Kevyn Lettau: It's all about learning the language of music. Vocalists have to be able to tell the band what they want. For example, "I want a four-bar intro here, I want the bass to come in here, I want double time here, I need more arpeggiated motion from the piano..." If you're not a musician or haven't been taught how to communicate, you have less chance of getting the accompaniment you want.

Students sing in the classroom every day. Everybody watches each other take a turn, so we learn by watching as well as doing. We sing different styles each quarter. In 4th phase, we have three styles; jazz, R&B, and electives. An elective means students bring in whatever they want. And that's where they might bring in something that they've written. At the beginning of the phase, they get a CD for each style, and they have a song to learn for each class, each week. They're learning about 3 songs a week.

It can be. It's not geared toward songwriting, but there is a ten-week course in the last phase where we do electives and the kids bring in what they want, often original material. In the last 6 months they're working with a band 4 days a week, and learning how to communicate what they want.

This course grew out of what I wished I'd had back when I started working as a young singer. I studied voice and piano, but never went to college to become a musician. I asked myself,"What can I impart that took me 20 years to learn through trial and error?" And that's how I came up with the vocal program. There's a lot of emphasis on technique, and ear-training and sightsinging.

Two kinds of singers come in. Some have no idea what they want to sing and are open-minded and just want to learn about all the different styles. Then there are the young singers who know exactly what they want. But I can tell you that in the vast majority of cases, they all change what they came in wanting to sing.

Because they haven't been exposed to a lot of styles. Many times when I ask young singers who they like, they say Christina Aguilera or very current singers because they don't know anybody else. And then they start to learn about the blues, jazz and about old R & B. We get to the roots of where all the current stuff came from, and very often they end up changing tastes because they're exposed to more. It would be like if you'd only eaten meat and potatoes all your life, and suddenly you sat down at a banquet of exotic, gourmet dishes. You'd still love meat and potatoes, but you'd have all these other things to flavor your meals. That's kind of what happens.

There's a big range of things that can happen. I had a student from my first vocal class who signed a huge record deal with Warner Bros. There are students who returned to Brazil and Holland, and they are singing, recording, and/or teaching.

All work starts by making a recording. A lot of students will have a recording by the time they graduate, because they're involved in the studio recording band. We don't have a recording facility at the school, but we have a class where they write a song in a group and then they record it at an independent studio facility. There's a lot of studio work going on in LA-background sessions, station ID's, soloing for commercials, backup on records, etc.

Finding out where the auditions are, getting musician's magazines and newspapers, and sitting in. That horrible part of the networking thing! (laughs) Going out and showing people who you are, offering to do things for free, getting out and meeting other singers, meeting other musicians. Ultimately, that is where most of the work comes from. You network yourself to the next level.

Get everything out of the way that's keeping you from doing it; fear, insecurity, lack of commitment, time, emotional support. Young kids come to school and they're lacking confidence because they're not really supported at home. You'll get supported here, so you can get to work.