#vocal advice

[sagenoise]

//Intervals

I’m working on releasing and compiling a vocal training series through these blogs to help the modern singer. It will be deeper than singing techniques but I’ll also address how to learn effectively and faster. My goal is to 1. Help singers following this blog to feel pressured to practice everyday, as I’ll post everyday. 

2. Provide a comprehensive and easy to follow system to retain your vocal progress and learn efficiently quickly.

3. Help you find your sound, and make you love it more than your aspirational counterparts.

[yet-my-soul-obeys]

Helloooooo!!

Hey guys! This is my new blog! I’ve decided to dedicate a new one solely to Musical Theatre! I will be giving song recommendations, vocal advice, and tips for audition prep. Ask Away! I’ll be posting soon. 😊

[colm-on-my-mind]

People don’t realize the size of the [vocal] muscle that they’re dealing with is like the top of your fingernail. That white part of your fingernail is the tissue in your throat. That’s what you’re working with.   So if the body, and I keep on saying this to kids, if the body is not right. If you are not right. This is not right [pointing to throat]. It’s a physical thing. You have to exercise it. You have to keep it going. You have to: Have sleep. No booze. No cigarettes. No drugs. You have to live a very clean life.  Otherwise this [voice] doesn’t work.

COLM WILKINSON on the challenge for singers’ in taking care of their vocal instrument

One of the people I follow recently posted about their personal challenges with vocal muscle/tissue problems (in their case, as I understand, stemming from improper voice usage) and it made me think of this discussion with Mr. Wilkinson about the fragility of the vocal instrument.

Source: The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, October 6, 2013, RTÉ One.

[thebroadwaybanner]

Can someone please give me some tips for not singing flat? It’s never been an issue until this show.. One Hand One Heart is always flat, and I’m smiling and raising my eyebrows and everything. I don’t know what to do and it’s really frustrating me

[natalyarostovaa]

What do you think about the current idea that the vibrato is out of style?

That’s a very good question! So for me, vibrato depends very much upon the repertoire you are singing. For early music (e.g. Renaissance and Baroque) “straight-tone” is used. This means a complete lack of vibrato and a flat sound to the note, meaning the pitching must be precise, this is characteristic of the music at that time. The use of vibrato developed across all of Western music from Baroque (1750) onwards. For most people, the use of consistent vibrato is associated with the classical opera repertoire. For opera, vibrato should be used consistently throughout the entire range and at all volumes. Too fast vibrato (flutter) and too slow vibrato (wobble) are particularly undesirable in nearly all types of music. 

That’s enough about classical music, onto musical theatre which I’m assuming is what you’re talking about in terms of “out of style.” Due to the distinctively classical sound of vibrato, in a popular musical vibrato can seem incredibly out of place. To me, usage of vibrato depends on the piece being sung. For example, in something like Hairspray (a pop based musical) vibrato is not particularly suitable for the style. In this situation, vibrato should be used to colour and express emotion. Vibrato adds a depth which can be used to portray various emotions e.g. excitement, joy etc and to highlight particular parts in the music. On the other hand, a classical influenced musical like the Phantom of the Opera, is suitable for a classical use of vibrato. The Phantom of the Opera, telling the story of an opera singer, has a history of classical influence with singers like Rebecca Caine and Harriet Jones playing the role of Christine. In recent years, a more “contemporary sound” has been desired for people playing that particular role, meaning that like most modern pop music the use of vibrato is decreased. In my opinion, this is incorrect as something designed to be a pastiche/parody of an opera, should be sung by those who have a solid classical technique. 

To me, musical theatre has sort of been unified with a minimal amount of vibrato across all the different musicals, it is a lot less distinctive than it should be! Classical use of Vibrato is out of style, however, a different type of “masking” vibrato seems to be emerging, this is what should be avoided. 

I would say to people who think it is “out of style”, based on my experience, vibrato should not be a mask for poor pitching, however, It should only be a way to create a particular timbre in all types of music! If vibrato fits the piece and produces the desired effect, use it. If it does not fit and masks poor singing (or in fact any type of instrument) do not! 

xx

(note: this is just my opinion, I’m not a voice teacher so it may depend on what you’ve been taught) 

[jazzicated]

The 3 Components of Good Singing

(in my opinion of course) and there are VERY FEW people who actually have these 3.

FIRST STEP: Understand the song. Understand the lyrics. Sing those notes like you wrote them, like you’re experiencing what the story of that song is. It makes your singing more sincere and automatically makes performances miles better. What tone do you adopt while singing? It is hard to embody every single song equally well, especially because some may be more relatable than others, but this is a HUGE step towards singing a song well.

SECOND STEP: Does this song suit me? My personality? Voice comes later but it’s also a point to consider. Many parallels with the first step here, but basically is just an assessment of what you want to do and whether it is within your capabilities. Does the song accentuate the strengths of my voice? What do I want to show when performing this song?

THIRD STEP: Listen and practice. Find your individual voice not by copying others necessarily, but by learning from previous performances. A good performance is not necessarily defined by vocal acrobatics, but by finding your own style by getting inspiration from the music you love or trying out new things alltogether. This is where lessons come in - technicalities of airflow, vocal range and improvisation are all not learned in a day and can be practiced. Singing lessons are fun!

Most importantly, just be yourself. Singing is a form of expression without boundaries.

[but-red-means-stop]

Anxiety advice for the studio anon: The best advice I have isn't pretty, but it's done wonders for me: accept that you are going to fuck up. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Know that sometimes you will fail dramatically, probably in public ways no one will let you live down. Let's all take a moment to freak out over how depressing that reality is. But also know that every one of those mistakes is because you were brave enough to try something you weren't already great at so that you

(2/2) could get better. The first time I got on stage after 7 years, I demanded cake as a reward for not passing out or crying. I've sung a wide variety of music across a spectrum of venues, and I have fucked up a lot. Sometimes I forget words, even if they're in front of me. Often I miss my cue or sing the wrong section. Sometimes I sing things with no practice. Once I mutilated a country song as an anniversary request. Now I shrug, smile, and sing even when I want to cry. Fail and try again.

____

Thank you for this.  Freshman Anon, I hope this helps.

[but-red-means-stop]

I need advice as a freshman music major (voice). I have this problem where every time I sing in studio class on something that's still "in progress," I totally fall apart-and then even worse, I get super upset about it and end up crying in front of everyone. My teacher isn't harsh and I don't usually have performance anxiety, but I hate crying in public and the whole situation is so embarrassing to me. It's like after one mistake, my feelings just snowball and inhibit me from getting back (cont)

(Cont) on track. It never happens in recitals/auditions because I'm always well prepared for those and in lessons it doesn't matter because I'm with my teacher. I'm so embarrassed and it just keeps happening. What can I do, or how can I make my mistakes not affect me so much? I'm the only person in my studio this happens to. I hate both that I keep falling apart singing-wise and that I end up crying in front of my peers.

____

ANON HONEY I’M SORRY I COULDN’T ANSWER YOU SOONER. *hugs* I hope I can help you.  And if anyone reading this has any ideas, PLEASE send them in so I can publish them.

Anon, the first thing I’m going to tell you is that, regardless of the fact that it’s not happening to anyone else in your studio, it’s completely okay to cry.  Please try to forgive yourself for it, especially since this doesn’t affect you during formal performance situations.  Crying under learning circumstances is nothing to be ashamed of.

Here’s why I say this: it happens to me, all the time.  Not in studio classes, since I’m not studying voice at university, but in lesson situations.  What I’ve figured out is that a) I get impatient with myself easily because I’m not where I feel I “should” be yet (i.e., it’s a work in progress); and b) a correct singing mechanism, properly anchored, is intricately connected to the crying mechanism.

Add to this the fact that your instrument is a part of your body and you have no distance from it, and it stands to reason that emotions could end up on a hair trigger.  I’ve literally cried in a lesson for no reason but vague frustration plus trying to yawn after intense technical exercises.

As far as advice goes, all I can tell you is to try and work through it.  Something that might help is to take some time to yourself after each crying incident and see if you can figure out what exactly set you off.  This is probably going to require some very detailed reflection and self-examination - which is a good thing.  It will be easier if you’re naturally self-aware, but even if you aren’t, practice noticing what’s going on with yourself.  

Start with the trigger, the thing that caused you to begin to cry in that moment.  Did your teacher say something?  Did you make a mistake?  Did you feel anxious or like people were waiting for you to mess up?

Then work backward from there: were you already stressed out?  What particularly were you stressed about?  Was there a specific element of your song or technique that you felt was under-prepared?

Once you’ve mapped out what was going on with you (and it can take some time to figure this out!  Maybe you can do this easily, maybe it takes you weeks.  That’s okay!), then you can start to try to anticipate what might set you off next time, and try to head it off.  

If it’s a technical preparation issue, and that’s making you anxious, try to remind yourself that you’re in school because you’re not a professional yet (you’re a freshman!  You have YEARS to get where you’re going!), and that everyone in your studio has technical hurdles to overcome, even if you as a student aren’t necessarily equipped to know what exactly those are.  

If you just plain don’t know your music well enough to perform comfortably, maybe work on that.  

If it’s primarily emotional, do your best to eat and sleep well, and give yourself pre-emptive permission to cry if you have to.

ALSO, and this is VERY IMPORTANT: give yourself permission to block off your emotions if you have to.  Eventually you’ll need to learn how to let it back in, so that you don’t end up compromising the artistry of your performances, but it’s important to learn how to keep your emotions from getting away from you.  You have a valuable opportunity here to teach yourself that skill in a relatively safe and low-risk environment.

I’m not advocating cutting off your emotions as a solution to not crying in studio class; it’s not as simple as that.  But singing is by default an intensely personal and emotionally connected experience (in comparison to playing an instrument that is external to your body) and this is the time to learn to manage that.  I’m thirty and just now figuring it out, and that’s okay, too.  You’re so young.  You have so much time.  Don’t worry.

You’ll be okay, Anon.  I hope some of what I’ve said is of use to you.  Please come back sometime and tell me how it’s going. <3