In March of 2021, a wildly unexpected event occurred: I was asked to teach virtual voice lessons for AMDA NY, after a 10 year hiatus! Because of the pandemic, voice lessons were online only, and therefore, I could teach for the New York City based school from the comfort of my South Carolina living room. I was thrilled…But as of this week, my second tenure at AMDA 2.0 as I like to call it, has come to an end.

Here’s what I learned this time around:

I’ve written a lot about what a voice lesson is, what it can be, and even what it should be, because I try to present a positive view of most things. But the time has come to talk about what a voice lesson is NOT.

Let’s face facts: I am a serious teacher for serious students. I was trained by serious teachers to be a serious singer, and I was a serious student. I sometimes shy away from owning this, wanting to appear fun and lighthearted, easy-going and cool. And I am  fun, lighthearted, and easy-going (cool, unfortunately impossible), but in appropriate amounts at appropriate times.

Why take voice lessons? I get asked this question frequently, especially with regards to the cost. Here are some of the reasons voice lessons are important and potentially life changing. (They certainly did all this for me!)