Voice lessons:
The Holistic way..
“Music is the universal language of the soul. "
It has the power to transport us to another time and place. Why not harness that power with a broad audience of fellow music lovers and passionate musicians alike?
Find great joy and satisfaction in singing and sharing your music.
At SwaraYogaShala™, I offer voice training for adults, kids and teenagers using holistic methods of breathing, pranayama, Yoga, Vocal Yoga, Fitzmaurice voicework, Italian BelCanto school-inspired voicework for vocal strength, range, agility and overall robustness of the voice.
Traditional techniques of Indian classical music practices to further groom the voice to have greater skill.
The Vocal training program with Sudha has training in different modules:
1. Essentials of voice - Elementary concepts of posture, breath and vocal warmups to bring out the best of the voice. Introduction to breathing and pranayama techniques to improve breath manage and control while singing, with postural release exercises incorporating voice exercises and vocal yoga pedagogy techniques. Best pitch suited to the singer will be identified. Will be covered in 6-8 weeks. Lessons will be catered to the age group and kids of younger age groups under 7 will have fun exercises, and will cover 1-2 songs by the end of 8 weeks.
2. Indian Vocal Singing lessons - Elementary concepts of Indian music - introduction to Indian Solfege (notations), voice stability and understanding of notes. Ear and pitch training with repeated introduction to Indian notes. Concept of Alankaar and Palta (rhythmic patterns of notes) to strengthen understanding of notes and patterns while also teaching concepts of intervals. Concept of Taals and essential rhythmic cycles like 16-beat, 6-beat, 8-beat, 10-beat cycles. Lessons will introduce elementary understanding of 7 Indian notes, natural notes. Introduction to simple songs in the repertoire of student's taste and choice.
Sessions-based. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year etc.
3. Indian Light and contemporary music - Song repertoires like Bhajans, Bollywood songs, semi-classical songs will be taught in depth. This will focus on voice culture, voice modulation, breath management and song presentation skills, provided the student has already covered about 3-6 months of essentials training. Students will also be trained to perform shorter songs (under 5 minutes) for competitions or school presentations.
4. Hindustani Classical vocal singing Intermediate: After completion of at least 6 months to a year of Essentials Indian Voice singing lessons, concept of ragas will be taught. Introduction to note-patterns and melodies and voice modulations - singing compositions adhering to rhythmic cycles in a certain raga. Concepts called Swarmalika (Note based composition), Lakshan geet (song adorning a raga), Khayal (compositions based on Ragas) will be taught. Student will perform at recitals after a 3-6 month minimum training. Opportunities to perform at local events after a mininum of 1 year training.
5. Therapeutic voice - Advanced and tailored vocal lessons - a minimum 6 lesson package. This is best suited for singers/actors who have voice issues, teenagers will voice break issues, performers with performance anxiety issues etc. This will incorporate Sudha's customized training using Yoga therapy, Vocal Yoga and voice training tools to help ease out the vocal artist to bring out their most authentic voice while releasing any tension that's holding back the voice.
My therapeutic voice program is tailored to the individual needs of a private client. I will cover everything from body scanning, several voicing sounds from humming, sighing, and vowel sounding, also primal sounds of animals. I teach a gamut of breathing exercises, a whole sequence of yoga asanas with voice to help release any body tension and open up the voice, combined with complete voice exercises from vocal pedagogy and spiritual music like chanting and mantras. I teach kids as young as 7 years to even older adults in their 70s. The patented Heather Lyle’s Vocal Yoga Method® is a holistic type of voice work that utilizes techniques from yoga, pranayama, Fitzmaurice voicework, Alexander Technique, Voice Science, Qi Gong, the Bel Canto School of Singing, kirtan chanting, primal voice work, somatic bodywork, and fascia release work. Vocal Yoga's premise is that breath is connected to your mind and body - so I focus on bringing mobility, flexibility, and strengthening - we start with several body warmups, postural release and correcting exercises, a lot of focus on the spine, shoulders, and hips and using the whole body to maximize breath. We are inspired by Physical therapy, Yoga, and Pilates exercises to help to bring mobility, flexibility and strength to basically your entire spinal column - Spine lengthening exercises, ribcage, and thoracic loosening, shoulder girdles, trapezius, pecs releases, full-body rollups, foam rolling, and then adding facial and myofascial muscle releases to release face, tongue, swallowing muscles, jaw, larynx and neck tension. In addition, I cover a bunch of dynamic warmups or Vinyasa-Hatha Yoga asanas in a restorative and Yin yoga format to help open up the voice and release tension in the body. All the Yoga asanas are accompanied with sounding like sighs, yawns, sirens, primal sounds and humming. I like to tailor my therapeutic protocols for my private clients who are singers, actors or voice users- whether they have hyperfunctional voice issues, muscle tension dysphonia, or are looking for anxiety and stress reduction. I work with kids and adults who want to improve their singing technique, acting voice, and overall vocal technique for performing. Periodic free voice tips and pointers are posted on the SwaraYogaShala Facebook portal
Certified as a Vocal Yoga™ instructor (trained with Heather Lyle, NCVS vocologist, voice science expert and creator of the Vocal Yoga™ Method), I also offer Vocal Yoga workshops with Yoga asanas and postural releases for voice, Chakra-clearing meditation with chanting Solfege notes (swaras) and/or mantras, body scanning meditation practice, partner Yoga with sounding and resonant voice therapy on acupressure meridians to release tensioned areas.
For lessons on voice and music, Drop me a line! If you need assessment on your voice technique (and song technique too) and help bringing your best vocal forward.