Devin H.

In terms of vocal lessons, students can expect a strong understanding of how sound is generated and produced through the body. With my students I stress emphasis that the voice is a muscle and that anyone can sing just like anyone can build larger or more "toned" muscles no pun intended. The power of singing is generated by the stomach, the throat then acts as reverberation mechanism to create tone definition, vibrato, or rasp. I also engage students in scale exercises that train for fluid transitioning between upper and lower chest and head voice registers. We listen to songs from singers we are learning from and use appropriate techniques towards achieving whatever stylistic singing the student seeks to achieve.

Students can expect a simple, linear, and concrete method of musical understanding translated into learning songs. Emphasis on technique and fretboard knowledge to make for ease of fretboard navigation and chordal transition. I do scale practices and specific scale to chord correlation starting easy and graduating gradually towards unique patterns for understanding that is employed for the sake of whatever song the student wants to learn. Priority to me for students to me is the song, the rhetoric is merely communication of the musical language. Stomping your foot and singing the melody is most important. At the end of the day this is what I tell all of my students.

In terms of songwriting, I teach the principal that there is a middle ground between too minimal and too complex dependent on the musical context occurring in tandem with the music functioning behind it. For instance, if there is a section with a lot of guitars then that moment may not be the best time to write lyrics that are especially cryptic or potentially confusing. On the other hand if the music settles down then that moment may provide itself the opportunity to use more intricate words or more complex concepts because the entirety of the song needs to be able to be followed conceptually. Lyrics and music work together; if one works too hard, then it difficult to translate from the songwriter to the listener. That being said students can expect a firm grasp on contextual appropriation pertaining to the relationship between music and words.

Students can expect a step by step organizational process from my audio engineering lessons. Setup is the most fundamental premise of recording because you are working with multiple tracks will multiple auxiliary inputs and outputs that are being sent and compiled into multiple locations. In order to mix effectively all your tracks needs compiled properly so time isn't spent to fix things. After organization, then comes the right of way to begin equalization, compression, reverb, flanging, and much more plugin application to be utilized creatively given the sonic profile. The only delay there is time for is the delay plugin in terms of audio engineering.