Voice lessons in Amarillo
One to one singing lessons every week in downtown Amarillo, taught by one teacher who has competed in the rooms your choir director is preparing you for.
The short answers
- How much are singing lessons in Amarillo?
- $50 for an hour and $30 for a half hour, once a week, everything you need in the lesson included and no signup fee.
- Who teaches voice?
- Jayden Jolly, and only Jayden. He sang in Canyon varsity choir, went to TMEA, competed in UIL Solo and Ensemble and did musical theatre. One voice teacher means fewer times to choose from for voice than for guitar, so it is worth asking early.
- Do I have to be able to sing already?
- No. Most of the first month is breath, posture and pitching the first note of a phrase, which are learned skills rather than talents you either have or do not.
- What do I need to bring?
- Nothing. You are the instrument, there is no book to buy, and water is a good idea. It is the one lesson here you can walk into empty handed.
- Where and when?
- 818 SW 7th Avenue, Amarillo, TX 79101, inside Spacecamp Studios in downtown Amarillo. Monday to Thursday, 9:00am to 7:00pm, by appointment.
Who teaches it
Jayden Jolly
Jayden sang in Canyon varsity choir, went to TMEA, competed in UIL Solo and Ensemble and did musical theatre. He also manages the studio, so he is the person you are likely to hear back from either way.
He is the only voice teacher here. That is worth knowing before you ask: there are fewer voice times in the week than guitar times, and they go.
What a teacher is listening for
The difference between a lesson and an audience is that a lesson is listening for named faults. These are the ones that get corrected first, and most singers arrive with two or three of them.
- Scooping up into a note instead of starting on it
- A nasal tone, and judging your own sound by how it feels in your head rather than how it lands in the room
- Singing too quietly, which is the commonest fault of all
- Singing from the throat
- Breathing in and holding it, instead of singing on the rebound of the breath
- Hesitating on a note, which loses you where "do" is
- Tense arms and a dropped chest
- Underblowing the bottom of your range
And one instruction that surprises people: stop trying to sound good. Chasing a pretty sound builds tension, and the tension is what you can hear. Ten focused minutes a day beats a lesson a week with nothing in between it.
The drills you will actually do
Breath, in time
Breathing drills against a metronome, breathing in tempo with the music, and breathing with your mouth already in the shape of the next sound. A small puff of air after the last note of a phrase.
Vee, Veh, Vah, Vo, Vu
All five on one pitch, which is how you find out what your vowels are doing to your tone without changing the note underneath them.
Octaves and the vertical mouth
Singing the octave with a vertical mouth shape on the top note, then intervals without singing "do" first as a safety net.
Chest to falsetto and back
Switching cleanly between the two rather than falling between them, plus a five finger pattern on middle C in falsetto and the same thing down at F in high chest voice.
Solfege and hand signs
Sight singing off a sheet with hand signs, scales major, minor and melodic minor, and hearing a triad and naming what quality it is.
Tongue twisters
Every week, on purpose. They are the warmup that gets skipped and the one that shows up in your diction a month later.
Where to next
Voice is taught for male and female range, for technique and for performance. See everything else we teach, the price list, the teachers, or ask first at launchpadmusicacademy@gmail.com.
Book your first lesson.
There is one voice teacher, so say which days could work and we will come back within one business day.