I love my job

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My job is more than just teaching young children how to play the piano. My job is to create a fun-filled atmosphere where students can explore and learn music that will last them a lifetime!

It’s easy when you realize that not all children learn the same way. Oh sure, some will sit at a piano for 20 minutes or a half an hour and practise what they have been told. But believe me, the majority of these children have tuned after just 10 minutes.

If we remember this fact, then we as teachers and parents can work together to ensure Little Johnny is constantly moving forward. And if Little Johnny is happy and having fun moving forward as he is learning his music, what more can we ask for?

Carrie Underwood and The Sound of Music … What went wrong?

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What went wrong?

The acting went wrong. The singing did not.

And what about the singing?

Did the producers honestly think there would be no backlash when audiences compared Julie Andrew’s British classically-trained voice to Carrie Underwood’s broad and brassy southern twang?

If we talk about Carrie’s voice, then that is what we get…..Carrie’s thick-cord, belt-like voice with it’s speech-like quality, wide vowels and all. What more can I say? It was exactly how I would have expected Carrie Underwood to sound singing The Sound of Music.

 

 

 

The hoarse voice

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Do you ask yourself why you keep losing your voice? Why do you get a hoarse voice after singing for an hour, a night, or maybe two nights in a club?

The vocal cords can only handle so much pressure. When they are misused, we can hear evidence by the imperfections in the sound quality such as hoarseness and gaps in certain areas of the voice.

Many working musicians who are singing every night in loud bars and nightclubs experience the challenge of maintaining control and stamina of their voice without losing their voice completely.

It’s a fine line between a sultry, edgy, husky-like singing voice and no voice at all.

Bottom line….self awareness and self control is key to maintaining the task of singing day after day, night after night in difficult environments.

Professional singers learn very quickly to get lots of rest and drink plenty of water…two key ingredients to maintaining tip top vocal cord function.

Professional singers also know when to stop singing….when to stop blowing so much air through their cords. They have good instincts. They pay attention to the signs. Otherwise, they risk having no voice at all.

 

 

 

Previous voice training

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When I think back to the voice training I have had (6 different teachers in the past 20 years), speech level singing was the eye-opening experience for me. That is not to say that the classical training I had wasn’t useful….because it was….in many ways….but in other ways, it was detrimental.

It wasn’t until I took speech level singing lessons that I found a teacher who understood the actual bridging of my voice (and taught me to understand it)! I was vocalizing through three passagi in the first lesson and over 2 and a half octaves. I had never experienced that in all the previous lessons I had taken.

The blending of the registers is key, in my opinion, to developing a strong and healthy voice in all registers. Here are three favourite links to teachers who teach “mixing” and blending registers (formerly called speech level singing).

http://www.singingsuccess.com/

http://www.vocaladvancement.com/

http://www.speechlevelsinging.com/

http://torontovoicelessons.com/

What is a balanced voice?

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It’s no secret that good technique is key to singing well.

Once you have established a firm foundation on which to build your voice, you should then, and only then, venture on to extreme singing.

What is extreme singing? Any coordination that requires the voice to go beyond the basic set-up of a balanced mix between your low and high register.

I always “balance” my voice in warm-up. I ensure I can easily soar and siren through my entire range (mine is D2 to D5). I usually start with lip bubbles and vary the vowel/consonant combinations daily.

One of my main goals when warming up is gain insight into my breath control and cord closure. Depending on my “energy” and focus on any given day, this can vary. Warming up gives me the cues I need to know how my voice is going to be in performance.

If you have been singing all your life, odds are you can be ready to sing in fine form in a matter of minutes. However, if you don’t sing every day, it may very well take you 15 to 20 minutes of warm-up before you are ready to sing well.

 

 

 

What’s your larynx doing?

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There is a lot of information out there about the ideal position of the larynx for singing.

This post is to help shed some light on the “variables” associated with your larynx.

SLS (speech level singing) teaches you that the larynx should remain “stable” or “neutral”.

I’m not a big fan of this description, although I understand why it is described that way. Let me explain.

It is typical for an amateur singer to “reach” for high notes. The sensation of reaching for high notes is a choking or tight feeling in the throat. Basically what is happening here, is the larynx is going too high, and the muscles in the larynx are “gripping”. In these cases, the larynx is not tilting, and the false cords are engaging causing a tight or squeezed sound.

Singers who mix well in their high register are doing so because the laryngeal muscles are able to stretch and thin the vocal cords while the larynx is tilted. A good example of laryngeal tilt is the resonating sound of the puppy dog whimper, or nay, nay, nay in a high mixed voice. You will notice a buzzy, resonating sensation on your upper palate and high up in the back of your mouth. Some people describe it as a nasty or brassy sound.

When a singer is mixing well, the larynx is agile and flexible. The larynx will naturally tilt forward and rise slightly when ascending in pitch, and the larynx will naturally fall back into a more neutral position when descending in pitch.

Questions? Please let me know!

I, IV and V chords on piano

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The last post showed you the “number” of each chord in a major scale.

This post is going to tell you which numbers are the most important, and why.

In any major scale, the I, IV and the V notes are the most important for making major chords.

In the scale of C major, this is C (being the first note of the scale), F (being the fourth note of the scale), and G (being the fifth note of the scale). You can do this for any major scale. Let’s take G major, this is G (the first note), C (the fourth note), and D (the fifth note).

So, in C major, your major chords are C+ F+ and G+.

In G major, your major chords are G+ C+ and D+.

Note, you can now find the I, IV and V notes of any scale (a scale is the same as referring to the key signature). And, notice you can find these in the first five notes of the major scale. Do, re, mi, fa, so. Do is I, fa is IV, and so is V. Now practise this starting on many different notes by singing the first 5 notes of the scale and noting which one is I, IV and V.

OK, the fun will start on the next post when we start to play some easy fun songs that use the I, IV and V chords.

The Basics

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Learning to play piano by ear is an intertwining discipline of two separate coordinations….rhythm patterns and chord patterns. I have long neglected this very special part of my blog and I plan to make time for it over the next few months.

I’m not going to string you along……the best and easiest way to learn advanced playing piano by ear is to have some solid background of the language of music. That’s what I intend to show you …. the language of music, as it relates to playing piano by ear.

This does not include sight-reading….unless you consider learning how to read a chord chart…sight-reading. But it isn’t sight-reading….it’s reading lead sheets and chord progressions.

What do you need to know? Well, for sure you need to know the notes on the piano! Next, you need to start understanding what a chord actually is.  It is “harmony”.  In it’s simplest form a chord is 3 notes. (We will start with only major (+) and minor (-) chords at first).

You need to know what a major scale sounds like ( C D E F G A B C ) but you don’t need to know how to play it in every key. You will learn how to transpose to other keys as we go along. We will start in C major because it’s the easiest scale to understand because it is made up of only white notes.

Note that every note in the major scale is identified as a Roman numeral. This is important to grasp as we move on to other “scales” and “key signatures”. Therefore, in the C major scale, C is I, D is II, E is III, F is IV, G is V, A is VI, B is VII and C is VIII.

Let’s put this into the G major scale …. G major has an F# in the key signature. Therefore, G is I, A is II, B is III, C is IV, D is V, E is VI and F# is VII and G is III.   Make sense?

Now consider forming your chord in the left hand with your baby finger on the first note of your chord which is also the name of your chord.  Let’s make a C chord with your baby finger on C. Then skip D and play E with your middle finger (#3). Then skip F and play G with your thumb (finger #1). This is a C chord.

Now you can do the same on the D note (D F A) and the E note (E G B) and the F note (F A C) and the G note (G B D) and the A note (A C E) and the B note (B D F – watch out, this one sounds funny), and again up to C (C E G).

So, this will get you started. On my next post I’ll talk about what kinds of chords these are that you playing, and then we’ll really start to have fun when we add rhythm!!

 

Extreme Singing

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So you want to sing with more “belt” in your song?

Well first, let’s check…..do you know if you are mixing? Do you know if you are accessing your head voice resonance and tilting your larynx?

Belting cannot be done safely (or sound good) without these two conditions first.

I suggest that you continually work on bridging (mixing) exercises every day as a warm-up and as a build-up to more extreme singing. Once you can easily go up and down your entire range without strain then you are ready to “intensify”.

Not sure if you are bridging correctly? Sing your entire song with a hum…..the kind of humming sound you make when you say “uhm, uhm, that tastes good!” Notice the slightly “nasty” and “whiny” sound you are making.

Make sure your nasal port is closed. In other words no sound is coming out your mouth.

You may notice that you have trouble reaching your high notes…..yes, this is a true indicator!!

Take your volume back to a point where you can manage your high notes with this buzzy hum.

Add a slight “sob” feeling to your voice….as if you whining about something…you will notice that your cheeks and your nose and even your eyebrows will engage with this sensation. Relax into this. Don’t fight it. Recognize that all the action is in this area……what classical singers call “the mask”.

Now back to your song…..are you sure you are ready to belt?

If you cannot hum your song with ease in your head voice (without flipping into falcetto), then you are not ready for belting out a song……..

So…..back to your bridging (mixing) and building exercises!!

Questions? Why not drop me a line!

 

How to Belt

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Most singers want to know how their favourite singers get their sound…in other words, how they sing so well. We all want to understand the voices of Steve Perry, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert. The list goes on and on.

It’s a complex question with a complex answer, but one thing is true with all these singers. They are great belters!

First, belting in the true sense simply means yelling. Is this a good form of singing? Absolutely not!

Can a singer learn to belt properly with a strong and healthy sound….absolutely yes! This is why we love singers who sing high notes with ease and power.

There are many key factors…and this may be an appropriate list in order of importance. However, proper and healthy belting cannot exist without all of these factors.

1. The ability to blend (mix) registers. In other words, the ability to transition from the lowest of your low notes to the highest of high notes without a bump in the road (vocal break….I think you know what I mean).

2. The ability of the vocal cords to withstand huge amounts of breath pressure….yes, this means attention to breath control!

3. The single, probably most important factor of all, the ability to “twang”. Twang simply means the larynx is doing remarkable things such as tilting to allow the cords to stretch and thin in a healthy manner. There are other things going on as well, and in a nutshell, it means the singer is able to make sounds which resonate easily because of the formants he/she is creating. This means the singer is able to make sounds that are loud and vibrant to the human ear with very little effort! This is the beauty of twang! This creates the illusion of a powerful chest voice, when in fact the singer is resonating in his head voice like crazy!

4. And lastly, but not necessarily of least importance, is the ability to control the larynx. A great singer can sing with their larynx high, low and in the middle. In other words, a great singer can maneuver the larynx and sing in all positions, depending on the “color” of sound he might want. A low larynx gives a darker sound because there is more space in the throat for the sound to resonate. This is the sound we hear in opera. A larynx that can move freely around from mid to higher, and that can tilt, is the ideal larynx for all other styles.

I hope this has given you a better idea of what good belting truly is. Have a question? Why not drop me a line!