I am the "friend" mentioned in Jay C's review who told him that singing with Pat had increased my confidence. This review is long overdue -- I took weekly voice lessons with Pat for about three years, from 2010-2013.
Here's my story: I used to be one of those people who mumbles and lip syncs when everyone else is singing "Happy Birthday" at a party. I was terrified of being heard singing, and convinced that I could not sing on-key. To make it worse, my brother has sung in public all his life -- as part of an "a capella" quartet, and leading the singing for 1000 people in his congregation at church. He's the singer in the family. I always wanted to be able to sing, but couldn't decide if it was a hopeless cause.
After a death in the family, I realized that life is too short to accumulate a list of missed opportunities. A colleague at work recommended Pat, and so I thought, "Why not try it?" Given my issues, I was most worried about being judged or criticized, even implictly. I got nothing but warm support and good training from Pat -- never a moment of impatience, but many moments of laughter together. For the next three years, I learned how to control my breath, warm up, use my "head voice", sing Italian, sing French, sing German, sing Beatles, sing Gershwin. Sometimes I brought in something I wanted to sing, sometimes I let Pat introduce me to one of her favorites. I do know how to read music, thanks to ten years of piano lessons as a child, so that helps a little. And guess what? I can sing in tune. It's more of a breath/voice control issue than a tone-deafness problem. Yay!
What I ended up realizing too is that I had been throttling not only my singing voice, but my voice in general -- I was afraid to be too loud, stick out too much, be noticed. Learning to sing full throttle with accuracy changed the way I showed up in meetings at work, and changed my public speaking capabilities. I'm no longer distracted by anxiety when my friends suddenly want to sing the opening song to Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch. I go to the sing-along Sound of Music at the Castro Theater and actually sing along. My "inner voice" started emerging in parallel with my singing voice. Imagine that.
Thank you, Pat. I hope that other people have the opportunity to get the gift of their own voice in the way I have. read more