If you don't know why an exercise works — what it's actually doing in your voice — you're practicing in the dark.
In this episode, vocal coach and certified vocal rehabilitation specialist Amber Mogg Cathey breaks down the single most transformative shift she sees in singers: the moment they stop just doing exercises and start understanding them.
She shares a real story of a seasoned singer whose confidence and control completely changed once he understood the purpose behind his training — and why that understanding matters whether you're a beginner or a working professional.
You'll learn:
00:00 The Importance of Understanding Vocal Training
07:19 The Lip Trill Exercise Explained
10:44 Join the Vocal Pro Collective
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🎁 Free 5 Minute Vocal Warm-Up + Bonus Belt Exercise
Hello everyone, welcome to Vocal Tips in 10. I'm Amber and I want to share a little story with you about a singer I started working with well over a decade ago. We have worked together forever. But when he first came in for lessons with me, he'd been training for, I don't know, probably around eight, nine years. He was very established at that point. His career had really taken off. So he had high expectations, was in the middle of international tours.
And it came to me because he'd been working for many years with this celebrity vocal coach. And side note, this is not talking any smack on that coach in particular. This is more talking smack on that aspect of vocal training that I find happens all the time. And I'm gonna get to that, back to my story. But he'd been working for years with this celebrity coach when he started to really blow up.
He didn't really know what to look for. He just knew that, like I said, expectations were a lot higher. He needed to really be able to rely on his voice. And he thought, okay, well, this person says they've worked with X, Y, and Z. They've got to be good. That's who I'm going to go with. And after many, many years of working with them, he found that, yeah, his voice was stronger, but he would be in the middle of a tour and things would go awry. He wouldn't feel great or the exercises he'd been given for whatever reason weren't working.
and he didn't know what to do. when it came down to it and I was like, okay, well tell me what things have you been working on? He'd been given a series of exercises, a lot of like pretty intricate scales that he was supposed to do on the regular. And that's what they worked on week after week after week. This coach might ramp up the exercises, but it was just a bunch of exercises. So this coach gave him some really good what, like what to do, but they never.
talked about the why. They never broke it down and said, okay, this is why I'm giving you these exercises. This is what I can hear happening in your voice. What do you feel happening and what do you hear? And let's talk about it and let's talk about why these work for you or why this one might not work. They never talked about the why and that's what I want to talk about today and what I think is missing in so much vocal training. We are great about the what.
So many times I find singers come to me feeling like they have been working their booty off for years doing everything they're told to do, but they've never been given the why. And there's a number of reasons why that doesn't work for me, right? I don't think it works for anybody, but for me as a teacher, I am so huge on my singers that I work with, whether they are in the Vocal Pro Collective, whether they are getting my weekly workout from the voice gym whether they're my one-on-one private clients.
no matter how I work with them, I want them to understand what is happening in the exercise, why we're doing it, what that then affects in their voice, and then get feedback from them. How does that feel for you? What do you think about that sound? Let's think about when you can use this. Let's think about when it's not gonna be great. And even if you love the exercise, let's give you backups for when it doesn't feel great,
And let's talk about why those backups work. So here's the difference in training. This singer that had worked with somebody else for years before, nothing against that person because the exercises they said, don't get me wrong, my voice has gotten stronger. But when the exercises didn't work, when they needed to pivot, when they needed to adjust, they had no clue what to do. And that really affected their confidence. That really affects all of our confidence. It also made them 100 % reliable on that coach.
They'd be in the middle of a tour and go, these exercises aren't helping today. So they would have to call the coach, pay for an emergency session, get new exercises, still have not a darn clue why they were doing them. It frustrated me so much for them. I just thought, man, you don't understand your voice any better than you did eight years ago.
before you paid thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in training and put in all these hours. we had a few sessions together and they said, wow, I really feel like my voice was a mystery before things worked, things didn't work, I had no clue why and now I'm already starting to understand
my voice more, I already feel so much more empowered, which made them feel so much more confident. And so we've been working together for years. They don't need me every single week like they used to. When we first started working together, we saw each other once a week, sometimes more when they had a big recording session or when they were prepping for a big tour. Then we cut it down to twice a month. Then once a month, years down the road. Now...
They are a vocal pro member and then they pop in for a one-on-one lesson when they need extra support. And I think as a coach, that is the goal. I don't want you to have to need me every single time something happens if you are a singer, because then you don't feel empowered. You don't feel confident about what you can do. When you know the why of exercises, why you're doing something, how it works,
You can start to develop a real toolbox. And I know I use that analogy all the time. I'm sure if you're a long time listener to this podcast, I've talked about a vocal toolbox, probably in many, many episodes, because I feel like it's so important. Think about being a great technician in any other area and you go in,
to help somebody with their electrical system. I am making this up as I go people. And you're like, okay, I know what this tool does and what this tool does and I know how to do them in this one way. And if they have that electrical problem, man, you are good. But if anything is funky, if anything's changed, anything's not what you're used to, you can't do the job. or like going to a mechanic, right? Who has a handful of tools, isn't quite sure
why they work, but knows they work. Well, what happens when they don't? You're out of a job, right? Singing is the same. I really want everybody who works with me and I want you listening to really start to build a toolbox that you can use whenever you need it. So you've got your favorite exercises. We all have our favorite exercises. I have mine, but there are certain days or times they just don't feel good for whatever reason.
I know the reason because I know the why, but I'm like, okay, this one isn't feeling good because I didn't get much sleep. My jaw has been so tight. My upper end has really been affected. So I need to do this, this, and this before that exercise. Or you know what? That's not the right exercise for me today. I'm going to go a different direction because I don't feel like I typically do. I'm feeling different today. So I need a different set of tools. It's going to make you so much more effective as a singer.
It's gonna make you so much more professional, so much more hirable. It's gonna keep you so much healthier and it's gonna make you feel so much more confident. So if you are in the middle of a tour, let's say like this singer was, and you get a bit of a head cold and you didn't get sleep that night and you're just feeling cruddy, you know how to modify. You know what works, you know why it works.
And when it's not working, have backup options and you know why and how those work too. You're really building this great toolbox.
I think it's just so important and it's exactly why when I send all of my Vocal Pro members or everybody who's in the Voice Gym a new vocal workout, they get it every single Monday delivered right into your inbox, five to six vocal exercises. You don't just get the exercises with sing-along audio tracks. You get that.
and you get a video breakdown from me explaining exactly what the exercise does, why you're doing it, how it functions in the voice, And then if you're a Vocal Pro Collective member and you're like, okay, I've done this, I get the why, but it feels weird in my voice. Here's the experience I'm having personally.
then you can put that in the feedback channel in the private community. And I personally will get back to you with personalized coaching and help. It's so important, you guys. So I wanna end this today with giving you a why for an exercise. And I just, was thinking, what's an exercise that like every singer does, whether they are brand new or highly skilled and everything in between.
no matter what level they are, if somebody pops in to work with me in whatever way, almost everybody has heard of and likely does a lip trill. And I will say to them, great, how does that feel? you know, they'll be like, it feels pretty good. Okay, so you feel a real difference before and after. I don't really know. Well, do you know like why?
You do a lip trill and what it's doing for you and some of the ways you can tweak that lip trill to make it better. And usually the answer is like, yeah, no, I've just been told do a lip trill. So let's talk about it. A lip trill is a type of semi occluded vocal tract exercise. Semi occluded means partially closed. The end of your vocal tract is your mouth, a partially closed mouth.
Well, what does that do? When your mouth is partially closed in an SOVT, you get some pressure, some back pressure on top of the vocal folds. So we all have pressure underneath the vocal folds. That's the air coming from our lungs that fuels our sound. When our mouth is partially closed, we also get some of that pressure on top of the vocal folds. That helps even out the pressure below.
And the analogy I like to use is you're getting ready to walk through a really heavy door. You can see that it's a beast. So you're really like revving up, right? Getting your arm ready to just like, really pull that sucker hard. And here comes a breeze and it just opens for you without any effort. That's what that balance of pressure does. It just helps even everything out. So your vocal folds get this nice, efficient setup,
When that happens, some of the tension that we might be holding because we didn't have that nice efficient setup before can help release. and then the lip trill on top of that does some additional things. The lip trill I feel like is especially great for breath management. You can hear and feel a lot of breath flow with that.
It also helps release tension at your lips, a big articulator.
in your facial muscles. We can carry a lot of tension in our facial muscles. So it helps release some great tension in those areas too. I love a lip trill. It's one of my favorites, but I think to know why you're doing it, pretty darn important.
When you know the why, you can work so much more effectively. You can adjust, you can pivot.
and you're gonna feel so much more confident because you know what you need to feel and sound your best.
If you listen to this and think, yes, preach it sister. I need to know the why for everything. You need to join me in the Vocal Pro Collective. It is my favorite place to be. you get a seven day money back guarantee. Just go in and check it out. If you have any interest, you will be amazed at everything you get. And it's not just that you get a lot of what? You get a lot of content and courses and exercises and you do your.
always going to get the why, you're always going to get the how. You also get live coaching with me. You get community with me and this international group of fantastic singers at all other levels. It is the place to be, I am telling you.
And I have a free sing-along vocal warmup for you down in the show notes. Thank you for listening. See you in the next episode.
