What's the Deal if I'm tone-deaf? Am I doomed to sucking?
I'm a recording artist. How can voice lessons help me?
How do I choose a voice teacher and why's it such a big deal if I just take them from *anyone*?
Are there any public high schools in San Francisco with great music programs in SF
Q:What's up with the 12 week courses?
Q: How do I sign up for lessons?
Q: Are you gonna force me to sing classical?
Q: Is there anything else I should or can do to help me sing better?
Q: What's the deal with the performance goals? I am getting freaked out already!
Q: Where is the list of open mikes you said was on your site!!!
A: I teach in two cities right now - San Francisco and San Diego. In San Francisco I teach
out of the Union Square area near Powell Street BART. In San Diego I am located in the inappropriately
named Normal Heights area (near where highways 8 and 805 meet - just north of North Park)
Q: So you teach every week in San Diego AND San Francisco
A: Yes.
Q: Every week?
A: Yes.
Q: For reals?
A: Yes.
Q: OK then.
A: OK.
Q: Can I just take lessons once in a whole or do I need to sign up for a month at a time or
a block or something?
A: You can do any of the above. Most people make the most progress taking weekly but it is
not for everyone. It is up to you what you would like. I am happy to set students up with
occassional lessons (works best for advanced or professional singers), weekly lessons, or
blocks of one month of lessons. I also offer 12 week courses several times a year for those people
who like to have more structure in their lessons.
Q: What's up with the 12 week courses?
A: The 12 week courses start on a specific date and end on a specific date. They are private
lessons but you hafta finish all the lessons by the end date. That way you have a definite
deadline which is helpful to a lot of people. At the end of the course, you are required to
attempt a small goal we set together at the beginning that is in keeping with your personality
and musical interests. It does not hafta be a hard goal but it does hafta stretch you a little
bit.
A: More info on signing up for lessons is located here:
Q: Where are you located?
Q: How do I sign up for a lesson or course?
The lessons are generally divided into three distinct parts. A typical lesson starts with a question and answer session regarding how you did with the homework, any problems you had, etc. After that, we get your voice warmed up if it is not already and go over technique - we check existing technique to make sure it is progressing well and introduce one or two new skills for adults and probably a few more than that for kids since they learn faster. The rest of the lesson is spent working in actual music in general - going through songs you are working on and showing you ways to work in the song: phrasing, expressing yourself, finding your own way of delivering a song, learning stylistic aspects of music (swing feel in jazz, how to express yourself emotionally in a classical piece, in rock we might look at the keys you are working in and see if you are straining yourself due to the key being not quirte right, and other issues that come up in your genre taht wil wokr you towrd your goal.
With beginners the first lesson usually covers learning the "diaphragmatic" breathing you hear so much about in singing and posture. These two things alone can make a big difference as far as your sound and oftentimes working with these two elements can get a beginning singer through the "crack in the voice".
After the intake lesson, I can set you up with either ongoing weekly lessons or you may opt to take occassioal lessons as needed. As far as continuing students, I give either 45 minute lessons at a "Regular Time" each week - that time is set up when you sign up for the ongoing lessons and we can try to work in requests for certain times. I teach in San Diego and in San Francisco.
Lessons in San Francisco are available Saturdays during the day. San Diego lessons are Mondays & Tuesdays days, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and Friday days.
Q: Are you gonna force me to sing classical?
A: You don't hafta sing classical to get a good foundation under your belt. In fact, it is really important that you sing what is interesting to you because that will motivate you to study wheras if you sing what *I* like you might not find it that motivating.
That said, the classical education is a great thing in that it gives you a solid foundation to grow from. If you like it, it is fun to sing and can give you a great education. However, if you hate it, it is more important that you build your foundation in something that will keep you motivated. Jazz can provide a similarly rigourous foundation if that is more interesting to you. Other genres are fine, too, although many are not as rigourous or thorough.
With young kids, I like to expose them to a variety of types of music because you really never know what they will become interested in. However, more than almost anything else, I think a solid technical foundation is important to singers no matter the genre and that is what I am interested in giving students.
A: Alexander Technique is a very important study of how the body works ergonically for the best vocal production. In many of the finest music schools and conservatories, there is an Alexander Technique specialist on hand and students are required to take a course in Alexander Technique. In fact, in all honesty, at the intermediate and advanced levels, oftentimes and Alexander Technique specialist can be *just* as beneficial as a voice instructor in solving problems. Whoops - cat's outta the bag now!
Even beginning students are encouraged to take a complementary course for body alignment such as Alexander Technique or Yoga. If you are *serious* about singing, take Alexander Technique for sure. Even those of you who are kinda just wanting to explore singing may want to do Alexander Technique - it is a little better for your overall singing and can really make a HUGE difference. However, you may substitute yoga instead if I really can't talk you into Alexander Technique. I maintain a list of yoga and Alexander Technique instructors in San Diego and San Francisco including some sliding scale and free resources for your convenience in finding one in your area and that will fit your budget. You can access this list by clicking on the "resources" link below.
A: The performance goals are set by the student and are supposed to stretch you a little bit. For those of you who are already in bands or singing in public, a performance goal might be to get a gig or present new material or make a demo. For those of you who are really beginning and might have a lot of stage fright, a good goal might be singing in front of one other person without actually fleeing the scene. So they can vary a lot from person to person. Here are some goals I have seen in the past few years:
There is a list of open mikes I maintin so you can figure out if one of them might be a good place to go do performance goals or just to check out other people in various stages of abilities as far as rock, country, jazz, and blues are concerned.
We also do a series of "field trips" throughout the year which can either meet the performance requirement or be for your personal edification. Yay! These field trips are usually at least once per month and people are welcome to attend. The type of field trip you are involved with depends on your goals and the style of music you are interested in. If you do classical, for instance, you may choose to go to a recital whereas if you sing rock, we may set up an open mike. I also have field trips for jazz singers to piano bars and sit-ins with jazz groups. Every few months, very beginners can elect to go to a karaoke bar before they try any of the scarier field trips. Although take it from me - the World's Worst Karaoke Singer - karaoke is MUCH harder than playing with a live band. More info on our latest and upcoming field trips is available.
Questions about Voice Lessons in General
Q:
A:
I'm sorry, I don't mean to bag on other teachers, but really, when are we gonna get out of the Stone Ages here? A lot of people start off in music being "tone deaf". It doesn't mean you're not talented. On the contrary, many people who start off having pitch difficulties at first end up quickly passing their peers as they absorb their education. That is what they say when they mean someone is talented, not whether you have perfect pitch.
Having perfect pitch might qualify you to tune pianos, but it doesn't guarantee that you could do it well. Tuning pianos takes not only the ability to tune, but also the ability to listen to the instrument as a whole. It takes what is called "musicality", a sense for the instrument and for music - an artistic sensibility. Some people just don't have that and for these people, no matter how perfectly in pitch the piano is, it won't sound right because equally important to having the instrument tuned is having it sound good wholistically. This process may involve "tweaking" it a little so it's not absolutely tuned perfectly according to the laws of physics.
Musicality is what I look for. Sure, pitch problems take hard work to fix and you have to be dedicated but they can be remedied whereas I'm not so sure about people who lack musicality. Maybe musicality could be gained over time with a lifestyle and attitudinal change, but I'm fairly certain you won't pick it up by practicing. So if pitch is your only problem, consider yourself lucky.
I know if you think you're tone deaf, you're a little afraid to approach a teacher. I mean, what if the teacher says you just suck and you'll never recover? If that happens, you find yourself another music teacher because the translation of that from music-teacher-ese to English is that the teacher does not want to spend the time helping you learn music or that they just don't know how to teach people how to improve their pitch.
"Tone deaf" people go on to become composers, singers, directors, teachers, doctorate of music holders, and - in all honesty - piano tuners. Sometimes it is an asset because the perception is that tone deafness is this huge incurable thing that you have been smitten with from birth. And so if you think you're "tone deaf", you know you have to be serious and work hard to get somewhere in music. This is really intimidating to a lot of people and they just go do something else. But if it means enough to you, you keep at it even though your lame teacher doesn't believe in you. And I think the people who don't give up under these seemingly hopeless circumstances are dedicated and have a great love and devotion to music because they can remember wondering if they could ever do it.
Never listen to anyone who tells you you're "tone deaf". This is an archaic expression left over from a time when people put pencils into kids' right hands if they were left handed, dinosaurs roamed the earth, and Bill Gates was cute. Some people truly don't know any better. Often, boys will be pronounced tone deaf during their voice change which is completely unfair. If someone came into my studio and truly, truly couldn't hear pitch, it would be the first time ever for me. Pitch problems can be solved remarkably quickly if you put the time in.
As for myself, I was "tone deaf" once (as you may have figured out by my being so opinionated on the subject). I was never told so until after I studied music for about 6 months which for some reason my family didn't encourage me in. I found out why when I was singing as a soloist. It was my mother who mentioned it. She said something like "Wow, I can't believe you singing. You know you used to be tone deaf?" I thought she was kidding. Later still, she told me "do you remember when I used to get headaches all the time and I'd ask you to go sing outside?" I did. "It's because you were driving me nuts. I couldn't take it anymore."
In other words, my mom used to fake illnesses to get me to shut up.
I tell you this because sometimes people can give up after someone tells them they are "tone deaf". If I had known what my mom thought, maybe I would have never even tried. But thankfully she kept her diagnosis to herself and I went on to become a classical soloist with some help from a very amazing teacher who mentored me. I learned a lot from my mentor who sometimes spent 8 hours a day teaching me. I never realised the significance of how deeply she had taught me about music and practically everything else until I started to take students myself and realised I knew something from my education that my mentor had never said directly, but I think it was maybe the most significant thing she taught me about teaching:
A deep love of music is, itself, talent.
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A: According to the head engineer at a notable local studio, if the singer does not like how they sound on the first take and is wanting to come up with only their very best sound, "you could burn up a whole day on one song". Times 12 - wow. At $300-1200/day and taking into consideration vocal fatigue that could really cut into your beer money. The difference between nailing it the first or second take and this worst-case scenario that engineer is talking about is - using $300-1200/day as the cost of the studio - is between $3600 and $14,400. That price is for punching in vocals *alone*. So if that's all you paid for, you still would not have the rest of the band...how weird would *that* sound?
Compare that with the price of taking voice lessons from an instructor who knows what they are doing and getting your technique all straightened out. The estimated cost for an entire year of voice lessons from someone good is between $2100 and $2800. And you would also get the benefit of being able to actually *sound* as good live as you sound in your recording. Plus if your cd is well-received you would then be able to uphold a tour schedule because your vocal technique background would allow you to sing for hours without blowing your voice out.
So if you think you got it down, head out for the studio and do your thing. Man, go do it - that'll be great. But if you are still struggling a little with the technical aspects of the voice, you oughtta get that straightened out. Or you can go give $4800 to a recording engineer and still not be able to sound good in concert.
===========================
A:
Bad singing technique can cause a variety of serious vocal injuries and especially so
when you use your voice for prolonged periods of time and/or make strenuous demands upon
it. Like singing, for example. What we do is highly demanding and - as with any demanding
activity - you need a solid foundation of skills to learn to get the most out of your
performance.
Primarily - although not always - voice injury is caused by longitunal "misuse" of the
voice. That is, doing stuff over and over that is bad for your voice. Primary among
these "abuses" is lack of proper breathing technique and tension in the tongue. This
is in addition to the obvious stuff like screaming at football games until you are hoarse.
With this in mind, a lot is at stake when you learn vocal technique because what you are
devloping is habits. If you learn to *habitually* tighten your tongue up (this feels
like tightning in the throat and can be caused by poor postue in fact if you can beleive it!),
then that is a dangerous place to be, especially over time. If you learn to sing without
using proper breathing tehcniques, that is also a dangerous place to be, especially over time.
So being wary of methods that do not emphasize these two things - posture and breathing -
is really wise.
Overnight quick-fixes can be misleading and are not only highly unlikely but also may be
dangerous. Voice is like any other instrument that you might take - you can learn to use it
and express yourself in a short time, you can delve into it deeper and become reasonably
proficient, or you can master it after years of hard work. But in any case, the answer
to your singing problems is not an overnight panacea, it is putting in an effort with
solid technique - this does not have to be classical!
If you have children you are looking for lessons for, it is even more crucial that you
are very careful in trying to find someone *good* and experienced with kids. This is
important because kids' voices are very vulnerable. They are still developing and they
are easy to damage. You want a CONSERVATIVE teacher. Not one that pushes the kid to
push their voice as high as it will go.
Breathing and good posture are the essential tools singers use to protect their voices
and that is why it is important that your instructor use them as the fundamental building
blocks of the technique. They help you use your body to your best advantage because, as
vocalists, we have the instrument that is the most well-integrated with the body and
therefore, possibly the most dependant upon good in-body techniques such as breathing
and stance. Even horn players, while they share the concern of vocalists for good breathing,
can always replace a reed or other part of a damaged instrument if they end up screwing it
up due to poor instruction or just "trying it themselselves". Conversely, any permanently
damaged piece of your voice is with you - possibly for life. So please be aware of how
important your deciscion is to your health and continued singing.
there are a number of conflicting voice theories out there and some of them are actually great
although they may not integrate well together (so taking from divergant teachers may not be the
way to go), but there are a few that work very nicely. Essentially, *I* think the bel canto
techniques are probably the safest and most effective. There are a number of schools of this
and some of them are great (and some not so great). They key is this: are you singing more
comfortably within the first lesson or two, does the teacher communcate the ideas
effectively to you, does the teacher *sound good* (very important).
Conversely, there are a veritable plethora of poor voice techniques out there and what you
risk in studying these techniques and cultivating the habits they teach is your vocal
health. It happens a lot that people sustain serious vocal
injuries due to studying poor technique. If you have no other resources to help you
(you know no one in your area), please refer to my list of books but DO NOT STUDY ON YOUR OWN
OUT OF A BOOK
(it can be just as dangerous as learning poor technique because you will not have the feedback
of the teacher nor will you have the benefit of seeing and/or hearing the techniques demonstrated).
Instead, use them
to become informed about technique so that you are well-versed enough to ask questions that
might help you make a good choice. If you still have questions take a few lessons and email
me with what the person had to say and I will give you my feedback.
The teacher-student relationship comes down to trust - you can gain a lot of info by
talking to the instructor for a while, asking critical and technical
questions that a voice teacher should know (exa: who did you study with, how long, how
does the voice work, what is vibrato, this technique focuses on breathing right?,
what's up with my voice cracking, how is sticking spoons down my throat healthy (correct
answer: it isn't), how come my voice sounds/feels "tight"?, etc). What you want is
to ask a lot of tehcnical questions that,
say, only someone who knows their stuff would be able to answer and have their answers
make sense to you. There are plenty of singers out there who sound great
and could not answer these questions. But if the person is going to be responsible for your
personal vocal health - at least in part - the answers to these questions should be understood by
the teacher and also they should be able to explain it to you since some people aren't going
to be great at *teaching* - a whole other skill than singing...
Established Old-Lady Ex-Opera-Star Voice Teachers mostly operate through word of
mouth. I recommend the Old Lady Teacher if you are in a jam to find someone. Sometimes they
can be old fashioned and they hate anything other than classical a lot of times BUT you will
at least learn to breath right! AND if they have had a career of performing, you
will be able to really ascertain how many years they sang - say - opera and never had a problem.
Singing a few years here and there is much different than looking back on 30 years performing
opera almost every night (a very challenging genre vocally) and being able to say "this
technique got me through a very long and demanding career without any problems." I mean,
some of these opera people sing all day long and if you can do that and not get an injury
after 30 years,
you rule in my book. Especially if you sound good to boot!
If a prospective teacher cites some famous person to try to wow you, don't loose
your head. Ask yourself - does that person actually sound OK? Sometimes you happen on people
who have truend out some terrific singers and other times it is all hype - you never know
until you do the research. Ask yourself questions like did
their voice deteriorate after a few years? Many *great* entertainers have lost a buncha notes
off the top of their voice late in their career because theur technique was not the greeatest
ever - it is not neccessary to know really how to sing well to "make it" or to produce
stuff people like to listen to. Witness the Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols, and Grammy winner Tom
Waits. All terrific performers but maybe not to be emulated in their technique *if* you
are looking for healthy technique that will maintain your voice in it's current health or
better.
Other resources available are online lists of teachers. For the most part these are paid
services
although not always. In any case, these lists do not PROBABLY reflect a recommendation
neccesarily unless you see "I recommend" in the wording somewhere (unless you got my name off one of
these lists - then they totally recommend the people they list! Really, I mean it!).
Be aware that often times
recommending entities - let's say a website or a business - will recommend only those
who pay fees for that service, those who are members of the paid service or those
who agree to pay a percentage of the booking to the business (sometimes this is a studio
as in the case of a music store or other place where techers rent time or are granted space
based on their membership). Bear in mind, just because you got the person's name from
one of these places DOES NOT NECCESSARILY MEAN THIS TEACHER IS NOT GOOD, but it also does not
neccessarily mean that person is the World's Best Teacher (no matter what it says on their
license plate holder...). Unless the person is recommended by someone
not accepting money for that recommendation, I would consider it to be uncharted water. Always
consider where the recommendation is coming from. From a student of theirs you have never met who
took from them for 2 weeks? A friend of yours with
38 and a half years of voice lessons from them? The Yellow pages? It
may be worth talking to the instructor in question and asking them your List of Hard
Questions to see if they are someone you may be able to eventually trust. It is also good to
note that most instructors who have been around the block a few times appreciate that there
is a problem with quality in our profession and many people out there teaching are teaching bad technique.
Therefore, most instructors will understand that there is a certain amount of critical thinking
neccessary for a student to be able to make these decisions. As long as you are respectful to
the teacher, they will probably be understanding of your position.
If you find someone who sounds good, seems OK, etc, take a lesson and see if they say
things that are consistent with other respected ideas of vocal technique - this will start with
so-called "diaphragmatic" breathing and/or good posture in the FIRST LESSON by the consensus of
most of the good teachers I have known.
If they do not go into breathing as the foundation, it may be that you are being used as a
guinea pig in their New Theory to be Tested On
Your Personal Body. Never trust a teacher until they have gained your trust. That is the
essential thig. You know you have the good sense to know if something is not right. Trust
your instincts.
I took a student once and I will not state the geographical area but this student had shown
a lot of promise when she started to sing two years
before. Because of that, she signed up for voice lessons with a well-known
performer local to her area. When she came to me she could barely sing and had had to
stop all the
professional work she had procured singing in choirs and whatnot. She brought
in a tape to allow me to hear what she had been working on before. I was amazed to hear
that a voice on the tape (her former instrutor) was telling her to "scream" during her lessons.
He said to her on the tape that screaming was normal and that people can do it all day at
sporting events and such. Yeah!
And they lose their voices after a few minutes and a lot of times they injure themselves
and have to go into the doctor as a result. He was also doing stuff like sticking spoons
in her mouth to depress the tongue (which is not great - it can put stress on your larynx which is
a prime cause of vocal nodes second only to poor breathing which is really the same issue
in most people who DON'T stick spoons don't their throats! But I digress! Don't let me get started!
I must stop with the exclamation points now! Anyway, anything that manipulative I would
be wary of - your voice should sound
natural not artificial. Sticking spoons into peoples' mouths went out with burning
witches and using 4.5" floppies (all in the same year if memeory serves me well).
And screaming? I hope you guys all have the sense to know that something that outrageous
is a sure sign that you should get out of the care of that teacher. Please be careful.
Be even more careful if you are bringing a kid in to see someone. Accompany your child
for *at least* a few months. If it was my kid it would take a LONG time for me to trust
a teacher with my child's delicate voice - not to mention their overall well-being.
And finally please remember - just because it is highly priced and the office is nicely
decorated does not make it good technique. Good technique is a free-sounding voice,
which uses proper breathing and support, that does not fatigue from normal use and will
last you your whole life. Like learning any other instrument, there is no short cut to
good technique. Anyone who tells you so is trying to take your money and is probably not
interested in the longevity of your voice. Ask yourself - do I want to still be singing
in 5 years?
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A:
I was surprised to learn that San Francsico's Lowell High, which has a very great reputation
but primarily for stuff like
Math and English and all the traditional "academic" programs also has an excellent choir
under the direction of a fine teacher and conductor, Othello Washington. I don't know
much about Othello except that I LOVE saying his name! Othello Washington! He rocks my world!
Othello's choirs have very rigourous homework such as ear training, sight-
reading, basic vocal technique, and other fundamentals of a solid music education. I get
them in my studio trying stuff like the chromatic scale as an assignment for choir (which
is exactly the kind of music background that singers should have). They sing in many
languages and do classical, folk, and jazz/blues. Not that washed out jazz and blues, either,
it's nice stuff but very age-appropriate. I have never met him in person but have a great
deal of respect for what he is doing with the kids. Lowell is a public school but I believe
you may want to call several years ahead to inquire about space - do it today and email me to
lemme know what they say!
Another great resource in the Bay Area is SOTA - School of the Arts. SOTA is a public school
but has a lot of arts classes so that you can get to go there even if you don't
live in the Avenues where the school is located. My young student Giselle
just got in there and started this fall after one year of training to get to this Big Goal -
boy am I proud of her! SOTA is cool because it is really
focused on the arts and you can really be surrounded with all kinds of creative arts education.
In addition to regular instructors, they also have visiting faculty (artists in residence kinda
things), concerts all the time at the school, excellent non-arts programs (science, English, etc).
SOTA is audition only. The audition (I went in with Giselle) consists of a very limited sight-
reading test, a very limited ear test (sing patterns of notes), a range test, and a prepared song.
They will allow you to audition multiple times if you do not get in the first time so it is also a great
learning experience in auditioning.
SOTA has an orchestra and also a voice department (in addition to fine arts, film, piano, theatre,
and theatre design). I know the voice students are encouraged to be very multi-genred so you
hear classical work as well as jazz, pop, blues, and other genres at their concerts and
recitals. It is very cool and very exciting.
If you are starting off as a beginner and want to get into SOTA, I would recommend taking
about one year or so to start voice training,
prepare a few pieces, practice singing in front of others, learn some ear training and sight
reading,
and do the other stuff required to make a go at the audition.
For more information on SOTA, visit their website or you can also email me with questions about
it and I can tell ya what I know!
SOTA's website: http://www.sfsota.org/
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A:
Sometimes this something can be interpretation - soul - that people tend to lose sight of as they become
obsessed with technical skills. However, often times this is a lack of integration of the parts
of the technique. For instance, let's get back to the idea of a more advanced opera singer. She has,
say, great focus, good breath support, can life her soft palate while not tensing up elsewhere,
her posture is good - feet right where they "should" be, etc. But the thing is that each of these
systems - the feet, the breathing (focused on the abdominal area), the posture focused on the sterum area,
the soft palate and tongue position focused in the mouth. All these systems are operating independently
of each other. THey are not co-operating. This may seem trivial to you while reading it but when you hear a voice
that is actually intergrated, the difference is phenomenal compared to a more typical non-integrated
voice you find with lots of highly trained singers. It is not a far journey now that you have your techniques
in the bag but it is neccessary to feel involvement of the entire body. And not involvement like you might
think about it as being super active and tense, but just to feel that as you move your whole
body is involved - even a little tiny bit - or affected - even a little tiny bit - but that movement.
Integration can ven out irregular vibrato, cause a voice that sounds dull and lifeless to sparkle,
and allow a singer to express themselves outwardley instead of feeling they expressing themselves only to
find that it is not noticable to the audience - it is caught inside the performer and never makes it way out.
In my mind, these are the typical technical problems that advanced singers have when I see them.
Sometimes it is so profound that the person does not even get much joy out of singing anymore. If this
is a problem you are wrestling with, occassional intense lessons might work out just fine. Alexander
Technique is a big part of dealing with these types of issues.
OK, dinnertime, I gotta go...
=================
"Tone deafness" is not an official disease. What a teacher means if they say you are tone deaf is - two things really: 1. You are having difficulty replicating a pitch you are given, although you can probably hear it just fine. 2. Your teacher is really lame.
Q:
I'm a recording artist. How can voice lessons help me?
The most expensive part of recording is often going back in with the voice and "punching in" the parts you messed up. Barabara Adamson, in her article about cutting your first cd, says "If you couldn't cut the tracks live and have them sound close to the way you want them, you will spend a lot more time completing your project."
Q:
What should I look for when trying to pick a voice teacher for myself?
When looking for a voice instructor, keep in mind that *all* good voice technique
starts with a foundation of good breathing and posture. This crosses schools of thought
and is a universal element in a lot of different otherwise diverse studios. If a "technique"
does not start with good breathing, I personally would run the other way but then I am
protective of my body.
Q:
Are there any public high schools with great music programs in SF?
I am only familiar with a limited number of schools and only because my students go to them
and tell me all about it. In any case, I will spill what I know!
Q:
I've been studying opera for about maybe 8 years
and I still am not happy with the way I sound even though I have a buncha skills.
What's the deal with that?
OK, lotsa times the intermediate and advanced singers have this problem. You may have a lot of
skills already - like you might be able to lift the soft palate a bunch, your breathing might be right on,
you may have great focus, stuff like that. But somehow there is a certain something lacking.