What are your coping strategies for vocal coaching challenges?

Keep in mind these very important points: - The way they talk to you or the way they make you feel when they disrespect you is the way they feel deep deep down about themselves and the way they internally talk to themselves. - Therefore never take things personally. If you believe their input has a point and can open a room for improvement let it be if not learn to ignore because after all it’s about their problems. - In case you can’t ignore and you try to put limits to their disrespect and it fails, then try to make them realize their inner struggle and reply in a surprising empowering way ( the opposite of the way they feel about themselves ) - If still no change them with all clear consciousness let them go gently.

I think the chemistry meet is very important at the start and can establish lots of things including your credentials, approach and what the client is looking for. If the client has become difficult during the coaching process it could be: - they are uncomfortable at acknowledging the truth about themselves - remember they need help - never take it personally - try shifting or adapting your approach - don’t argue with them, always remain polite. - excuse yourself from the session for a few minutes - this will change the dynamic - tell them you’ve got as far as you can go and refer them to other coaches (all coaches have their own style)/therapists - let the client go gracefully and know you did what you could to help them.

For a coach, having a demanding client is always a reward more than a challenge. In coaching activities, the key is to develop mutual trust and support. Yes, our clients have changing moods, doubts, anxiety: that’s precisely why they hire us. Patience and serenity are the key words. And if the collaboration fails, we help the client find another coach. It’s an intimate relation that can be unsuccessful due to connection matters. Human Science.

Knowing your worth as a coach and human and being confident in your coaching abilities will likely result in your clients respecting what you do. A lot of us experience imposter syndrome which contributes to us accepting behaviour from clients that we many not deserve. Work on your self-worth first! If clients are not vibing with you by complaining, not paying invoices and cancelling - then maybe they are not the right client for you. It’s also important to acknowledge that clients have their own hardships they are going through in life and sometimes they just need you to acknowledge these. It may not be about us! Also - constructive feedback about our coaching should always welcomed and acknowledged.

Dealing with c unrealistic expectations can be draining. Some clients expect a miraculous result within a short period of time yet they don’t really want to commit to consistent lessons attendance and fee payment . So I have learnt to set up with them short, mid term and long term goals in writing and schedule them to avoid misunderstandings .

Technology has been great in making vocal coaching more accessible, however it can be challenging when singing with a client or with backing tracks when there is a delay between accompanying music and your/their vocals. I always send tracks (warm ups/accompaniments etc) to clients in advance and get them to play on a separate device so I can always hear everything in time. When coaching voice projection for both singing and speech, the sound can sometimes distort. I have found Google Meets to be the best platform for managing sound clipping.

Technology has many limitations when it comes to conducting voice lessons and vocal coaching sessions online. So own it! When working with students virtually, I adjust my listening and tune more into my seeing. As Madeline Castrey mentioned, sound delays and distortion are one challenge and it can be quite distracting. And I find that sound completely cuts out at a certain point about the staff. So instead of listening, I watch the body for alignment and tension. We do more diction and rhythm work, speaking through texts, as well as working on expressiveness. Ultimately, virtual sessions are not my first choice, but they are a great supplementary resource for me and my students!

Coaches themselves never stop learning. We adapt to technologies and environments. Regarding vocal coaching, there are physical aspects of the training that makes online coaching way less efficient than face-to-face sessions.

Voice coaching clients sometime push harder on their voices when online. To prevent that I ask them to pretend I'm in the room with them. If using zoom, be sure to use Original Sound for Musicians.' It takes a few minutes to help your clients to find it and switch it on but it's so worth it as you'll both hear each other better. Also, ask your clients to use a separate device for backing tracks! I love that clients can easily record their sessions on zoom!

Again, we must start to see the singers as athletes, in which specific training is required. The worst thing you can do is random training, doing random vocalization, or worse, only singing. If you WANT to be able to sing an x,y,z repertoire and avoid VOCAL FATIGUE, you (or your teacher): 1. Need to know the specific muscle demands of each song, preparing your training based on that 2. Build up your vocal range note by note, slowly. 3. Never go for volume when you sing, unless it's opera. 4. When you are singing, don't let the “heat of the moment” take the best of you, singing louder, careless, drinking, or 4 hours in a row. 5. Just like a marathon runner, you need to be able to sing more time than your repertoire requires.

To have a personal connection with your student is vital. This will allow you to advise them to balance career management and vocal training sessions to avoid vocal fatigue on the day of their lesson. To also reinforce the students' vision - what they are aiming to achieve should motivate them to at times decide to pay the price to forfeit something in their lifestyle to gain the results in their vocal capacity.

We coaches are trained athletes. The more I sing, the stronger my vocals. While coaching someone we also don’t have to sing all the time. We give guidance, the client practices.

Yes self love is needed in this regard. But the reality of balancing work and rest can be shifty and the need to earn a decent living can surpass the need for rest. I have learnt how to incorporate technology into physical lessons sometimes to take a much needed break especially for intermediate and advanced students. So I use pre-recorded warm ups for instance and also teach them how to warm themselves up using the piano as I observe. It also builds their general musicianship which is critical in their growth.

When we become worried about something it plays on our mind and we become more focused on it. To stop this try this simple technique: - close your eyes - see yourself before the thing that is making you worried - see yourself actually doing the thing that is making you worried - see yourself after you’ve done the thing you were worried about How do you feel now? We all worry/can become stressed at times, the key is to recognise it early and counter it. This can also help: - think of the worry and now find the opposite of it and spend time focusing on that. - you’ll find the worry will try to overtake your thinking and feelings. Just say “no, it’s not your turn” - be firm. - continue with focusing on the opposite of the worry.

I like to warm up my own voice for my day in the shower first thing in the morning (to be fair, I learned this trick from my Voice Supervisor in my Speech Therapy graduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill; ha, ha! :-) ). I breathe in and out through my mouth to the warm, moist shower air to warm up my vocal cords for my day (for me, in a new public, urban middle school this year). I use the abdominal breath exercises a musical theater voice coach taught me out of Austin, Texas when I contracted there, in order to strengthen my breath support muscles at the same time as allowing the warm air to go directly to my vocal cords. . .Win, win!! :-)

Learn to identify your fears and insecurities and challenge them always. Ask yourself what if what I am worried about happens ? What might happen… and then what might happen…. And then what might happen…. Repeat this question 5 times … you will notice at the end most of your fears have no valid reasons to exist . If there is a valid reason for your fear then it did you a service by showing what you should work on to avoid.

I agree with this though it’s always a work in progress. Looking for other activities that destress the body and mind are critical after a long work day. I particularly love watching cooking programs as they give me a thrill the way music does but in a very relaxing way. Also early morning exercise and playing the piano for myself??

We are trained athletes. Physically and mentally. We are not 100% protected when it comes to stress or problems, but we probably have our own way to handle them, having to overcome other people’s trouble. Also we are a community and we can seek help from other coaches, and of course our beloved ones.

The voice is the most personal instrument in the musical repertoire. Our client's mental, emotional, physical wellbeing, their relationship challenges at work and at home all enter the vocal studio with them. The goal is not to banish their lives for an hour while they are singing. The opportunity is to become present to it all, honor it through acknowledgement, and release what is willing to fall away. Then we can play with what remains! The client is stressed? Anxious? Anger? Excited? Feed it to the music like colors on a canvas. Music is one of our greatest tools for healing, let's equip our clients to know the resource they are to themselves.

I always find it interesting to offer perspectives on how singing can boost wellness. Triggering the release of feel-good hormones/neurotransmitters and stimulating the vagus nerve, for example. Once people know the additional benefits they get from singing outside of honing their craft, they are even more invested in learning and maintaining good technique and practise.