FAQs

Yes and No. Speech level Singing (SLS) is the ideal technique for a pop singer, but that is because it is the ideal technique for any singer! Detractors claim that SLS is only good for singing pop music, or what they call CCM, but that couln't be more false. A naysayer will make false claims about something they don't like because they don't understand it.

The SLS technique is largely in line with the written works of Edgar F. Herbert-Caesari, a famous pedagogue on the Bel Canto schools of classical singing, who's books were taught at Juliard School of Music, for example, before they had to pull them from the shelves since no voice teacher at that prestigious music conservatory understood how to teach what the textbooks implied. Bel Canto is considered natural singing (or more literally, "beautiful Singing") rather than singing with undue exertion, and SLS is the method to teach it. The results of SLS training lead to the same quality of singing that Luciano Pavarotti, and Juan Diego Florez execute masterfully, (they are NOT clients of SLS) of Bel Canto operatic singing. The only difference between Classical singing and Pop singing is the amount and degree of vibrato in performance, and the pronunciation of vowels.

"Classical" voice lessons, however, typically do not result in Bel Canto singing. "Classical" teachers (although having extensive knowledge of the diction of romantic languages, and expressive qualities and interpretation of performance) usually don't know how to effectively re-coordinate the intrinsic vocal muscles of the larynx, and focus too much on diaphragmatic pressure and breathing.

Forceful singing is not natural and beautiful singing. Chest Belting, for example, is forceful singing, essentially yelling your way up as high as you can before your voice cracks. Classical singers and Rock singers sometimes get away with belting (or what some say is a "soft yell"), but eventually it catches up to them, especially if they reach a modicum of success and belt night after night for regular performance.

A fantastic, but dense, read if you want to understand what we are doing in SLS is Caesari's "The Voice of the Mind." Another read that has influenced the technique is Richard Miller's "The Structure of Singing."

Our instructor, Daniel Weiskopf, is certified through Speech Level Singing International to teach the Speech Level Singing (SLS) technique. Being a certified teacher requires ongoing education, including yearly testing, one-on-one training sessions with the Instructor Management Team, and regular teacher conferences and workshops. The Instructor Management Team is a team of Master SLS Instructors who are endorsed by Seth Riggs as teaching his technique as true to form as he intended. The certification process ensures all voice students that their voice instructor has both a clear understanding as well as a correct execution of Speech Level Singing.

Daniel also spends his free time reading scientific vocal research and other pedagogy. He has worked with hundreds of voices in the Portland area--men and women, children to seniors--and has helped in such diverse goals as helping students audition into classical Vocal Performance programs at college music schools, and preparing students to record pop music records and tour. He studied music composition at McGill University with classical Voice as his applied instrument prior to discovering Speech Level Singing. More information on Daniel's experience is listed in his bio on the "about" page of this website.

Bridgetown Vocal has helped autistic students, students seeking vocal rehabilitation, students who came in believing they were tone-deaf, as well as already talented vocalists who never realized how much more they could get out of their instrument.

Our students sing classical music, R&B, rock, soul, folk, country, korean pop, indie, hiphop, and other styles. However, Bridgetown Vocal does not teach a style. We primarily teach the mechanics of singing. The technique may then be applied to ANY style of singing, and since our instructor's personal performance experience ranges a number of musical styles he can give suggestions. The application of technique to style is the attempt to balance the voice within the students artistic interests....but the student is responsible for his/her artistic vision. Some vocal styling is unhealthy and dangerous, and will be pointed out and remedied.

"Healthy screaming technique" is an oxymoron in the world of the voice. Screaming is ALWAYS unhealthy and damaging to the voice. Some instructors claim to teach healthy screaming techniques, but their clients still form nodules and polyps on their cords and often lose their voices. Learning Speech level Singing, and training with it, can help rehabilitate vocal abuse and somewhat alleviate the voice in between screaming performances, and some things can be done to make the scream less severe, but a scream is bad news if you want to have a voice for the rest of your life.

This is not a short answer, so brace yourselves!

In our format, which remains true to Speech level Singing International's standards of education, we focus on creating and enhancing vocal awareness while balancing the voice through the different registers (these are like acoustic islands for the voice in different ranges of pitch). Also, learning to balance the voice through the difficult transitions between registers, called bridges (or passagi), and building strength and fluidity in all these areas is what leads to vocal awareness. Few non-SLS instructors in the world are able to teach balanced tone production to students who aren't already doing it on their own, and most don't even try.

There are professional voice teachers out there who will tell you to "throw your voice across the room." "Throwing the voice" is advocating chest belting, which is by its very nature damaging to the vocal muscles because it creates too much air pressure on the delicate vocal folds. Another teacher might tell you, "if you want to hit that [really high] note you need to push harder," which is telling you the exact opposite of what you physically need to do to notes in your upper range, especially if you don't want your voice to crack!

Other teachers focus too much on breathing. You can have all the air in the world in your lungs and still not achieve anything with your voice if your singing muscles in the larynx aren't coordinating effectively. We only teach breathing exercises when something about a person's breathing is VERY wrong, but most human beings know how to breath well or take deep breaths when they need to...we kind of rely on it to wake up each morning. If you fel you are having trouble with your breathing when you sing, there is most likely a problem with the positioning of your vocal folds (adduction, or lack thereof).

Most voice teachers teach singers based on the description of results. It is like a math teacher giving a resulting number like =8 and leaving the equation up to you (6+2? 9-1? 2x4?...etc), or like a chef merely telling a student, It should come out of the oven fluffy (are we talking about a souffle? or a turkey?). In singing they say things like, "put it in the mask," or "imagine a pencil on your nose and sing over it" without telling you how. Or by hoping you will simply imitate their demonstration properly when you have no idea what they are doing, what your are doing, or what is wrong about what you are doing.

In a very basic sense you have a bottom, middle and top to your range and you want to sing the best you can in all those areas. At Bridgetown Vocal, we diagnose your voice based on several categories of vocalists that all singers fall into one way or another (as categorized by Speech Level Singing International). Then we discuss what you need to physically alter in a concrete and informed description (nothing about clouds or rainbows) to overcome the obstacle you have in keeping your balance. After we diagnose and describe the voice and what it needs to do, we use very specific exercises that isolate the problem area and give you a way of moving through your obstacle in a way that you can feel. After we start working on the problem it just takes some time developing more vocal awareness and re-strengthening the voice in the new muscle coordination. Then the path of refinement begins. Maybe a problem area will span the entire voice, at first, and we will reduce it to only 3 or 4 notes. After shrinking the problem area we can reduce it to a problem area that spans only one note depending on the word you are singing. That problem area then becomes reduced to a point that a listener can no longer discern, but the vocalist themself might want to solidify. Soon the problem areas disappear completely and we start working more deeply on vocal agility, resonance/dynamics, beautiful vowels, balance while sustaining, and application to difficult songs the student wants to sing.

More often than not, other voice teachers will have you come in and sing several scales without isolating any problem areas because they don't know how to fix them easily. They will tell you if they like your voice (and many lie for income purposes) or say whether or not they think you are "good enough" to train with them, and begin working on performance pieces, which does nothing but keep your voice exactly how it was when you came in. We won't put you on a highway in rush hour until we have taught you how a car works, how to fill it with gas, how to drive it, how to change your tires recharge your battery and oil your engine, and local driving etiquette.

Our tools involve very expert use of combined consonants, vowels, vocal timbres, and scale shapes to induce a change in the vocal muscles inside your larynx rather than the external muscles (whose problems are symptomatic of things happening inside, and not the cause, as many voice teachers improperly assume). Our training remains very informed by the research of leading Otolaryngologists, like Dr. Ingo Titze, Richard Miller, and others, as well as the literature from Bel Canto pedagogy anthropologists. SLS is endorsed by many ENT Doctors who have witnessed its powerful results in their patients or who have taken lessons themselves. And it also has a track record of many great vocalists from all different genres. We can get results in a couple months that other voice teachers take years to achieve.

Speech Level Singing (SLS) is a revolutionary technique that enables people to sing without inappropriate muscular tension in the same easily produced and effortless way that they speak (assuming the speaking voice is not constricted, forced, breathy, or pitched incorrectly). SLS technique enables singers to develop a marketable yet healthy voice that is connected through the entire range, allowing the singer to negotiate the “bridges” of the voice and to mix into the upper register easily and without muscular tension. SLS singers perform in any and all vocal styles with freedom and flexibility, their voices remaining healthy throughout a lifetime of singing.

To read more about this technique go to the "about" page on our site and scroll down to "What is SLS?" or go to Speech Level Singing International's website, http://speechlevelsinging.com

No. Speech Level Singing has also been regularly practiced by actors and actresses who were seeking a more dynamic speaking voice, as well as public speakers, and voice-over professionals. In addition, people who have abused their cords, or have had other medical intervention in their throat region that effected their voice, have rehabilitated their voice with this technique and teaching format. Many of these exercises in, and of, themselves are therapeutic even before the well-crafted application to a specific individual's problems and needs.

Everyone would benefit from training at Bridgetown Vocal. By "everyone" we truly mean everyone!

A PROFESSIONAL singer will learn to strengthen their singing, expand their range, improve their tone in difficult areas of their voice, and learn what is the best way to keep their voices going through trying times (such as extensive tours, sickness, and heavy recording sessions.)

A HOBBYIST singer, will learn all the same things as a pro but for the purpose of having fun.

A BEGINNER singer will learn how the voice works on a basic level, spending more time focusing on discovering basic use of their voice and its range before moving on to refinement/adjustment and advanced application.

A NON-SINGER will benefit from his or her voice lessons by learning that they truly can, in fact, carry a tune without embarassment. They will find that they can manage an enjoyable tone for parties, congregations, and sing-alongs. Maybe, just maybe, they will discover a hidden talent for singing previously masked by their uncertainties of how the voice works and progress from a non-singer, to a passionate singer!

A YOUNG singer will benefit from good vocal technique. Good technique before puberty steps and and drops the voice is good technique after the voice changes into its adult size.

An OLDER singer will undo the damage and constriction of the voice that takes place from aging and discover youthfulness in their voices and give them something new to explore and play with--new tricks for an old dog!

A TEENAGER would benefit the most powerfully from voice lessons psychologically, in addition to the same physical ways everyone benefits. To be a teenager and have a confident, authoritative, and beautiful singing and speaking voice will help them feel strong in an awkward and difficult stage of life where other people's impressions weigh heavily on them.

Name a type of person and we will tell you how they will benefit from taking voice lessons...give us a hard one! We truly mean EVERYONE.

Yes and No. You can and will only ever sound like you. However there is a beautiful, powerful, and balanced version of your voice, and there is a not very beautiful, powerful, or balanced version. If you don't think your voice is as good as it should/could/would be, you are probably right (though some are more prone to perfectionism than others). Some people are only more talented than others because they honed their skills at a young age since they were more attracted to whatever they are "talented" at or because they were surrounded by the right environment to nurture that skill, not because they have something you don't.

With singing, anyone can become advanced but at different paces depending on when you start, how good of a student you are, and how often you work at it.

For those who like the quality of their voice you can maintain that, but it will be improved and your voice stronger within that stylistic choice.

Sometimes the voice is doing things uncontrollably and by default that make it sound a certain way for better or worse, and by learning balanced vocalization you will drastically change your voice.

Some students might like something they are doing when they sing even though it may be terrible for the health of voice. We will teach you balanced singing and increase your vocal awareness so then you can do what you do LESS wrong. How often you use this unhealthy coordination will be left to your own personal judgment. You will also be more informed of the health risks of your stylistic choice.

In conclusion, if you want to change your voice you will, and you will still sound like You but an amazing and more marketable/presentable version of You. If you don't want to change your voice, you won't, but will improve the health of what you do and increase the options and colors you have for your musical canvass.

Yes. Daniel has worked with clients with learning disabilities, clients who couldn't hit pitches at all at first, clients who's speaking voices were constricted, clients who don't have a sense of rhythm, and clients who have loved singing but always hated their voice. Most people who are at first struggling with their singing not only have the problem with their vocal technique, but often have never taken a single music lesson of any kind or who have never trained their ear. Only less than 4% of the entire human population has what's called Amusia and are truly tone deaf due to neurological dysfunction. Most people can hear the differences between notes in a song or scale but have never been taught how to understand their relationships with each other. Others still can hear the differences between pitches but never made the effort to align the frequency of their voices with the frequency they hear and want to match. All this, besides Amusia, can be taught with ear training, music theory, critical listening to recorded musicians, and vocal technique.

Click on the "book online now" link or copy and paste bridgetownvocal.clickbook.net and the program will walk you through the process. The site will first ask you to pick a lesson length, then it will open a calendar, and you click on the day you want (as long as it's green colored). Next it will list various times available on that day that are still available and you click on the time you want. If it's your first time booking, it will ask you further information after that to set up your account (name, email, and phone#), but once you enter that info you will create a password to go with your email and next time you want to book a lesson you can just sign in and do the first 3 steps. If you want to have ongoing lessons on a specific day or time let your instructor know in your lesson and he can make it repeat for you either weekly or bi-weekly if it's available.

You do not have to pay in advance, but if you want to pay by card instead of cash or check, email us and we will send you a link to our paypal.

The lesson pricing is listed on the "lessons" page on our website.

You can buy your lesson over paypal although our preferred payment method is cash or check. If you need to purchase a lesson with a card, we can send you a link to our paypal site if you email us.

You do not need to pre-pay for your lesson at the moment. However, this could change, particularly for first time students who are more likely to reserve a time and then not show up. Right now the payment is based on an honor system and required at or before your lesson. Someone's livelihood is dependent on your time reservation, and when you don't show up or cancel without due notice (more than 24 hours) you are expected to pay for your missed lesson in full. If you had a problem that prevented your attendance, that problem was not caused by your instructor (unless it somehow literally was) and your instructor shouldn't be held financially responsible. Please honor this payment code and take responsibility for your attendance.

That's because you can't. The booking system is based on hours and half hours and the 15 minute assessment is best booked over the phone. It's more of a fit-in service rather than a prioritized one. Usually booking a full half hour lesson is better than a vocal assessment because the assessment is included, but you get to really test the waters by getting exercises and a recording to take home with you. Call 971-645-7458 to book your assessment.

Currently lessons are not available on the weekends. However, if you are looking to take lessons online but you would like to have an in-person lesson first and the regular hours aren't conducive to your travel time, we could schedule a non-regular hours lesson over the phone. Also, when workshops are taught, as they will be taught on Sundays most likely there might be an opportunity to have a half hour lesson just before or just after, but email or call to find out.

Regular hours:
Monday: 12pm-2, and 5pm-9
Tuesday: 11am-1, and 5pm-9
Thursday: 11am-2:30, and 5:30pm-8
Friday: 11am-1pm, and 3pm-7

The following are our currently scheduled teaching hours. If you are booking online and it doesn't look like these hours are available that is because that day or section of the day is booked up.

Regular hours:
Monday: 12pm-2, and 5pm-9
Tuesday: 11am-1, and 5pm-9
Thursday: 11am-2:30, and 5:30pm-8
Friday: 11am-1pm, and 3pm-7

If demand overwhelms the currently available teaching hours, Wednesday or Sunday might become available down the road If you need voice lessons with Bridgetown and the current hours are impossible for you, or the one time you can do is taken, give us a call and we will see if we can work something out for you..

The hours listed on Clickbook.net are based on the location of the service. If you are in New York, for example, keep in mind that the hours available are Pacific time, so add 3 hours to what you see is available.

We are located at 1847 East Burnside. We are across the street form Whole 9 Yards and a bar called East Burn. You can get here by bus on the 20 with no walking, or the 12 with a three block walk.

For driving directions, copy and paste the following address to google: 1847 East Burnside st, Portland, OR 97214

We are in room 111you can enter the building on Burnside, and we are in the back right section of the building or you can enter on the18thave parking-lot side of the building and just walk straight throuh to the opposite side of the building. Give a light knock to let the instructor know you are there.

YES! Online lessons are surprisingly clear. The sound is great and you can hear and see everything. In fact, they force you to have a stronger and more developed ear, repeating scales back at your instructor without him always playing along with you. This is sometimes necessary to offset delays that occur when sound clashes over skype.

The only real drawback is it is impossible to make eye contact because of where the cameras are located and their angle of viewing. I would say they are 98% as good as in-person lessons. and that 2% is a small cost for the convenience, accessibility, and not dealing with traffic!

Payments may be made in-person, at your lesson, or beforehand. You can pay with cash or check. We discourage the use of credit cards because the credit cards processing companies who process your payment charge a large amount per transaction, inspite of how little they actually do. You can make direct payments from your bank account online in the form of online cash (a brand new concept) in a new service called Dwolla. They are backed by the same institutions and credibility as any other banking service and secure, with their security guaranteed by Mcafee and other online security authorities. If you want to make a payment with a credit card to build your credit, it is still an option, but to offset the credit card transaction fees there will be a flat $5 fee added to whichever service you would like to buy through paypal. For paypal purchases we will coordinate it with you through email.

Yes, to see a list of , click on the website's "lessons" page. If you scroll midway down you will see what is regularly offered. For a calendar of events which also includes irregular offerings, classes and events go to the "news and events" page and click on the tab for Bridgetown Events.

We sure do!

Bridgetown Vocal offers Voice Vouchers as gifts that are honored for 12 months (and does not take responsibility for booking problems). You can purchase in increments of hundred-dollar amounts or purchase an 8-lesson package. Smaller purchases are limited to the usual 6-month use time-frame. Call or email to come in to pick up a Voice Voucher, or get a .pdf emailed to you for printing purposes.