I want to talk a little bit about why the statement didn't surprise me. When you work with your voice you should be spending a lot of time listening. Listening to how other people sound, if it is speech as it was in this case, you listen to people and try to figure out what you like about their voice? Are they making the sounds right or wrong? Do they have tention in jaw and tongue? Is breath flowing freely? Do I want to sound like this? Does their voice give them authority or not? And an array of other things you learn to listen for because I in your lessons, make you listen to your own voice in this maner. It's not about judging, but more a matter of curiosity. Think of yourself as a scientist trying to figure out the mechanisms of the human voice - maybe (hopefully) you will remove some judgement from the sound of your own voice...which actually will make you a better voice user on its own, nice right?!
In terms of the singing voice the principles are the same except you listen to music and more specifically, singers instead. Which singers do you like? What sounds do they make? Can I imitate what they do? What is the quality of their voice like? What do I like about it? What do I dislike about it? And so on....
I might seem like the simplest thing - and subconsciously you are already doing this - but if you can bring it to your conscious learning you will improve your own voice so much faster...
Is it fun? I don't know, but if you are one of those people who doesn't like the singing of scale after scale vocalizing from dusk till dawn, it sure beats that approach:-)....all you have to do is listen, maybe test it on your own voice and listen some more....then you come to your lesson and maybe I can answer a question you have - or maybe ask another one...
Being a great listener is rule number one of being a good voice user - it's as simple as that!
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