What Professional Singing Teachers Listen For and Fix Without You Knowing It
When you work with a professional singing teacher, you’re not just hiring someone who can sing, you’re hiring their ears. Their job is to hear things you don’t even know you’re doing, and to guide you toward healthier, more expressive singing with targeted feedback and effective exercises.
You might think singing lessons are about staying in tune or getting the rhythm right, and while that’s part of it, a professional vocal coach is actually listening for much more. So much of the work happens in the details.
Here’s what a professional singing teacher is really listening for (and quietly helping you fix during your exercises):
1. CT/TA Activation and Coordination
These are your pitch-controlling muscles. CT (cricothyroid) helps stretch the vocal folds for high notes, while TA (thyroarytenoid) shortens them for low notes. A singing teacher listens for balance between these systems to help you access your full range with control and ease, from chest voice to mix, to head.
2. Vocal Fold Closure
Are your vocal folds sealing properly, or is too much air leaking through? A professional vocal coach knows how to hear the difference and give you exercises to improve clarity, power, and vocal efficiency.
3. Resistance (at the vocal folds and above in the vocal tract)
Too much or too little resistance of the air can cause strain or breathiness. Your singing teacher listens for optimal resistance, where the voice feels balanced, easy, and supported, and doesn’t break or flip. No more voice cracks!
4. Resonance and Formants
This is about how your voice travels and vibrates in your vocal tract. A good coach hears how well you're tuning your vowels and helps you shape your sound to create depth, ring, and projection. That’s how professional singers make their voices “cut” without pushing. It’s also key to getting a tone that’s right for different genres.
5. Vowel Modification
As pitch rises or falls, vowels need to shift slightly to stay acoustically efficient. A trained ear will hear when you're stuck in a shape that’s limiting your tone and give you specific vowel shifts to unlock easier singing.
6. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Muscle Activation
A skilled vocal coach can hear (and see!) tension from muscles outside and inside the larynx. They’ll guide you with physical and vocal exercises to make sure you're not working harder than necessary.
7. Overtones (Bass and Treble Balance)
Your voice is more than pitch, it's a blend of frequencies. A professional vocal coach listens for tonal balance and will help you develop a sound that's warm and bright, not muddy or piercing, by adjusting resonance and registration.
8. Vocal Pathologies
While singing teachers aren’t doctors, a highly trained professional can often hear signs of vocal fatigue or dysfunction and guide you toward healthier technique, or refer you to a specialist if something seems off. Prevention is part of their job.
The biggest surprise? When all of this works, so does your breathing.
If you don’t have a medical condition that affects your breath, chances are you already have enough air for singing. When your vocal technique is aligned and efficient, singing actually takes very little air. A professional vocal coach helps you sing smarter, not harder.
These teaching principles come from Modern Vocal Training, a science-based method designed specifically for voice teachers. Unlike traditional singing lessons that often over-focus on breathing, Modern Vocal Training looks at what actually makes the voice function well; muscle coordination, resonance, balance, and efficiency.
Noomi is a certified professional vocal coach through Modern Vocal Training and continues to study with their expert mentors to stay at the forefront of voice science. This means you’re not just getting guesswork or old-school advice—you’re getting the most up-to-date tools that really work.
When you work with a professional singing teacher trained in this way, you're not just learning how to sing. You're learning why your voice works—and how to make it work better.
