Online Vocal Lesson 101-11

In singing, we are always thinking about how to improve in our techniques. Today I am going to stress on a bit about the message of a song.

When we apply the techniques we learnt from the 10 previous lessons, which are all basic vocal techniques, we have to always bear in mind that the ultimate goal of singing a song is to convey a message to listeners. Now this is what we are going to do...

Before we start a song, literally go through the lyrics and understand the song content phrase by phrase. Normally, we tend to present a sing as a "general" content, for example, Sad, Romantic, Joy, Happy etc as a whole. We usually had forgotten that the song actually comprises of phrases or sentences which builds the whole story or picture.

When singing a song, lets take the song "Say" by John Mayer, the 1st phrase "take all of your wasted honor" you have to sing as you are saying and telling someone about this, then "every little past frustration" you have to add a little more intense as the frustration is there, then "take all of your so called problems" you have to sing as if you are tired of the person who have all sorts of excuses, then "better put'em in quotations" sing with a kind of sarcastic way.... then there are repeats of "say what you need to say, you have to have different intensity of each ot the phrases, you can add a little intense for each of the chorus phrase so the chorus will not be flat throughout.

This way, your song will not have the generic "One Mood Throughout" feel, but will have a roller coaster mood and will bring the listeners up and down adn be abl to catch their attention.

So Enjoy your lyrics session...

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-10

Today we explore about rhythm in singing. Most of us do know how to count when it comes to listening to a song. In singing, there is a trick in getting your singing to be online with the music rhythm. That is to emphasize on the accented beat of the song.

Before we sing along with a music as when we are singing karaoke, listen once to the MUSIC ONLY. Try to feel the music and when your head is nodding with the rhythm, it usually nods with a steady beat of 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4... Keep the nodding steady and most important is to nod with the music rhythm. (hint: normally on the 1st beat of the music, the rhythm will sound louder and stronger)So when we sing to the music, if there is a note or a word to sing when you are on the 1st beat, this word should be emphasized. This is how we do this rhythm accent technically.

However, the accents sung should not be exactly the same emphasis throughout the song or else it would sound really square and flat. An easy way to determined how strong the accent should be would to listen to the music, the louder the music goes, the stronger the accented notes should be sung.

Enjoy your singing.

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-9

Today we will learn about the vowel "OO". We had explored 2 vowels yesterday which was the "ee" when we exercise "Cheese" and "AA" when we exercise "Zah". And for these 2 vowel I had also explained to you on the muscles used to control it. Remember for whatever vowels, we will have to practice until our jaw is loosen up.

For "OO", we have to feel the tip of our upper lips. the rounded shape for saying "Oo" must be initiated from the upper lips and to avoid the tensed up muscles around our lower lips, just above our chin area. Just to add a little fun in this exercise, when you say "oo" imagine you are feeling excited about something or as if there is a surprise, with this, when you say "Oo" you will also automatically smile a little, this helps to maintain the diction muscles mostly concentrating on the upper part of your face (above lips).

You can practice "Oo" with any notes you like, I suggest you can try singing 3 notes in a go, like "Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo" with the pitch Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do. Try this in different ranges also from low to mid to high and falsetto.

Happy exploring.

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-8

Vocal expressions need the third kind of muscle control apart from the previous 2 segments (breathing which has to do with lungs capacity, and vocal positions and projections which have to do with our vocal cord control). This is the muscles when we pronounce and speak. In singing, we sing out lyrics which carry much of the meaning or content of the song. Therefore when we sing, it is very important to make sure that the audience hear and understand what we are “talking” about.
First exercise for this is the “Jaw” exercise. This is merely a simple stretching exercise, and I would compare this with a simple yoga stretching post. Imagine you are sitting on the floor with your legs stretching out together to your front, and you bend over your body and stretch your arms to try to touch your toes, you will feel your hind leg muscles extending and would be painful, but if you do this every day, it will be better and one day you might be able to touch or even grab your feet. In this jaw exercise, we are trying to stretch our jaw tendon so we can open wide our jaw easily, without any tension to our neck.
This exercise goes like this… say “cheese” as if you are posting for a photo shoot, then continue saying “Zah”, when you say “Zah” continue to smile so your cheeks stays in the same position as when you were saying cheese. Do this a few times until you feel that your face muscles are loosen. Use your finger tips to gently touch on your cheeks if you can’t feel the cheek muscles.
When you practice this frequent enough, your jaw will open wider then it could be before, with a wider mouth shape, you will be able to pronounce your words or lyrics better and clearer, and with a more relax jaw, your vocalization will have a better control because this will lessen the possibility of your neck muscles being tensed up.

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-7

Now we had learnt the 2 different breathing exercises which are sustain and staccato, and 4 vocal positioning namely low, mid, high, and falsetto. Now we can start to sing some proper scales.

As mentioned in the previous lesson, a scale is a set of notes in order, or known as the do-re-mi. The first simple scale we are going to sing is the scale called “Major Scale”. The Major Scale consists of the notes starting Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. If you are not sure of these notes, there is a song which can help you sing the scale. In the “Sound of Music” Movie, there is a song which goes like this “Doe (Do) a deer, a female deer, Ray (Re) a drop of golden sun….. Me (Me) a name I call myself… Far (Fa) a long long way to run… and so on.

So now singing is becoming more interesting with a song. Remember to take time to change your breaths as taught in lessons 101-1 and 101-2 between every sentence.
After you are familiar with this simple song, try singing other songs, REMEMBER to breath in between every sentence. Exhale and clear any extra air and inhale a new intake of air. This is very important because every time you exhale, you will automatically relax your shoulder and chest and this helps in your voice projection in the next sentence.

Tomorrow we will explore into vocal expression techniques and more easy exercises to help you singing better.

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-6

The last vocal position we will learn is the mid range voice. This is a normal speaking voice most of us use, so we just try to speak with breathing techniques and concert the speech to singing.

Now narrate A,B,C... X,Y,Z, each clearly and separate each alphabet with a breathe change. Step by step means: Say: "A" exhale and inhale "B" exhale and inhale "C" and so on...This is to make sure you don't rush into any vocalization even when you are only speaking, so when you sing, you will be able to do the same. Do this a few times and be patient and take your time in this exercise.

Now do the same exercise but this time singing the A,B,C song. (The tune of the song is the similar to the tune for Baa Baa Black Sheep or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in case you do not know) Remember to Exhale and Inhale between every Note or Letter.

Today's exercise is simple, to add a little challenge to this exercise, try adding the sustain and staccato to it. For the sustain, every letter, you will hold and slowly release your breathe and fade out. For the Staccato, make sure each letter is agitated and make sure you will release or blow all the excess air in your lungs when you exhale before the next alphabet.

Happy practicing.

Toni
Vocal Coach

Online Vocal Lesson 101-5

Today we will learn about falsetto voice, and this is quite easy to get. tthe vibration of the falsetto voice is higher than the high voice (which was around the nose and cheeks) the vibration position for falsetto is around our front forehead position.

Before we learn the easy exercise to practice the falsetto voice, here is a link to let you now how a falsetto voice would sound like, this is a clip of Whitney Houston http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzjrEgsZVco&feature=related.

Now you have heard how a falsetto should sound like, we have to remind ourselves to the most basic rule #1 for singing, that is to RELAX. Now breath with a clear air passage and imagine you have just did a heavy duty work for the whole day, and is was raining heavily and you just rushed into your house and felt relief and thought finally "home sweet home" and you would normally breath out a relief tone saying "phew" or "wooo!". When you say out the tone, try making it in a higher pitch until you can feel a mild vibration of your forehead. You can also raise your eyebrows (just like the high voice exercise) so you will be able to feel the muscles between your brows and fround your forehead to ease your focus on the vibration area.

In other words, you can also experiment a few "Wooo!" or "Phew" until you get the voice as in Whitney Houston's clip I recommended.

Good Luck and happy Experimenting!

Toni
Vocal Coach