His voice faltered as he said, “It’s silly really, but I’ve always wanted to sing.” It was Monday morning and We were speaking with a prospective student….well, at least We think he wanted lessons. He then gushed self consciously, “I have a terrible voice” and “I don’t want to...
What amazes us the most about the human (and animal) voice is how wide our pitch range is. This is created using 2 simple short strings, which are really only 1 string as they move in symmetry with each other. We stand alongside man made musical instruments that have 4 strings, 6 strings or even...
There is a muscle that connects our cheek to our lower jaw which is called the masseter muscle. When we open our mouths wide the masseter wants to engage to help us bite down on a big piece of food. The problem is, when we open our mouths wide to sing, this muscle wants to get involved. We end up...
We are doing much more vocal gymnastics. I don’t think it’s better or worse, just make sure you are physically and vocally fit for the “vocal backflips” you are asking your voice to do. On the technological side, we are “vocal airbrushing” sometimes in the studio. What our listeners (both...
Every musician dreams of recording in a big, fancy studio with a world-renowned producer, but the honest truth is that most of us are getting by on a pretty tight budget. Fortunately, with a couple of easy hacks, some production knowledge and little bit of patience, you can get your home recordings...
Few singers practice their microphone technique enough, which results in some fantastic voices being overlooked due to poor sound quality or bad technique when performing live. How do you prevent this without the aid of a sound engineer or years of experience? Simple! – Practice makes perfect...
To judge by the news, it would seem that singers are getting injured more frequently than ever. We regularly hear of performers cancelling shows, or even tours, due to injury. Why is this happening? There may be two factors at play here: Increased demand, Improved ability to detect injury.
Demand
So, if you weigh 120 pounds, you should have 60 ounces of oral hydration per day. If you weigh 150 pounds, it would be 75 ounces of water or 9 cups. In this case, that’s pretty close to the 8-cups per day rule. But is this 8-cup a day rule valuable? The 8 glasses theory doesn’t take into account...
A great performance is not measured simply by how you feel at the end of it; more to the point is the response of your audience and how they feel when they leave your gig at the end of the night. Let’s look at it from the perspective of you throwing a party. The success of the party is based upon...
There are many singers who live comfortably within the normal parameters of folk, jazz and commercial pop; these vocalists use speech-based sound mixed in with some lighter qualities. In this series, however, We want to address any singing that is over and above your normal speaking range, volume...
Take care of your instrument, people. We can’t stress that enough. You already know the importance of cultivating the vocal instrument through breathing and proper technique. Today we’re going to talk maintenance. If you think of breathing and vocal technique as the cornerstones of the voice...
You might not be the world’s greatest singer – or even the best in your street – but that doesn’t mean you can’t put your god-given voice to good use as a sonic element in your tracks. With these ten tips, we’ll give you plenty of ideas for things you can do with...
When discussing musical performance, the topic of confidence is brought up often. From an audience perspective, a confident performer is a good performer, but how much does this quality have an effect on musical ability? Some musicians may go into a performance feeling certain that they will play...
Though we are somewhat biased on this, we believe singers are quite the special breed of human. With our instruments inside of our bodies, it’s no wonder we sometimes get the “diva” reputation. The voice is a precious, delicate, and special instrument, dammit! And that instrument...
As a gigging vocalist, you’ve got a different box of tools you need to care for than the rest of the players in your act. When your schedule has you playing a couple of shows a month, your voice may easily recover in time for shows and rehearsals with no problem even if you’re yelling for...
