My Patreon Launch!

tl;dr My Patreon has launched! Tiered patronage levels start at only $2 per month, so please consider supporting my projects. These include the ongoing creation of resources like YouTube singing tutorials and online instructional courses. My page is also designed to provide a virtual community for singers, an affordable way for beginners to learn singing technique, and valuable supplements for one-on-one lessons. If you're unfamiliar with Patreon, scroll down to the bottom of this post for an introduction.

 

 

Anyone can sing. This is something that I frequently assert: with commitment, excellent instruction, a well-structured practice regimen and a sense of humor, anyone can master singing technique. 

 

But there’s a catch. Commitment, a regular practice regimen, and a sense of humor cost nothing to express or establish. Excellent instruction, on the other hand, can be both costly and difficult to come by, not to mention hard to define.

 

I’ve created my Patreon to further my desire to make vocal instruction increasingly effective and accessible. It will support three key strategies that have a strong potential for accomplishing this:

• Take a comprehensive approach to technique. Structure each students’ initial course of lessons to ensure that all components of technique are addressed and integrated with one another.
• Promote awareness that singing is movement. Singing is just a combination of skills that can be learned and coordinated together.
• Offer multiple learning modalities. Help students learn efficient practice and study habits, and supplement lessons with video and written resources.

 

A Comprehensive Approach

I’ve timed the launch of my Patreon as a sort of count-down to the launch of my Vocal Fundamentals online instructional course. Creating this course was a fascinating challenge, because to be effective it had to be comprehensive – I had to cover every aspect of singing technique, explain how each functions individually and supports the whole, and provide exercises to develop each. I also had to create means of self-assessment along the way so that subscribers can know whether they’re going in the right direction, as there would be no teacher providing feedback in real time. When I first started the project I was wondering whether it is possible to learn singing technique from an online course, but as I worked on it I realized that there are some significant advantages to being introduced to technique in this way: one-on-one lessons are not as effective for instilling a thorough overview of technique, and the importance of effective self-assessment often goes unaddressed. So while an online course cannot supplant the things that are most valuable about one-on-one instruction, creating this course helped me to see the importance of structuring my conventional teaching practice to provide comprehensive instruction as well as tools for self-assessment.

 

Singing is Movement

The ability to sing well depends not on natural aptitude but rather ongoing study, practice and exploration. The more widely understood this becomes, the more people will feel encouraged to learn. However, when one becomes discouraged by the frustrations that can occur in childhood or as the result of setbacks that occur mid-training, it can be difficult to try again, especially considering how expensive lessons are and how mysterious the process can seem. By providing clear, logical explanations of the process at a modest price point and creating self-study material so students can take those first steps free from scrutiny, I’m hoping to create conditions that will help people who have always wanted to sing discover that they can learn and enjoy the process.

 

Multiple Modalities

Individual instruction is very effective for some things, while self-study can be highly effective for others. An excellent voice teacher can assess a singer’s strengths and weaknesses, demonstrate good coordination, recommend exercises and repertoire, and provide feedback and encouragement. But since most of a singer’s education and progress takes place in the practice room, they stand to greatly benefit from supplementary resources that can make their practice sessions more productive, as well as study materials that will help them to understand their own instruments and technique. One-on-one lesson time is extremely valuable, so it is important to devote it to things than cannot be accomplished any other way. Whenever I find myself repeating something that I have shared with a student multiple times, it’s a sign that they need a more effective means of understanding, practicing and reinforcing a given skill so they aren’t paying me to say the same things over and over again. Rather than reminding them to relax their jaws or take a low, full breath week after week, I can assign them a video and/or an article to help them habituate the skills they learn in their lessons as well as understand the rationale behind them.

 

What is Patreon?

Patreon is a crowdfunding platform designed for artists seeking subscription support

for ongoing creative output. Rather than a one-off contribution, contributors sign up to make

monthly contributions at tiered levels of support, with corresponding rewards. If you browse around you’ll see that it’s highly customizable, depending on the nature of a given creator’s work and goals. Here is how my support tiers are structured:

• $2: Support my ongoing projects, access patron-only posts, receive a 30% discount on my books and a 10% discount on my Vocal Fundamentals course when it goes live.
• $5: Receive a mention in the credits for YouTube videos, a 20% discount on my Vocal Fundamentals course when it goes live, and participation in an educational Facebook discussion group reserved for my students and patrons.
• $15: Receive all lower tiered rewards, plus early access to new YouTube videos, access to featured video content from my forthcoming Vocal Fundamentals course, and the invitation to have a one-on-one online session based on the featured Vocal Fundamentals video of the week, provided you allow me to post video of our work so other students can benefit from it as well.
• $20: Receive all lower tiered rewards, plus access to my Articulation for Singers online course and the opportunity to receive written constructive feedback from me on one video or audio recording of your singing up to four times a year.
• $35: Receive all lower tiered rewards, plus I will produce a video singing tutorial on a topic of your choice.
• $50: Receive all of the $2 - $20 tiered rewards, plus a personalized, inscribed copy of either of my books (your choice).
• $80: Receive all of the $2 - $20 tiered rewards, plus a one-hour in-person voice lesson or fitness session, or one online voice lesson, every two months (beginning in your second month of patronage at this level).

 

I hope you will consider supporting my projects through my Patreon. I also recommend that you have a look around the Patreon site and consider whether this is a platform that might be useful for you as well. I think it’s a great way for singers to connect with their audiences –  your fans can support your education and career at whatever price point works for them, and in return you can provide them with frequent updates on your performance activities, share videos and recordings, etc. It enables them to feel invested in your success. And thank you for visiting my blog – your time and attention make me feel like you’re invested in mine!