Crossroads Vocalist Evolution with Moorea Dickason (Vocal Coach) &
Michael LaMacchia (Accompanist & Arranging Coach)

There will be 5 classes total, plus the recital, The recital will be at a local club. Class will be limited to 2-4 participants. Each participant will select 6 songs, from which we will select three to perform.

The class will focus on:

• Warm-ups and Breathing We start this seminar with learning the importance of breathing. We as human beings tend to hold our breath methodically throughout the day and we don’t even realize it. We will show you ways to connect with your breath through exercises, which will ground and relax you while building diaphragm and lung strength. Through these important exercises you will gain vocal control and learn how to sustain notes.

• Connection We will offer ways to connect with music and lyrics by triggering emotions and dynamically building a song using both chest and head voice. If you are emotionally feeling the words you are singing, so will your audience.

• Vocal placement, sing in tune We will share with you a technique that brightens words and phrases and keeps you from singing flat or sharp through vocal placement, which focuses on the vowels in each word you sing. It’s an amazing tool for every singer to have.

• Ear training Learn to rely on your ear through ear training. We will learn full and numeric scale tones as well as chromatic ascending and descending scales.

• Learn to sing with power and dynamics Find your vocal power and connect with a deeper part of yourself hence spiritual, emotional and physical so you can experience complete vocal freedom.

• Stage presence, Mic technique, Advanced arranging, and chart /lyric language

Crossroads Workshop with Sandy Griffith & Andy Dudnick

We have some INCREDIBLY EXCITING NEWS for you! We’ve heard your requests for a strong vocal teachers to lead and help with Crossroads classes, and we are so excited and proud to report that we have found the PERFECT teacher . Sandy Griffith is an accomplished professional vocalist and vocal teachers. Gifted with a strong, rich, and soulful voice, she can move the soul of the audience with emotional energy and angelic-like presence. Crossroads’ now has 2 wonderful professional vocal coachs – both (in addition to being a top notch performer with an amazing voice) warm, funny, smart and sweet, but also hard-nosed and very effective and direct when it comes to teaching vocalists. Both know what they are doing as teachers and do it well. Really well.

Sandy has worked with many major music industry performers. Her impressive talent credits include stints with top recording artists: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Al Jarreau, Howard Hewitt, Patti Austin, Oleta Adams and Regina Belle. Not to mention her large tour resume featuring Boz Scaggs, Huey Lewis and the News, Kenny Loggins, Howard Hewitt and Jonathan Butler. 

Both will be teaching vocal classes and vocalists in band and performance classes for Crossroads starting this next semester. We are still in the process of configuring the classes, but please let us know if you are interested in taking a class. We are certain her classes will be instantly oversubscribed, so if you have interest, you’ll need to let us know RIGHT AWAY!

Haley Mears: Vocal Workshops and Coaching

Class description:

I remember my first Crossroads class vividly. I’d been away from music for far too long, but my heart and soul demanded I return to it. My first class was a revelation and I never turned back. I couldn’t be happier to be making music, to be in such a supportive and generous community, and now, to have the opportunity to give back to the Crossroads family that has given me so much.

Drawing on my own experiences as a student, performer, and coach I look forward to supporting vocalists with a wide range of aspects of singing and performing. Of course we’ll focus on some basic building blocks of singing such as breath, kinesthetics (yes- singing is athletic!), and rhythm. We will also work on techniques to make your vocals engaging and compelling such as story-telling & connection, vocal tone & placement, and phrasing & dynamics. By working with all these elements, we’ll collaboratively discover and cultivate each vocalist’s unique voice and presence. Finally, we’ll also delve into aspects of performance itself, with a special focus on overcoming nerves, boosting confidence, and focusing all that energy in productive, creative ways to produce the best performance and have the most fun!

Please come ready to learn, to stretch yourself, to laugh, and of course to have fun! To make the most of your experience, to each class please bring water, pencil and paper, and a recording device (phones are fine.)

*Please also bring 2 complete sets of lyrics for each of your songs to the first class.

Bio: Haley Mears

Haley Mears grew up outside Philadelphia listening to an eclectic mix of early ragtime and jazz, classic rock, and 1980's pop radio. Haley studied voice from middle through high school, and played casual coffeehouse gigs with friends through college. Musically she was dormant for many years after that until discovering Crossroads Music School. Since then, Haley has been fortunate enough to have studied voice and music with great teachers including Lynn Asher, Sandy Griffith, Amber Morris, April Grisman, Michael LaMacchia, Rob Fordyce, Ken Cook, and Raz Kennedy.

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She has sung and recorded with Michael LaMacchia's New Directions and performed with his Organic Jive Collective. She is most grateful to have shared the stage with musicians such as Alan Hall, Dan Zinn, and April Grisman, among many others, and for the last four years has been a lead and backing vocalist in the popular 9-piece R&B band, the James Moseley Band. Haley also loves to get the Led out, among other rock pleasures, with her rock band, dBRx, and to get down and dirty with the blues with the East Bay’s Bait & Switch Blues Band.

Haley has a pure, evocative voice and a smooth, natural delivery. Her deep presence is expressed through her rich, emotion-laden tones. Haley loves to sing a wide variety of material from rock to blues to singer/songwriter material to R&B, and even sometimes jazz on occasion. No matter the genre, Haley sings music that resonates with something deep inside herself, and her heartfelt delivery and unique voice reach out to stir your heart and move your body and your soul.