Recently, I was floored when a student of mine who was a total novice at harmonizing nailed their first attempt at it. Singing and harmony can be notoriously difficult - but at the same time, the basic principles are easier than you might think.

I was in a voice lesson, working with one of my adult clients. We were digging into a Chappell Roan song, and, to my ears, everything was going along swimmingly, when the student suddenly said, “I’m so frustrated, I can’t get this part to sound like the recording!” ”Oh,” I replied, “well, that’s because what you’re hearing there isn’t real.” Wait, what? Please allow me to explain. :)

The magic of how subtle shifts can lead to big changes in perception I find it fascinating how pitch alone can change our perception of the music we hear. Recently, a student of mine brought in a piece by Hozier to work on. It was too low in the original key, so we ended up transposing it up to make it comfy for her. Hozier tends to sing fairly high in his register, so we only needed to go three half steps to make the magic happen. As we were sorting out the best transpositio