Somatic Voice Awareness in Asheville, NC & Online
Body-Based Somatic Voice Work for Tension, Expression & Feeling at Home in Your Voice!
What You'll Explore with Integrated Somatic Voice Awareness
Your voice is not separate from your body — it is your body, in motion. Somatic voice awareness starts from that simple truth. Some students come to True Voice lessons because their voice feels tight, small, shaky, or stuck, and technique alone has not changed it. Others come because they sense there is more voice in them than currently comes out, and they want a gentler way to find it.
During your singing lessons, you may explore body awareness, somatic breathing, and gentle sound-making like humming, sighing, and toning. You may notice where tension lives — jaw, throat, shoulders, belly — and experiment with softening it. You may also explore how emotions, habits, and physical patterns shape your sound, and what happens when your voice has more room to move.
You may explore how to:
Notice where tension lives in your body and how it shapes your voice
Soften habitual gripping in the jaw, throat, tongue, and breath
Use somatic breathing and breathwork practices to settle and support your sound
Reconnect breath, body, and voice as one system
Explore your voice through humming, toning, sighing, and free sound
Make sound without judging, fixing, or performing it
Notice the connection between emotion and voice with curiosity
Find more ease, resonance, and freedom in your natural sound
Build a gentler, more trusting relationship with your voice
Carry that embodied ease into singing, speaking, and daily life
Your Voice Lives in Your Body
Vocal tension is rarely just a technique problem. A gripped jaw, a held breath, a tight throat — these are physical patterns, often built up over years, and they quietly limit how your voice can move. Somatic voice work addresses them where they live: in the body, through awareness, breath, and gentle exploration rather than effort and correction.
Many students are surprised by how much sound becomes available when the body stops bracing. Rather than pushing the voice to do more, this work invites the body to allow more — and the voice that emerges often feels easier, warmer, and more like your own.
Why You Should Say Yes to Somatic Voice Work
Get Started on Your Journey Today!
Click the button below to contact us and take the first step towards a freer, more connected voice!
True Voice offers private somatic voice guidance in your vocal sessions with an experienced vocal coach from our studios in Asheville, NC, online using Zoom or a combination of both. Our sessions are offered weekly in rate options of 30min, 45min or 1 hour sessions as a monthly subscription or as single sessions. Our coaches welcome all ages and all levels of experience — no singing background needed.
Our Singing & Performance Programs
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Work with an instructor in a supportive Asheville studio environment. In-person lessons offer focused vocal coaching, room to explore sound, somatic awareness, and personalized guidance for technique, performance, breath support, creativity, and confidence. Explore our Sing Club performance and/or creative expression workshops to take your voice a step forward in freedom to do whatever you are drawn to!
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There is nothing like the feeling of the vibrations of harmonic blend. Build confidence in holding your harmonic part while listening and responding to other voices. Harmony lessons can support couples, families, small groups, full bands, and individual singers who want to better understand intervals, harmonic improvisation and spontaneous blend.
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Develop a freer, more grounded and more expressive speaking voice. Our supportive approach to sharing your voice in any medium can give you the tools you need for confidence in auditions, presentations, the theatre, monologues, storytelling, public speaking, or everyday communication.
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Prepare to share your voice with greater focus and freedom. Performance coaching can address stage presence, interpretation, microphone use, movement, audience connection, rehearsal habits, and the transition from practicing a song to communicating it. Our Sing Club workshops blend practical vocal technique with mind-body awareness, confidence-building, and the opportunity to perform in the student Sing Club workshops and local music venues! Or we’ll guide you through recording your own songs with confidence!
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Learn practical ways to work with nervousness before auditions, performances, presentations, or other high-pressure situations. Sessions may combine preparation strategies, breath and body (somatic) awareness, reframing, and gradual exposure to public performances to help performance anxiety feel more manageable. Explore our Sing Club performance and/or creative expression workshops to take your voice a step forward in freedom to do whatever you are drawn to!
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Our online and hybrid voice lessons offer flexible support for students who want consistent vocal coaching, performance guidance, and creative development without needing to be in the Asheville studio every week.
Who We Work Best With
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Online voice lessons can support adults who are beginning, returning to music, pursuing professional goals, or simply looking for a meaningful creative practice. Lessons are adapted to your experience, interests, schedule, and inspiration for wanting to sing.
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You do not need previous training, music-reading skills, a large vocal range, or confidence performing in front of others. Beginners receive clear, encouraging guidance that helps them understand the basics while making room for curiosity and gradual growth. And the opportunity to sing on stage if that is a desire.
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Couples and families can use singing lessons to build confidence, learn harmony, prepare meaningful songs, or just to create a shared musical practice. Sessions can be adapted for different ages, experience levels, and reasons for wanting to sing together.
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Groups and bands can work on blend, harmony, arrangement, communication, performance, and the vocal demands of shared music-making. Coaching can be tailored to a specific song, upcoming performance, rehearsal challenge, or broader group goal.
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Prepare songs and audition material with attention to vocal technique, storytelling, character, phrasing, and performance choices. Coaching can support both virtual and in-person auditions, rehearsals, callbacks, and role preparation. Our musical theatre coach can help you with it all!
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Singers, musicians, actors, teachers, speakers, and other professional voice users can receive targeted support for demanding schedules and specific performance needs. Lessons may focus on stamina, consistency, recovery, preparation, expression, healthy voice practices, somatic breath and awareness or sustainable vocal use.
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Young singers can build healthy habits, musical confidence, and a stronger understanding of their voices in age-appropriate sessions. Lessons may include favorite songs, vocal exercises, performance preparation, creativity, and guidance for practicing without strain. AND some songwriting guidance if that is a focus.
What Our Somatic Voice Work Students Are Saying:
Meet Your Somatic Voice Coaches!
Virginia Drake is a vocal coach, professional singer~songwriter, musician, performance coach, and the founder of True Voice Lessons in Asheville, NC. After years of formal study in musical theater and voice, she went on to perform as a jazz vocalist, indie folk singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist across multiple genres. Her teaching blends practical vocal technique with mind-body awareness, confidence-building, and the opportunity to perform in her student Sing Club workshops and local music venues! Virginia brings warmth, experience, and a deep love of singing into every lesson, helping students find a voice that feels strong, expressive, and authentically their own.
Virginia Drake
Graciela Serena is a professional singer-songwriter, vocal mentor, expression coach, and performer whose work blends music, embodied practice, and emotional truth. As an artist, she creates bluesy pop-rock music with raw, soulful vocals and lyrics rooted in vulnerability, empowerment, and self-expression. In her coaching, Graciela helps students reconnect with the voice beneath fear, conditioning, and self-consciousness. Her lessons support singers and speakers who want to build confidence, express themselves more freely, and feel more at home in their voice.
Graciela Serena
Frequently Asked Questions About Somatic Voice Work
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Somatic voice work is a body-based approach to the voice. "Somatic" simply means "of the body" — so instead of focusing on notes, songs, or technique, this work focuses on the physical experience of making sound: breath, posture, tension, sensation, and the patterns that shape how your voice comes out.
In practice, that means slowing down, noticing, and exploring. Sessions use somatic breathing, body awareness, and gentle vocal sounds to help you discover where your voice is held back and what helps it release. Over time, many students find their voice becomes freer and more expressive — not by working harder, but by allowing more.
Somatic Voice Coaching: Prices & Packages
True Voice offers somatic voice coaching that is integrated into your voice lessons and in several formats so students can choose the level of support that fits their goals and comfort level. Session options may include 30-minute, 45-minute, or 1-hour private sessions, with ongoing weekly options available through monthly subscriptions. Single sessions may also be available for students preparing for a specific performance or presentation.
Pricing can vary based on session length, frequency, coach, and the type of support you are looking for. If you are new to True Voice, the best first step is to reach out and share a little about your experience and goals. From there, we can help you choose the format and pace that make the most sense for you — one manageable step at a time.
Get Started on Your Journey Today!
Click the button below to contact us and take the first step towards a freer, more connected voice!
True Voice offers private somatic voice guidance in your vocal sessions with an experienced vocal coach from our studios in Asheville, NC, online using Zoom or a combination of both. Our sessions are offered weekly in rate options of 30min, 45min or 1 hour sessions as a monthly subscription or as single sessions. Our coaches welcome all ages and all levels of experience — no singing background needed.