1-on-1 Vocal Coaching
Salt Lake City + Online
Salt Lake City + Online
They Said You Couldn't Sing. They Were Wrong.
"Be quiet."
"You're flat."
"Just mouth the words."
You don't have to keep believing it.
"Be quiet."
"You're flat."
"Just mouth the words."
You don't have to keep believing it.
It wasn't really the comment itself. It was what the comment did.
Your brain added "singing" to the list of things that aren't safe, and your voice has been working around that belief ever since.
Voice cracks, off-key notes, or running out of breath aren't flaws. They're like check-engine lights.
It's easy to think "I sound bad" and want to give up on singing. But if your car's check engine light came on, you wouldn't ditch it on the side of the road and walk away. You'd take it to someone who could find out what's actually going on under the hood.
You don't need more criticism, and you definitely don't need to hear "just relax" one more time. You need someone who understands how the voice works, can find what's really causing the trouble, and can help you fix the cause instead of the symptoms.
The things that are actually blocking your voice are tucked into places you wouldn't think to check, and are more fixable than you've been led to believe.
Greg is awesome and his expertise is worth the investment. Within our first consultation, Greg was able to do an in-depth analysis of the problems I was having with my voice, and lessons have been nothing short of amazing ever since.
Sam S.You've probably heard at least one of these. None of them hold up.
Not out of malice. Out of (over-)protection.
Your brain is built for survival, not performance. At some point it decided singing was risky and started covering for you a little too well.
The throat constricts because swallowing outranks singing on your brain's priority list.
The jaw, like a nosy neighbor, clamps shut because it doesn't trust your tongue to handle things.
The breath gets shallow because your nervous system is on high alert. Bracing for impact, not singing.
These aren't really vocal problems. They're your brain's way of protecting you, acting like you're in danger the moment you try to sing.
Whether it's your first karaoke night or your fortieth audition, these reflexes can still take over and get in the way.
Trying harder won't get you there. Right now, your brain has you singing uphill both ways in the snow with a backpack on. Let it off high alert, and the hill flattens out.
A lot of the advice you've heard is right. Breath support, posture, and resonance are real parts of singing. But the real goal is efficiency: doing just what's needed, when it's needed, and with the right amount of effort. This is where most teaching approaches look in the wrong direction: they keep trying to add new techniques, when subtraction (releasing the tension patterns) works better.
Your body is excellent at finding creative ways to hit high notes. Imagine an office where one coworker does the bare minimum, leaving others to pick up the slack. The work still gets done, clients are happy, and management never notices who is doing what. But the same people end up carrying extra weight every week, and over time, they get tired and frustrated. The same thing happens in your throat when your brain is forced to freestyle a path to a high note. The muscle meant for the job slacks off, the others step in to help, the note still comes out, and your brain never realizes that anything needs to change.
"I've gained so much confidence in my abilities ... I'm a completely different performer now."
If you can't feel it,
you can't fix it.
Lainey began lessons to prepare for the talent portion of a beauty pageant. She struggled with her throat tightening on high notes. We worked on balancing her vocal registers and improving her posture, but the real change happened when I checked the nerves in her face using a tuning fork and gently vibrated both sides. One side felt muted. That made her recall an old chipped cheekbone injury. We tried having her sing while holding an electric toothbrush to that cheek. Her throat relaxed, and singing became easier.
"Before we figured out the cheekbone connection, I felt like everything was sitting in my throat. I would get super tense, especially on higher notes, and it felt like I had to push to be heard. I also couldn't really hear myself clearly, so I never felt fully in control of my voice.
Now it feels completely different. My voice feels way more open and placed correctly, and I don't feel like I'm forcing as much anymore. As I'm getting ready for the pageant, I feel a lot more confident because I actually trust my voice now, instead of hoping it'll cooperate.
I would tell a singer who feels stuck that sometimes it's not about trying harder, it's about finding the right placement. I was doing everything I thought I was supposed to, but once we made that small adjustment, everything changed. So don't get discouraged, because the breakthrough might be way simpler than you think."
Lainey B.
Your brain keeps an active map of your body, built from the signals each part sends. If a sleepy nerve dampens the signal, that area of the map gets blurry, and the brain reacts by holding that area tight, just to be safe. For years, Lainey's chipped cheekbone had been sending only a faint signal.
The connection to her voice comes from how the nerves are arranged. The nerve that senses your face sits right next to the one that controls your throat. They are so close in the brainstem that when one is triggered, the other often reacts too. Each high note sent vibration through her quiet cheek, and that facial nerve, slacking on the job, raised an alarm in the brain to protect the throat with tension. She couldn't feel what was actually wrong, so simply telling her to "relax" was never going to help.
The toothbrush gave her brain what it needed: a clear, strong signal from her cheek. Once her brain could sense the area again, it recognized the area as safe. And once the gripping throat let go, she could sing more freely, resonant, with less effort.
At first, it seemed like a problem with the voice, but the real issue was missing sensory information. Once your brain receives the all-clear signal from your body, it releases the parking brake and the protective tension.
Greg has helped me become more confident, intentional, and aware of what I can improve. Beyond basic scales and warm-ups, I have a better awareness of the physicality and methodology of singing.
Rachel F.
From the very beginning he has been able to pinpoint exactly what I have been struggling with vocally and help to personalize my vocal lessons around that.
Jessy C.
He doesn't just tell me what to do, he tells me why I'm doing it. I've had "fancy" vocal coaches in the past who didn't explain anything, they just issued commands.
Ben K.
"I keep running out of air." "My throat grabs on the high notes." "My voice gets tired after two songs." That is what singers tell me. Others just know something is off and can't name it. Every one of those is a symptom. The standard advice goes straight at the symptom, like a mechanic who hears a rattle and tightens whatever is closest. You're told to breathe deeper. Plenty of singers already breathe too much. The extra air makes the throat grab harder. You're told to open your throat. But the real trouble may be a head that tips back on every climb, like a PEZ dispenser. That crowds the top of the neck, like a foot on a garden hose. The part that complains gets all the coaching. The reflex underneath never hears a word of it, so a year of practice teaches your body the workaround, and teaches it well.
Your body already knows how to sing. Along the way, in the full-contact sport of life, you picked up some tendencies that interfere with singing. Nobody taught you what to look for, and what you can't feel, you can't fix.
A singer came to me with Adele's "Make You Feel My Love." She wanted the full, warm low notes the song is built on, but her voice kept coming out airy. She was singing the whole song in her light upper voice, reaching down with it for notes that wanted her chest voice. That left her power on the table and made the middle of her range wobble. She sang everything with a big grin, teeth nearly touching. There's nothing wrong with smiling, but in this case it was a clue. The assessments pointed to her jaw and her tongue. Teeth that close meant her jaw was pulling her voice box up toward her chin, just like when you swallow. Unbeknownst to her, her muscles were having a tug of war between singing and swallowing, and survival instincts win out in that fight every time.
Newsflash: you can't sing well while your body is trying to swallow.
We put that to the test. She sang a phrase, we tried a drill, and she sang the phrase again: a cork between the teeth, then a tongue stretch, then a bulldog underbite. After each one the low notes came back a shade fuller, and neither of us had to take the other's word for it. She'd never have guessed her jaw, she said, and she'd never felt her voice like that before.
Your body can only control what it can sense clearly. The muscles and joints your brain can't sense well are the ones it grips, just in case, and no amount of telling them to relax will change its mind. A drill gives the brain a clear signal from the muscle it lost track of, the grip releases, and your voice answers before you've had time to think about it. The drills that pass that test are the ones you keep: high payoff drills you run in the minutes before you sing, and practice in between, so the voice you found in the lesson is the one you bring to the day.
Book a call with me, and I'll show you what your body has been doing behind your back.
Book My Free Exploration SessionMost lessons pile technique on technique, whether your voice needs it or not. You need only the targeted drills your brain and voice respond to. The whole library can wait until you want to teach.
You've watched the tutorials and read about breath support, and you're still asking what your own voice is actually doing, and why.
You're willing to sing with a cork between your teeth to find out whether your jaw has been fighting your voice.
You'd rather practice a handful of drills that really work for you than a laundry list of twenty that don't feel like they're quite for you.
Those three matter more to me than where your voice is today.
You sing, I'll handle the science.
Greg is my fifth vocal teacher, and I really appreciate how honest he is. Some of my previous teachers would just say "good job" even when I was making mistakes, which only gave me false confidence. Greg takes the time to figure out what's happening, explains it clearly, and gives me a drill so I can actually feel what it's like to sing the right way. I'm glad I'm not stuck doing the same ten exercises every lesson anymore.
I've improved in all the areas I wanted: my range, head voice, vibrato, and really understanding my own voice. I take my lessons online from my truck during my lunch break, which is super convenient with my busy work schedule.
This year I had my tonsils removed. Before the surgery, I was worried I'd lose all my progress and have to start over. At my first lesson back, my notes felt weird and foreign. But with some brain training to help me coordinate my voice, I was able to get back on track and even improve beyond where I was before.
If you're looking for voice lessons in Salt Lake City or online, Greg is the teacher you want.
Hi, I'm Greg. I teach in person out of Millcreek, Salt Lake City, and online nationwide. I've been teaching since 2014 and am certified in Andrew Byrne's Singing Athlete program. Along the way I've collected a slightly absurd amount of anatomy, acoustics, and music theory. Most of which I had to learn twice, because I learned it wrong the first time. The upside for you: I already know where the wrong turns are. We can skip them and start where things actually work.
When we work together, I observe and listen as you sing, picking up the compensations your brain built years ago. They show up in head position, neck, jaw, breath, and posture. I've worked with hundreds of singers on register breaks, breath issues, balance problems, even voice troubles linked to old injuries or dental work. I know how to identify and resolve issues at the root, rather than covering them up with more technique.
I think of myself as a navigator, not a captain. Your voice belongs to you, and you choose the direction. I bring the map: years of teaching experience and multiple frameworks, applied to finding what your nervous system will actually respond to. Finding the right input doesn't take force. It's about knowing what your brain is ready to say yes to. When we find it, your voice opens up naturally. No anatomy textbooks required.
Certified Practitioner of The Singing Athlete"Greg is an amazing vault of vocal knowledge. I saw progress in my own voice after just one lesson."
Brianna M."He made me feel confident and performance-ready after my first day. By far the most effective music coaching I've had in Utah."
Dan R.Calendar not loading? Book directly here.
In most cases, yes. True tone-deafness (amusia) is rare. Most people who think they are tone-deaf just have a gap between what they hear and what their voice does. That gap usually closes faster than you might expect.
No. Your nervous system can keep learning throughout your life. Improving your voice does not get harder as you age; it just becomes more interesting. There is no deadline, only a chance to see your voice in a new way.
No. While reading music can help in some situations, you do not need to know how to read music to start. We begin by focusing on your voice, not on reading notes.
Yes. Teachers, presenters, lawyers, and anyone who talks for a living use the same instrument singers do, and a voice that gives out by the third meeting of the day has a cause. If you have been hoarse for two weeks or more, start with a doctor. Otherwise, the free exploration session runs the same way it does for singers: you read a few lines, I observe and listen, we try a drill, and within five seconds you hear whether your voice got easier.
You'll usually notice a change within five seconds of your first adjustment, though not every part of your voice will shift at once. Significant progress, and the confidence to perform, usually takes three to six months of regular lessons with short daily practice in between. How fast you get there depends less on where you start and more on how consistently you practice.
Yes. Many singers come with a specific audition song, an upcoming callback, or a recording goal. We work directly with your chosen material, not with generic exercises that might not fit your needs.
At VoiceCraft, every exercise is a test with a five-second result, not a template handed to every student. If past lessons gave you generic warm-ups and the word "relax," that is probably why nothing changed. We try something, your voice answers in about five seconds, and we keep what worked. You leave with a short list of drills your voice already approved. Not a generic playlist.
You can choose either option. In-person lessons are at the studio in Millcreek, Salt Lake City. Online lessons are held over video call and are open to students anywhere in the country.
Brain-based vocal coaching works on the neurological patterns that block the voice, not just the physical mechanics of the throat. Most vocal problems, including tension on high notes, inconsistency, and range limits, trace back to protective responses from the brain, not a broken instrument. When the brain treats singing as a threat, it signals the body to lock the shoulders, raise the chin, or hold the jaw. These compensations physically block the voice. VoiceCraft coaching identifies which pattern is running for your specific voice, tests a targeted adjustment, and lets the brain update its map. Most singers hear the difference within seconds.
It depends on how often you come. Most students take a lesson every week or every other week, and lessons run 45 to 60 minutes. Every weekly and every-other-week plan includes the group classes at no extra cost. At the end of your free exploration session, once we both know what your goals are, I'll recommend the plan that fits them and walk you through the options.
Most singers never find out what their voice could have been. They stop trying songs they used to love.
This free session is for singers with a specific goal in mind, and for singers who feel stuck and can't quite name why. Maybe an audition you can't risk freezing on. Lessons in your past that didn't quite take. Or just a hunch that there's more voice in you than you've gotten to. Any of that, this is for you.
Pick a song you're comfortable with and think of one thing about your voice you'd like to change. As you sing, I'll share what I notice, and we'll try out a few changes together. We'll keep what works best for you and talk about what lessons could look like from there. You decide what's next.
