Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Barnes.
Alyssa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I began teaching voice lessons as a graduate student at Southern Methodist University. After all of the years that I had studied voice and performed, this was the first time that I really trusted myself to teach. I was extremely nervous at the beginning, but taking the opportunity really showed me that I knew a lot more about vocal technique than how it applied to me personally. Teaching and studying during those four years became a really wonderful feedback loop; they each informed and strengthened the other.
My studio grew quite a bit by word of mouth over the years, and when I graduated, I received an offer to bring my services to Plano ISD. 2019-20 was my first school year of teaching full-time. Although the pandemic brought teaching to a stand-still, last term, I’m confident that technology and creativity will allow me to continue to bring private voice lessons to a great number of students.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’d say my first big obstacle has been teaching and performing throughout the pandemic. I’ve had to learn a lot of new skills to record videos, listen to students online and collaborate with artists. This has been a time of preparation and education for me. I’m very fortunate to be able to develop and return as an even stronger educator for the 2020-21 school year and a more well-rounded artist.
We’d love to hear more about Barnes Voice Instruction.
Barnes Voice Instruction is focused on the development of healthy singing in students of all ages. As a voice teacher, I strive to allow lessons to be a conversation. My students need to know that any education that I can give them will be strengthened when they share their perspective. I teach them to describe the very odd and specific things that they feel when singing, to tell me if an instruction they’ve received feels great or weird. This takes them out of passively listening to my instruction and into actively shaping their education, and I learn what kinds of methods and terminology resonate best with them as individuals. When students have a level of comfort with this kind of communication, they learn to think critically and examine themselves even in practice when I am not there.
It’s also very important that each of my students leaves my studio with the foundations of good singing technique- proper breath, a relaxed larynx and an open vowel space. These fundamentals will continue to develop over several years, however, mindfulness of these principles at the very beginning will help a student avoid unhealthy habits that they would later have to undo.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
As someone who is from Houston, this question has always been amusing to me. Despite the rivalry between my home city and Dallas, I really do love it here. I especially like the communities that I am a part of. I’ve grown a lovely and supportive Dallas family, which I had never foreseen happening when I first moved here. The music community is especially close here.
My least favorite thing is the traffic! I often have to drive in and out of Dallas during rush-hour, which is absolutely brutal. I would love to take the train if that were compatible with my route!
Pricing:
- In-Studio Private Voice Lesson $20/half hour
- In-Home Private Voice Lesson $30/half hour
Contact Info:
- Website: alyssambarnes.com
- Email: barnesvoice@gmail.com
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