Alexa: [00:00:00] Hey, it's me with you today keeping things casual and cozy, but there is absolutely nothing cozy about the British Summer and that disgusting humidity that makes you feel like you're being boiled in one of those tropical houses at the zoo. And if there is ever a time that you don't really want to have a fringe, it would be now my friends, it would be now. 

I'm a bit of an Elsa in that the cold doesn't really bother me, but the heat makes me a grumpy pants, so I'm very glad that you are here to keep me company and cheer me up. 

Today, I thought I would share with you 10 invaluable resources that I've found really helpful in my work as a singing teacher so far. Whether you are just starting out or if you've been doing this for years, I hope there's something in here that sparks a little bit of inspiration. From apps and websites to books and maybe a few unexpected gems, these are some of my go-to favourites at the moment, so let's dive in. 

Recommended books could take up [00:01:00] my entire list, to be honest with you. And I'm quite annoyed that I've given myself the task to whittle it down to about one or two selections, but a book resource that I think serves every studio and every singing teacher is Anatomy of Voice by Blandine Calais-Germain & Francois Germain. 

Despite its title, it's not as dry or overwhelming as you might think, using purposefully accessible language to make it digestible for everyone. Neither though is it a book that you need to read cover to cover. It explores the spine, respiratory muscles, the larynx, soft palette, ears, and even gas and pressure amongst many other areas related to voice, as well as offering some directions of palpation and exercise. 

Mainly it's made up of beautiful illustrations, short bursts of explanatory text, and I find myself dipping into it to help give my anatomical knowledge and terminology a [00:02:00] little bit of a polish, and to generally further my understanding of the voice from the inside out. 

The book I'm currently reading is Training Contemporary Commercial Singers by Elizabeth Ann Benson that was lent to me by a friend and fellow voice teacher. 

I'm only a couple of chapters deep, but it's grabbed me in a way that only really fiction books do. 

The book provides insights to thoughts and processes of around 26 authors involved in voice, including Seth Riggs, Gillyanne Kayes, Mary Saunders Barton, Marci Rosenberg, Matt Edwards, Jeannie LoVetri, and Wendy DeLeo Leborgne, covering topics of tension, support, registration, and belt. 

And Benson includes charts to represent results of similarities and disagreements in view amongst these contributing authors. I think I'll continue that one in a little while with a cuppa/prosecco. 

 On the TBR list are far too many books to mention, but I did [00:03:00] come across one that has been added to the wishlist, which is The Voice Teacher's Cookbook, Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing by Brian Winnie, featuring excerpts from a multitude of voice professionals, and being a bit of a foodie anything that can link my love of reading and grub gets a thumbs up from me. 

Following on from my recommendation of the book Anatomy of Voice, I recently came across Sami Wong of Speech Plus Language, a speech and language pathologist with a focus on aphasia and return to work goals. Under speechpluslanguage Sami also creates prints of anatomical and physiological structures, which she sells both on her website, I believe, but I found her through Etsy. And I'm having a whale of a time adorning my gallery wall in the studio room in my new home with these. They are colourful, labelled, eye catching, and really informative. 

All these artwork prints are extremely affordable on Etsy and [00:04:00] delivered as high resolution PDF or JPEG files ideal for home printing or store printing. The prints have created a new point of interest in the studio for my clients providing visuals and further understanding of what we're looking at in the body when we're exploring some technical work. 

Speaking of colorful prints, Canva is a real lifesaver when it comes to creating eye-catching brand consistent social media content, without needing to be a graphic designer. Canva is an online design platform with loads of templates for everything from posters, flyers, presentations, invoices, business cards and logos. And I've even used it to create sticker charts for singers. And you can start for free. 

Other than Amazon, Waterstones and recently Etsy, one website I often frequent is Ultimate Guitar, which has chords for almost any song across [00:05:00] all genres that you might find yourself needing to accompany in the studio. So if a singer has forgotten their sheet music or can't find any available music for their chosen song, Ultimate Guitar is a goldmine, particularly because of the transposition feature, benefiting quick key changes in the moment. It's free to explore, though there is a paid pro option too. 

Another website I highly recommend for my fellow MT teachers is musical theater resources.com set up by Kevin Michael Jones. 

I tend to pay a visit for the curated repertoire lists. Say a client is auditioning for the musical Beetlejuice and they need some song inspiration. Musical theater resources lists the characters and some song suggestions that would suit that role. For example, singers who might be up for the part of Beetlejuice are encouraged to look at songs like Stick It to The Man From School of Rock, or Watch Your Step from [00:06:00] Goosebumps. Singers going for the part of Lydia have songs like Pulled from The Addams Family or Everything Else from Next to Normal to choose from. Very, very helpful, and a resource that I share with my students, too. 

I've also purchased some repertoire guides from the website stage door unlocked, a training and business coaching resource, but I'm quite interested in taking a gander at their actor business plans and their voice teacher's guide to auditioning. So if anyone has already taken a look at those, please tell me what you think. 

Since copious amounts of ads were introduced, YouTube has a real power now to make you flustered and completely abashed 

There have been times in lessons where I've got a track up on YouTube to study or use with the student, and we've had an onslaught of hair removal or pregnancy test ads, which have left me completely cherry cheeked and not knowing where to look. 

Despite this, a whole host of useful resources are [00:07:00] available to us on this platform, and someone I like to pay a visit to is Aussie and contemporary voice singing specialist Dr. Dan Robinson, AKA, Dr. Dan. With 260,000 subscribers, Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials provides us with a rich variety of content, including interviews, clear informed voice knowledge, and exercises related to targeted topics, and delivered through well-produced media. He is warm, encouraging, and throws a little bit of humor in there too. 

I'm not really one for mobile apps. In fact, whenever I set an alarm, I always find myself in the calculator app wondering why I can't find the clock. One app that I have found very helpful and one which I bust out in lessons from time to time is Vocal Pitch Monitor, a real time pitch tracking app for iOS and Android that visually displays the pitch of your voice on a scrolling graph. 

Unless I'm [00:08:00] missing something it's not the most exciting of apps, and the banner adverts are a bit annoying on the free version. It's really helpful for assigning a visual to pitch, particularly for students who find pitch matching a challenge, and there is a record button too to then hear back the vocal journey. 

I find it can be quite fun when working with younger singers as it's almost like painting a picture on screen with your voice. Let's see if we can take a look. 

As you can see here is the app, and we've got some flashing letters and numbers at the top, which are telling us what pitch we're actually on, and then we can draw some peaks with our voice.  

A resource I have recently included in my private teaching studio is a vocal gratitude jar. [00:09:00] Really, it's just a food storage jar. Any jar will do filled with coloured paper that students write on either something they've enjoyed from the session, something they learned, nice surprises, or something that made them laugh because quite frankly, I am a hoot. It has been a really nice way to invite the singer to reflect on their session, note something positive, and feel a real sense of community by adding to other people's gratitude notes. Let's pull one out and see what singers have been saying. 

So this one reads, I've built up great self-awareness, which was incredibly useful in session today. Lovely! 

So just to recap on my list, Anatomy of Voice by Blandine Calais-Germain & Francois Germain. Training contemporary commercial singers by Elizabeth Ann Benson, Speech Plus language on Etsy, Canva, Ultimate [00:10:00] Guitar, musicaltheatreresources.com, Stagedoor unlocked, Dr. Dan's voice essentials, voice pitch monitor app, and the gratitude jar. 

I'd love to know your recommendations, so do drop a comment on the episode and share your favourite resources too. 

Now I need to go and have a little read, I think. Until next time.