3 Reasons Zoom Voice Lessons Are Better Than IRL

In 2020 when the whole world was rudely interrupted by a global pandemic, many of us scrambled to take our lives online. From live streaming concerts, to church services, to school, book clubs, fitness classes, and so much more, we were catapulted into a deluge of online gathering. While I too had to make significant adjustments into our new virtual reality, one area which I did not was in the realm of teaching and coaching voice on Zoom.

See, I’ve been doing this for years, not only as a voice teacher and coach, but as a voice student. In fact, all of my private study with my teacher Jeanie LoVetri was conducted via Skype. Because of that, I knew first hand the possibility of creating real change with the voice through remote one-on-one voice coaching. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. Nothing beats singing in the same space as other human beings. I live for collective voice experiences and vibrationally speaking, there is nothing like being in the presence of another person’s unique and wonderful sound. That being said, over the years I’ve learned that there are some distinct advantages to working on your voice remotely. In fact, there are ways in which it might just be better!

Let me share a few:

No. 1 Convenience, Flexibility and Access

Let’s get the obvious out of the way here: Convenience is QUEEN and access is EVERYTHING! 

The reason I worked remotely with my voice teacher is because she lives in New York and I live in Chicago and I currently work with private voice clients all over the world. I love the ability to connect with my clients in Australia, Canada and or in the suburbs of Chicago. If we were to have to meet in person, the logistics could limit our time together and make it near impossible to connect regularly.

Which speaks to the value of convenience. One of the most important elements in creating real, lasting change in your voice is a commitment to routine and regularity. In short, popping in and out of voice coaching doesn’t work. Why? Because this whole singing thing is about coordination in your body and your body doesn’t create new habits quickly. It takes time and repetition, so when you find yourself ready to be committed to that process of change and the work is more convenient, you will be more likely to make quicker progress and find more success with singing and your voice.

No. 2 Learning to Watch and Listen

Some will bemoan the glitchy technical aspects of virtual voice coaching, and I’m not gonna lie, slow internet can be a real killjoy! But, there are other components of technology that are a real advantage.

Most laptop and desktop computers come with pretty fancy cameras and microphones installed. If you add a good pair of headphones into the mix (this helps with echo and delay) you’ll have a great setup to get the job done. On Zoom in particular there are a few additional settings that you’ll need to switch (Original Sound anyone??) and then voila, you’ll be pretty shocked at what you can hear.

In fact, it is my experience that I may even be able to hear certain functional voice changes better when you are singing into a microphone. See, the basis of the work I do is in functional vocal training. What this means is listening and watching closely to how the voice is coordinated in the body as it relates to making sound. While you might find glitches, bobbles and cracks in your voice annoying or even embarrassing, they are good information for me! They help me understand where you are struggling and where you’re finding more ease in your voice. My job is then to create exercises that set you up for a clearer, freer, easier and more authentic sound.

There is a lot of nuance to this work. Hearing the functionality of your sound is a skill  that I have developed over many years of work. In addition, getting the visual cues and understanding how they correspond is also difficult and important. But, my friend, you, too can develop this skill and maybe even more quickly through Zoom voice coaching.

See, after every session, you will have a recorded video saved conveniently to your computer or in the cloud. This is your primary practice tool and incredible opportunity to study. Going back, watching and listening to your private voice coaching session is a practice in and of itself because, well … talk about embarrassing! You’ll find much of what you thought you were doing or how you thought things sounded was not the case.

But, when you move past the “OMG!” phase, you’ll see that there is a gold mine of information regarding what you need to do to create and real change in your voice. 

Replay those helpful comments from your trust voice coach, practice, practice, practice and BAM! That voice of yours will be showing up different than you could possibly imagine.

Thank you, Zoom!

No. 3 Singing in Safe Spaces

This final point may be the most significant and important. When you sign up to do virtual one-to-one voice coaching, you control your space. Now that might not seem like a big deal, but I think it’s huge. Singing in front of someone else can be scary. Even for experienced performers, stepping into a studio with just one other human being for the first time can be enough to make your throat close up. 

No, Seriously.

When you’re scared, even just a little bit, your body will go into a protective mode that often makes singing more difficult. One of your primary modes of protections is to constrict your throat so as to protect your windpipe or airflow… the most vulnerable spot of the body. While learning to sing with that and through that is necessary for performance, functional voice training doesn’t necessarily need to start there. In fact, our number one goal is to expand your awareness of what is happening in your body when you make sounds. With this in mind, your sense of safety and comfort is key!

I’ve offered years and years of in person voice coaching, and no matter how expert I’ve become at setting someone up for comfort in my space, there is just something about the energetic component of being in the same room that takes time to work through and cannot be fast tracked.

While Zoom voice coaching certainly has its own get to know you period, it is often the case that you will be able to set yourself up for safety and comfort more quickly because you are in control of your space.

Even further, you might be more willing to share the trickier stories you have about your voice because of this safety.

The first time I really understood this was after working with a client for a number of years in person. While we made good progress, I always found our interactions a bit awkward and despite my best efforts I couldn’t get them to dig into the deeper places we needed to go to foster real vocal change. Eventually they moved out of state and I wanted to continue our voice coaching via Zoom. After only two sessions, this person began to share with me in ways they never had in person! It was such a gift and felt unique to virtual voice lessons.

I’ve experienced something similar time and again and it is one of the primary reasons I have grown so fond of doing my one-to-one voice coaching sessions on Zoom.

Feeling safe will fast track your ability to expand and explore your voice. It might just be that virtual voice coaching is the best way to make that happen.