Name: Work Your Vowels for Better Diction!
Uploaded: 2023-03-02T14:52:42.000Z
Duration: 8 min 27 s
Description: A simple exercise with vowels to make your singing sound like a pro!

A simple exercise with vowels to make your singing sound like a pro!

Singing

Are you ready to express yourself through the gift of song? In my 20+ years of teaching, I have learned that people choose to sing for all kinds of reasons but the number one reason is that they JUST HAVE TO! I have had the pleasure and honor to accompany many singers, from beginner to professional, in their journey of discovering, building, and caring for the voice.  As a professional jazz vocalist, composer, and arranger, I work with students on the process from A to Z—from the beginning warm-up and technique, to song development, crafting arrangements or writing songs for the band and, finally, presenting your work.

I have Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Music Composition from The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (CUNY) and Oberlin College and have had extensive private voice lessons and pedagogy training with Susan Dash.  I have taught voice at three universities in South America and have taught privately for over 20 years both in the U.S. and South America.  

Former students have gone on to sing with Cirque du Soleil, won scholarships to Berklee School of Music, won competitions to sing on the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center, been winner and runner-up of The Voice—Ecuador among other achievements.  Many students sing professionally with bands and a number of students have gone on to become teachers themselves.  I am proud to have been part of their development and I look forward to working with you!  Hablo español.

Work Your Vowels for Better Diction!

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Classical Voice

Vocal Training

Jazz Voice

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Music Department Chair/Chorus Teacher

I've been a jazz vocalist since I graduated from college performing as far north as New York City to as far south as Buenos Aires and many cities in between! I perform a combination of jazz standards, bossa nova, and my own compositions. Compositionally, I have scored for theater and film using palettes as large as a symphonic orchestra and a jazz big band to smaller groups chamber ensembles, quintets, and choirs.

Jazz Vocalist/Composer/Arranger/Music Director

I've been teaching voice for roughly twenty years.  My focus is on helping the student find freedom of expression while releasing tension and building good habits to promote excellent vocal health.  While building up a good foundation, we also work on how to transfer those techniques into repertoire and uncover the student's own personal style.

Voice Teacher

Español

Ready to uncover the expressive singing voice you know you have? I’ve been helping students discover joyful singing for 20 years.  Lessons are tailor-made to the needs of the individual student with a focus on vocal health and proper production.  You will learn how to warm-up your voice with exercises geared towards building the instrument, breath support, and tension release.  We will work on repertoire with specific techniques for learning and developing a song.  For students that are ready or interested, we will work on applications such as working with an accompanist or band, creating arrangements and presentation.  Beginners to professionals are welcome.  Let’s get started!

Cathy is an amazing teacher with so much knowledge about sounds and how to maximize my potential to discover the sounds within.

Cathy was wonderful, she has an amazing voice and gives confidence that you can sing as well with her training.

Cathy was a very patient and understanding teacher. She worked with me and didn’t criticize when I made mistakes. She offered me tips that I’d never heard before. Plus, she seems like an angel. I highly recommend her services.  

I am 11.   Cathy is  the best singing teacher I have  ever had. She is amazing at singing and I love her.

As a teacher and lecturer, I found I was having difficulty using my voice without straining it.  Cathy gave me some very helpful training on how to command attention without relying on volume alone.  She gave me exercises and very clear explanations using surprisingly helpful metaphors.  I honestly hadn’t expected such breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding, nor such a degree of willingness to help.  Truly a positive experience.

Empathetic, insightful and on-point craftsmanship are part of her teacher´s toolbox.  Over more than ten years after having been my Voice professor in my Music BA, is now my go-to consultant whenever I am looking for the best resources to help my own voice students. Totally recommended, if you experience voice issues, or want to deepen your understanding of Vocal technique, Jazz singing improvisation, or Vocal pedagogy, Cathy is the one!

This was my first experience booking with Take Lessons. Cathy was very communicative before I paid, but after I paid, I messaged her three times (like she requested) and she failed to respond. Waste of my time! Had to Request a refund with customer service department.

Cathy is wonderful- kind, and knowledgeable.

Amazing and positive. Please fix the video so we can both see each other. Cathy makes singing fun.

Cathy is an excellent voice teacher, listening to thé students goals and needs. She adapts thé teaching to Your level, keeps it fun and takes thé best out of you. I considered my lessons as therapeutical and a Well-deserved moment for myself. I recommend greatly Cathy!! You will have a blast!!

Cathy has a great understanding of music and the vocal instrument. She really helped me understand what I was doing, and explore new things to do with my voice. I'd definitely recommend her as a voice teacher!

Cathy’s class always left me with a wonderful feeling of relaxation. She taught me to explore sounds, and relax while doing this search. She also introduced me to transcription motivating me to stay curious and open about this learning process. I definitely recommend her as a voice teacher.

I wish that we could have continued our sessions, but 'life' got in the way.
I can hear Cathy in my mind telling me "Relax the back of my throat and just breathe" while I continue working on vocals in my little home-studio.

Cathy has the easy-going social skills to know where you are and keep you comfortable, she describes even complicated ideas clearly, and she has master-class understanding of the vocal instrument. She quickly got sounds out of me I'd never heard before, and gave me a lot of helpful ways to reframe things. Looking forward to what I'll learn next.

This video will give you some tips for when you feel nervous to perform.

Tips for Handling Stage Fright

Learn different tips for foods and drinks to eat and avoid for singing.

Tips for Care and Feeding of the Voice

Find out the single worry-free (lol) vowel you can use to warm up the voice.  You CAN'T mess this up!

Your Go-to Vowel for Warm-ups

These exercises will help you gain awareness of your breathing for better singing.

Breath Exercises for Singing

This video will give you tips on how to get your voice (and your day) going from the minute you open your eyes!

Wake Up Your Voice!

Have you ever come to a big upward jump in a song and been worried that you'll scoop up, splat or just not even reach the top note?  No worries, this video will show you how to practice your jumps so that you can sing them with confidence!

Sing Jumps Cleanly and Confidently

Do you ever find yourself singing a song that starts off low and you’re doing fine until you get to the high part where you lose breath and power?  Here’s a quick tip for how to work a song so that you can sing those high parts confidently.

Sing your High Notes with Confidence 

Here is an easy way to practice vowel shapes to sound better right away!

Cathy E.

Work Your Vowels for Better Diction!

Cathy's Singing videos

Tips for Handling Stage Fright