Laurece West Studios
Singing, Electric Bass, & Piano Lessons; Voice Coaching; Creativity & Career Coaching; Songwriting & Production
Durham & Chapel Hill, NC
In Person, by Phone, or Skype VideoCam
(919) 383-4876
LaureceWestStudios@gmail.com
2104 Havenhill Place, Durham, NC 27712
Southwing Music 410 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Training at the Studio
Can Just Anyone Train?
How Long Does It Take?
Laurece's Philosophy of Art
Laurece's Philosophy of Teaching
How to get Started
Copyright Notice
Laurece West
Musical Background & Training
The Joy of Teaching
Training at the Studio
Laurece West Studios offers training in:
1) Singing - All popular styles -for Active and Aspiring Professionals, Dedicated Amateurs, and Motivated Beginners.
2) Speaking - Voice Coaching for Actors, Businessmen and Women, Public Speakers, and Persons with accents or vocally demanding jobs.
3) Voice Workshops - Singing and Speaking with Ease, Finding Your Voice, The Spiritual, Emotional and Energetic Qualities of the Voice, Performing with a Band
4) Electric Bass - Blues, Rock, Pop & R&B.
4) Piano - for Singers, Musicians, Songwriters, and Beginners
5) Creativity Coaching - Explore and release your creative spark! Focusing and channeling into your chosen endeavor.
6) Performance Coaching - Holding and energetically working with your audience. Peak performance levels and zones.
7) Career Coaching - for Singers and Musicians
8) Songwriting - The forms and art of the craft. Explore various styles, your talent and individuality.
9) Arrangement - The many colors, rhythms, and forms of songs.
10)Recording Production - Creative artist & repertoire, sound, musical parts and performance coaching in my studio and at professional recording studios.
See above buttons for pages with more detail.
As each course of study is individually tailored, clients may determine which of the above skills, appeal to them and best suit their needs. Persons of all ages, races, nationalities, and abilities are welcome in the studio.
Can Just Anyone Train?
Laurece can teach anyone to sing, speak, play, perform, record, write songs, and record well, with skill and artistry when they are:
1) Study for several consecutive terms
2) Are consistent with attendance
3) Enjoy what they are studying
4) Practice at home what they learn in their lessons
5) Remain passionate about their art
She finds ways to keep each student's joy for their music alive and thriving as she trains them both technically and artistically. She guarantees (often each week) dramatic, noticeable improvement.
How Long Does It Take?
Various amounts of time and practice are necessary to develop these areas. An estimate of the time involved can be made depending upon what the singer starts with and where they want to go. Whether the artist is singing for fun, to sing in a choir, to perform locally, to have a national act, or be an international recording artist, obviously the personal commitment is wildly different. Because fabulous singing involves the development and integration of numerous physical skills and coordinations, the best way to conceptualize the time involved is to think about what kind of commitment is needed to play a sport for fun, in a local league, professionally, or to be a sports star?
Clarify your goals. Laurece teaches Beginners, Amateurs, Aspiring Professionals and Professional Singers. The terms of study are and Professional Track training are detailed on the Studio Policy page, along with lesson lengths and fees.
Laurece believes that talent is determined by passion and developed through consistent practice. Love for singing will provide the motivation.
Laurece's Philosophy of Art
Great art, of any type, has an energy to it that is timeless, relevant, and powerful years after its creation. It touches the soul of the observer.
Master artists have four essential talents that become expressed in their work.
1) Technique - They have learned one skill after another until the combination of skills become effortless and second nature.
2) Original style - They have integrated their influences, left behind any copycat impulses, creating something new, unique and innovative. Their work is recognizable.
4) Energy - They have infused their work with something transcendent - emotion, passion, spirit, light, motion, heart!
You may notice the skill, style, form or energy of the art separately, but taken all together there is even more. In a great creation, these essential elements fuse together - you get the effect of a work that moves you. If it the work really rocks you, touches your soul, causes big emotions or release, it can actually transform your life.
Laurece's Philosophy of Teaching
Laurece's goal is to assist artists to develop into master artists with all the necessary skills listed above to create original and timeless art. This process takes time, often many years. Laurece simultaneously trains her students in technique (ability and form) and artistry (style and energy.) Through efficient technical training and accessible, yet profound, methods to develop artistry - singers and musicians can develop a gorgeous, flexible and artistically interesting and emotionally moving voice or sound. A unique style will develop naturally as the student becomes true to their authentic self.
How to Get Started
1) Read about your area of interest on the following pages.
2) Read the Studio Policies page.
3) Fill out a registration form and email it in.
4) For Singing and Voice Coaching (speaking) students, explore the Workshops page.
5) If you are studying singing, read the article "Free Yourself To Sing" on the Artful Voice page.
6) Call Laurece. (919) 383-4876.
7) Tell her about yourself, your music or voice.
8) Ask questions.
9) Book a lesson or register for a workshop.
10) Send your payment, or deliver it in person, at least 48 hours in advance to hold your appointment.
Copyright Notice
Material on this website (writing, photos, etc.) is copyrighted. None of the content may be copied, in whole or part, without permission. All rights reserved.
Vocal overdubs for Essence of Love, Laurece's second CD at Infinity Studios in Manhattan, 2003.
A trick location for great reverb - the bathroom
vocal booth. The great sounds available in this
small room have been used by K.D. Laing and
other recording artists, as well as
shower singers everywhere!
Photo by Steve Giordano.
Laurece combines twelve years of vocal study with seventeen years of voice teaching and thirty-two years of experience as a professional singer, performer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader, songwriter, recording artist and recording producer. She taught professional singers for ten years in
She has coached actors, public speakers, business people, teachers, and persons wanting accent remediation. Laurece has taught the full range of singers: beginners, amateurs, aspiring and active professionals, who sang, R&B, Rock, Soul, Jazz, Broadway, Gospel, Salsa, Bossa Nova, Heavy Metal, Country, Blues, Punk, and Hip Hop. Performers in her studio have had management, publishing and label contracts, recorded CDs, made videos, toured, and performed internationally.
Musical Background and Training
Laurece is from a musical family on her father's side with three generations of professional musicians. Laurece's brother and cousins have successful careers as instrumentalists, band leaders, recording artists, studio musicians, recording engineers and producers. Both her maternal and paternal line has had professional artists in multimedia and painting.
As a child Laurece studied and played piano and violin. As a teen she played flute and piccolo, participating in her school concert and marching bands, which traveled to perform and compete in several states.
In college she picked up guitar and harmonica, started writing songs, and began to gig with musical partners and as a solo artist.
After receiving a BA, cum laude in Biology, with minors in music and English, from
papers) and played music at night. She took lessons and performed with a number of bands as an electric bassist and backing vocalist. As Laurece's skill and coordination increased, and one band kept losing lead vocalists. Laurece was then asked to sing lead while playing bass. Over 26 years, she was a member of Blues, pop, rock, folk, blues-rock, folk-blues and jazz-rock bands, several of which made recordings.
Laurece is from the successful vocal teaching lineage of Dr. Edward Dwyer. Dr. Dwyer taught Broadway and Metropolitan Opera singers and trained Laurece’s teacher, Hester Young and a teacher of numerous rock and R&B stars. This Bel Canto method has been used by teachers of this lineage with Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Cory Glover,
At age 24 Laurece began voice lessons, continuing for 12 years with Hester Young. She went to other voice teachers temporarily twice when Hester was on medical leave. When producers or band mates wanted her to explore their teacher, she went and then later discussed the lessons and pedagogy with Hester.
After 7 years of study, Hester said Laurece was qualified to teach, but she felt unready. At 9 years, Laurece started teaching and studied for three more years so she could continue learning and receive support from Hester about specific voice challenges she encountered in her students. Laurece has been teaching since 1993.
At age 34, Laurece studied piano lessons again for 8 years. She began teaching at the request of voice students. She specializes in assisting musicians to easily understand chord theory and structure, for the purpose of playing songs right away. She writes songs on piano and bass, and performs with each.
As a performer, Laurece has been in a number of bands, as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and several as band leader. Her personal style is a fusion of blues, jazz, folk, rock and gospel. She most often accompanies herself on piano or bass, or sings a cappella, doing songs with jazz improv breaks. She frequently gigs, jams and records solo and with bands. She will be re-releasing her first and second CDs in 2010 and her third in 2011.
Laurece is a member of International Women in Jazz and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
The Joy of Teaching
Blessed with patience, Laurece enjoys working with all types of clients. Laurece has taught: 4 to 70 year olds, a wonderful variety of nationalities and cultures, from tone deaf to highly musical, from excited kids to professional athletes, business persons, and performers. Laurece's love of teaching is from the warm learning relationship developed. Her payoff and excitement is witnessing clients consistently getting better, more skilled, artistic interesting, expressive, grounded, and personally satisfied.
