I love teaching voice. It is one of my passions in life. Watching students grasp new concepts and find more freedom in their singing lights me up like nothing else. If you’re a teacher and you’re reading this, I trust you can relate. This is the story of how I discovered that passion.
For as long as I can remember, helping people has been one of my favorite things to do. Teaching is also how I’ve come to understand and apply concepts (my best math grades ever were when I was explaining the material to a friend regularly while we were doing our homework). I discovered my passion for teaching as a gymnastics coach, but I struggled with the loud environment because as a singer, that’s taxing on the voice.
But those stories aren’t about teaching voice. That’s what you really want to hear about, so here goes! Halfway through undergrad that I taught my first voice lesson, and I realized how much knowledge I had to share. I had a lot of fun! But I didn’t stick with it for long. I would teach lessons here and there, but nothing consistent for several years. It wasn’t until one of my close friends was getting ready to propose to my then roommate that I really discovered how much I loved teaching.
Important information about this couple, they LOVE Disney and musicals. So much so that he decided to sing a Disney love song medley to her to propose. And he has a lovely voice, but not much training. So we started working together to get his voice in shape for the proposal!
It was so fun watching him grow and get more comfortable with his singing voice, but the best part was sitting in the back of the auditorium and watching him propose to his now wife and seeing the culmination of everything we’d been working on.
That was the moment I fell in love with teaching.
Shortly after that, I decided to start grad school and make teaching voice my actual profession. I wanted to be able to help people more and see more of my students achieve their goals.
Now, I have my degree and I’ve been doing this for awhile. I have grown more passionate about the voice the more I’ve learned about it. I’ve watched more and more students step out, take a chance, and start singing more. It’s been amazing to watch their voices grown and be a safe space for them.
It’s also been really amazing to see my own growth as a teacher, but also as a singer. Teaching voice lessons has made me a better singer and has taught me more about my own voice than reading all the books in the world could. Because I truly believe that you don’t fully understand something until you can teach it. And I find myself having my own breakthroughs in explaining concepts to my students. Their questions challenge me to grow more and increase my understanding and application of various concepts.
As said in the musical The King and I,
“It’s a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you’ll be taught.”
This is something that I feel with my whole heart. Through teaching, I have learned more than I ever dreamed possible.
If you want to start teaching voice lessons, keep an eye out for the course How to Teach Voice Lessons Online! It will be available again very soon!
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