Simply put, Loryn Barbeau single-handedly saved my music career.
I'll preface my long-windedness by saying that I've been a full-time entertainer in the Bay Area for almost a decade. I sing professionally with multiple groups, bands, booking agencies, and use my voice as a virtual game show host during the week. I make a living using my voice, but once upon a time that almost came crashing down around me.
Way back in the spring of 2016 I developed a polyp on one of my vocal folds that threatened to end my budding music career. With a surgical date set for the fall I had to sing all year with a broken instrument. I didn't know if I would make it to the surgery date without it rupturing and causing long-term damage. Needless to say, it was beyond stressful. Thankfully, I fully healed.
Coming out of recovery I committed to finding a truly great voice instructor, but that didn't come easily either. By taking multiple lessons from multiple teachers in the Bay Area, I quickly found out that the "methods" these teachers were implementing all conflicted with each other. Some methods felt like snake-oil, others' made me physically and mentally uncomfortable. Some of the teachers made me feel like they were trying to sell me a used car. I was so terrified of damaging myself again and so frustrated with these lessons that it was starting to feel hopeless.
Finding Loryn was truly a gift. First of all, she's patient, kind, and PRESENT. Everyone knows how vulnerable it feels to sing in front of strangers, especially in an educational setting. I don't think I've ever felt that comfortable from the get-go with any other voice teacher. It was abundantly clear in our first lesson that she was fully engaged in hearing my story and helping.
The more that I worked with her, the more impressed I became by her knowledge of the physiology around singing. She could diagnose tension and air obstruction before any sound left my body. She's so intuitive. I'm sure it would be easy for her to watch/listen to me and immediately pin-point some of the issues, but she allowed me to have those AH-HA moments on my own, often in her presence.
Over the course of a year, my entire technique changed. We started from scratch and I cannot stress enough how important that time was for me. I was still performing while re-learning how to sing but I couldn't deny the progress that we were both hearing and seeing from week-to-week and month-to-month. At one point, I was so stressed out that I was preventing my body from creating healthy sounds. She was not only supportive and empathetic, but she gave me all of the resources that I needed to figure myself out.
Before Loryn, I could sing two nights a week and I would be totally blown-out. After learning from Loryn, I'm singing five, sometimes six nights a week without tension, soreness, or much recovery time at all. She's magic!
Loryn is a great communicator, a fantastic listener, and an enthusiastic, insightful teacher. It doesn't matter what level or amount of experience any singer has, they WILL learn something from Loryn. If you're a beginner, take a lesson with Loryn. If you've been singing for years, TAKE A LESSON WITH LORYN. As long as she has a studio, I will continue to send singers to her. I'll always be grateful for her.
Jefferson Bergy | Singer Songwriter/Lead Singer - Freestone Peaches
I sought a teacher to completely relearn how to sing.
Before starting with Loryn, I had gone six years without singing, followed by three years of singing professionally without any lessons or guidance. My voice felt unfamiliar, and accessing my full sound and range, as well as controlling my breath, was challenging. Through working with Loryn, my singing life has transformed. I now have an understanding of my voice and how to use it effectively. Loryn has helped me with breath support, resonance, vocal range, and reducing tension in my throat. I would recommend Loryn to anyone looking to build techniques from the ground up or improve their established singing technique and overall vocal health. She is especially well-suited to work with singers who are looking to develop more sustainable and efficient singing practices.
Loryn's approach to teaching is not only technically proficient but also deeply inclusive. As a trans woman, I have often felt uncomfortable in singing spaces due to a lack of understanding and language from teachers. However, with Loryn, I always feel incredibly cared for and affirmed in our lessons. It's great to have a space where my transness is simply a fact and not a lesson halting conversation that impacts how and what I'm deemed to sing. Loryn creates a safe and supportive environment that allows me to focus on my growth as a singer without the added stress of navigating my identity in the context of my lessons.
Pangaea Planet (she/her) singer/ multidisciplinary visual and performance artist
With Loryn’s guidance, I have been able to write songs that work well with my voice, and there is a night-and-day difference in both my confidence and technical ability.
I almost never sang before working with Loryn. Not in the shower, not in the car, not even Happy Birthday! I did not enjoy the sound of my own singing voice and had accepted for a long time that it was not going to be a viable option for me.
I’ve been performing music my entire life as an instrumentalist in classical, jazz, rock/pop, and worship disciplines, but had never been able to unlock my own voice as an instrument. I was finding more and more, I was limiting my musical pursuits by being unwilling to learn to sing properly, and decided it was time to take the next step.
Before working with Loryn I was a lost cause. I had no technical training and was in no shape mentally to present my singing voice to the world. When I started with Loryn, my primary focus was to unlock the mechanics to improve the tonal quality of my singing voice, and to also change my own relationship with my singing - specifically to find more grace and positivity in the process of learning the instrument than I would be able to give myself.
Loryn helped with both the physical and mental aspects of singing and performing in a number of ways. Technically, my soft palate is considerably more open, and issues with vocal strain, breathing technique, and posture have all been significantly improved upon under Loryn’s direction.
Working with Loryn Barbeau is the best thing that has ever happened to my voice.
Many years of singing in bars and struggling to project over subpar amplification systems and a loud band had taken me so far off the course of form and function that my voice was literally stuck in my throat. Each lesson with Loryn guided me not only to small calibrations to open and free my voice, but also to deep wisdom about the spiritual and physical blockades my body had built up.
By teaching me to align, breathe and then sing, remarkable change has occurred. Even a sound engineer at a great venue (with whom I’d worked about a year before) commented on the increased power and ease in my voice. Loryn gets my highest recommendation.
Annie Bacon | singer songwriter
I have a breakthrough at almost every lesson!
I am a songwriter/performer and have been singing for years, but have had trouble creating the vocal sound that I want. Through clear instructions and simple, enjoyable exercises, Loryn has helped me to find a natural way of singing within my own sense of taste and style. Thanks to Loryn, I have gained an easy control of my voice that I hadn’t realized was possible.
Justin Seagrave | singer songwriter/ guitarist
Additionally, we have worked extensively on the mental aspect, with attention given to mentally preparing for performances, managing nerves and anxiety, and stage presence
I had never seriously considered a path as a singer-songwriter before working with Loryn. I had been more or less content with performing as an instrumentalist, but with Loryn’s help I have discovered an abundance of new music in me and have been given a completely new perspective on my own abilities as a musician and performer.
Today I am writing and performing my own songs across the city! With Loryn’s guidance, I have been able to write songs that work well with my voice, and there is a night-and-day difference in both my confidence and technical ability.
I have found Loryn's teaching to be very effective as a singer-songwriter, and would encourage anybody in that discipline to work with her. Additionally, I think Loryn’s teaching would be very effective for students of classical or other traditional schools of music who are looking for a more holistic approach than one would otherwise find. Her teaching style would be well suited for those who are sensitive, disciplined, spiritual, and passionate about music.
Eric Wind | Singer Songwriter/Multi Instrumentalist/Lead singer of Hurricane Ivan
I have been singing for my whole life.
Several professionals have tried to teach me proper breath support over the years, and never did it click until I had my first lesson with Loryn. Not only did working with Loryn help me understand how to sing with better technique, but I experienced dramatic effects from using the techniques she taught me. I used to lose my voice easily but now I can sing my heart out for hours and only feel stronger afterwards.
Catie Colver | Singer Songwriter/Lead singer of band Cave Clove
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