3 Vocal Coaching Myths I’m Done Pretending Are True
I said this after glass three on a balcony in Mallorca.
But I also meant it before my husband started pouring the wine…
After nearly two decades of singing professionally as an artist and working with other singers, I’ve experienced and heard literally all of it.
And eventually you get to a point where, let’s just say, your filter starts to run dry… and no, that’s not just the wine talking 😅
Here are 3 vocal coaching myths I’m done pretending are true.
1. “Head voice” and “chest voice” aren’t a real thing
They’re just metaphors.
Metaphors a lot of vocal coaches use to talk about different parts of your range so you can better understand the nuances of each register in your voice.
But a lot of singers get stuck treating those labels like law.
Spending years trying to find their “head voice” like it’s a lost earring.
And even more years trying to get these “voices” talking to each other like they’re two separate instruments living inside of your throat...
When it’s actually all just one voice… your voice.
And that can oftentimes make “smoothing your break” feel like an impossible task.
2. Nobody cares if you have perfect pitch
Perfect pitch is rare.
Like extremely rare.
In the general population it’s usually estimated at about 1 in 10,000.
Even among trained musicians it’s still the exception, not the rule.
So if you don’t have “perfect pitch”... congratulations!
You are in the same boat as almost every singer ever… including most of your favs.
A lot of singers think of it as wearing some sort of “badge of honor”.
Like it’s proof you’re a good singer or a bad one.
They’ll hear someone like Karen Carpenter, who could sing with ridiculous accuracy, and assume that means she had “perfect pitch.”
Pitch-perfect singing and perfect pitch are not the same thing.
One is about how much control you have. The other means being able to name a note with no reference.
Most of the singers you love have the first.
Very few have the second.
Some of the most moving singers I know will drift a hair sharp or flat in a live room and you will not care, because they are actually saying something.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard technically “perfect” singing that felt as engaging as watching someone load a dishwasher.
If your ear is still developing, that does not mean you’re behind.
It means you’re a musician who is still learning.
3. A perfect performance is not the point
Honestly, I could care less about a singer giving a “vocally-perfect” performance.
I’d rather hear someone sing me a song that makes me feel something.
A lot of singers forget that music is not only a form of expression…
It's also another way to tell a story.
And while having solid vocal technique can help you stretch your creative boundaries… it’s not everything.
The internet loves turning technique into morality…
Chest vs head.
Perfect vs human.
Vibrato vs straight tone.
Sure, it makes for great engagement-farming.
But the last thing any singer needs is the approval of some random vocal coach on TikTok who you’ll never meet.
We talked more about this during our last Singing / Straw Studio Members-Only Livestream.
And I’m sure we’ll be talking about it even more during our upcoming session next week.
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