If wine tastes better as it ages, singers become masterful vocal coaches as they accumulate experience. And if that person is a classical singer, then you shouldn’t doubt the purity of the knowledge he has when it comes to the fundamentals. If you want a traditionalist and a veteran in the industry as your coach, then you’re in for a treat.

And in case you aren’t particularly interested in traditional techniques and singing classical music, this course that I’m about to review will still be helpful to you. After all, classical techniques are often used to improve one’s singing skills regardless of specialization, genre, and skill level.

The Classics

In the current contemporary scene, people tend to bring up the Beatles, Eagles, and even Queen when talking about the classics. Sometimes, I find that unsettling because I have different people, bands, and songs in my mind like Ave Maria. But maybe it’s an era thing and how the media portrayed music and musicians over the years.

Ok, boomer (did I use that right?). I brought up what’s on my mind because of our current vocal coach who’ll be subjected in this review. It’s Robert Lischetti, and he’s not the typical contemporary singer or coach like you would often find online. Instead, his career mostly revolved around operas and classical music.

If you’re savvy with my definition of “classics”, you’ll be familiar with Lischetti and the song Bel Canto. If you’re not, it’s within my expectations. His golden days as a performer predate most of my audiences’ birth dates after all.

A Master In Our Midst

During his time in the limelight,  he toured around famous opera houses in the country, rarely staying and performing in his local state, which is New York. And when he got traction in the industry, he often found himself singing in other countries like Switzerland, Austria, and Germany.

Currently, he resides in Sarasota, Florida, where his studio is located. He teaches around 20 to 25 students. It is also where he continues his life as a tenor soloist. You would often find him there in recitals and concerts. Aside from teaching and performing, he frequently serves as a judge for various music-related contests and events.

Unlike other vocal coaches, he is one of the few that has actual and formal teaching experience in a school. The most recent job he had as a faculty member was at State College of Florida. He worked there for six years as a teacher, choir director, and vocal studies’ interim director.

I could go on and on with what his achievements are and how much passion he has for music. But I would sum it up in one line: he is definitely qualified as a top tier vocal coach.

Another thing to note about him is that he doesn’t have any fancy-sounding vocal school, programs, or ideology (e.g., Arceneaux’s AAproach)

. He’ll just straight-up offer vocal coaching and music lessons. No bells and whistles—just pure knowledge. He’s been on stage for more than 40 years and started coaching 20 years ago. It seems two decades is the magic number for coaches.

At this point, you already have an idea of what you’ll get. But let’s dive more in-depth on what he has in store for us online.

Vocal Warm-Ups for Great Technique

Robert Lischetti has two courses:

• Vocal Warm-Ups for Great Technique
• Breathing for Better Singing

The first course costs $19.99, and the second course costs $18.99. Both of them are 90% of exercises and 10% for lessons. And most of the things you’ll learn are drills you’ll be doing all throughout your journey to become a professional level singer.

There are 10 segments or videos in the vocal warm-ups course, which has a total duration of 1h30m. The breathing course is relatively shorter, with nine parts, which has an entire length of 43 minutes.

Presentation

Presentation-wise, he filmed the videos in his studio, which I believe is one section of his own house. It’s nothing fancy. The videography is clean, thanks to the contrasting white wall background.

I already mentioned that most of the things you’ll learn are exercises. However, if you want to start with a lesson centric course, I recommend that you take the second course first. It focuses on breathing best practices and correcting any bad habits you learned in terms of air management in singing.

Both courses deal with the fundamentals, but you must have an idea of how to sing before you go through the trails. You’ll quickly get lost and confused if you go through these courses without basic singing knowledge.

Pacing

You don’t need to worry about pacing yourself with this course. Most of the videos are practice materials you’ll mostly watch over and over again during your warmup. It will take some time before you outgrow the need to rewatch the videos of the first course.

With his background adequately summarized in the beginning, you must already have an expectation of what his teaching style would be, which I will talk more about later.

He’s a straightforward guy, and he cares little when it comes to marketing and overpromising. The premise of his courses and services is simple. If you want to have a reliable singing technique, then get his services and directions.

A Bit of A Dilemma

With his experience and expertise, the biggest dilemma I have with Robert is… why does he only have a few courses?! I mean, I’m sure you get what I’m saying, the class are mostly composed of exercises. I’m not saying they’re wrong or worthless. It’s the opposite, and that’s why we need more from him?

He indeed offers one-on-one voice lessons via Skype, FaceTime, and Zoom. However, I know that it can be a bit costly, and I’d rather see video courses because I think I’m way past one-on-one coaching. Of courses, unlike me, you have this option.

Lastly, it must have been nice if he hired someone to fix his video’s audio. Not that it’s terrible, it sounds just a regular recording. An alternative is that he could have only performed acoustic treatment in the room to eliminate the sound reflections. This is mostly a nitpick, but I’m sure he can improve it like how Gabriel Buraffato’s videos,

A Prudent Summarization

Old doesn’t mean better, but massive experience means competence, finesse, and wisdom. Robert Lischetti is a rare sight in the midst of new blood in the music scene. It’s truly unfortunate that his focus is on his studio and not making online courses.

You already know what my recommendation will be. You can go ahead and check out his course here: Robert Lischetti’s Vocal Warmups for Great Technique.

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