The Aligned Singer

How long does it really take to make a lasting change in your voice?

If you want the sound in your head to finally show up when you sing, if you want your voice at its best for your next audition, or if you want to sing at a professional level and you'll do what it takes to get there, you're going to love this edition of The Aligned Singer.

Today is all about how long it really takes to transform your sound, and what you can count on at three months, six months, and a year.

Vocalizing is another word for your warm-up, the technical exercises you do before you go into your repertoire, aka your songs.

When you vocalize for around 15 minutes every single day, then give focused time to your repertoire, you're going to be amazed how quickly you progress.

Your voice doesn't grow in a straight line. Building your technique is an artistic process with seasons and cycles, and you swirl and ascend, swirl and ascend.

As your voice teacher bestie, I want to reassure you that if you've been wondering how long building your voice will take, that's completely okay. I went from a hot mess with my voice to a successful career as a classical soprano, and I still vocalize almost every single day. I've been able to collapse time for you with everything I share, so you don't have to figure this out the long way like I did. There's nothing special or exceptional about me except that I wouldn't give up, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you can build your dream sound too!

In this episode you'll learn:
• How long it really takes to hear a lasting change in your voice
• What 15 minutes of vocalizing a day can do for your sound
• Why your warm-up and your repertoire practice work best as two separate parts of your day
• How to fit focused repertoire practice into a busy schedule
• Why progress in your voice swirls upward instead of climbing in a straight line
• What you can count on at three months, six months, and a year

Chapters:
00:00 How Long It Really Takes to Change Your Voice
00:22 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie
01:48 How Bad Do You Want to Sing at a Professional Level?
03:44 Your Voice Grows in a Swirl, Not a Straight Line
05:16 Replace the Old Habits Running Your Voice
07:42 Start Doing Technical Work on Your Technique
09:38 15 Minutes of Vocalizing a Day Is All You Need
11:17 How Much Time to Give Your Repertoire
12:36 What to Expect at 1 Week, 3 Months, and 6 Months
16:28 Why I Still Vocalize Every Day as a Professional Singer
19:54 Pep Talk

Work with Me!
My very first online program for singers helps you vocalize and work on your technique every single day. Find the details on my studio website, and I'm still accepting one-on-one private students in my studio.

Subscribe so you catch every new edition of The Aligned Singer, and leave me a comment telling me what you'd love to hear in your voice 90 days from now. I read them all and I write back.

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website

Voice Studio Instagram

TikTok

Performing Website

There's one reason a shift in your voice actually sticks, and it's not the exercise itself. It's how many times you repeat it.

If you want the fix from a great lesson to still be there next week, if a breakthrough in your voice has ever disappeared on you, or if you're ready for a new pattern to finally become your natural sound, you're going to love this edition of The Aligned Singer.

This is part 5, the final part, of Build Your Dream Voice, my 5-part series on the blind spots I see most often in singers who are working to connect the dots between the voice they have right now and the voice they want to have.

Today is all about repetition, the one ingredient that turns a single good moment in your voice into a permanent change you actually keep.

Vocalizing is another word for your warm-up, and it's where you build new patterns in your voice. But building the pattern once isn't the same as keeping it.

In order to get to a new level in the way you sound when you sing, you have to repeat certain exercises and certain connections in your voice again and again and again, every single day, until it's automatic.

I'm thinking of a singer I work with privately, already working professionally, who came to me wanting to get to the next level in her career. Within thirty seconds of hearing her sing, I knew exactly what was going on with her voice. But knowing what's going on is different from being able to shift it, and the work in our lessons since has been forming those new connections again and again, until they hold.

As your voice teacher bestie, I want to reassure you that if progress in your voice keeps slipping, that's not a sign anything is wrong with you. I was recently listening back to a performance I gave about a month ago, and I started to cry, because the sound coming out of my mouth was so good. It's good because I kept repeating the new way, over and over, until it became how I actually sing. There's nothing special or exceptional about me except that I would not give up, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you can build your dream sound too!

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why doing an exercise right once in a lesson doesn't mean it's fixed in your voice yet
• What neuroplasticity actually is, and why your voice can keep changing at any point in your life
• Why your brain pulls you back toward your old sound, even after you've found a better one
• How repeating the right pattern, not just any repetition, plants a permanent shift in your voice
• Why this has to happen every single day, not once in a while in a lesson
• How this ties together everything in Build Your Dream Voice into the one thing that makes it stick

Chapters:

00:00 How to Make a Vocal Breakthrough Permanent
02:46 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie
08:06 A Quick Recap of Parts 1 Through 4
11:23 What Neuroplasticity Means for Developing Your Vocal Technique
14:23 How to Make a New Pattern Stick in Your Singing
23:10 When to Use This Fix on Your Own Voice
24:49 Live Example: Fixing My Middle Passaggio
28:55 Why One Lesson (Or One Repetition) Isn't Enough
32:11 Why an Old Habit Can Creep Back in and How to Fix It
33:33 Pep Talk

Work with Me! Ready to build your dream sound? My first technique program is coming very soon, and I'm still accepting one-on-one private students in my studio.

Subscribe so you catch every new edition of The Aligned Singer, and leave me a comment telling me what pattern you're working on repeating in your own voice right now. I read them all and I write back.

Links & Resources:

Free Vocal Technique Mini Lesson
Voice Studio Website
Voice Studio Instagram
TikTok
Performing Website

Here's something I want to shout from the rooftops: singing vowels and speech vowels are vastly different. It's such a simple concept, and it can change your whole voice.

If you want a bigger sound, if you want more beauty in your sound, or if you want more ease in your high notes, you're going to love this edition of The Aligned Singer.

This is part 4 of Build Your Dream Voice, my 5-part series on the blind spots I see most often in singers who are working to connect the dots between the voice they have right now and the voice they want to have.

Today is all about the difference between the way you make vowels when you talk and the way you make them when you sing.

We talk all day long, so the vowels we use when we speak feel completely normal. That's exactly why singing vowels feel wrong at first. You're just not used to them yet!

If your vowels feel normal when you sing, you're probably singing like you talk.

The sound that feels comfortable and familiar isn't always the sound that lets your voice grow. When you let go of singing like you talk and let yourself feel a little strange, your voice has room to become bigger, freer, and more beautiful, especially as you head up into your high notes. In this episode, I sing the phrase "sing to the top of the mountain" both ways, so you can hear the difference for yourself.

As your voice teacher bestie, I want to reassure you that if you're a serious singer and nobody has ever shown you this, that's completely okay. When I moved to New York City in 2006 to pursue my dream of a professional singing career, I sounded nothing like a professional singer. It took me six years to retrain my technique, and my "ee" vowel was the very last thing to shift. There's nothing special or exceptional about me except that I wouldn't give up, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you can build your dream sound too!

In this episode you'll learn:

• The difference between the vowels you use when you talk and the vowels you use when you sing
• The easiest way to tell if you're singing with speech vowels
• Why singing vowels feel wrong at first, and why that's a good sign
• What opens up in your high notes and head voice when you stop singing like you talk
• Where in your range speech vowels are probably fine, and where you need to switch
• What both kinds of vowels sound like, on "ah," "ooh," and "sing to the top of the mountain"

Chapters:
00:00 One Simple Concept That Can Change Your Whole Voice
03:08 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie
04:47 Proof You Can Rebuild Your Voice From Wherever You Are
06:40 Singing Vowels and Speech Vowels Are Vastly Different
07:33 Hear the Difference on "Ah"
08:17 Hear the Difference on "Ooh"
09:17 Sing to the Top of the Mountain
11:50 How to Tell If You're Singing Speech Vowels
13:35 Want a Bigger, More Beautiful Sound? Stop Singing Like You Talk
14:46 More Ease in Your High Notes With Singing Vowels
16:08 Why Singing Vowels Feel Wrong at First
19:30 Pep Talk

Work with Me!
Ready to build your dream sound? My first online program for singers opens in mid-October, and I'm still accepting one-on-one private students in my studio.

Subscribe so you don't miss part 5, and tell me in the comments which vowel feels strangest when you sing it. I read them all and I write back.

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website

Voice Studio Instagram

TikTok

Performing Website

Most singers don't know this, and that's shocking to me. The way you sound when you're warming up your voice and the way you sound when you're performing are two vastly different sounds.

If you want to walk into a rehearsal or an audition sounding your best, or if you want the sound you hear in your head, the one you know deep down you're capable of making someday, to finally show up in your voice, you're going to love this edition of The Aligned Singer.

This is part 3 of Build Your Dream Voice, my 5-part series on the blind spots I see most often in singers who are working to connect the dots between the voice they have right now and the voice they want to have.

Today is all about the difference between how you sound when you warm up and how you sound when you perform, and why that difference is so important when you're training your voice.

Vocalizing is another word for your warm-up, and those first sounds you make for the day are not supposed to sound like a performance. They're supposed to sound like the process!

The way you sound when you're all warmed up is because you warmed up.

If you can start to embody this next idea, you will improve your singing so much faster. When you drop the result and let yourself be in the process, your voice makes the new connections it needs, and the sound you want starts showing up in your music faster and faster, and one day becomes your new sound. Problems get fixed permanently. Your voice can shift fundamentally so that you don't struggle with those things you used to struggle with anymore.

As your voice teacher bestie, I want to reassure you that if you're a serious singer and nobody has ever told you this, that's completely okay. When I moved to New York City in 2006 to pursue my dream of a professional singing career, I vocalized every day at a little keyboard in a rented room in Queens before my restaurant shift, making sounds I knew didn't sound good yet. When I got over the fear of making those strange sounds I needed to make to start retraining my instrument, my voice could make the connections it needed, and being in the process made me sound better and better when I sang. That eventually led to me breaking through in the industry and becoming a full-time performer. There's nothing special or exceptional about me except that I wouldn't give up, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you can build your dream sound too!

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why the way you sound when you're warming up and the way you sound when you perform should really be two different sounds
• How when you vocalize, aka warm up your voice, you're allowing your voice to make the adjustments and connections it needs so you can sound your best when you actually sing your repertoire and perform
• What a real warm-up sounds like in my voice
• How to keep vocalizing when your neighbors, roommates, or housemates on the other side of the wall can hear you
• Why instrumentalists warm up in the green room, and why you get to do the same
• How letting go of how you'll sound later helps your voice change faster today

Chapters:
00:00 Your Warming Up Sound and Performance Sound Are Two Different Things
01:48 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie
02:19 Proof You Can Rebuild Your Voice No Matter What You Sound Like Today
06:14 The Two Different Things You Do When You Practice
07:28 How Daily Vocalizing Built My Dream Voice
15:06 The Key: Drop the Result and Be in the Process
16:41 What My Real Warm-Up Sounds Like
18:18 Keep Vocalizing, Even When Someone Can Hear You Through the Wall
21:26 What Instrumentalists Already Know That We Singers Can Do Too
25:49 Pep Talk

Work with Me!
Ready to build your dream sound? My first technique program is coming very soon, and I'm still accepting one-on-one private singers in my studio.

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website
Voice Studio Instagram
TikTok
Performing Website

That high note that feels stuck and strained every single time you get to it. The low notes that seem to disappear on you. The spot in the middle of your range where everything feels too pressed, too pushed, too forward. You run the phrase again. You mark it in your score. You come back to it tomorrow and it's still sitting there.

Here's the good news. It's still sitting there because you've been looking for it in the wrong place!

Part 2 of Build Your Dream Voice is about where vocal problems actually hide, and it isn't in your repertoire. It's in your warm-up. Once you know that, the detective work gets so much easier, and the changes you've been after start showing up a lot faster.

Your repertoire is where you apply your technique. Your vocalizing is where your voice learns to do something new. Solve it there, repeat it there, and it becomes a pattern you get to keep, a new good habit in your voice that moves you in the direction you wish you could go, instead of a spot fix that only lasts one song, or worse, one practice session.

And if you're wondering whether the sound you hear in your head is actually available to you... it is. I moved to New York City in 2006 to pursue a professional singing career, and I was a vocal wreck, even though I had a bachelor's degree in voice. I retrained, and I've been performing professionally with my dream sound for a long time now. There's nothing special or exceptional about me except that I wouldn't give up. You can connect the dots too, just like I did!!

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

- Why that strained high note keeps showing up no matter how many times you run the phrase

- Where to look first when your low notes disappear or your middle voice feels pressed and pushed

- The detective work that helps you make real, lasting changes in your voice: how to figure out where the problem actually is, and where to actually fix it

- The reason a fix that works in one aria doesn't carry into the next piece you learn

- The part of your practice session where your voice starts making new connections and sounding better overall

- What belongs in your warm-up as a bigger, sweeping adjustment to your technique, and what belongs in your music as a small spot fix

Mentioned in This Episode

Episode 23

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Gw7qtmw7AEaIQ76xKtCqW

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-23-why-the-same-problem-keeps-showing-up-in-your/id1881699427?i=1000789516209

Episode 16

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6lB287XUCiO7oTpeJBq70X

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-16-if-you-want-to-improve-your-singing-you-have/id1881699427?i=1000778473174

Chapters

0:00 Where Your Vocal Problems Are Actually Hiding

1:04 Proof You Can Retrain a Voice That Isn't Working Yet

3:23 The Symptoms You Keep Running Into in Your Repertoire

3:53 Why Fixing It in the Aria Doesn't Stick

4:38 The Warm-Up Is Where the Problem Lives

6:24 Vocalizing Is Where Your Voice Makes New Connections

7:38 The Small Adjustments That Do Belong in Your Music

8:53 A Spot Fix for One Song vs. a Change That Stays in Your Voice

9:50 Your Quick Review: Symptom, Source, Solution

11:30 Why Daily Vocalizing Protects the Sound You Want

12:40 Pep Talk

Work with Me!

Ready to build your dream sound? My first technique program is coming very soon, and I'm still accepting one-on-one private students in my studio at sarahhawkeystudio.com.

Links and Resources

Voice Studio Website

https://sarahhawkeystudio.com

Voice Studio Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Performing Website

https://sarahhawkey.com

There's one thing you can do every day that moves your voice toward your dream sound faster than anything else.

If you want a high note that feels free and easy, if there's a habit you'd love to replace with a better one, or if you've been running the same phrase over and over and you're ready for it to finally click, this one is for you.

This is part 1 of Build Your Dream Voice, a 5-part series on the blind spots I see most often in singers who are working to connect the dots between the voice they have right now and the voice they want.

We're starting with the biggest one, and it's your warm-up. What I call vocalizing.

When you hit a bump in the road, a high note that feels strained, a low note you'd love to reach, coloratura you want coming out clean, your instinct is to fix it in the music. You'll still make small adjustments in your music, of course. I do to this day, we all do. But that's not where the real change happens.

Vocalizing is another word for your warm-up, and your warm-up is where your voice actually changes.

It's where you shift the fundamental way you sing, replace old habits with better ones, and then head into your repertoire to apply it there. 10 or 15 minutes a day is all you need. Over time it snowballs, it stacks on top of itself, and you start to hear the changes happening in your voice.

As your voice teacher bestie, I want to reassure you that if you're a serious singer and nobody has ever told you this, that's completely okay. Nobody told me either. I moved to New York City 3 days after graduating with a degree in voice and a wrecked instrument, and I knew I didn't know how to sing. Figuring this out is what rebuilt my instrument, and it's why I know without a shadow of a doubt that you can build your dream sound too.

In this episode you'll learn:

• When you want to make a big change in your sound, the one daily habit that makes it possible
• Why a tricky phrase gets easier once your voice has learned the new way of singing it first
• Where the change in your voice actually happens, and why it isn't inside your music
• How many minutes a day you actually need to transform the way you sound
• What a warm-up can do for a long-standing habit that your repertoire can't do
• Why your voice can be rebuilt from wherever it is right now, whatever it sounds like today

Chapters:
00:00 The One Daily Habit That Builds Your Dream Voice

00:21 What You'll Get From This 5-Part Series

01:58 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie

02:32 How I Rebuilt My Voice After Conservatory

04:21 Why Your Dream Voice Is Within Reach

05:02 The One Habit You Don't Want to Skip

05:39 Meet Vocalizing, Your Daily Warm-Up

06:28 Why Vocalizing Is Where Your Voice Transforms

07:03 What to Do Instead of Fixing It in Your Repertoire

07:38 The Small Adjustments You'll Still Make in Your Music

08:08 Your Practice Assignment for This Week

09:04 How Many Minutes a Day You Actually Need

10:02 What Starts to Change When You Vocalize Every Day

10:33 Pep Talk

Work with Me!
If you want to build a technique you can rely on and connect the dots between the voice you have now and the one you're dreaming about, come study voice with me: https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Subscribe so you don't miss the rest of this series, and leave me a comment telling me how long you vocalized today. I read them all and I write back.

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website
https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Voice Studio Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Performing Website
https://www.sarahhawkey.com

Welcome to part two of my series on how to cure your stage fright. If you get stage fright when you perform, if you have anxiety when you audition, or if you're afraid to sing in front of anyone at all, even your family or your roommates, this one is for you. Today I'm handing you two exercises you can use immediately, and we do both of them together right here in the episode.

I used to have very, very serious stage fright, and I cannot be clearer about how serious. It got to a level where it might have taken my career from me. And it got worse right when everything I'd worked for finally arrived. Six years after I moved to New York City, I was suddenly singing with the New York Philharmonic and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. That's when it snowballed, because now there was something to lose. I kept getting hired, but the stage fright was taking my musicality and my musicianship away from me while I hid it from everyone. If any of that sounds like what you're carrying right now, you're in the right place.

Cut to now.

Today? My stage fright is completely cured. I'm not nervous at all anymore, not a little, and there is no special quality in me other than I knew I had to cure it.

What got me there were really practical tools that started working immediately. Please don't make the mistake of thinking these are out there, or extra, or optional. They are highly effective nervous system regulation tools, and they are the actual answer to how I cured my stage fright. You can't think your way through it. I tried that for years, and it kept me exactly where I was.

Today you're getting two of the OG ones, taught to me by the practitioner I went to for help, a singer who sang at the Met. If you've never done anything like this before, don't be embarrassed. I'm doing it with you.

Here's why I love these two so much. Nobody can tell you're doing them. You can do the first one in a holding room with your hand on your score, backstage before your entrance, or on your commute. The tool is with you at the moment you actually need it.

You have a gift that is meant to be shared. Stage fright is a roadblock in the way of that, and my job as your voice teacher bestie is to clear it out of the way.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Two exercises that can calm your stage fright immediately, and both take less than two minutes to do

• The Anchoring Your Focus Grounding Exercise, which you can do in the audition holding room with nobody around you able to tell

• The Claiming the Room Visualization, which you can do the night before, ten minutes before you walk on stage, or right before an audition

• Why you can't think or talk yourself out of stage fright, and what your body needs from you instead

• How to walk into an audition or a performance already feeling settled, instead of thrown off by an unfamiliar room

• Why even severe stage fright is curable, and what it actually takes to get there

Chapters:

00:00 Stage Fright Is Curable, Even If Yours Is Severe

03:51 The Two Exercises You'll Walk Away With Today

10:51 Why the Pressure to Perform Well Makes the Fear Worse

14:38 What Stage Fright Costs You On Stage

18:28 The Anchoring Your Focus Grounding Exercise: When to Use It

20:16 The Anchoring Your Focus Grounding Exercise: Do It With Me

25:01 The Claiming the Room Visualization: When to Use It

26:14 The Claiming the Room Visualization: Do It With Me

30:37 Using the Claiming the Room Visualization Before You Ever Get There

33:04 How to Use These With the Tapping From Part 1

33:42 Pep Talk

Work with Me!

If you want to feel grounded and excited on stage instead of white-knuckling your way through it, come study voice with me: https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website

https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Voice Studio Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Performing Website

https://www.sarahhawkey.com

If there's something about your voice that bugs you, something you wish you could do better, a note that used to be there and isn't right now, I want to show you where that actually gets fixed. Because it's almost certainly not where you've been looking for it, especially if you've been feeling stuck.

The way you sing your repertoire (aka songs) will keep being the way you sing your repertoire until you change the pattern that causes you to sing with those habits. And here's the thing: you can't change that habit inside your rep. Running the phrase that isn't working ten more times, on a voice that hasn't made the sound the way you want it to come out, keeps you stuck. As your voice teacher bestie I'm not gonna lie to you, it will make that phrase way worse, because your voice doesn't have a new connection opened up to the new way you want to sound yet.

Vocalizing and warming up are where the change in your voice actually occurs.

It's NOT in your music, and it's NOT by accident, luck, or happenstance.

Now here's the part I really want you to understand. Your warm-up is not supposed to sound like a performance.

When you reach for the finished product sound the moment you open your mouth for the day, you're asking your voice to skip the entire process that produces that sound. You're trying to start at your finish line, and that is never going to work. So you white-knuckle it, push, and walk away feeling frustrated and stuck.

You have to let yourself be in the now. Not the version of your voice from yesterday's lesson when you nailed the phrase. Not the take you posted that did really well. Not even the phrase you sang two minutes ago in the same exercise. Every single time you sing a new phrase, you detach. Vocalizing is where you get to know your voice and meet it exactly where it is right now, instead of dragging it toward a result it gave you a moment ago.

You're not proving anything during your warm-up. That surrender is what lets you drop the judgment, the negative self-talk, the running commentary that it should be better by now. And when you drop all of that, you speed up your growth. It's not you against your voice anymore. It's just you, with your voice.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why the phrase you keep running over and over is getting worse instead of better

• Where the change in your voice actually happens, and why it isn't in your music

• Why your warm-up should never sound like a performance

• How attaching to yesterday's lesson holds you back

• What it sounds like when I start making sounds for the day

• How dropping the judgment during practice speeds up your growth

Chapters:

00:00 The Vocal Mistake That Keeps You Stuck

00:36 Meet Your Voice Teacher Bestie

03:45 Speeding Up Your Vocal Growth

04:51 When I Had to Start Over With My Technique

06:01 Why You Can't Sing Repertoire on a Cold Voice

08:54 Vocalizing Is How You Change the Pattern

10:14 Working Through a Tricky High Note Passage

13:12 Getting Back Notes You Think You've Lost

14:36 The Worst Rehearsal of My Life

19:48 Why I Still Vocalize Every Single Day

20:43 Your Warm-Up Should Not Sound Like a Performance

24:04 Stop Chasing Yesterday's Sound

25:09 How Being in the Now With Your Voice Moves You Faster

27:58 How I Actually Start My Warm-Up

31:53 Your Finished Sound Is Something You Uncover

34:39 Pep Talk

Work with Me!

If you want to actually open up the new connections in your voice that you wish were already there, and improve your technique so much faster, come study voice with me: https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website

https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Voice Studio Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Performing Website

https://www.sarahhawkey.com

Have you ever felt like a note in your range just isn't there anymore?

Or noticed your voice feels wildly out of control, either too soft to project or so loud it's like you're blasting a trumpet with no quieter gears to reach for?

Maybe your low notes have started fading, and you wish you could sing with that deeper, richer sound you know is in there.

Or your high notes feel screechy, strained, or pitched higher than they should for the note you're actually singing....

If any of that sounds familiar, this episode is going to change how you think about your voice.

In bel canto tradition, your highest notes and your lowest notes are connected. They're not separate systems you troubleshoot one at a time, they're one instrument, and what's happening in one part of your range is almost always telling you something about another part.

In this episode, I'm walking you through a bel canto principle from my career as a classical soprano and voice teacher: every note you sing is a mixture of the high and low parts of your voice working together. When one part goes underused, the other starts compensating, and that's usually where stuck notes, screechy highs, disappearing lows, or an out-of-control belt come from.

I'll walk you through real patterns I see again and again, from over-singing that points back to an underused head voice, to what happens when a singer avoids chest voice for too long. I'll also share the encouragement I wish someone had given me the first time I had to rebuild a part of my voice I'd been avoiding, and why that doesn't mean anything about your potential as a singer.

If you've ever felt disconnected from a part of your range, or noticed that fixing one thing seems to affect something else entirely, this episode will help it all make sense.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- Why your high notes feel stuck, disappear, or sound higher than they should, even when the note isn't that high in your range

- Why your voice can feel out of control: too soft to project, or so loud it feels like blasting a trumpet with no quieter gears

- Why your low notes might feel like they're fading away, even when you know there's more depth there

- The bel canto principle that your high notes and low notes are connected, and why working on one often fixes the other

- Why every note you sing is a mixture or blend, not one isolated register

- Why a screamy or exhausting belt often points back to an underused head voice

- Why classical singers who avoid chest voice can lose presence and size in their upper range

- Why your voice doesn't follow rigid, all-or-nothing rules, and why that's actually good news

- How to work on the part of your range you've been avoiding without turning it into self-judgment

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction: Your High Notes and Low Notes Are Connected

00:33 Meet Sarah: Her Bel Canto Lineage

02:36 How Your Voice Mirrors the Shape of a Tree

04:41 How Age-Old Bel Canto Technique Follows the Laws of Nature

07:02 Think About the Triangle Image

08:08 Signs Your Voice Is Out of Whack

09:44 Why Your Voice Is Curvilinear, Not Linear

11:11 A Live Two-Octave Warm-Up Demo

11:45 Every Note Is a Mixture or Blend

14:34 Real Example: Pop and Musical Theater Singers Over-Singing

17:53 Real Example: Classical Singers Avoiding Chest Voice

22:09 The Core Connection (Plus the Violin Harmonics Analogy)

24:20 Detaching From the Story: It Doesn't Mean Anything About Your Potential

27:04 Recap and Pep Talk

Work with Me!

You can learn how to work together on your vocal technique & mindset at my website: https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Wesbsite

https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Performance Website

https://www.sarahhawkey.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/sarah.hawkey

Voice Studio Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Subscribe so you never miss a new edition of The Aligned Singer, and leave a comment, I respond to them all!

Picture this: the curtain closes, you take your bow, and you’re handed a paycheck for the gig you just booked. You go home. Then what?

What you do next, behind the scenes, has everything to do with how much more work you get to say yes to, and how far you get to take your career.

If money is the one part of your singing career nobody ever taught you how to handle, you’re not alone. This episode gives you a simple, non-scary way to get a handle on it.

If I could do this, after being a HOT MESS with money for sooooo long, so can you.

I racked up $141,000+ in credit card & student loan debt after moving to New York City to become a singer. I paid off all of it and bought a house, using only my income from singing and a couple of small side hustles, on a modest income, especially for NYC.

It’ll help you take bigger swings in your career, feel more artistically free, and invest more in your art.

Here’s the part I didn’t expect: once you start making shifts in this behind-the-curtain part of your life, you change the energy around it, and that shift doesn’t stay with your paycheck, it moves into your career too. Honestly, a little magical!

While I was figuring all this out, I booked a dream gig, a world premiere opera that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. I booked more dream jobs, singing with organizations and conductors that were on my vision board (not kidding!), and got hired as a soloist, my goal at the time, more times than I can count.

Your relationship with money isn’t really about numbers. It’s a relationship with worth, with what you believe you’re worthy of receiving, and how much space you hold for abundance, which spills into your relationships, collaborations, and daily fulfillment as an artist. Money is energy moving between people, and how much you allow yourself to receive, a drip, a trickle, a river, or an ocean, comes down to how ready you feel to hold it.

This system is for creative artists who don’t think of themselves as numbers people, who feel boxed in by spreadsheets and math. It’s the exact framework I used in my in-person workshops, the same one that helped me pay off six figures of debt, buy my home (a huge personal dream!), and step into the freedom to pursue my art without carrying that emotional weight.

My hope is that after this episode, you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat behind the scenes of your career, so when the curtain closes and you go home, you feel steady and confident about what happens next. When you get empowered here, you become more magnetic as an artist too.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why your relationship with money can block the success you’re working toward: more bookings, bigger roles, career growth

• The one question you have to ask yourself before you touch a single number

• A simple, non-overwhelming way to get clear on your spending, no spreadsheet required

• What happens when your freelance performing income zigzags up and down, and how to plan for it

• What to do when there’s a gap between what you’re making and what you need, and how to close it with a side hustle that isn’t soul-sucking

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome: Why We’re Talking About Money on a Voice Podcast

06:21 The Outer Work and Inner Work That Make a Great Singer

08:19 Get Resourced First (Big Feelings Are Normal)

10:16 Step 1: Find Your Why (Don’t Skip This!)

14:50 My Big Reveal: Paying Off $141K as a Singer in NYC

20:38 Step 2: The Post-it Party (Artist-Friendly, No Numbers)

27:36 Adding In the Numbers

30:43 When Your Freelance Performing Income Zigzags Up and Down

32:03 Closing the Gap With a Side Hustle That Isn’t Soul Sucking

34:42 Money Is Like Water: Give It a Container

39:27 The Shocking Results in My Career and Personal Life

45:47 Pep Talk and Where to Find Me

Links & Resources:

Voice Studio Website

https://www.sarahhawkeystudio.com

Voice Studio Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/voiceteachersarah

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@voiceteachersarah

Performing Website

https://www.sarahhawkey.com