Nick Rattray Voice and Music Studio

Mr. Nick is an awesome teacher! He’s been teaching choir class for a small group of kids for a couple of years. About a year ago I heard about him from a friend who highly recommended him, but the class was full at that time. My 7 year old daughter finally got into his class fall of last year. My daughter is extremely shy, and I wanted to take this opportunity to see if this class could help her being a little outgoing. She was not interested in singing until she joined this class. Mr. Nick is extremely good at teaching kids and he made singing such a fun activity for my daughter. From the reaction of her and other kids in his class, I could tell they absolutely enjoyed the class and enjoyed singing. Mr. Nick gave the kids a CD track with the songs he would teach in each session, and whenever I put on the CD at home, my daughter would start singing loud and dancing around. Meanwhile, she seems to become more outgoing and not afraid of expressing herself that much in front of crowd. My 6 year old son also joined Mr. Nick’s class early this year, he’s outgoing in nature, but had no interest in singing, however, after just two weeks, he told me he loved singing and enjoyed the class a lot. Mr. Nick’s class is on Friday, and both my kids told me they wished everyday was Friday! Next week is the last class for spring session, and because of different family’s travel schedule, the class will resume late summer, and I’m sure the kids will miss Mr. Nick a lot.

Nick and I were colleagues at Musicland when he taught there and decided to trade lessons, I gave him any help he asked with songs and compositions he was working on and he gave me voice lessons. I had no experience with singing up until I started lessons with Nick. Although it has only been 6 weeks I have experienced an immense improvement in my comfort level with my voice over that period of time.
He is incredibly articulate and has a way of explaining the mechanics of the voice so that they can be understood. He knows what to listen for and is very quick to hear when there is something in the sound of the voice that may point to improper mechanics, or tension, or really anything that could be a barrier between you and the music. Furthermore, on top of diagnosing any issues, he knows the correct exercises to help you become aware of how to overcome any issues.
Although I have a lot of work to do and progress, as with all instruments, is ongoing, I am very happy with the amount of immediate progress in my comfort level. Nick knows what he is doing and has a great amount of patience with his teaching craft. He has a great voice as well, and has no problem showing you how to do certain things. I would recommend him highly and without reservation to anyone looking to take voice lessons.
–Stefan Cwik

Nick was my 6 year old daughter’s voice teacher at MusicLand Children’s Choir at Fremont a year ago. Too bad that he had to leave that teaching position due to his album recording project. Since then, my daughter is not attending any singing class, because I couldn’t find a voice teacher that is as good as Nick in my area. We might just travel to Oakland to let her take Nick’s class now.
Nick has very strong vocal performance and composition background, but most important he knows how to teach kids so well, and himself is the big pal for all kids. He builds strong bond with the kids he is teaching and help build their confidence in singing and performance. His teaching is so interactive, full of fun. My daughter would just sing and laugh at Nick’s classes all the time, I even felt so happy just by sitting there and watching the classes.
Nick is the original composer and singer for many of the songs that he uses in the choir classes, those songs are so beautiful and fun for kids to sing.
Many of the parents whose kids have been in Nick’s class have the same great impression with Nick.