Starting out as a certified master teacher in estill voice training, Jai Ramage talks to EM Magazine about professional vocal tuition. She is currently a coach for The Voice & The Voice Kids and has worked with many artists and productions during her career.
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Vocal Coach is a practitioner employed to enhance, develop and maintain voices. I work mainly with professional singers in the worlds of pop and musical theatre. My job involves guiding them stylistically, looking after their vocal technique and keeping their voices safe. Successful singers give the impression that they are spontaneous, free, and that their musicality just appeared and falls out of their mouth with every note they sing. The reality is that ‘natural’ singers (implying that they are untrained), are a rarity and many professional singers today are coached. What the audience is often unaware of is the time singers have dedicated to practice and preparation in getting themselves to the point of mastery, often with the help and support of a Vocal Coach. Voice science is a reasonably new area of research and new findings are emerging all the time. For centuries singing has been taught based on speculation of how the voice production system works. Now, due to advances in technology, we are gaining more factual knowledge of what is actually going on in our bodies when we vocalise. Having a deeper understanding of vocal function equips the Vocal Coach with more tools and options to suggest to the singer to get the best out of them. Good technique is essential for performance but also for maintaining vocal health. With the decline of physical record sales much of pop singers revenue is generated from live performance. Rigorous touring 10
schedules often coincide with promotional appearances and interviews which can be hard on the voice. Musical theatre singers often have shows six days a week and sometimes matinees thrown in for good measure. Conditions that singers perform under are not always ideal either: travel, air conditioning, eating late, networking, the list goes on… They all put the voice under more strain. A vocal coach teaches the singer how to warm up, cool down and look after their vocal health. I like to have a long-term relationship with my singers which enables me to know their voices inside out. You then notice the changes and hear stress and tiredness before the singer does, sometimes from the first ‘hello’ they say as they walk into the rehearsal studio. Our job is to monitor vocal health and prevent vocal damage. Alongside a solid technique and a healthy voice a singer needs to have a positive psychological approach to their performances. Technique gives the singer confidence. Knowing how they are reaching those high notes is reassuring, rather than approaching them on a wing and a prayer and hoping they come out! A vocal coach helps
