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Rating: 
Summary: Falls short of expectations
Review: I am a professional singer, teach at university, at Yamaha School of Music and run a gospel school. In the past year the number of students seeking private training has increased dramatically. I bought this book because I thought it would have some wonderful ideas that I could use to help me improve my private lessons. I was greatly disappointed. Firstly, this book is written soley for those residing in the USA (voice teachers in other countries be warned), secondly and most importantly of all, this book is for those teaching classical singers. The exercises and book recommendations as well as lesson plans reflect this. If you teach jazz, gospel and pop singing (like I do), this book will not be very useful to you. I suppose as far as U.S. tax laws, info on voice associations in the U.S. etc. are conerned, this may be helpful. Her detailed examples of her past and present students baffles me. "What's this got to do with the price of cheese?!!" I want to ask, these examples do not highlight her teaching technique in any way, I just got the feeling she was showing off, which is permissible, but that isn't the reason why I bought the book. I feel her approach is very inflexible and lacks enjoyment. On page 92 the author mentions a lady who wanted to sing for the fun of singing. She put a 'stop' to that. Ms. Boytim doesn't realise that a lot of people take voice lessons NOT because they want to be professional opera singers, but because they enjoy singing. Unless you teach opera-star-wannabes, I honestly do not advice you get this book. I did not give it one star but two because there was there was some useful information about teaching children. That's the best thing I got out of the book. Other than that, please look in the USED BOOKS selection here at Amazon, as I will be selling this book soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not all that exciting
Review: This book is quite good with its information, and it does contain excellent exercises for the voice. One reviewer leveled the complaint against it that it was great for classical singers but of no value to gospel or jazz singers. That is the problem with this country: singing teachers who can't see that the techniques used to produce a great voice, whether singing classical or gospel or jazz, are the same. Vocal style has very little to do with sound technique. Have the sound technique and you can sing any vocal style. Classical style requires the open throat (and so does gospel and jazz to a point), popular require the use of the belting technique, but it is still solidly founded in classical training techniques. Sadly, I never got the impression from the book that the writer really understood that fact herself. As with the comment about people singing because they want to sing, not because they want a career, I happen to agree with the other reviewer. This book did make it seem that if one is teaching lessons, unless the singer wishes a career you are really wasting your time. In my view, unless you are making royalties off their future performances, or the future careers of your students, what does it matter if they have a career or not. I have taught some truly wonderful ammature singers (who had very professional quality of tone and interpretation, great musicality, etc) who wanted to sing because they enjoy singing, not because they want to become famous. I have found they were the best students to teach, for they wanted to learn because they wanted to learn. They were not concerned as to whether they will be rich and famous in 6 months. The book is a great book, but you really have to see for yourself how useful it is for you. It didn't give me much I didn't already know (but then, I have been teaching voice for 20 years, and singing professionally for over 30), and it didn't really give me any real insights as to how to try things in a different way. However, it may work wonders for you. Each of us are different with different experiences in life, and with different teaching experiences. What may work for some, may not work for others. If you are not sure about things, borrow the book from your public library and read it first. Then if it isn't what you need, you aren't out any.
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