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 | Dena Murray was born in Los Angeles, CA, where she began her singing career at the age of 12 after having been selected to perform as a soloist in a local recital of Handel’s “Messiah.” With over 25 years of professional experience, her performance career has included musical theatre productions, summer stock, Shakespeare festivals, television and motion picture work, as well as voice-over for radio commercial advertising. Having joined the teaching staff at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA, in 1993 as a vocal instructor, she became the Head of Vocal Technique from 1995 – 2006, and wrote the curriculum for that program. Throughout her professional career, Dena has employed a style of teaching that helps to enhance the self-esteem of her students by creating an environment that inspires creativity while fostering confidence. Since leaving MI, she teaches privately, working with both singers and voice-over talent. Some of her students have included voice talent from CBS, NBC, HBO, motion picture documentary films, television commercials, and demo-and-session artists. Dena’s first book “Vocal Technique: A Guide To Finding Your Real Voice,” was released worldwide by Hal Leonard Publications in 2002. That book is the culmination of her experiences with hundreds of students and contains her vocal technique philosophy (why it’s important to develop the head and chest registers separately), and method: exactly how to accomplish this and then begin the process of bridging the registers to sound like one. “Advanced Vocal Technique: Middle Voice, Placement, and Styles” (co-authored by Tita Hutchison) is her second book to be released worldwide by Hal Leonard Publications in October/November 2007. This book contains both authors’ combined experience with Dena’s technique, exactly how to bride the breaks/passaggio, the different placements for different styles of singing, and how to work the technique in all aspects of the singing voice. Excerpts from both books can be found at denamurray.com. Some of her clients have included: Sarah Hudson, Lauren Adams, Monique DeBose, Annie Kaye, Celeste Kim, Douglas Wood, Judy Wexler, Roberto Cabazzari, Michael & Christina Salerno, Pam Lalita, Oscar Lalo, Stephan Martin, Riella Eskenazi, Mia Victoria Carillo, among others. Dena not only teaches in-home privately, but also online as well. See her website denamurray.com for more details. Dena graduated from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, with a Bachelor of Science in Speech. MY PHILOSOPHY If you don’t have good technique, and know that your voice doesn’t sound the way it should or you wish it would, this will be the one thing that undermines your confidence while performing, and your self-esteem every single time you put yourself out there to sing. It’s my experience and the experience of countless others that if this is the case, it won’t matter how many people tell you you’re great, that you sound great, or that they love the way you perform. When you disagree, yours is the only opinion that matters. In the many years I’ve been teaching, I have learned and come to believe that good technique must become second nature to you; the only way you know how to sing. You can’t be worried about how you sound or what’s going to happen when you get to a trouble spot, or you will end up crippling your performance by coming off too mechanical or academic. The job of a singer is to perform, to have the song come from the artist’s emotions inside of you. Yet that can be a daunting task if you don’t like your voice or think you can rely on it. If you don’t know right from wrong, right placement versus wrong placement, or how to support the mechanism with the diaphragm without squeezing or pushing it, then you put yourself at risk for damage with any given style of singing. Acquiring good singing habits as second nature requires lots of persistence and practice of daily vocal exercises, the guidance of a teacher, and being taught what to listen for when taping and practicing on your own. I teach based on scientific principle, and direct singers how to determine what went wrong with the singing mechanism when it felt and sounded wrong. Sometimes singers are so far removed from what they are feeling physically that they have to literally be instructed inward over and over again until they can properly recognize the sensations. Once this is learned, singers may at first only feel what they’ve done wrong after having just performed a section of a vocal exercise, but with practice, they learn to anticipate and correct it themselves. Learning good technique is a journey. For someone like me, it is a forever journey, as I am fascinated by the voice and all the things it can do. I am constantly willing to challenge myself to learn new things so that I can teach anyone and everyone, no matter which style they prefer. For you, the journey may be about getting your voice, or rehabilitating it, perhaps learning new habits and skills to make yourself sound better, or to feel like you have some control over the mechanism–to finally know what you are doing. Once you have everything sense-memorized, you will find so much confidence in what you can do that there will no longer be anything holding you back. Making technique second nature will finally free you to emote and express artistically–without ever having to worry about whether your voice will perform well or not while singing a song again. ABOUT MY WORK AS A VOCAL TEACHER/COACH I am in the business of helping others to achieve their goals and dreams because I am a true teacher. Teaching is much more about being of service to others than it is to myself. In this sense, I am unlike many other teachers, as I do not share a split focus between teaching and performing. I only teach. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do for many, many years now, and I was fortunate to be born with a voice that serves well as a teaching instrument. One of my greatest passions is for going into the recording studios with clients and coaching them through their sessions. My other passion is to rehabilitate voices. I’ve had many a gifted singer come to me, having lost their voice after thinking it would never happen to them—only to have it finally happen. Nothing makes me happier than to restore a voice. I’m not interested in owning my own studio. Rather, besides going into other’s studios to help with a recording, I enjoy the comfort of teaching in my own home and online as well. I am all about the voice, helping singers to attain and practice good technique until it becomes second nature to them. This has required that I put as much time into working on my own voice as any performer has with their own voice and performance career. As the teacher, I must constantly be willing to learn new things and challenge myself so that I can teach anyone and everyone who comes to me, no matter the style. I also build voices from scratch and have become an expert at bridging breaks/the passaggio. I also have excellent communication skills which enable me to educate singers based on science as well as instruct them into feeling and sensation via concentration and visualization. I also teach the placement for different styles of singing by keeping the focus on the placement of sound for a particular style, and the pronunciation of the words that contribute to that stylistic sound. To Jaime Vendera, I’d like to thank you for asking me to take part in your work. You are a rare breed, one who is willing to help others achieve their goals and dreams while still pursuing that golden road of your own. You’ve helped me tremendously with your support of me as a teacher and I consider you a friend in the truest sense of the word. Most Sincerely, Dena Murray |
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