A Conversation with Cameron
In conversation with Joe Deery, co-Director of The Vocal Coaches
Cameron, your teaching résumé reads like a Who’s Who. How did you end up teaching at the level you do?
This is a really longwinded story, that I’ll try and give the shortest possible version of! My journey to this point has had so many twists and turns. I started out as a point-first study pianist and singer, at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music, going there on Saturdays from the age of 14-18. Then of course, the two of us met at Cambridge in Trinity College Choir where we were super lucky to tour the world with an amazing group of musicians. After Cambridge, I went back to the Royal Academy for my first post-grad degree in piano, whilst also working with Sue McCulloch from the Guildhall School of Music on my opera singing. Then, a big leap over the pond to New York, where I was so lucky to have a Fulbright Scholarship on top of a full scholarship from Juilliard. That’s where everything turned really. One day I was asked to step in and play piano a “voice for dancers” class at Juilliard (ie for dancers who wanted to be on Broadway and need to be able to sing well too). From then I played for I’d guess over two thousand voice lessons with the very best voice teachers in the city, in the pop, classical and musical theatre worlds. This is a pretty unique entry-way into voice coaching, but it meant that I’d seen virtually any vocal issue you could think of, and had seen so many different methods to fix them. I was also always interested in anatomy, and often I think of my vocal studio as a bit of a “surgery”, where my role is either to diagnose and remedy, or play a part in creating this ultra-efficient machine called the voice!!
You get a lot of applications to study with you; how do you choose who you’ll work with?
I have a lot of enquiries from prospective students, and genuinely look for just two things: 1 - a great working relationship, and 2 - a willingness to learn. In virtually all instances, I won’t accept a student based purely on their vocal level; I can teach that myself. It’s the other stuff. If they’re willing to put the work in, accept constructive feedback, and we enjoy working with each other, then I’m happy. We need to remember that both of us are investing a lot of time into this project, so we need to make sure we’re on the same page!
What’s the story behind The Vocal Coaches?
Well, once I began teaching, initially in New York, and then largely online globally, I found that my teaching style was driving results: students were landing major roles on Broadway and winning big competitions. Then the producers of those competitions (America’s Got Talent etc) began writing to me asking which students I had coming through that I was excited about. That’s when demand became more than I could supply (or at least give my full attention to), so I started entrusting certain parts of the work (note-learning, some audition prep and repertoire selection, music theory) to colleagues whose teaching I knew and loved. That grew and grew to become The Vocal Coaches, where we’re now mentoring over 2000 thousand students from around the world, with literally greatest voice faculty of any school on the planet.
The Vocal Coaches has been an incredible project to work on with you and it’s been amazing to see so many students achieve their dreams under our guidance, whether it’s signing to a record label, landing Broadway or TV roles, or simply finding the confidence to be in their school shows. We could never have achieved all of this with a brick-and-mortar school, but what pros and cons do you personally find of learning online?
I love working online, and began doing it years before covid hit. The efficiency is just not replicable in the real-world; I have so many clients who are on months-long tours, Broadway tours, concert arena tours etc; and we check in for a lesson every single week (sometimes more) from their hotel rooms or on TV sets. Recently I had a client who landed a TV role and had to move to Mexico for three months and live in a hotel. She didn’t miss a single voice lesson. This simply didn’t used to be possible. It allows for an incredible continuity in the learning journey and means I can offer myself more fully to the students I take in my studio. It also means that my students don’t need to live in London, New York or LA to have great teachers. This is something I felt strongly about, growing up in *very* rural England, and it’s nice to know that more young singers are getting the chance for world-class education wherever they live.
I’m lucky that I’m a pianist and have a recording studio at home, so my students always receive pro backing tracks to the songs that they are working on.
If I was to try and find a con (for your question), I guess I get a bit lonely sometimes being in this room by myself, especially when I have several students in the same shows and I want to be there to share in the excitement, but wow the work we can do massively outweighs that for me.
Speaking of excitement, what excites you most as a teacher?
Seeing a student achieve what they set out to do, and then some. And the best thing about singing is that can happen at literally any level. I get equally ecstatic about a 7 year old singing “The Girl I Mean to Be” from The Secret Garden with *exactly* the right expression, as I do a 30 year old absolutely killing No Good Deed. I’ve also had a lot of students who started lessons with confidence issues. Sometimes that issue stems from their own knowledge or suspicion that what they are doing vocally isn’t right, or doesn’t feel good, but they haven’t had helpful feedback from their local teachers. Helping students, including beginners, dissect that, put in some solid vocal technique, watch their confidence grow and go from school chorus to lead in their school show is a wonderful thing to witness. It really helps change people’s lives in so many ways.
Do you have any particular favorite audition songs for students?
I always say the best audition song is the one that shows the student off. Sometimes that’s not just the song, but the cut we choose, the key etc. Everything has to be both tailored to the student’s individual strengths, but also fall within the realms of the audition rubric, especially when they so often say “within the style of the show”. Off the top of my head, some audition cuts I’ve worked on recently that I’ve loved are: “Nobody’s Side” (Chess), “Safer” (First Date), “Lucky to be me” (On the Town), “After all of this and everything” (Freaky Friday), and “Don’t wanna be here” (Ordinary Days).
Which artists do you love listening to and why?
This is a really hard question, I’m just trying to think who’s in my Spotify most-played at the moment. In pop, I listen to a lot of the “greats”, for obvious reasons: Celine Dion, Shirley Bassey, Dean Martin, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Dolly Parton, Freddie Mercury. A lot of the time, the thing that draws me to certain singers are their idiosyncrasies. Off the top of my head: Meat Loaf, Lewis Capaldi, Andra Day, Lorde, Birdy, Toni Braxton, Imogen Heap.
In musical theatre, definitely Sierra Boggess, Ramin Karimloo, Julian Ovenden, the great Lindsay Mendez, Phillipa Soo and of course Audra McDonald. I think my value judgements for MT are slightly different though. It’s about their ability to create a character that I can believe in, and it relies really heavily on a solid technical foundation. In pop, sometimes it can be unusual things in someone’s technique that make them so interesting, or raw.
What advice do you have for somebody who wants to become a pop singer?
Know your audience, and cultivate it. When distilled to it’s simplest form, that’s all it is. There’s a millions of unbelievable singers who never get to where they should because of this, and vice versa. It’s a slightly sad truth. Know what your USP is, find the niche audience and grow outwards from that core fan base. The labels will follow.
For more specific advice, tailored to that person, then they have to find people whose opinions they trust. I can’t comment in a general term on style, branding, vocal technique, etc because that is so unique to each pop singer.
…and musical theatre singer?
Slightly different game plan. Take lessons with the best people you can find, create an unbelievable reel and submit it to agents. Alongside networking, one of the goals in MT is to get yourself heard by the right people, in auditions etc. In pop, that’s different, there isn’t really the same “middle-man” or gatekeeper standing between you and your audience; if you have the audience, the industry will want to monetize you.
Can you teach ANYBODY to sing?
Yes.
Outside of music, how do you like spending your time?
Music is filling my head every waking (and non-waking moment), but it’s important to try and create balance. The work flows so much more easily if you have that. So I enjoy going to the gym and also swimming, and walking my dog. Usually when I’m teaching, he’s asleep under my desk. I live in the country and near the beach so it’s easy to go and find some nice brain space. I’m also partial to a good TV quiz show!