Your Singing Voice: Contemporary Techniques, Expression, and Spirit

Connect to your authentic singing voice with this holistic guide to a healthy and expressive singing life. This collection of technical discussions, exercises, and insights will help you improve all aspects of using your voice, from healthy sound production to exercises for greater vocal facility to guidance on rehearsing with your band. Interviews with Patti Austin, Ysaye M. Barnwell (Sweet Honey in the Rock), and others lend their perspectives to singing, the mind-body connection, and a natural/wellness focused approach to musicianship. The accompanying CD supports the practice exercises and approaches to learning new songs.

You will learn:

• Physical, mental, and spiritual practices to help you express yourself authentically
• The physiology of your vocal mechanism, and how understanding it can help you to control and improve your singing
• Critical components of vocal technique, such as breathing, diction and vowel production, registers, tone production, and variations of technique related to differing vocal styles
• Microphone technique, band management strategies, ensemble concepts/technique, and other technical dimensions of musicianship
• Ways to maintain mental and physical health throughout your singing career and life, touching on Reiki energy healing, Alexander Technique, and others
• Exercises for warming up your voice and developing your singing technique, supported by the accompanying CD
• Performance techniques to help you harness the energy of your audience, overcome performance anxiety, express yourself with confidence, and connect to your listeners

"This book is incredible. In my forty years as a producer working with singers and producing music, this is the most comprehensive work I've ever seen. It talks about what people really need to know, beyond the typical stuff you see in books for singers. It encompasses the spiritual and physical sides of being a musician as well as the study of music. The interview with Patti Austin alone is worth the price of the book."

—Bernie Drayton, music and record producer, nominated for Grammy Awards and winner of several Cleo Awards

"Jeannie Gagne's book on vocal technique is a very thoughtful and thorough break down of the anatomy of the voice, offers tools for good health and well being, and takes the aspiring vocalist through all phases of building a healthy voice to last a career. I appreciated all the diagrams and attention to detail. I think it's a great reference for young students, teachers looking for new ways to convey concepts and veterans seeking to improve or brush up on their technique.

Jeannie is a very well respected vocalist in the world of music who has maintained a beautiful instrument and in writing this book is preparing the generations to come to do so as well."

—Lauren Kinhan, New York Voices

"Jeannie is an excellent teacher with a creative approach to vocal technique and wellness. This book will help singers connect body, mind, and spirit for truly inspired singing."

—Anne Peckham, Interim Chair of the Voice Department, Berklee College of Music