Kurt Alakulppi Voice Studio
Teaching Philosophy
The act of singing can be one of the most gratifying and freeing ways of communicating with the world. Music heightens everyday expression, and the sound of a voice can move and inspire unlike any other instrument.
My love for teaching singers took me by surprise. I have had a few wonderful voice teachers who helped me so much along my own journey as a professional singer. When I began to teach, I was uncertain I had anything to give, uncertain I could help others. Over time, I began to see the amazing joy in my students as they improved, as things became easier for them in the functional aspects of voice production. I heard my own teacher's voices in my head, and their words and knowledge, combined with some of my own ideas gained through experience, began to pour out of my mouth and into my own student's ears and into their improving techniques. For me teaching became a circle of information across time - a continuation of passing along all I had learned, and keeping the tradition of sound basic technique going.
Singing is in part so magical because it combines the physical, intellectual and emotional experiences all in one. Most of us do not break into song while walking along in public, yet singing and music do find their way into the most positive special occasions of our lives, and in the emotional trying times of everyday life for so many of us. Be it in the opera house, the church choir or synagogue, the Broadway show, the pop concert, at a wedding, or with the subway singer who catches our ear by surprise, singing is indeed a part of daily life and excitement.
Every student is individual and unique, as are their strengths and areas that can benefit from guidance and improvement. Studying singing is an open-ended process, a never-ending joy of finding what new aspects one can improve upon. Some students have professional singing aspirations, while others are on a more personal journey of self-discovery through song.
First and foremost in the teaching of singing, I believe there are the basics of vocal technique that are returned to again and again. In voice lessons I access where each student is at technically on any given day, and create an action plan based on the students strengths and areas which need improvement. Technically I focus on the ease and understanding of breath management, vocal exercises which condition the muscles of the body and the vocal mechanism to respond automatically over time, giving the student new sensations to be felt and built upon, learning where one is tense, and finding ways to release the sounds one wishes to make. This work provides a basis to strengthen and stabilize the overall quality of sound, extend range, maintain flexibility, increase freedom in breath management and endurance, identify technical tricky areas within music and come up with solutions to produce sound without struggle, bringing out the unique qualities in each student's natural voice along the way. I also help my students with their musicality, phrasing, word stress, and diction - no matter what type of music they are singing. I believe all types of singers can benefit from my work - I teach classical singers, actors, singer-songwriters, musical theater and pop and rock singers with equal joy.
Secondly, there is the investigation into the vast amounts of vocal music repertoire, and finding what type of music suits each student best, and what genres interest them most. A teacher must find ways to help students achieve and go beyond their own previous limitations with regard to repertoire and singing. I value and respect the areas of interest each student brings to the table, while introducing new pieces that might help achieve overall technical improvements, or pieces which may bring out even more of their own temperaments and hidden creative talents.
I believe an environment of trust; safety and nurturing must exist in my studio. I encourage students to look within to find deeper creative emotional expression as they sing and communicate text. Negativity and shaming have no place in my work. For some students the
self-discovery of their own emotional lives can be very vulnerable. In this area, I work with students within their own minds. What beliefs are repeating in their own thoughts? Whose voices do they hear before attempting new challenges within a piece of music? Can new affirming thoughts and beliefs become habitual over time, just as negative beliefs about one's technique might have been created in the past? What fear thoughts arise as a singer opens up to reveal a part of their own emotional lives to an audience? How can we change those tapes which tense our bodies and voices?
Lastly, singing in my view is ultimately about the joy of being able to express ideas and feelings in music so that an audience can relate and be moved by what they hear. The singer in turn, is fed by being able to express what is in his or her heart in any given piece of music. My primary aim is to build confidence in each singer, and to give them the tools to help them become more technically and emotionally free as they communicate music and text with natural ease and variety in their expression through song.