Lessons are a fifty-minute hour. Lessons are scheduled weekly, at established times, at fifteen minutes after the hour (xx:15) between 10:15 am and 8:15 pm (per a clause in my studio lease). I do not teach on Mondays. Changes in scheduled time can occasionally be made to accommodate conflicts that may occur.

Lessons every other week or at other intervals - as some will suggest to save on expense - are not advisable, as experience has shown that much is lost in the elapsed time. More than one lesson a week is highly inadvisable, as only the very rarest of students can absorb the lesson's contents and make it his own in so short a time. In thirty years of teaching I have not yet had such a student.

Studio performances, classes, and other group events are scheduled by mutual convenience, usually on weekend afternoons. Charges for these extra events may incur for hiring musicians or halls.

My annual teaching schedule divides into three trimesters. Winter session starts the first week of January. The summer session begins around the first of May. Autumn session starts approximately the last week of August through late December. Lesson times are set at the turn of the trimester.

SO HOW DO LESSONS WORK?

Learning to sing is a process. It is not a series of little landmarks to be reached and, once passed, relegated to "been there, done that". Singing technique is not something that can be completed and left behind. Technique is never set. It is a constantly rejuvenating, continually adapting, incremental journey.

I do not measure accomplishments in singing by what repertory is learned or by what notes are added to the range, but in the way in which the singing is done, with attention to the release of tension and the beauty of tone achieved when the body produces voice freely.

The process of learning is a step-wise endeavor, with each step building on the previous step and taking the process to the next level of accomplishment. Without continuing review of the primary steps of the process, the advanced stages will have a shaky foundation.

THE PRODUCT IS NOT THE GOAL.

Let the process deliver when mastery is achieved.

The goal of my teaching and the goal I hope to inure for my students is to learn the little habits of singing so completely that they become second nature. If they study to achieve these habits their singing will have the great natural beauty of free production coupled with the power of voices produced using the full resources of the body.

The only way to achieve habits is to do repetitive exercises consistently and consciously. I introduce basic concepts of singing technique in lessons, then the student applies the concepts to their every-day practice. If you practice the right things in the right way, not only will you progress in learning, but you will learn the habits that will serve you throughout your personal and professional lives.

I work to leave of my students with a full toolbox. Not only will you have the concepts learned in the lessons, but also the knowledge of how to approach disciplined practice.

In developing a vocal technique conforming with efficient bio-mechanics, the following main concepts form the basic habits of singing.