What’s your vocal coaching style? Part 2 Choices & Techniques

In Part 1 of “What’s your vocal coaching style?” I shared some simple game-changers and approaches I use to get the singer thinking.

Here’s Part 2 on more choices and techniques, starting with…

“Facts first” for legit and lyric singing, so it doesn’t go beige

Another recurring pattern: singers treat certain material like it has to be “pretty singing.” This drives me up the wall, because even if the sound is “nice”, the human disappears.

So I’ll push for something like: give me the facts. Talk it. Say it. Let it be plain.

When that clicks, the singer often realises they can still sing it through, still be smooth, still be powerful, but with clarity and intention.

The outcome I want in any vocal coaching session is “human being who happens to sound like that,” rather than “vocalist demonstrating a tone.”

Consonants as a legato tool (yes, really)

If you’ve ever been told “more diction” and ended up choppy, or if you think “Speech Quality” means clipped, straight sound with gaps, you’ll like this.

One of my recent clients had a belief that singing in “speech quality” meant straight sound, short clipped words and lots of gaps and compressing of the rhythm. But this was a Broadway lyric soprano piece, and we needed a legato line even with the diction. The thing we didn’t need was distorted rhythm and pecking at the line. So I gave her a sequence of instructions to bring a warmth and legato to the clarity of her sound and diction.

Sing it short, clipped and strong. We use this as the baseline comparison (this was her norm)
Sing it quieter and smoother, and elongate some of the sung consonants, particularly at the ends of the words. Elongating the consonants (bringing them in early and holding them) helped her sing in rhythm.
Bring the volume up a bit. This helps her calibrate for projection and presence without losing the legato and without pushing.

That sounds counterintuitive until you feel it. It keeps the thought continuous, keeps the words intelligible, and stops the sound from squeezing. In her language this was “speech in legato without being choppy” and worked brilliantly.

This is very much my vocal coaching style: simple, specific, repeatable.

Power, but with a throttle

When a singer hits a big note, the instinct is to “go for it and hold it.”

Often that’s exactly why it feels scary. There’s nowhere to go. You’ve already played your biggest card and there’s nothing left to build into. It gets boring very quickly.

So I’ll use a percentage rule. Two options:
Option A: do 85% all the way through, then build at the end.
Option B: hit 95%, then immediately come down to 85%, so you can shape it.

Same note, completely different experience.

And notice what’s happening here: this is still technique, but it’s taught as strategy. Because that’s how performers actually use technique, under pressure.

Let’s unpack those percentages. Why 85%, why not 50% and grow? Because it was a belt note, and you need a certain amount of presence/volume/muscle to make it work. Not enough and you’ll crack. Too much and you’ll explode. (The number of times I’ve had to wipe bits of body off the walls…).

If you’re a singer, you know exactly the difference between 95% and 85%. Just knocking the volume/energy/muscle down that 10% means you still have power and presence in the sound, but you’re in control, you’re balanced and you’re still effective. Then you add the next bit…

Performance tension, and the audience rule I love

Now you add the performance principle I use a lot: tension and release.

When the big finish is coming, audiences expect you to go full out. Paradoxically, that’s often the wrong move. If you blast, you spend the tension too early.

So I’ll coach singers to at 95%, duck back to 85% and hold, then do NOTHING. Resist the urge to decorate, and let the tension build. The longer you hold the note steady and straight, the more the room leans in.

Only right at the end of the note do you

increase the volume
increase the tension
add vibrato
all three

And there’s a bonus – you’ve saved your energy so you can hold the note longer. MDs LOVE this as they can whip the orchestra up more and for longer to give you the last chord tension/release you deserve.

I describe it as the difference between applause and a standing ovation.

So what is my vocal coaching style, really?

If I had to sum it up, it’s this:

I teach you to make choices that read
I give you tools that you can repeat
I push for “human being” over “pretty singing”
I use images, language hacks and performance strategy to unlock technical freedom
I don’t just fix sounds, I build systems
I’m a national prize-winning musician and musical director so of course I’ll correct any musical misunderstandings

And I’m not precious about which route we take.

If we need to go through story to get breath, we do that. If we need to change one word to unlock your whole delivery, we do that. If we need to map internal vs external, we do that. If we need to use a throttle instead of “more power,” we do that.

Because the goal is not a perfect noise in a practice room.

The goal is you, under pressure, doing your thing.

All of this is “second nature to me now” (name the song).

So if this works for you, click here to book a vocal coaching session. As one of my most recent clients said: “Truly top-tier”