I am SO excited to share the very first episode of my new podcast with you: Your Vocal Evolution - Tips in 10 with Amber Mogg Cathey! In this inaugural episode, I share a bit about who I am, my vision for the podcast and why I'm excited to connect with singers in the new way. Plus we dive right into our first tip - an exercise designed to help you discover your authentic voice and sound.

‍

In each episode, under 10 minutes, I'll be sharing actionable advice on everything from vocal techniques to artistry, mindset and more. I hope you'll be sure and listen in and follow the show for fresh tips to help you keep evolving your voice!

‍

Here's the transcript for episode #1 and you can listen along on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or listen and watch on YouTube.

‍

‍

‍

🎧Hello everyone and welcome to the very first episode of Your Vocal Evolution: Tips in 10 with me Amber Mogg Cathey! I am so thrilled that you're here. I'm so thrilled that I'm here. This is something I've been thinking about doing,coming on and starting a podcast and building this kind of a relationship with each other, for a long time.

‍

About Me and My Vision for the Podcast

I am such a lover of the voice everything voice related and I'm also a total chatty Cathey. I'm a big talker. So when I married a Cathey, it worked out perfectly because you know, it's very apropos. But I was really trying to think about how do I want to do this? And it really came down to two things for me. One, I want to really give actionable tips, things that you can get every week, this is going to be a weekly podcast, that you can already start to use in your own voice, whether you're a singer,
a voice user of any kind, whether you're a teacher or a coach, things that you can use in your own voice and the voices of others right away. And you can start to see how those work and how those feel for you. And I wanted to do it in 10 minutes or less, something that you can digest, take with you, work on it, and then come back the next week to get something new. And I really want this to be a conversation, not a lecture. And that came down to my second point. You're going to be shocked already. This is not scripted.

‍

And I don't want to do this scripted! I thought I can use my podcaster voice and talk really slowly about the cricothyroid. And I don't want to do that. Literally, that was a few seconds and I'm bored already. It's just not me. So the second thing I thought is I want this to be off the cuff. Obviously, I have an idea of what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to have an idea of what I want to talk about and focus on every episode, but I want it to be authentic. I don't want to come across as anything other than who I am, how I am. I want to talk to you how I talk to the singers that I work with every single day, day in and day out, oh so happily. So I hope that you will leave me comments in the, is it show notes? I'm such a newbie. I mean, woo, big old learning curve here! But comments in the show notes, comments on socials, DM me and let me know the things that you want to learn about the things that you want me to cover in this time together.

‍

I really want this to be another way to connect to you in a real authentic way. And that's the tip that I want to get into today, but I'm gonna put a pin in that tip really quickly and just share a little bit about me in case you are listening to this and you're like, who is this woman?  So again, I'm Amber Mogg Cathey. I have been a vocalist for over 40 years. I have been a voice coach and a teacher for over 20 years. I am a newly certified vocal rehabilitation specialist. Vocal health as the foundation of everything that we do and it is so important to me.

‍

Really, when I say vocal health, I'm not just talking about the voice because our body is our instrument. Voice, body, mind, you can have the most golden technique. Here comes Whitney in 2024 with the, you know, just the most unbelievable stage presence in artistry. If you don't have baseline health, you're not going to be able to communicate any of that greatness. So I'm a newly certified vocal rehabilitation specialist. I'm also a certified vocal habilitation specialist.

‍

I'm not going to go too far down that road, that'll be a future episode, but habilitation just means keeping a healthy voice healthy. Rehabilitation means recovery, rehabilitating, bringing that voice back after illness or injury. And like I said, I'll talk about that more of that in another episode.

‍

I am solely focused on commercial styles of singing, contemporary styles of music. I went to Berklee College of Music for my undergrad back in the 90s. Berklee shout out, woo woo! And I have not looked back at classical music since then. I have a huge appreciation for classical music. It's lovely and beautiful and lovely singing and lovely music is lovely singing and lovely music. But it's just, it's not my area of expertise. If I work with any classical singers, it is to help them add in that skill of working in the contemporary commercial styles and genres. I would not be the person y'all to go to for diction. And I didn't even mean to say y'all, but I did!

‍

That's another little thing about me. 24 years in Nashville will bring the y'all in! So after I graduated from Berklee College of Music, I worked as a musician and an artist myself there for a couple more years. I moved to Nashville as an artist and I was there for 24 years working in the music industry. Like I said, first as an artist and a singer songwriter and I was a VJ on CMT for a while, just, you know, lots of stuff in the entertainment industry there. And then I've been a coach for, I was a coach there for almost 20 years. And then a year ago, we moved to Denver, Colorado. 🏔️

‍

I still get back to Nashville a ton. I'm going next month for a vocal health for the vocal athlete workshop, which I'm so excited about. And I will talk about more in a future episode. But it is beautiful out here in Denver. The weather is idyllic. The mountains are unbelievable. And you know, I'm a big outside person, so I'm loving it.

‍

So that's a little bit about me and I wanna jump right into our very first tip because the whole point of this is 10 minutes or less. And since it's so important to me for this to be an authentic connection and I really just wanna be who I am, I want that for you too. And so this first tip is all about authenticity, how to tap into your own voice as a singer.

‍

A Tip for Finding Your Authentic Voice and Sound

And these tips are really going to be focused on everything from vocal technique to artistry to health to mindset and inspiration to sometimes, you know, how to maneuver life in the music industry. Today, I'm going to really focus on the artistry piece to give you just a tip that you can start to play with right away. Because,  I hear from so many singers that frustration of spending so much time imitating and learning from others, which just let me quickly point out, gets vilified. That is how we learn. I speak how I speak because of the people and the sounds and the voices I was surrounded by when I grew up. So not only is imitation not bad, it is absolutely necessary. We all learn by imitating. And your own sound is going to be shaped in a big part by artists and voices and sounds you heard that really influenced you. But what we want to do is just not stop an imitation. We want to listen to the singers that we love, try to emulate, figure out how they're getting those great sounds that make us feel the things they feel. And then we want to take all those different sounds into our body, into our unique voice, our unique life perspective. And that becomes our sound.

‍

So for this tip, what I want you to do is first make sure you are always recording when you do this because you will find gold! You will also find things that make you laugh hysterically, but you won't remember it. So one, you want to make sure that you are recording and I want you to take the lyrics of whatever song you're working on. Cover, original, it doesn't matter. And I want you to go line by line and you're going to take it in small chunks, small sections.

‍

So let's say we're just looking at the first half of verse one. You're going to find one word in each line of that first half of verse one, and I want you to change it either melodically, so you're gonna change the note, rhythmically, or dynamically.  So you have to do it off of the cuff. The whole point of this, is to figure out what comes out of you naturally. None of this is pre-planned. You hit record, you start to sing the song, and you are going to choose one word per line, at least one word, because what you will find is you change one word melodically, that may take you down a whole different direction. Here comes this riff, or this run, or this variation that you do of the song that works beautifully, and you never would have found it if you wouldn't have gone for that one little switch. So melodically, rhythmically or dynamically in small chunks and you record it. There is going to be stuff that makes you laugh out loud because it's so bad that always happens.

‍

But I have never done this exercise or this kind of work with an artist where they don't find something. There's not something where we're like, my gosh, that scoop. That little slide you did right there, that's you. Man, that sounds like your voice. That's gold. So not only do we keep that, it's like, how do we take that little piece that sounds and feels so much like you and we start to incorporate it in more of the song or in more of your rep period, chunk by chunk, and make sure you're recording. Now, if it feels overwhelming to do this when you're thinking about melody, rhythm, and dynamics all at once, I totally get that. Take it one step at a time. Just do this exercise melodically. So one word off the top of your head.

‍

I know I've said this, but I'm telling you guys, I feel like Jack Black, if you're Tenacious D fans, always record! Always record! but I'm telling you because otherwise when you don't you're gonna be like my gosh I loved that thing I did what was it because it's just coming out of you it's natural right it's that piece of you that you don't even quite know how to tap into this is a huge way to tap into it so just do it melodically and work your way through and then do one where you try it rhythmically. and then do one where you try it dynamically or do one at a time.

‍

Conclusion

In everything, work how it works for you! Do what feels good and what works and is effective for your voice, your body, your mind. But I think you will find this tip can be crazy effective, a really great tool, one of the ways in to help you really tap into your authentic sound. I am so thrilled that you are here. I'm so thrilled I'm here. I'm so thrilled to be doing this. I can't wait to connect with you like this every single week and I will see you at next week's episode. Happy singing!!

‍

‍