Over 40 years ago a gifted vocal coach, Seth Riggs, began using his unique method of vocal coaching which has become known as Speech Level Singing. Having studied many of the world’s most successful singers, he realized that most of the singers that could achieve a relaxed vocal delivery across a significant range of their voice, shared the ability to keep their larynx at approximately the same height as when they speak, while moving up and down their range. This allows them to access all of their range, including parts that many singer are unaware of, or unwilling to access, with comparative ease.
Seth Riggs developed a system of exercises based on highly specific vowel shapes and consonant combinations that when used correctly, get the larynx “in the habit” of staying in this most natural of positions when singing, instead of it rising up the vocal tract as it tends to in many singers, causing that classic “strangled” feeling when reaching for high notes. The same system also addresses the issue of voices that have very little “strength” of depth of tone (caused by a lack of proper connection between the vocal cords).
Seth used this system to train a steady flow of new singers that were referred to him at the time like Stevie Wonder and nearly all of the Jackson family (inc Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson), Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Michael Bolton, Kelly Clarkson…. The list goes on into over 120 GRAMMY award winner singers, including many of today’s top singers.
Many talented vocal coaches came to study this method directly from Seth, who was happy to have the technique spread across the world, not all the people who studied it were actually applying the concepts correctly when teaching it to their pupils.
One of the most passionate vocal coaches studying Seth’s method, Dave Stroud, set about the task of both organizing the method itself into a reproducible system for other teachers to study, but also organizing the teachers of this method so that the standard of coaching and the method of coaching could be maintained at the highest level.
Kelly Clarkson
Photograph by Statia Molewski
The Speech Level Singing organization now has hundreds of coaches across the world, all teaching the same techniques the same way. A speech level singing pupil can move from one coach to another with out fear of contradiction or a change in their coaching.
A network of the most highly qualified and experienced SLS teachers (called IMT’s) travel the world both educated other SLS teachers and assessing their teaching abilities to ensure that the rigorous standards set out by Seth and the IMT’s are being met.
The coaches here at the Southern School of Popular singing are proud to have achieved these standards and look forward to continually improving their abilities to deliver the method.
