If you’ve ever felt like you’re searching for the right way to sing… this episode is your permission to stop.
Because here’s the truth: there isn’t just one.
In this episode, I’m breaking down why great singers don’t rely on one perfect technique—they build options. Your voice isn’t a formula, it’s a skill. And the more ways you can access ease, power, and consistency, the more reliable your voice becomes in real-world situations.
We’ll talk about:
If something only works one way… it’s probably not as solid as you think.
Your job isn’t to be perfect—it’s to explore, adjust, and build a voice that works for you.
00:00 Introduction and Episode Goals
01:56 The Importance of Flexibility in Singing
05:24 Building a Robust Vocal Toolbox
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🎁 Free 5 Minute Vocal Warm-Up + Bonus Belt Exercise
Hello, friends. Thank you for being here. My goal today is to keep today's episode just a little bit shorter and sweeter just because the last several episodes, pretty sure I've gone over my 10 minutes on all of them. What can I say? I love what I talk about. And what I want to talk about today is just my firm belief that there is no one right way to do things as a vocalist.
as a human, but we're gonna keep this to singing today. Otherwise it could be hours long.
And not only do I not believe there is one right way, because we are all so different. We're all so different from person to person. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna guess since you are fellow humans listening, you can feel different from day to day, from morning to afternoon, right? That's just life. And that's part of having an instrument that is our entire body and mind. How we are feeling, really affects what works for us.
Not only do I not believe there's not one way that works best, I think if you can only get to your desired result one way, it's probably not ideal, We probably don't have that skill, fully locked in. What do I mean by that?
I mean, if you are somebody who feels like you can belt high into your register and it just sounds great and feels great, if you get 12 hours of sleep and if you are optimally hydrated and if it is 72.5 degrees out and if you can hear yourself just perfectly in the monitors for your performance and if you've had time to stretch your entire body and your jaw and your tongue, then you've done just the exact right mix exercises. then you will knock it out of the park.
But if one of those pieces falls, probably not gonna be able to hit it. It's really a toss up. Then that's not a skill that's totally locked in. Now don't get me wrong. I'm gonna be a person who tells you all the time, sleep is so important. Hydration is so important. If you can, my gosh, stretch your body, release those muscles that are tight,
Of course, all those pieces can be great, but we can't always have all those perfect things.
Singers message me and ask me every single day, multiple times a day, whether I work with them in one of my programs, in coaching, or they just DM me on socials But they'll ask me a really specific question. I don't know them, I don't know their voice in those cases. And they'll say, hey, I'm singing this word, how do I shape this vowel?
I can tell you how I would shape that vowel. I can tell you how different singers that I work with that have different bodies, different voice types, how they would shape it. But for you, play with it. Play with a pure E, play with a play with a play with a play with different sounds. And all it's gonna come down to every single time is does it feel good?
Do you feel like it's something you can do consistently and it's going to give you results time after time and it feels doable? It's not gonna tire you out. You don't feel like you're overworking. And then two, do you like how it sounds? I'm telling you if you walk away from this episode and all you remember is what matters is one, anything you're doing vocally, does it feel good and sustainable? And two, is it giving you the results you want? Do you like how it sounds? That's all that matters.
There is not one method. There is not one magical voice exercise that only this person and this person knows, right? That's not real. Yes, I'm a huge believer in technique. And I certainly have my own biases, my own things and my own ways that I feel work really well. And I also am incredibly flexible when I'm working with.
any singer, any vocalist of any kind, listening to them. How's it feel for you? Huh, that works for a lot of people. Nothing works for everybody. Let's play with some different things and find what feels best in your voice and your body and gives you the results you want and can give you that time after time. And then I like for that person to know why it's working. So if it doesn't work someday, if you can't have all those magical ingredients that you feel like lead you to your perfect performance, you're like, okay.
I would have loved to have had my full stretching session. I would have loved to have gotten a longer warmup, whatever it is, but I know what to do. I know how to modify. I know what my voice needs and I know the tools that I need to get the sounds and the results that I want. That's the other thing. Let's add that can you tell that I don't script these? just talk off the cuff. You are building a vocal toolbox or equipping your vocal tool belt. I use both of those analogies all the time. I want
anybody I work with, and even if you're just listening to this podcast, we're working together to a degree, right? I want you to really start to develop tools that you can access when you need them. And we can have one tool that's a multi-tool that does a lot. If that's all you have got in your toolbox or your tool belts, you're gonna come across so many things that it's not gonna work for. Or it might work okay, but a different tool would really do the job. We wanna build
this robust toolbox of all kinds of vocal techniques so we can access as many sounds as possible, play with as many genres as possible. So we have as many options as possible. We want to have a really solid toolbox for how to keep our voice healthy and feeling good and sounding good. We want to have a big artistic toolbox. How do I get the colors and the style and the quality that I want for my sound?
You wanna have a performance toolbox. the point is what works for you is what matters.
And yes, seek out good techniques, good tools from people that you trust, from coaches, from experts where you're like, really, how they teach, how they talk totally makes sense to my brain. I need more of those tools. Of course, that's my job. I'm a huge believer in that. But anybody that tries to sell you this is the way you do it, the end.
I just don't believe in that at all. And in my many decades of being a singer and working with singers, I have never found that to be the case. you wanna have options. You wanna have more than one way you can do things. You wanna be able to be flexible.
because you're gonna feel different, voice, body, and mind, from day to day sometimes. You're gonna feel different at the start of a tour, then you do it at the middle of a tour, then you do it at the end of a tour. If you know, you know. Things that you could get away with on Showstop 3, very different than Show 83, right? We are making some massive changes because your body is tired by then. So this is just a friendly reminder to say,
feel free to play, make some goofy sounds. If you are not making some goofy sounds, especially if I'm working with somebody in a live coaching call or in a lesson and if everything sounds perfect, We are not taking you to new places and building new tools. We should have some cracks and some wobbles because you're stretching things.
You're building new abilities, new tools. We do all of that behind the scenes. So then when we're out in front of our crowd, we can be present, we can give our best performance.
And then the two big questions you always need to answer when you're working on your voice and you're like, I just want somebody to tell me you do it like this. Play and then think one, what's the one that feels the best? Feels like I could do it over and over again. That too gives me the sound I want. Those are your two questions
I think I'm just gonna call this episode, you do you boo. So I will leave you on that. I have a new offer, The Voice Gym, that is part of the Vocal Pro Collective, my favorite place to be. So I will put the Vocal Pro Collective info down below, but I have so many hardcore Voice Gym fans that for one reason or another, the Vocal Pro Collective is a little bit bigger of a commitment than they want or need right now. And The Voice Gym is just getting access to
over 150 exercises that I have built over my 20 plus years of being a coach and a singer far more than 20 plus years of being a singer with sing along audio tracks video breakdowns.
And it's all areas of the voice, all levels of singers really clearly laid out. If you want something to release tongue tension, you can go right to the tongue and jaw section, find the exercise that works for you. I will put that down in the show notes as well. And then I have a free sing-along warmup track for you with one of my favorite mixed voice exercises. It will all be down in the show notes. Thank you for listening and see you in the next episode.
Bye.
