Private Lessons
Your voice is the messenger of your truth. If you have a desire or a need to communicate your truth out loud in a way that feels good, these lessons will be a good fit for you. In these co-created, one-on-one lessons, you will develop and refine vocal techniques that support the empowered and liberated use of your voice. You will learn a mixture of techniques, warm-ups and melodies that inspire the confidence to sing freely and without restraint. You will study breath control, resonance, vowels and tongue placement, dynamics, vocal health, and singing as a healing practice.
My students are songwriters, performers, actors, teachers, gentle souls and power houses. I work with teens, parents, young creatives, elder geniuses and seekers of all types. If you are deeply committed to music, are ready to prioritize your voice, and looking for a guiding hand, I’d love to hear from you!
I am an experienced guide through the complex waters of vocal development, having taught for nearly 2 decades. I view the process of learning how to sing as a path of learning to be at ease with oneself. As a teacher, my main objective is in empowering people with the skills they need to use their unique voices to sing, and speak their truth with power, beauty and wisdom. I use a combination of western-classical, Iranian-classical, and Indian-classical techniques and theories to lead my students to vocal healing and liberation.
"Adrienne helped me learn how to sing in a voice that is truly mine- not the singers that I try to mimic- so that I can offer my unique voice to the world. She helped me learn how to breathe and hold my body in a way that supports my voice to be more powerful without straining. I'm so much more confident..."
- Iris B.
"I used to play guitar and sing when i was younger but I lost motivation and confidence for a long time. Lessons with Adrienne are so much fun and in no time I've gained my confidence back and have started learning new songs and techniques. Adrienne is patient, encouraging and funny - a truly wonderful teacher."
- Amy P.
GUITAR
Instruments become our friends. They support us through difficult times, they give us purpose and direction, they challenge us to grow, and they sing our songs back to us in real time. The guitar can be a companion, a guide, a cowriter. These lessons are for those of you who are already comfortable with the basic basics, want to write or have written songs and want more skills and tools to accompany your songs as you sing them. (*I am currently not taking brand new beginner guitar students.)
SONGWRITING
In working together I will help you:
- Break through your mental blocks / write with clarity
- Craft your story lines / themes for lyrics
- Be more fearless with your poetry
- Write beautiful chord progressions and melody
- Learn what you need to know about music theory
- Songwriting is very personal and can be a mysterious process.
My job is to help you navigate the jungles of creativity so that you can see real progress and growth in your songwriting skills. I also am happy to co-write with you, offer ideas and get into the song with you to see what's necessary, what needs to come in and what needs to be let go.
You and your voice are not two separate things. You and your voice, your music, are one. Your voice is your body, is the expression of your spirit, and it is the manifestation of your Truth.
We all experience ruptures in this awareness at times in our lives.
The power of music and singing to mend deep wounds or to ease physical and emotional tension is proven and real. Many of us feel that pull to music as one of pathways finding wholeness.
In our lessons together, we will focus on reclaiming what has been lost or taken from our voices by the storms of life and we will take care to allow our whole self to sing and create - with love and kindness.
Music, songwriting and singing have always been my greatest source of relief from the turmoil in my life, my mind and the world. So at the core of my teaching and my performance is a longing to share that gift of healing with others.
"I started working with Adrienne nearly two years ago because I wanted to liberate my voice. I knew that the resonance I carried inside of me didn't match my external expression. What I felt within, I wanted to be able to share with others. And now, having worked across both the technical aspects of vocalization through Western music, and the emotion / connection to the Divine through Persian music, my capacity to express what I feel now matches. My expression is more fluid, expansive and clear.
I’m grateful not just for Adrienne’s technical mastery and ability to translate complex skills into tangible changes in my body, but more importantly for the invitation she creates through loving presence and laughter to bring forth heart -- in myself and others."
- Melissa L.
Group Classes
Sing & Surrender
A Vocal Massage Class To Free The Body For Song
Your voice is the messenger of your truth.
Guided by singer-songwriter, Adrienne Shamszad, you will have the chance to develop and refine vocal techniques that support the empowered and liberated use of your voice. Each 4-week series is dedicated to learning a new, uplifting song written by Adrienne, especially for Sing and Surrender where you will learn a mixture of techniques, warm-ups, and melodies that encourage self-love, self-acceptance, courage, and confidence.
Some of the topics include:
- Breath control
- Dynamics
- Vowels, jaw, and tongue placement
- Harmonizing
- Vocal health
- Resonance
- Singing as a means for healing, relief, and activism
“I have problems with severe TMJ and participating in Sing and Surrender is the only thing to date that gives me relief.” - HA, regular participant
“Let your guard down’ was a life-changing cue. Thanks for that Adrienne!” - MC, regular participant
"Sing because you can, sing because it's good, sing for all the people in the world who wish they could." - Adrienne Shamszad
Adrienne Shamszad has been performing and teaching for over 2 decades. She is an experienced guide through the complex waters of vocal development and views the process of “learning how to sing” as a path of “learning to be at ease with oneself.” She is actively engaged in empowering people with the skills they need to use their unique voices to sing, and speak their truth with power, beauty and wisdom.
Singing has the ability to dislodge stuck emotion, to create a clear pathway for grief, anger and fear to flow through our bodies. As we release these often trapped feelings, we awaken new, with refreshed love and energy for our art, for our activism, for our lives and for the lives of our loved ones.
Singing as a group is a practice that unites people and makes us feel whole. Adrienne uses the virtual space to connect singers to one another, so that the experience of singing online is one of expansion and reaching new and unexpected heights of vocal liberation, expression and connection.
“There’s so much joy in what I’m feeling...I feel really connected with each of you, hearing your beautiful voices…” - MH, first time participant
Yoga
Shelter Within
Hatha Yoga with Adrienne Shamszad
Saturday Mornings | 9:30-1045am PST | Via ZOOM
Shelter Within Yoga
Shelter Within began in response to the 'Shelter in Place' orders at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and has maintained as a loving community throughout. The class is intended to provide a space for you to breathe deeply and lighten your energetic load. This time is for us to stretch, sing, sometimes sweat, laugh, cry and feel better - together.
Yoga is so much more than a vehicle for physical fitness, or the performance of postures and sequences. It is a practice that challenges us to face ourselves, our strengths and our limitations, with mercy and kindness. The yoga tradition can teach us about service, courage, resilience, compassion, devotion, and focus. In this 75 minute class, we will work on integrating these qualities with our movements and meditations.
Cost
This class is offered on a sliding scale: $15-$30
Payments are made through Venmo and Paypal.
About Your Teacher
Adrienne Shamszad (500 hr RYT), has been teaching yoga asana and philosophy since 2013. She combines her love of music, singing and dance with her passion for anatomy and all things structured to make her yoga classes both liberating and grounding. Her classes are infused with lightness, humor, patience and healthy alignment principles.
Adrienne’s main interest in teaching is in providing a safe and healing container for students to explore the range of their breath and movement. Students will be encouraged to approach the yoga practice with compassion and with curiosity as they explore new sources of energy within their bodies.
Meher Baba says:
"Although the unfurling realization of divine knowledge is often figuratively described as "traversing the path", this analogy should not be taken too literally. There is no ready-made road in the spiritual realm.
Spiritual progress is not a matter of moving along a line already laid down and unalterably defined. Rather it is a creative process of spiritual involution of consciousness, and this process is better described as a "spiritual journey" than as the traversing of a path.
The journey is comparable in fact to a flight through the air, and not to a journey upon the earth because it is truly a pathless journey. It is a dynamic movement within the consciousness of the aspirant that creates its own path and leaves no trace behind it."
LISTEN, HUMANITY, 3rd ed, p. 157
