Chris is a singer-songwriter whose day job is also as a worship director for a large city church. Chris is essentially contracted to sing for approximated 8-10 hours every week as part of his job on any given week, and regularly has to prepare impromptu sets for last minute events.
I’m sure you can all appreciate the ridiculous demand and stress that is placed on any voice in that situation.
Chris approached me in late-Autumn one year, as he was regularly straining or even losing his voice, and also needed to improve strength and projection throughout his range. His tendency was to strain to reach the high notes, and to have an overly thinned out nasal sound as a result of an especially high larynx. We set about immediately addressing those issues.
Since then, Chris has been in weekly without fail, and the difference in his voice has been, quite frankly, staggering.
In Chris’s own words…
“The change that’s happened in my voice over the 3 months I’ve been having lessons is just incredible! Listening back to the recordings on my phone from before I started lessons just makes me realise “woah, I don’t sound even remotely like that anymore!” – it’s just the best feeling! In the past 3 months there’s been more change and improvement in my voice than has happened over all the years I’ve been singing!
“There’s a real wholesome-ness and richness to my voice now. It sounds like the strength I have in my speaking voice is in my singing voice even if it doesn’t sound as low as my speaking voice. I can sing through my range and my voice doesn’t feel strained, I can just feel it changing from chest voice to head voice but there’s no strain which is an amazing feeling!
“There have been a few breakthrough moments where something that I’ve been working on for a few weeks has just clicked, and my voice suddenly starts working on a whole new level. Regularly we will be looking at a song, Mark will be changing some things around for me, and it will suddenly feel SO much better in my voice… and THEN he’ll drop in that it’s actually THREE OR FOUR KEYS HIGHER than the original one. It’s just jaw-dropping that by taking songs higher it can feel so much better and SOUND better too! It wasn’t something I’d ever thought would be possible for me to do!
“Getting feedback from people who’ve heard me sing regularly over the past few years has been great as well. One of my friends who I do songwriting with made my day by saying that he even he feels that my singing has been taken to a totally different level. It’s an amazing feeling to get that sort of feedback in such a short space of time.
Way to go Chris!
Chris deserves all the credit here, as he is the one putting in the work and being immensely diligent and focused with his practice and efforts, and it’s one of the reasons that students like him come out with incredible voices in incredibly short periods of time. Keep it up Chris!
