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The eyes are often called the window to the soul, but they do much more than just convey emotion. They play a significant role in communication, particularly when it comes to how we resonate our voices.

Effective embouchure helps maintain vocal tract resonance, vocal quality and ease of singing.

As a voice specialist, I recently had the opportunity to conduct research at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) looking at vocal creak in student actors. I'll admit, I went into this study with plenty of questions: Would their voice training affect their everyday speaking patterns? Does creak show up more in casual conversation than formal speech? Here's what I discovered... What's Vocal Creak, Anyway? If you're not familiar with the term, vocal creak (or vocal fry, cr

Musical Directors, like me, want to help our newest members get up to speed. At the same time, we don't want to be away from our existing singers for too long. They need us as well. In my own ensemble, the Endeavour Harmony Chorus , we have a good and capable music team who do a wonderful job. But new members still need some of my time for training, and that was the way we did it - face to face education with our new recruits separately, during rehearsal time. To reduce this

The UPside represents everything anti-gravity about our voice. The UPside is buoyant, open, free, weightless, grounded sound that helps us sing in tune and with ease. It's tall, spacious, joyful and free from tension. Voices can move and grow and fully resonate in the UPside. It's not a particular place to "put" your voice, it's the freedom from having no walls or structure to enclose your sound. It's allowing your voice to freely resonate in the spaces above your jaw and ab

"I'm running out of air!" What's going on here? Do you sometimes struggle to have enough air to finish phrases? Or need to take more...

Even for professional singers, up to 85% of their day is vocalizing for speech rather than for singing (Chapman, 2022). How we use our speaking voice can have quite an impact on our singing. Those with professional speaking jobs such as school teachers, doctors, and lawyers, who are also singers or sing as a hobby, can experience challenges, particularly with negotiating the singing registers. Speech vocal habits that can be problematic: Pressed phonation Glottal attacks To

Finding the ease in higher notes

We know intuitively that silent inhalations are an optimal way of breathing, but do you know the benefits for us as singers? This 3 min video covers how silent breaths help us to sing better. Part 2 video (below) demonstrates some vocal exercises to achieve this. It's 5 min long. I'd love your feedback on how helpful this is for you! All the best, Lea #resonance #breathingforsinging #silentinhalations Lea Baker - Voice Teacher / Vocal Coach MFA Voice, ANATS, ASME, NAfME Musi

"The greatest musical instrument given to a human being is the voice". Dayananda Saraswati Why warm up? Would you run a 100m sprint without first limbering up and stretching the muscles? Of course not. Yet we often launch into singing or a day of speaking without warming up our voice. Warming up for 15-20 minutes is important before any sustained singing or speaking activity. An effective warm-up prepares our voice for the challenges ahead, whether it's an important speech,