Joanne B. — Singing Teacher — Rosemont, Montreal

A recent graduate of Concordia's Jazz Studies program, Joanne specializes in jazz singing. She occasionally performs with various jazz duos, trios and quartets. The repertoire she teaches (including student's requests) varies from jazz, to french song, to pop and R&B and rock music.

My lessons always consist of two parts, the first consisting of technical exercises to warm up, and the second consisting of the study of a piece. During vocal warm-ups, we do breathing exercises, a physical warm-up to encourage good posture, and vocalizations adapted to each student. Each vocalise targets an aspect of vocal technique such as resonance, agility, dynamics, belting, placement, and so on. For some students, we also have a "solfeggio" component after the vocalizations, which helps develop an understanding of rhythms and melodies. During piece study, students are invited to sing their piece with musical accompaniment, and I act as a guide to help them work out the aspects that are challenging for them. For example, we can place breaths, work on entrances, find the different vocal placements needed for different passages, work on dynamics, work on a piece of the melody in rhythmic or melodic solfeggio, stabilize posture, work on interpretation, open up the voice and so on. The objectives of the course vary for each student, but the singing class remains a space where you can enjoy singing.