There’s an abundance of tech gear and gadgets on the market for instrumentalists to alter their sound. But there are few options for singers and speakers. Here is one that I and my students have used and have found an amazing tool.
Introducing---HearFones! No wires, no electronics at all. It’s a lightweight, acoustic headset instrument that enables a person singing or speaking to hear the actual sound of his or her voice.
It’s been used by amateur and professional singers, speakers, actors, vocal coaches, speech/language pathologist patients and new-language learners to build new, or to modify existing muscle-memory patterns. This device is also effective in helping modify breathing when singing. (In my teaching practice, breathing is the biggest problem of most singers.) HearFones quickly helps a student to “hear” the problem.
HearFones has also been used to teach children with learning disabilities and auditory processing issues how to blend in with their school singing group. Large youth and adult choruses have found HearFones valuable for creating a unified sound, as the users learn to automatically adjust their technique for a better sound.
Normally, we hear our voices through our esophagus. We don’t know how our voices sound to others. HearFones is a tool that allows us to hear clearly the real and total sound of our own voice instead of hearing only the reflections of our singing in a room. It’s a better and truer sound than hand cupping behind our ears.
HearFones work by redirecting sound binaurally from the mouth to the ears using high quality plastic ellipsoidal
reflectors that focus sound at the user’s mouth and at the ear canals. So instead of dissipating in the air, sound goes directly
to the ears.
And here’s the important news: Using this device, singers and speakers intuitively modify their vocal habits to create a voice that they prefer.
One vocal expert remarked that, “Not since Guido d’Arezzo’s music notation in 1030 has there been such a help for the singer.” You know how we often view positive reviews skeptically? I researched HearFones and came across superlatives like amazing and incredible. And when I put my HearFone headset on my student and she began to sing, she said exactly that!
I haven’t tried recording wearing this device, but I think it would be helpful, especially when having to record with a vocal impairment…or as sometimes happens to me, my production might be “labored” due to a sudden asthma attack. That happened to me when I was recording in a studio’s enclosed vocal booth that was very dusty.
When Elaine Silver, popular folk singer visited me recently and put on my HearFones and sang, she was so impressed with what she heard, she immediately took out her cell phone and ordered the item from Amazon as a birthday present for her musician husband.
HearFones was designed by a U.S. company and is manufactured in Maine. The item sells online for $43 plus shipping and handling, or check your favorite music store or other online vendor. For further information email [email protected]
Visit the website at www.HearFones.com
Join us for McCarter at the Museum - renowned performing artists in one-night only events at the Princeton University Art Museum.
Jason Robert Brown is a four-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist of The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World, 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon In Vegas and The Connector, has performed as a soloist or with his band in venues around the world, including sold-out shows at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. His albums as a singer-songwriter include Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes and How We React and How We Recover on Ghostlight, and Coming From Inside the House and Live In Concert with Stephen Sondheim on Concord.
With Special Guest Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe. Tony Award-nominated actress Betsy Wolfe is currently starring as Audrey in the acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, following her recent Broadway run as Madeline Ashton in the hit musical Death Becomes Her. She previously originated the title role in Joy, the new musical inspired by inventor Joy Mangano, and earned a 2023 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her celebrated performance as Anne Hathaway in & Juliet. Other Broadway credits include starring as Jenna in Waitress, Cordelia in the acclaimed revival of Falsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade, as well as her critically acclaimed performance as Cathy in the Off-Broadway revival of The Last Five Years. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Fledermaus and has appeared as a guest artist with more than 65 symphony, pops, and philharmonic orchestras worldwide, including the New York Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her screen credits include First One In, Estella Scrooge, CBS’s Instinct, and the film adaptation of The Last Five Years. Wolfe is also the co-founder of BroadwayEvolved, the acclaimed musical theatre training program she launched in 2018 to train and mentor the next generation of theatre artists.
A limited number of early access tickets for McCarter Director’s Circle members and members of the Museum’s Partner Circle are available, on sale Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM. General public on sale begins Friday, September 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.
Please be aware there is no public drop-off or parking at the Museum. For visitors with mobility needs, please contact the Museum at least three business days in advance of your visit to request special access to the Museum via Elm Drive. Call 609-258-3788 and select option 1 to speak to a visitor services staff member, or email Louise Barrett at [email protected].
