Joshua Lawlor is an exciting Kansas City voice teacher who has established a strong reputation as a vocal technician and artistic coach. Recently he has also been commended for his first ventures into judging local classical singing competitions; his demeanor and precise diagnostic ear make providing encouragement and technical insight to young singers a natural fit. He is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). His teaching experience has led him to hold a somewhat uncommon belief: that good voices are built, not born. Mr. Lawlor has never held studio auditions, nor does he actively seek to recruit "talented" (or even experienced) singers, only hard workers. Despite this fact, his students continue to accomplish a high level of success.
Fundamental ideas that support his work and the work of his voice studio include:
Even a naturally good-sounding voice needs to build a solid technique so tone is reliable.
A healthy process will usually result in a good product, but sometimes a pleasing product (a nice vocal sound) can lack the correct process.
Every human voice can be equally beautiful when fully released with healthy singing habits!
Find samples of some Lawlor students' singing at my Student Performances playlist.
Click below to download cirriculum vitae.
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A Look at My Library
In addition to every voice teacher's obsession with gathering vocal sheet music (it's a problem), my collection of technical and pedagogical books continues to grow. Many classics, and a few newer books. Every voice performance or vocal music education major should take a class that requires texts like these! I've added a final section that lists four books that have greatly influenced my thinking about the psychology of improvement and the development of expertise. Can't recommend those last four highly enough.
Favorite Technique Books!
- Practical Vocal Acoustics: Pedagogic Applications for Teachers and Singers, by Kenneth Bozeman. Breaks down some very complicated info about the science of singing.
- Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy, also by Kenneth Bozeman. In the followup to his book above, he gives more practical studio application advice.
- The Structure of Singing, Richard Miller. Ouch! This huge text gets in depth and complicated - requires some serious commitment to read. It was written too early to really address the singer's formant adequately since much of that research is very recent, but there is still great information contained here!
- James McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Confused by a sound that's coming out of your mouth, or the mouth of your student? Get this book! This should be required reading for choral education folks!
- Solutions for Singers by Richard Miller. Sort of like the McKinney above, but takes on some non-technique singer issues too. I love the format of this book so much, and it's 20x easier to read than Structure of Singing.
- A Modern Guide to Old-World Singing from voice pedagogue David L. Jones! I've been following him on social media for years. I love so much about this book. It is certainly a bit repetitive and from time to time I think there's a bit of inaccurate anatomical information, but all the metaphorical concepts represent almost everything I believe about singing. Just a great read, especially if you are in lessons with a strong pedagogue.
- Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy, also by Kenneth Bozeman. In the followup to his book above, he gives more practical studio application advice.
- The Structure of Singing, Richard Miller. Ouch! This huge text gets in depth and complicated - requires some serious commitment to read. It was written too early to really address the singer's formant adequately since much of that research is very recent, but there is still great information contained here!
- James McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Confused by a sound that's coming out of your mouth, or the mouth of your student? Get this book! This should be required reading for choral education folks!
- Solutions for Singers by Richard Miller. Sort of like the McKinney above, but takes on some non-technique singer issues too. I love the format of this book so much, and it's 20x easier to read than Structure of Singing.
- A Modern Guide to Old-World Singing from voice pedagogue David L. Jones! I've been following him on social media for years. I love so much about this book. It is certainly a bit repetitive and from time to time I think there's a bit of inaccurate anatomical information, but all the metaphorical concepts represent almost everything I believe about singing. Just a great read, especially if you are in lessons with a strong pedagogue.
I Own This! ...
Maybe if you feel like it?
- Manuel Garcia Hints on Singing. The godfather of voice teachers, e'erybody wants to trace their lineage back to Garcia. His book is fun for cute quotes about singing, but his verbiage is obviously non-specific and you won't get a great technical understanding from it.
- Richard Miller's Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices and Training Tenors. Aka Richard Miller publishes more books to make money. A ton of doubled information from Structure of Singing, although the tenor book is better than the bass.
- Bel Canto Principles and Practices by Cornelius Reid. Well, I had to read this in college; haven't used it much since.
- Jerome Hines Great Singers on Great Singing. Not a technique book, but a collection of interviews. But bass Jerome Hines went around and interviewed many of the most famous singers of his time (Corelli, Nilsson, Pavarotti, Sutherland, Horne, Milnes, etc!!) and asked them questions about their technical experience. Very interesting to read some of these responses.
- Vocal Wisdom, Giovanni Battista Lamperti. Maybe it's a translation issue, but I find this little book of vocal advice one-liners to be more confusing and less helpful than Garcia's Hints on Singing. If this is a teacher's only technique book, then umm....
- James Stark Bel Canto, A History of Vocal Pedagogy. A fantastic book that takes different technical issues and tracks how thinking about the particular issue has developed from the 1600's to now. I would more enthusiastically recommend it, but I do feel that he's pretty biased by his own technical ideas in some of his analysis. He's definitely old-school!
- I think W. Stephen Smith's The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing is perhaps the polar opposite to Stark's book listed above. I feel like Smith created this very specific step-by-step method which has worked for a number of really successful singers, but it seems much more modern and unique to Smith.
- Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic by William Vennard. I like this book for sure; it covers basic technical ideas and is much easier to read than Miller, in my opinion. But the Miller seems more comprehensive.
- Voice and the Alexander Technique by Jane Heirich. Body mapping and awareness is one of the most crucial elements of singing training! I need to get more into actual Alexander training, but this book is full of great information.
- The Voice Teacher's Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing compiled by Brian Winnie. This is a cleverly designed book in which 57 vocal pedagogues and choral conductors take on a subject of their choosing and write a short, easy-to-read lecture on it. I bought this book because my former teacher Dr. Kathy Kessler-Price is included! She is a leading researcher on the aging female voice. Now I'm not a proponent of every bit of advice in the whole collection, but I do love reading such a wide variety of perspectives!
- Richard Miller's Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices and Training Tenors. Aka Richard Miller publishes more books to make money. A ton of doubled information from Structure of Singing, although the tenor book is better than the bass.
- Bel Canto Principles and Practices by Cornelius Reid. Well, I had to read this in college; haven't used it much since.
- Jerome Hines Great Singers on Great Singing. Not a technique book, but a collection of interviews. But bass Jerome Hines went around and interviewed many of the most famous singers of his time (Corelli, Nilsson, Pavarotti, Sutherland, Horne, Milnes, etc!!) and asked them questions about their technical experience. Very interesting to read some of these responses.
- Vocal Wisdom, Giovanni Battista Lamperti. Maybe it's a translation issue, but I find this little book of vocal advice one-liners to be more confusing and less helpful than Garcia's Hints on Singing. If this is a teacher's only technique book, then umm....
- James Stark Bel Canto, A History of Vocal Pedagogy. A fantastic book that takes different technical issues and tracks how thinking about the particular issue has developed from the 1600's to now. I would more enthusiastically recommend it, but I do feel that he's pretty biased by his own technical ideas in some of his analysis. He's definitely old-school!
- I think W. Stephen Smith's The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing is perhaps the polar opposite to Stark's book listed above. I feel like Smith created this very specific step-by-step method which has worked for a number of really successful singers, but it seems much more modern and unique to Smith.
- Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic by William Vennard. I like this book for sure; it covers basic technical ideas and is much easier to read than Miller, in my opinion. But the Miller seems more comprehensive.
- Voice and the Alexander Technique by Jane Heirich. Body mapping and awareness is one of the most crucial elements of singing training! I need to get more into actual Alexander training, but this book is full of great information.
- The Voice Teacher's Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing compiled by Brian Winnie. This is a cleverly designed book in which 57 vocal pedagogues and choral conductors take on a subject of their choosing and write a short, easy-to-read lecture on it. I bought this book because my former teacher Dr. Kathy Kessler-Price is included! She is a leading researcher on the aging female voice. Now I'm not a proponent of every bit of advice in the whole collection, but I do love reading such a wide variety of perspectives!
Skip It!
- Caruso's Method of Voice Production: The Scientific Culture of Voice, by P.M. Marafioti. Bought this book on a whim, regretted it well before finishing! Marafioti claims to pass on Caruso's technique but has some really ridiculous ideas, including a straight-up racist bit about black opera singers. The whole thing basically makes me feel gross, because it was published by this "close friend" of Caruso only a year after the great tenor's untimely death - sort of opportunistic?
These aren't published books, but here are some free online resources have had a huge influence on my technical understanding:
- The website Voice Science Works is a great resource for basic breakdowns of many modern vocology ideas.
- Vocapedia (sponsored by NATS) will let you go much more in depth - mostly for advanced readers!
- Follow David Jones' Facebook page here; he regularly posts great old-school technique thoughts.
- The Liberated Voice is a blog by Claudia Friedlander is probably my favorite singing blog - pay special attention to the Reverse Engineering and Master Singer series and everything under the Vocal Technique category.
- The website Voice Science Works is a great resource for basic breakdowns of many modern vocology ideas.
- Vocapedia (sponsored by NATS) will let you go much more in depth - mostly for advanced readers!
- Follow David Jones' Facebook page here; he regularly posts great old-school technique thoughts.
- The Liberated Voice is a blog by Claudia Friedlander is probably my favorite singing blog - pay special attention to the Reverse Engineering and Master Singer series and everything under the Vocal Technique category.
Bonus:
Four Books Absolutely Everyone Should Read
Students, Professionals, Parents, Everyone!!
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Dr. Carol Dweck. This book challenges basic ideas that many people hold about talent and potential. Dr. Dweck says that everyone falls into either a fixed mindset (where talent, intelligence, and potential are set at birth by genetics or by circumstances) or a growth mindset (where all these elements are fluid and changeable with work). Adopting a growth mindset opens wider the door to both achievement and happiness. This book changed my entire way of thinking about my life and work. I believe everyone needs to read this so much that I have pre-highlighted copy available for my voice students to borrow.
- The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. A very reader-friendly description of how neurological traits of our brain actually establish and solidify skill. The author asserts that talent and aptitude do not exist naturally. Rather the brain simply speeds up certain actions if the correct kind of practice is applied. (This is the book where the "10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert" idea originates.)
- Peak, by Anders Ericsson. This is by the actual scientist whose research was the main inspiration for The Talent Code above. He takes issue with the idea of 10,000 hours leading to expertise; obviously, playing bad basketball for that long won't get you into the NBA. Ericsson has studied the science of expertise more than anyone else in history, and he has come to the conclusion that talent does not exist; there is only skill encoded deeply by the brain. This book is a little heavier reading that the others, but ample anecdotes keep it moving along.
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth. Can you stick with something once you start it? This trait is crucial to achieving success through the methods and mindsets laid out in the other three books on this part of my list.
- The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. A very reader-friendly description of how neurological traits of our brain actually establish and solidify skill. The author asserts that talent and aptitude do not exist naturally. Rather the brain simply speeds up certain actions if the correct kind of practice is applied. (This is the book where the "10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert" idea originates.)
- Peak, by Anders Ericsson. This is by the actual scientist whose research was the main inspiration for The Talent Code above. He takes issue with the idea of 10,000 hours leading to expertise; obviously, playing bad basketball for that long won't get you into the NBA. Ericsson has studied the science of expertise more than anyone else in history, and he has come to the conclusion that talent does not exist; there is only skill encoded deeply by the brain. This book is a little heavier reading that the others, but ample anecdotes keep it moving along.
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth. Can you stick with something once you start it? This trait is crucial to achieving success through the methods and mindsets laid out in the other three books on this part of my list.