Rachel Velarde

Yes, I call myself a voice teacher rather than a voice coach, but the bottom line is I know how to help you achieve your vocal goals.

I am a teacher: two of my three graduate degrees are in voice pedagogy (the study of teaching). I started teaching voice in 1993 while still in college. I was immediately hooked, and I’ve never stopped teaching since. I most love learning how to deliver singing information to all types of musicians. As I keep teaching, the singers I love to help most are the ones who want to sing but don’t know the best way to use their voice.

I hang out with the “cool kids” at voice conferences and commercial music is where it’s at! I’m constantly learning and networking with other voice professionals so I can bring updated information to each and every lesson.

I have trained as a “Singing Voice Specialist” (SVS) who works with local voice doctors, voice therapists and singers who have been diagnosed with a voice disorder/issue. Singers I’ve worked with have had: a double lung transplant, vocal fold paresis, paradoxical vocal fold motion, vocal fold bowing, left medial vocal fold cyst (that one was me!!), and muscle tension dysphonia (several students, but me again/too!). I have lots of information about the function and physiology of the vocal systems.

I am active in several professional organizations; I connect with other singing teachers throughout the world. I am passionate about bettering my craft and will refer you to someone else if (when!) we find you need information I don’t have.

I started as a classical singer. Even though I grew up with popular music (I learned how to roller skate at the Playdium in Chicago with my grandfather playing music from the American Songbook on the organ. My family sang folk songs and harmonized together while my dad played his Gibson acoustic guitar almost every night.), studying anything “fun” in college (yes, I did like classical music, but…) wasn’t even a thought in my head. I kept singing jazz and rock in my “spare” time every chance I got.

I turned to learning about what is sometimes called contemporary commercial music (CCM) from every source I could. (What’s commercial music? Rock, pop, folk, jazz, even music theater – sometimes called amplified music. If it’s meant to be sung with some type of microphone, that’s what Velarde Voice specializes in.) These are the singers I want to help: the professional musician who sings, or wants to sing, but doesn’t always trust their instrument to make music the way they want. Now, I’m on a mission to help singers trust their voice – making the sounds they want, when they want.