Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathleen Riggs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kathleen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

So I grew up in a VERY musical entertainment family right smack in the middle of Hollywood. My father was a vocal coach who created a vocal technique that’s been used all around the world. I grew up around legends, not only singers but dancers, actors, boxers, and regular budding singers. It was loud, it was fun personalities, it was fast paced and really colorful. He taught my mom how to teach and together they both taught me. I started training with my father when I was around 8 years old. I didn’t think I would ever be a teacher, I just knew I loved to sing.

Once I got into high school and started thinking about a future I knew that I wanted to be and stay in music. I was encouraged by my father to start learning the how and why about what we do and that’s what I did. Every day after school I would come home to the home studio and just sit and listen and ask questions and learn. I was attracted to how what we teach is genre-less. It could be applied to anyone singing in whatever genre. I thought that was really cool. He sent me my first client at 17 years old. It is now 23 years later, and I can say without a doubt that I continue to love what I do.

Over the past decade or so I’ve been able to keep what he taught me as my forever base of knowledge but I’ve learned so much more to be able to share and continue growing myself and my clients.

There’s nothing that I could’ve done to speed up my process as a voice teacher as I believe everything has been completely on time. The most essential skills I possess is being able to do what I teach. I’m able to walk my talk. I’m able to sing everything I want you to be able to do in your voice. I also possess the ability to create a safe space with my clients so that they feel comfortable to share with me all the vulnerable things that may be helping or hindering their voice that day. We’re all humans having a very human experience and I love that. Everyone has their own stories about the how and when and why they got to where they are. I listen. I really try to HEAR them as individuals and then we dive into the practical and more efficient ways of using their voices.

My only obstacle was starting so young at 17. Although by that point I had already been training my own voice for about a decade. My first client thought he was seeing my mom because we have the same name. He was SURPRISED to train with someone so very young but happy and glad when what I gave him showed him an immediate difference in his voice. It’s really been all good.

Teaching voice has always been good to me. I believe I’m right where I’m suppose to be!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve always admired my father in the way of his passion and work ethic. This is what I caught onto very quickly watching him. He cared. And so those things inspired me to care too. I followed suit. I learned by watching and taking my own lessons consistently. The work is never done. There is always refinement of what we’re doing.

For my business this has been really important for me. I believe in being disciplined in my own singing craft and being able to properly show clients how to have and maintain good vocal technique for their vocal futures.

If we don’t learn the rules before we break them, then we’re in dangerous territory really depending on what the song is asking us to do. When a song moves higher in range and you’re unsure how to adjust then we get into trouble. Does that make sense? Usually in a song when the notes move high, our voices tend to either crack, break or start to strain depending on what kind of sound you’re going for. What I do is build in singers registers so that they blend from low to high so that they don’t struggle in the middle. I implement what is called a MIX which is a blend of chest and head voice. When singers know how to access this part of their voice, there is no struggle or strain. The best to do it off the top of my head is Aretha Franklin or Barbara Streisand. They both sing effortlessly free. THAT is what I teach.

I am confident about it because I do it myself day in and day out. It still seems to be pretty revolutionary that this could be so as singers and probably non singers have thought the high notes equals hard. But it doesn’t. High notes can feel free, easy and powerful.

This work makes my clients excited, confident and empowered because when you’re able to achieve vocal freedom you can write and sing to your hearts content without any kind of worry about what the notes may do. In a live performance or a recording session you can move away from the original blueprint (meaning how you’ve structured the vocal melody) if you want to. It’s all by feel. You can add in the notes you want knowing what they feel like before they even leave your mouth because you’ve trained in this technique. You have the framework of how the notes feel so you don’t feel trapped by your instrument. This is true vocal freedom. We can sing what we’re feeling and it can be effortless.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What’s helped my reputation within my business is being responsible. I show up on time. I respond to email, social media, and text inquiries right away. I always have a clean pretty studio space. I can do what I’m teaching. I can give example after example after example of what it is that I’m helping you achieve in your voice. I don’t gossip. I treat clients with respect and care. Intimate conversations had in lessons don’t leave the room. I’m a good listener. I am not overbearing. I am not too strict or too stale. I’m a conscious present person. I generally love what I do so it brings a certain energy of excitement to my lessons. I have a good attitude.

These all may seem like no brainers but they’re not. One of these things I don’t do could be a potential problem for my business. I am definitely not a perfect person. I am not a machine. BUT I’ve been in my business for 23 years with all of these things being a priority for me and I believe this is how I’ve been able to be really successful.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started out on Instagram when it first came about. I’ve been very lucky to teach some big named people. When you get mentioned on social media by celebrity, it really helps build a following. I remember a certain client tagged my name on a story and within 24hours I had 1k more followers. It’s incredible the reach they have. I also started watching what other people were doing to grow their audience. Things like hash tagging to your market and posting consistently so you don’t get lost in the algorithm. Social media feels like a lot to manage definitely at first but at this point to help myself what I do is I put the time aside to do it. I’ll take a day, have different outfits and record different kinds of content so then when the day comes to post I’m not scrambling. I don’t post too many selfies. I try to stay on brand so my page doesn’t look messy or disorganized. Hope that helps!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kathleenriggs.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieriggsmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleenmriggs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-riggs-67123491/

Image Credits
Josh Fingerhut Shayan Asgharnia