156: Find and Make Peace with Your Voice, with Nikki Loney (The Full Voice)

Let us ask: how do you feel about your singing voice?

We're guessing that whether you consider yourself "a singer" or not, your answer probably isn't "my singing voice is amazing and I am 100% comfortable with how it sounds at all times!"

If you've ever felt unsure about your voice - maybe that's even held you back from trying to learn to sing - or if you are a singer and you're trying to tap in to "your sound" or "your true voice" - stay tuned.

Today we're joined by Nikki Loney from Full Voice Music. Nikki is a professional singer and voice teacher and creates resources to help other voice teachers with young singers in particular. Nikki was introduced to us by Sara Campbell, our former piano pro at Musical U who's a voice teacher and singer herself, and she made the connection because Nikki's speciality is something near and dear to our heart here at Musical U: helping people "make peace" with their voice.

It's easy to imagine singing as a technical skill, like learning how to move your fingers right to play guitar or piano. But although there is that pure technique that must be learned, singing is unique among instruments because it is so deeply and intimately a part of who we are.

And that means that for many beginner singers - or those who want to begin, or even those who dream of beginning but feel it's beyond them - the biggest barrier is how we feel about our own voice.

This is such an important part of the the big bundle of "learning to sing" and it's rarely given enough attention in the establishment of learning to sing - so that only those who are already comfortable about their voice and being a singer actually learn to sing.

As you'll be hearing, we have a shared passion (slash rage) about how society and culture treat singing and how things can be made dramatically better and more welcoming to those who've felt locked out of the world of singing - as well as those who are on the path but have hangups about how they sound.

Nikki has some fantastic insights from a breadth of experience teaching, and in this conversation she shares:

• The gift for singing that she had growing up - and it's not what you might think.

• How she found her own voice - and what literally it means to do that, to "find your voice"

• How to know if you're good enough to start singing lessons and what specifically can help you to find the right teacher

This conversation was a total delight and we know that whatever relationship you have with singing there are going to be some fresh perspectives and we hope some powerful encouragement for you in this episode.

Subscribe For Future Episodes!

Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube

Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 156

Links and Resources

• The Full Voice

• The Full Voice podcast

• Sane Singing, by D. Brian Lee

• 10 Things Your Voice Teacher Wants You To Know About Singing Lessons

• The ONE Word That Will Make Your Students Sing Better

• Helping Students "Make Peace" With Their Voice

• Strategies For Shy Singers - The Full Voice podcast episode

• Vocal Exploration Exercises - The Full Voice podcast episode

Enjoying the show? Please consider rating and reviewing it!

Click here to rate and review