Sheryl Rak:
I have over 35 years of vocal and voice teaching studies and performing, and over 25 years of experience as a Voice Teacher, Coach, and Vocal Therapist. I have been a participating member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) since 1980, and served on the Chicago NATS Board of Directors. I have been a member of the Music Teachers National Association, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS: the Grammy's organization), the Voice Foundation, and the American Music Conference. I am the recipient of the 1993 CHICAGO ROCKER AWARD for Commitment and Service to the Chicago Music Community.
I write articles on vocal issues, and am in the process of writing a book on Rak Vocal Care. My articles cover such topics as “Rak Vocal Care: ...So, You Want to Record Your Singing!”, “Keeping Your Voice Healthy: HYDRATION!”, “Rak Vocal Care: Respiratory Illness Care Suggestions”, “Rak Vocal Care: Esophageal Reflux Resolution for Voice Users”, vocal anatomy & physiology, warming-up and cooling-down information, vocal healing, breathing for singers, “How Do I Want To Be”, a 3-octave+ range in everyone, one seamless 'body' voice from very low to very high, mic usage, T'ai Chi and Yoga for singers, nutrition issues for vocal performers, etc....
I also have a 3-CD set available: “Rak Vocal Care: Overview of Vocal Basics; Introductory Vocal Limbering & Warm-Up; and, Vocalizing Warm-Up Routine”. I expect to produce further CDs and DVDs... My affirmations book, “BECOMING” ENERGY: Affirmations For All Creative Beings, is also available.
I will teach you how to use your body, mind, and voice together as your vocal instrument. I teach how to be fit and healthy for your voice, and to understand how to limber and warm yourself up regularly because you use your voice all the time, not just when you are singing. I teach how to cool-down your body and voice after heavy voice usage, and how to begin healing your voice if you have strained or mis-used it. I will help you sing more easily and safely when you have to sing while you are 'under the weather'. I teach what causes excess phlegm and mucus to be produced, and how to balance your production of them. I teach what causes nasal tone in singing, and how to solve it. I teach general preventive care, body, mind, voice, and spirit, because everything you think, eat, drink, do, and experience affects how you let your voice come through you.
I teach a basic vocal technique to which you can apply any style of singing. I begin right away showing you how to bring out your own core voice more effectively and efficiently, in any music style. When your core voice is coming through you more easily and consistently, then we work together to add color, texture, creativity, and your style of music to your singing. We work on any issues you have in your singing experience, such as expanding your range, developing pitch control, breath support, projection of your voice, working around allergies and asthma, power, stamina, reliability, repertoire, stage presentation and connecting with your audience...
I am good at showing relationships and imagery with things you know and understand, such as baseball, car pistons, elevators, caulking guns, cake decorating utensils, trampolines, running, lifting weights, skating, dancing, etc. This helps bring understanding of your internal, un-see-able vocal issues and functions into your more practical world functions.

Rak Vocal & Healing Clinic:
A “clinic” is a place or workshop for intense, concentrated study and exploration, as in basketball and baseball clinics, banking clinics, finance clinics, and, of course, medical clinics. The Rak Vocal & Healing Clinic is a studio for intense, concentrated study, as we work together helping you get the most out of your voice - and, your talent, and your life.
You and I will be a team, working together to help you develop yourself and your vocal usage for your highest good, which, in turn, helps serve the highest good of all creation. When you are more balanced and healthy, you send out and share more balanced energy with all who are around you - with all of creation. We will work together in caring, balanced understanding and communication.
Appointments are generally one hour per week, and are private, one-on-one sessions. Your sessions are tape recorded for you so you have them to review and work with. Warm-Up, Cool-Down, and Vocal Healing routines are included in your sessions and on your tapes when you start developing vocal production technique.
Scheduling is done by phone: 773/283-8349
I teach afternoons, evenings, and late nights till midnight, including Saturdays.
The Studio is located in a well-marked storefront on Irving Park Road, on the far northwest side of Chicago. There is street parking in the area, and the #80 Irving Park Bus stops right in front, at Meade Av.
Clients work with me from all over the greater Chicagoland area, and from Wisconsin and Indiana.
You are mailed a detailed Questionnaire to fill out and bring in with you to your first appointment. You will often be given reading material to supplement your learning.



 

IMPROVEMENT begins to be noted in comfort and vocal ease
within two to three weeks,
and more significantly in about two months,
with more vocal stability and strength being established
within three to six months...



 

Affirmation by Sheryl Rak:

I AM A SINGER
Singing, and, believing in myself as a singer,
are becoming easier and more fulfilling to me in every moment
from now, onward. As an acorn has within it, always and forever,
the essence of the full, glorious, majestic oak tree,
so, the singer that I am being now, in this, my 'acorn' or 'sapling' stage,
has always and forever the essence of the
masterful, enlightening, creative, expressive, powerful singer of my soul.
I AM A SINGER