The Voice Science Podcast

The Voice Science Podcast is back, and we’re kicking off the new season by dismantling one of the most repeated ideas in learning theory.

The 10,000-hour rule is everywhere. And it’s a misreading of the original research.

In part one of this two-part series, we go back to the source: the 1993 Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer paper that started it all. The real finding wasn’t a magic number. It was that the most accomplished violinists had accumulated substantially more highly relevant, effortful practice over the course of their development, and that the quality and structure of that practice mattered as much as the quantity.

This episode breaks down what deliberate practice actually is, how three groups of university violinists differed in their practice habits and cumulative hours, and why the 10,000-hour figure has been so thoroughly misunderstood. Part two looks at a wider range of skills and ages through the lens of amateur to expert pianists.

Sources:

Ericsson, K.A., Krampe, R.T., Tesch-Römer, C., 1993. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review 100, 363–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363

voicescience.org

A quick but important update from the VoSci team — and a preview of what’s coming in September.

The Voice Science Podcast is taking a summer break. When we return, expect a more frequent and more focused series with some topics we’re genuinely excited about: how to maximize your practice time, what baritones can learn from trombones, and how a 500-year-old vocal exercise may be the best tool for developing your mixed voice.

In the meantime, the full episode archive, the VoSci Lexicon, and all the practice tools are waiting for you at voicescience.org.

See you in September.

Last episode, the premise was simple: when it comes to breath, more is almost always the wrong answer. This episode makes good on the promise — finding the leak and fixing it.

In part two, Josh Manuel gets diagnostic. The episode traces breath waste back to its most common source — the onset — and explains how the way you start a note largely determines how much air you’re about to burn through. From there it covers the full diagnostic tree for “I keep running out of air,” how to build toward firmer fold closure in singers who need it, why what you feel while singing is often the opposite of what’s actually happening, and a deep look at what breath support actually buys you once the work is done.

This one goes deep. It’s built for singers who want to understand the instrument, not just survive the phrase.

voicescience.org

“More air. More support. Bigger. Push more. Give me more.” If you’ve spent any time in a voice lesson or choir rehearsal, you’ve heard it. And according to Josh Manuel, founder of VoSci — it’s almost always the wrong answer.

In part one of this two-part episode, Drew Williams-Orozco walks through Josh’s ground-up breakdown of how breath actually works, why the “more” instinct betrays singers, and what’s really happening when a phrase falls apart. The episode covers the mechanics of inhalation and exhalation, what breath support actually is and which muscles are doing the work, why tension isn’t the enemy, and the subglottal pressure principle that reframes everything singers think they know about air.

Part two goes diagnostic — finding the specific leaks that are costing you air and what to do about each one. But first, the foundation.

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Not all students want the same thing — and assuming they do is one of the most common sources of frustration for both teachers and students.

In this episode, contributor Timothy Wilds introduces a diagnostic model developed by Juilliard-trained violinist and educator Fedor Ouspensky that helps teachers identify what a student actually wants from lessons. Built around two simple questions about goals and mastery, the model produces four distinct student types — Dedicated, Hobby, Casual, and Experience — each requiring a different teaching approach and a different kind of relationship.

Timothy walks through each type in depth, shares how his own teaching assumptions have had to evolve over four decades, and offers practical guidance for the most common scenario teachers face today: the student who wants the result without the skills — and what to do when that student is standing in front of you.

Whether you’re a teacher trying to retain students while holding your standards, or a student trying to figure out why lessons haven’t been clicking — this one is for both of you.

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Ready when you have the link! 🎙️

Vocal strain is one of the most common complaints singers bring into the studio — and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, Drew walks through the mechanical cause of most strain, why the advice to “breathe deep and support” can actually make things worse for contemporary singers, and what to do instead.

The episode covers the hyperfunction loop, the relationship between breath pressure and vocal fold closure, why singing softly is more physically demanding than it sounds, and how redirecting tension into the torso changes everything. Practical, science-grounded, and immediately applicable.

If your throat gets scratchy on certain passages, if high notes feel like a fight, or if you hit a wall somewhere in the middle of your range — this episode is for you.

Anyone can legally teach voice lessons in the United States. No degree. No clinical hours. No exam. No license. In this episode, contributor Timothy Wilds makes a direct and sometimes uncomfortable case for why that should change — and what a more professionalized field could look like.

Timothy draws a pointed comparison between the credentialing standards required of speech-language pathologists and those expected of voice teachers, argues that the overlap between the two professions is larger than the industry acknowledges, and challenges the commonly cited reasons for keeping voice teaching unregulated. He also shares how his own teaching was transformed by pursuing deeper training — and why he believes evidence-based tools and voice science have a critical role to play in raising the bar for teachers at every level.

Whether you’re a voice teacher, a student, or simply someone who cares about the integrity of the field — this episode is for you.

Ready to go deeper? VoSci Academy gives you structured Practice Paths, real-time pitch and interval feedback, and biweekly Q&A calls. Learn more at voicescience.org

When someone tells me they can't sing, I usually hear: I tried, it didn't sound right, so I assumed the instrument was broken. It almost never is.

This episode unpacks why singing lives much closer to speech than most singers think, why what you hear of your own voice isn't what's coming out of your mouth, and why the first year of lessons is mostly about removing habits — not building new ones. We get into attractor states, the diaphragmatic breathing problem for pop and musical theatre singers, what every other instrument in the practice wing knows about fundamentals, and the research showing that how you practice matters far more than how long.

Whether you have a teacher or you're going it alone, the path forward is the same: short sessions, specific goals, daily, and a recorder you're willing to listen back to.

Ready to go deeper? VoSci Academy gives you structured Practice Paths, real-time pitch and interval feedback, and biweekly Q&A calls. Learn more at voicescience.org

Presented by: Drew Williams Orozco

Written by: Josh Manuel

Your Choir Director Is Your Real Voice Teacher — For Better or Worse | The Voice Science Podcast

Has your choir director ever told you to "open your mouth," "create more back space," or "raise your soft palate" — and you had no idea whether you were actually doing it right? You're not alone. And the stakes are higher than most people realize.

A 2019 study by Chorus America reported that 54 million US adults and children sing in choirs. That means for the vast majority of singers, the choir rehearsal — not the private lesson — is where all the voice training is happening.

In this episode, contributor Timothy Wilds unpacks what that really means: for choir directors, for choir members, and for the long-term vocal health of anyone who has ever stood in a section and tried to follow their director's instructions.

You'll learn:

• Why the choir rehearsal is the primary site of voice training — and why that matters
• The real vocal knowledge gaps in choir directing, and why they exist
• A practical three-part framework for decoding the most common choral directives:
  • "Open your mouth / drop your jaw" — what the director is after, and how to test it
  • "Open your throat / create more back space" — the anatomy behind the instruction, and how to find it
  • "Raise your soft palate" — what that actually means physically, and how to know you've done it
• Why singers consistently overdo these adjustments — and what happens when they do
• What choir members should expect from their directors, and how to advocate for themselves in the room

👉 Want structured training between rehearsals? Check out Practice Paths at voicescience.org

🧠 Topics Covered:

• Chorus America 2019 data on choral participation
• Why most singers' vocal education comes from choir, not private lessons
• Director knowledge gaps: church, school, and theatre contexts
• Oral cavity opening — the one-finger test
• Pharyngeal anatomy: dimensions, flexibility, and function
• Velopharyngeal port, velum, and the "ng" soft palate test
• The "Goldilocks position" across all three directives
• Why oversized breaths and exaggerated adjustments undermine the goal

🔥 Helpful for:

• Choir singers trying to understand what their director is actually asking for
• Choir directors looking to be more precise and effective in rehearsal
• Voice teachers working with students who have a choral background
• Anyone whose primary vocal training has been in an ensemble setting

Overview

A complete rework of Episode 1. Expanded with two new sections — symptom mapping (what failing breath support looks and sounds like) and studio observations (teacher-focused patterns and honest expectations). Original content restructured to lead with the diaphragm myth as the primary hook. Estimated runtime: 18–22 minutes.

Key Concepts

• The diaphragm is an inhalation muscle that relaxes during singing — it cannot "support" the voice
• Breath support = voluntary regulation of exhalation to manage subglottal pressure
• Your body already produces enough pressure; the job is managing and extending it
• The muscles you can actually control: external intercostals, pectorals, lats
• Smaller controlled breaths > maximum breaths for contemporary styles
• Failing support shows up in the body before it shows up in the sound
• Too-small breaths are rare — running out of air is almost always a management problem
• Results possible in session one; automation takes months; never fully automatic

Research Notes

• Traser et al. (2020): subglottal pressure for singing = 5–35 cmH2O; maximal inhalation = ~30 cmH2O recoil force
• Fiz et al. (1993): healthy individuals produce up to 204 cmH2O; trumpet players up to 288 cmH2O — 8x+ the max needed for singing