Emily's lesson with Susan Eichhorn

For my individual interview experience, I had a voice lesson with Susan Eichhorn. I found out about Susan through a series of mouse clickings. I was reading the blog "A soprano steps out," http://sopranostepsout.blogspot.com/ and I clicked on a link to a different blog that she had. It was Susan's blog. From there, I clicked on a link to her facebook page. From there, I clicked on a link to her voice studio website. I read every word on the website and really liked all that she had to say. http://www.susaneichhornstudio.com/ She works with people from all genres of singing because when it comes down to it, good, healthy singing is good, healthy singing, no matter what style you are singing in.

I started out telling her what I've been working on in my voice lessons, what I've learned on the trip, and what some of my vocal concerns and goals were. We started talking about the maturity of the female voice and that it isn't really in place until anywhere from age 25 to 30 or even older, depending on the size of it. She told me to be patient (I heard that a lot on this trip) with my voice but to use this growing time to explore other aspects of performing as well. She said "hurry up and wait." Explore acting, explore language, do summer programs, etc. Don't push too hard because if the muscles aren't ready, it's just not going to work. As a young singer, I want to do everything NOW, but she said "just be where you are." That is so true. I shouldn't try to force anything or get downhearted about what other people are doing because everyone's path is different. And I'm only 21! That's not that old! I've got plenty of time.

She also said something that I heard other people we talked to say as well, so it was good reinforcement: that this business is not cookie cutter, everyone's path is different. It's not, "Okay, I do this, and this, and this, and this, and then I'm this." She said there are a lot of singers even in the top tier who never did a young artist program or a pay-to-sing, they did their own thing. Like how Naomi said 'no' doesn't necessarily mean 'no,' she said that just because you don't get accepted into something, doesn't mean you can't have a career. You don't have to "follow the bouncing ball."

Then she had me sing. I told her what I usually do for warm-ups and she gave me some breathing exercises and vocalises to do.  We talked about grounding my voice through all of the registers to have a core sound. I could go into details about all the stuff she told me but I won't here. To summarize, we worked on flexibility/agility, breathing, talking about the pelvic floor, brighter vowels, and more open vowels in Italian. I was sitting on a stool for most of the lesson to help me feel engagement of the muscles as I breathe.

I really liked the lesson. The things we talked about and worked on were mostly things I had heard before but in a different way, so it was good to hear it said from a different perspective and to get some more methods and ideas to practice those things. She was very open to me emailing her all that I want with questions, comments, concerns, etc., and I have already been doing some of the things I did with Susan in my own practicing back in Eau Claire.