rather. expressing yourself, right? So it's um, yeah, it's basically personalized vocal training without um, without being in a one on one session.
And so when you get the answer to your, like, to the quiz where you're like, okay, I am this persona, you're also getting a free training. For that vocal persona and a warmup track for that vocal persona as well. Just so you can see like, oh, okay I'm now making progress because i'm doing the right things for my voice and if you're not seeing progress after that you Probably didn't get the right answer because Because of an awareness level, right?
The Journey to Vocal Awareness and Improvement
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Lara Chapman: Like I truly believe like if you want to make progress in singing you need to be aware of of what you're doing and what's happening. And if you have zero experience, it's so difficult to know and to be, to be aware, right? Because we're focusing just on what we sound like and that's pretty much it. So awareness is everything.
Philippe Hall: Takes time. I have, and I noticed that with, with clients I work with, obviously some clients they'll tell me after a year or a year and a half, I couldn't feel anything. That everybody was saying, you've got to feel this and that. I, I didn't feel anything, but now I'm feeling everything. And I don't know what the right thing is to feel.
So there is an evolution to this awareness, part of, part of becoming a good singer that sings healthily. When singing feels good is developing that self awareness. I think this would be very, very fun and can help you. Through this fun little quiz, get a better idea of, Hey, what kind of type singing type persona am I, how do I approach this and maybe you'll get some fun insights and that allow you to approach your singing and consider new things.
Consider a new thing. So I think if you're watching and you're watching this later, you've got to click that link. It's, it's a fun quiz. It's free.
Lara Chapman: You've got nothing to lose. Might as well. It's free.
Philippe Hall: Yeah. And it'll be fun. It might help you realize that, Oh, I actually need to work more or no, I'm working way too hard.
That's my tendency.
Lara Chapman: Yeah.
Philippe Hall: We all have certain tendencies in life. So can we perhaps go through this just spontaneous, let's, let's do a little back and forth and play tennis. All right. And let's say this podcast is all about, or this live stream is all about how to, how to make your singing feel good. So let's start with what we did a little bit earlier.
Um, what's one thing that's a sign that. You're singing is not feeling good. Tennis, like I'll start and pass to you. If you, if your throat feels really tight when you sing, there's a clear sign that it could feel better. What's another sign?
Lara Chapman: You are, you feel like you're reaching a ceiling in your range.
You can't go higher.
Philippe Hall: Great. Your voice tickles after you sing. Oh yes. You
Lara Chapman: have to cough from singing. That's a big one. That's a big one.
Philippe Hall: You feel pressure in your throat.
Lara Chapman: Yes. Um, you don't have a very agile voice. So like riffing is, is a little difficult for you. It's stiff. It feels stiff.
Philippe Hall: Yes. That's, that's so good.
Uh, it's hard to find vibrato or your vibrato is. Very bouncy. Oh, a little bit too wobbly.
Lara Chapman: A little too wobbly. A little aggressive, like a little manicured almost, right? Um, okay. Uh, wait, I just had one, but now I lost it.
Philippe Hall: Um,
Lara Chapman: what haven't we covered yet?
Philippe Hall: We'll just say that one went out of bounds. So I got to reserve.
I'll reserve you another one. Uh, your voice gets tired quickly when you sing.
Lara Chapman: Well, yeah, that, that's an obvious one. Um, What else? I need like, I need like a list of the things that we already said, so I can see what we already said. Um, let's see. Uh, stiff, I did talk about stiff, feeling stiff. Range, getting tired.
Um,
Philippe Hall: What?
I'm doing horse. I'm doing horse. I don't have, oh, you're
Lara Chapman: getting a horse from getting that spelled differently, but I see what you're saying. Sure. Sure. You're getting a horse from singing. Um, yeah, I mean, honestly, it's like everything.
Philippe Hall: You have to lower the key, right? There's, there's a long, long list. But it's fun.
It's just fun to play tennis back and forth with you about things that people should be on the lookout for. You know, I, I wasn't having any of those. Tone is a big
Lara Chapman: one, right? Like it sounds squeezed, right? A little overly compressed or it's, that's the one I had before, controlling volume. It's very difficult to control volume.
That's the one I lost. That's the one I was looking for. Yeah. Controlling volume or controlling your tone in general, right? Like it's, you have one way of singing, but it's not like we can't play around with it. We can't go from like a, uh, a compressed sound to a breathy sound. Like, just, you know, like, Move quickly through the different kinds of tones that you can create so volume and tone Um, those are pitch
Philippe Hall: pitch you mentioned that as your journey, you know I've had one one well known colleague.
I had every you know, he just got into issues and he's never gotten help It's really sad a lot of famous people just don't get the right help And you just see them they just lower the key every time you see them and as the years go by and it doesn't sound any better and it's so psychologically traumatic for them and it breaks my heart.
I mean there are a lot of great artists well known artists you can just hear in their voice wow all that beauty and that uniqueness is just fading over time it will fade over time so Those are some symptoms, how to make your, how to make your singing feel good. It's really becoming aware of little things and taking a note about it.
You can then, if you're feeling a lot of pressure and tightness, you can, you can try and reduce the level, but like you said, you know, using this vocal persona quiz can help you discover a little bit more about your approach, but. It's hard, it's just going to be hard for you if your only consultation source is social media because you might not, it's very likely you're not going to get to the root cause quickly.
So, if you're feeling these things, you can, you can do your best to self manage, but if they continue, you really ought to get in touch with, with, uh, hit me up on my site, hit Lara up for a consultation and get some help because that's basically what we do. We're looking to help people find the cause. of the symptoms.
Exactly. We're
Lara Chapman: playing doctor, right? Like we're not, we're not just the medicine that's just kind of like going to make you feel good in the moment. We're like, no, no, no, no. We're, we're going to, we're going to go deep here and we're going to address the root issues. And the thing too, with with, you know, like us or any other vocal, or hopefully any other vocal coach out there, good vocal coaches out there, right?
Like we can do it quickly for you, right? Like we listen to you and we're like, Oh yeah, we know what's going on because we've been doing this for so long. Um, and we have a ton of experience. We know what's happening and we can help you make progress quickly versus when you're doing it yourself. It's like, All right, I don't really know what's going on, but I'm just gonna guess and then sometimes you guess right, right?
And it works and then other times you guess wrong and then it takes A longer time so in life with anything you're gonna either spend time or you're gonna spend money Pick which one is more important to you time or money and then spend the other one, right?
Back to Basics: Mastering Simple Vocal Exercises
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Philippe Hall: And find a balance and don't feel bad You know sometimes I had money and I took three three sessions a week for four months and then other times I didn't have Coaching because I need to watch my budget for a few months or I was traveling so it can go in phases You One thing that I would give as a tip, I mean, rounding up here, our live stream, but one thing you can, you can do is go back to the most simple, basic exercises and make sure you can do those perfectly.
I did not want to do that as a singer on my singing journey. I wanted the results. And so I worked too much for too, too long or too hard for too long. I probably, like I always had that feeling I'm working too hard, but at one point you will be obliged to stop and go back and backtrack. And basically what you're going to find out is that there are some very, very basic, simple coordinations that you don't do perfectly.
You don't do them as well as you think you do. And it's painful to go back to the simple things and really monitor and be soft and control. And how even is your tone? Can you sustain a tone with no vibrato? Can you sustain? How long can you sustain a tone without it wobbling? How is your breath flow? How is your adduction?
Can you go from, uh, uh, uh, just breathy to clear, breathy to clear, back and forth with no interruption. That's not as easy as it seems.
Lara Chapman: No, no. And a lot of people just want to get to the fancy stuff, right? They're like, Oh, but like, I want to do the cool stuff. I want to do the fancy stuff. And I'm like, I get it.
I really do. But we need to have a really, really, really solid foundation first. And We need to continue working on that solid foundation because if you start working on just the fancy stuff, you're going to lose that, which is what happened to me. And I don't, I don't, I don't want you to do that. Right.
Cause it's very easy to get caught up in the shiny stuff. Don't do it. Don't just don't do it. Learn from my mistakes. Don't make the same mistakes.
Philippe Hall: I feel the same way, you know, I made plenty of mistakes and guess what? You're going to make mistakes. So the more you can learn from other people's mistakes and take advice from people that have been there and done that, the better off you're going to be.
So even if you look at any, any high level sport, let's say Kobe Bryant and basketball, uh, Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi and soccer, you know, yeah. Every single professional athlete that is the top of their game is going to say the same thing. The way they got there was doing the simple things to perfection better than anybody else.
Because when you've mastered the simple, then the complex is possible. It's not even possible if you don't have mastery over the simple. And you won't hurt yourself working on the simple things. Simple things are not easy to do excellently. They're simple though. Anyway, I'm going to get off, off my, um, speech box here.
But it's very
Lara Chapman: true. It's very important to what you're saying.
Philippe Hall: It's just an easy way to give a generic guidance that if you want your singing to feel good, make sure the basics feel good and you have really good control over those that will automatically upgrade everything else. Um, yeah, well, this has been great, Laura.
It's always a pleasure speaking with you.
Closing Thoughts and Next Steps
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Philippe Hall: If you'd like to join us For our next laura's staying on with me and we're going to open up a private zoom call There's a link in the description And this is an opportunity. It's a private zoom meeting where you can Get together with me and my co hosts like laura today And ask us personal questions and even get some personal feedback and coaching live in a private zoom call So click the link.
It's the it's the voice vibe Community the vibe community Where you can check that out and jump on a private call with us. I'd like you to remind you to, if you're not already check out Vox Tape Studios and give Laura a follow. She's she has some fun, fun, inspiring content and take this vocal persona quiz.
It'd be really fun. Let me know what it
Lara Chapman: spits out for you and if you feel like it's accurate like I want to know So far everyone I've talked to there. We're like, oh my god, I feel so same I'm like, I'm sorry, but it's a good thing
Philippe Hall: Well next week I'm gonna be on here singing Tune in next week. I'm going to be talking about the question.
Is your voice stuck down a rabbit? And the reason I say that is that often you'll discover something in your singing that makes your singing get better, more efficient. It starts feeling better and then you'll get obsessed with it, which is a good thing, but you might get obsessed to the point where you just burrow and burrow and go down that rabbit and you're going to get stuck.
So it's going to be fun to talk about. Um, I'll see you next week. Thanks again for joining, Laura. We'll look forward to collaborating with you again soon. Take care.
Lara Chapman: Bye.
