Finding Your Voice With Essence

Dear Friends,

Whether you are professional or a complete beginner who’s always wanted to sing, now is the perfect time to take your love for music to the next level. I am currently offering in person as well as well as virtual voice, songwriting and guitar lessons. I spend most of my time performing, recording, and writing songs, but when time allows, I teach healthy vocal techniques, guitar, and songwriting to a small number of students. A few voice lesson slots have now opened up and I would be honored to work with you to develop your voice and craft. I draw from the disciplines of 'Speech Level Singing' as well as classical theory that can be applied successfully to any singing style. Lessons increase vocal range, improve pitch accuracy, dynamics, vibrato, develop ear training, build confidence, anchor breath support, refine tone, learn to 'scream' without strain, and ultimately cultivate each singer's unique style and sound. Lessons begin with warm-up exercises and can be applied to musical selections in styles of your choosing ranging from rock, pop, standards, jazz, R&B, country, folk, rap, spoken word, and even classical arias. The goal is to develop healthy technique, inspire creativity, foster self expression, build confidence and find the heart of each song.

Voice and presence have a huge impact on how we feel and how others receive us. When students "find their voice," they can achieve more in all avenues of life. Physical voice is only one part of "finding your voice." Voice is also about communication, courage, self-empowerment, messaging and artistic identity.

I'm passionate about sharing the experience I've gained in my own 25+ year and counting artist journey and performing career. (Bio + press links below.)

For songwriting we look at telling stories in the most authentic voice possible. We learn to cultivate compelling lyrical imagery, emotive melodies, memorable hooks, and study a variety of song structures and formats ranging from traditional to pop. We deconstruct the works of the greats and use them as a reference to help guide the creative process. I offer writing prompts and personalized assignments and tools to break through blocks and keep you generating new material.

We will:

- Free write

- Breakthrough limiting ideas and boundaries

- Find new ways to access the full-range of your originality and creativity through a series of exercises designed to jumpstart the creative process

- Create a platform to tell your unique story

- Conquer writer's block

- Solo write as well as collaborate

- Silence the inner critic

- Effectively mine memories

- Write more songs about more diverse subjects

I also offer guitar and ukulele lessons at beginning and intermediate levels. We explore chord shapes, strumming patterns, fingerpicking, melodies, keys, alternate tunings, popular songs, original composition, and so much more.

Lessons are available in 60 minute sessions, cost $100, and are recorded digitally, so you can review the lesson and practice on your own. Shorter lessons can be arranged and pro-rated for children. Blocks of 6 lessons (or more) can be purchased for a 10% discount.

Singing, songwriting and music can also be a powerful tool for shifting focus and transforming personal hardship (health or otherwise- see link below to Believe Music Heals, the non-profit I founded.)

Whether you are a professional, aspiring artist, a shower-singer, or something in between, I can help you develop your voice, songs, and musical skills and craft to take them to the next level and beyond.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Essence Goldman

You can learn more about my teaching approach, musical projects, and read student testimonials on the links below:

Essence (my website)

www.essenceandgoldcountry.com

Believe Music Heals: (non profit)

www.BelieveMusicHeals.org

ESSENCE GOLDMAN / BIO

Father’s Daughter finds Essence Goldman - yes, that’s her real name - mining her life’s most vulnerable moments and emerging with songs that speak across generations. The result is a collection that radiates both grit and grace: a celebration of hard-won freedom and the road back to one’s true self.

Sixth generation San Francisco-born singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Essence grew up in Haight-Ashbury the daughter of two flower children, beginning her musical journey when gifted a notebook by her father. She put that to good use, along with a ubiquitous Walkman, learning her craft from classic story-telling singer-songwriters like John Prine, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Carole King, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan to current tunesmiths Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch.

“I felt the vibration from the generation that came before me,” said Essence, which can be heard throughout her latest collection of songs, Father’s Daughter, her debut for noted Los Angeles indie label Blue Elan. “I was brought up on Bill Graham and festivals in Golden Gate Park - when art, movements of social change, and music defined the culture.”

Recorded at Allegiant Records, not far from her Marin County home, Father’s Daughter is both deeply personal and autobiographical—shaped by the profound influence of the loving, single father who raised her and instilled in her a deep connection to music, and by the emotional journey of losing him while also facing the end of a difficult marriage that left her a single mother of two young children.

“Music has always been very healing for me,” she reflects. “From my days as a kid going through hard times, it was my life line, my saving grace.”

Producer David Simon Baker – who also worked on her last album, 2016’s Black Wings – suggested Essence use a live band in the studio for the first time. Dubbed Gold Country, the group includes her current musical partner Danny Uzilevsky and a stellar cast of players bringing warmth and grit to a sound rooted in classic country and Americana, rich with pedal steel, dobro, mandolin and banjo.

Along with the title track, “Love Like Ours,” starting and ending with a solitary plucked banjo, and “Meet Me in the Stars,” which harks back to the tradition of the Grand Ole Opry, the Carter Family and the Louvin Brothers, are songs about the death of her father (“Your spirit is with us/Body mighta broke down and turned to dust/But that doesn’t mean you ain’t with us”).

“Free” celebrates the liberation that comes after emerging from a destructive relationship, calling out “the gaslighting, betrayal, lies and toxic silence.” It’s an anthem for a fresh start and the courage it takes to reclaim one’s self respect and walk away from a toxic relationship. “The Gamble” is about a choice between two lovers, “staying where it’s safe and familiar or taking a leap and venturing into the new, with all kinds of risks and potential rewards.”

The rollicking “Good Mom,” co-written by Roger Rocha (of the 4 Non Blondes), is a polarizing paean to living it up and cutting loose as a hard working mama (“I’m a good mom/I wanna get stoned/I wanna get boned/I wanna get high as a kite/Wanna drink whisky tonight”). “Quit You” offers a timeless romantic duet of untimely, inconvenient, and undeniable love sung between Essence and Uzilevsky in the style of male/female pairings Johnny Cash and June Carter, George Jones and Tammy Wynette and Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings.

“The Heart Doesn’t Lie” is a cri de coeur, an apt description of how Essence continues to mine her own life in song (“Sometimes you gotta sink to swim/Even losers can still be choosers/Give the wheel another spin”). “You don’t have to let your past define your future,” she noted. “Or let your worst decisions define you.”

“All my songs come from life—I write what I know’ through feast and famine, the highs and lows. Music is my North Star. It’s my prayer and the path I walk, until my last breath.”

The journey to this album took several unexpected detours. After enduring false starts in the music industry and the realities of raising a family solo, Essence shifted focus and began sharing her vocal and songwriting expertise through private coaching, working with both artists and business professionals. That path led her to Bernie Dalton, a surfer and swimming pool cleaner with rock-and-roll dreams. Just months into working together, Dalton lost his voice, a symptom of the most aggressive strain of bulbar-onset ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, which eventually robbed him of his voice and motor skills, along with his ability to play guitar.

Giving her a raft of handwritten lyrics and anointing her as “his voice,” Bernie and Essence formed Bernie and the Believers, putting melody and music to his words, collaborating on a song, “Unusual Boy,” which they submitted for a songwriting contest sponsored by National Public Radio, the prize an appearance on the popular Tiny Desk concert series. Along with 4 Non Blondes guitarist Rocha and several other musicians who were working on Father’s Daughter, Essence went on to record and release an entire Bernie and the Believers album with $30,000 raised via crowd funding. Less than a year after that momentous 2018 viral performance on NPR – where an overwhelmed Bernie was beamed in via computer – Dalton passed away at 49.

Wrote NPR’s Bob Boilen (Host of NPR’s All Things Considered and founder of the Tiny Desk series),“Bernie's story moves me to tears more than any other in my 30 years at NPR. It's also a story with a beautiful, uplifting message and one that culminated in a Tiny Desk concert that left everyone who witnessed it filled with both utter joy and sheer sadness".

“Working with Bernie helped me make sense and find peace with my journey as an artist,” said Essence, whose path has included major label deals, multiple album releases, and national tours supporting artists like Jason Mraz, Shawn Colvin, Tom Petty, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Chrissie Hynde, Steve Miller, Pat Benatar, and Linda Perry. “Until then, I had felt disheartened by the industry.”

That bittersweet chapter ultimately inspired a forthcoming feature film now in development with Paramount and John Legend’s Get Lifted Film Co., with Essence serving as producer. In the wake of that experience, she founded Believe Music Heals, a nonprofit dedicated to sharing the transformative healing power of music as therapy.

“This album is about grief, healing, resilience and rebirth,” she says. “It’s about the passing of my father, the end of my marriage, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’ve never felt more connected to the music or to myself. And we are just getting started.”

Essence & Gold Country’s Father’s Daughter is the latest chapter in a story still unfolding—with heart, humanity, and songs that refuse to fade.

Essence is also a dedicated and proud mother to a wonderful son and daughter.

PRESS LINKS:

MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

https://www.marinij.com/2023/01/03/marin-project-parlays-music-lessons-to-unlock-creativity-from-trauma-terminal-illness/

NPR All Things Considered:

https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/04/19/603304818/after-getting-lou-gehrigs-diagnosis-california-man-makes-album-with-help-of-frie

NPR All Songs Considered / Bob Boilen Feature:

https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/04/03/598875983/new-mix-young-fathers-confidence-man-a-stunning-tiny-desk-contest-entry-more

Bernie & The Believers Feat. Essence - "Unusual Boy" Tiny Desk Video Entry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv6FHEmbhY

Bernie & The Believers Feat. Essence Tiny Desk Concert at NPR Headquarters in Washington DC:

https://youtu.be/UPQsEoYHekg

SF Chronicle Front Page Feature:

www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/How-a-grim-ALS-diagnosis-created-beautiful-music-12897983.php#photo-15522963

SF Chronicle Documentary Film / AJ+

https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/10156548391474524/UzpfSTExMzk5NjY0ODU6MTAyMTY2ODE1Mzc0ODc3MzY/?notif_id=1527182804253818&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

SF Chronicle Feature #2:

https://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Songwriter-Essence-Goldman-performs-for-a-friend-12557209.php

Music Video ‘In Your Shoes:'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GheN9Gi0ZZ8

Press/ videos for Essence’s "Black Wings" album

San Francisco Chronicle:

http://m.sfgate.com/music/article/Essence-gives-heartache-flight-on-Black-9179727.php

Marin IJ:

http://www.marinij.com/arts-and-entertainment/20161117/heartache-fuels-essences-new-albums-dark-beauty