SING LIKE A STAR BLOG

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu

In the previous article, I discussed the need for physical repetition and focused, deliberate practice as a way of developing myelin to excel at a specific skill. This article will focus on the power of the brain and mental rehearsal to transform us from where we are currently to where we would like to be.

Quantum physics and brain neuroplasticity have become hot topics in recent years. The idea that you can change your brain and change your life through mental rehearsal and meditation is a powerful one.

Let’s see how that can work for you as a singer.

Brain neuroplasticity refers to physical changes in the neural pathways and synapses of the brain, which are due to changes in behavior, environment and thought processes. Mental rehearsal and meditation have been shown in studies to create physical changes in the brain.

We can focus our awareness and attention on anything we choose. What we don’t...

“Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is like saying, 'I don't want to'.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching

“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching

Three books that you should own and read if you have a desire to make it in the music business are:

     • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

     • The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

     • Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

While there certainly is such a thing as an innate gift, it is by no means the only determining factor of success. Very often someone who is gifted but undisciplined or not hard working will be passed up by someone who may be less gifted but hard working. And where an innate gift is roughly the same the determining factor of success is what I call “time in the saddle”-how many hours per week of practice you do over time (not all at once).

Excellence in performing evolves over time...

Singing songs is the reason anyone takes vocal lessons.

Practicing technique exercises is the way we develop vocal skills; however, singers often get very good at the scales and exercises but fall apart when they sing songs.

It’s often quite a leap from technique to songs, even when the exercises are working well; when you start singing songs, you immediately go back to old habits due to long-entrenched muscle memory.

In this section we will provide tips and tools to bridge the gap from technique to singing songs.

We will address the issues that inevitably arise when transitioning from the controlled environment of specific vowels and consonants, designed to create success, to lyrics seemingly designed to make you fall out of the mix and balanced registration.

When working on a song, you might (at first) go right back to the bad vocal habits you have been working so hard to eliminate in Steps One through Seven.

Song choice has a lot to do with this; if you love to pull chest,...

Crescendo means to get louder, and decrescendo/diminuendo means to get softer. We want to be able to do either of these without engaging extrinsic interfering muscle.

Increasing volume requires just enough and not too much increased air pressure and a corresponding increase in vocal fold tension. Decreasing volume involves a decrease in air pressure and a corresponding decrease in vocal fold tension.

Tone quality and pitch should remain constant during changes of volume; don’t allow a crescendo or decrescendo/diminuendo to affect intonation or timbre.

To develop better dynamics and vocal control, we use messa di voce exercises- singing gradual crescendo and decrescendo.

This requires great skill. A great messa di voce is the hallmark of the accomplished singer.

The terms messa di voce and mezza voce are sometimes confused; mezza voce means to sing at a reduced volume, as you might do when you are sick or when you have long rehearsals.

Messa di voce is a skillful...

The choice of when, where, and how much vibrato to use is yours.

You should be able to control your vibrato and use when you want it, eliminate it when you don’t, speed it up, and slow it down to create different effects.

For some styles, like rock, you may not want a vibrato.

In jazz and theatre, a delayed vibrato- singing a straight tone, then allowing it to release into vibrato, is used.

Create excitement at the end of a sustained phrase by speeding up the vibrato rate.

A slower pulse or diaphragmatic vibrato is used by some R&B singers. A lighter and faster pitch variation vibrato is used in many vocal styles. Classical and legit theatre singers use vibrato constantly.

To sound authentic in contrasting styles, singers must learn to control and vary vibrato styles.

TIMBRE

pronounced t [æ ]m b[ɝ]

Timbre is the tone color or quality of a musical sound. This is created with alterations of the resonating chambers of the pharynx and mouth, including alterations of laryngeal height.

Experiment with various laryngeal, soft palate, and mouth positions to find sounds that best exemplify the emotion you are expressing; color a phrase by adjusting the laryngeal height, the soft palate, and the tongue to create darker or brighter sounds.

A lower larynx combined with a slightly higher soft palate creates a darker tone color such as that used by Rick Astley, Michael McDonald, and Anita Baker. Adding “UH” has the effect of lowering the larynx, creating more depth.

Brighter, edgier sounds can be made with a higher larynx, relaxed, soft palate, and with the tongue in a higher, more forward position.

A lowered soft palate and raised tongue give you a more nasalized sound. Fran Drescher’s tv character The Nanny and the character...

SINGING TIPS: TEXTURE

Once you can sing a riff and run precisely it’s time to add texture. Texture is many things. It can be a tone quality that embodies and represents a particular emotion. It can be phrasing a certain way.

It can be an improvisational riff that sounds like a bird combined with a lyric about birds. In Renaissance music, this is known as word painting. The singer is “painting” the text with voice. Singers are word-painters- they make lyrics come to life by the way they sing them.

Think of the voice as a musical instrument that has many different possibilities for shading and sound choices. The vocal tone, subtext, timbre, volume, dynamics, and phrasing should reflect the meaning and emotion assigned to the lyric.

Adding texture to singing creates a greater expression of emotion. This is where words and notes on a page become the emotional expression known as music!

THE SEVEN TEXTURE CHOICES

The seven texture choices we will be working on in the...

SINGING TIPS: PENTATONIC AND BLUES RIFFS AND RUNS

Many riffs, runs, and licks in contemporary singing come from the blues and pentatonic scales. When you learn to sing these scales and exercises, you will eventually begin to be able to come up with your own riffs and runs rather than simply copying another singer.

A copier is not an artist- an artist has the musical vocabulary and skills to come up with something new, fresh, and original.

Learning the blues scales and the pentatonic scales in all inversions will give you the musical vocabulary to come up with your own riffs and runs!

The word pentatonic comes from the Greek word pente (five) and tonic (tone). The pentatonic scale consists of five notes within one octave. The pentatonic scale can be played and sung in any inversion-that means you can start on any of the notes in the major or minor scale.

The inversions are:

• 1-2-3-5-6
• 2-3-5-6-1
• 3-5-6-1-2
• 5-6-1-2-3
• 6-1-2-3-5

In the key of C, that would be

• C-D-E-G-A
• D-E-G-A-C
• ...

SINGING TIPS: RIFFS AND RUNS

Now it’s time for some really fun stuff- riffs and runs!

Everybody wants to be able to riff well, but many people believe they can’t riff if they didn’t grow up surrounded by R&B or Gospel music.

Never fear!

Riffing, like any other musical skill, can be learned (and taught). Just like we learn to speak as babies by imitation, we can learn the language of riffs by memorizing and practicing some of the more common riffs.

After a while, you will realize that most of the riffs you hear are similar patterns of notes- a language of specific notes and musical phrases.

Texture is also important to style.  Texture refers not only to vocal quality (creaky, breathy, pressed) but also musicality (dynamics and phrasing).

In this step, you are going to learn the musical language of riffs and runs, and you will learn to sing more emotionally by creating texture.

Riffs and runs are a huge component of R&B, gospel, and pop music.

...