Dec 2019 – I will start blogging about this soon. Articles will include: vocal loading – managing how you use your speaking and singing voice throughout the week what can stress the voice medical challenges – respiratory infections; acid reflux; menstruation; IBS; side effects of medications; intubation during surgery; muscle-skeletal conditions smoking, recreational drugs, alcohol […]
Dec 2019 – I will start blogging about this soon. Articles will include: pitch extremes (high & low); extending range managing dynamics / volume: loud & soft; extremes (fortissimo & piannissimo); getting from one to the other; sudden loudness or softness vibrato long, sustained notes fast singing: rapid syllables; rapid pitch change (semiquaver runs, riffs)
Gymnastics (advanced singing) Read More »
Dec 2019 – I will start blogging about this soon. Articles will include: onsets (glottal, breathy, creaky voice, balanced) release (how to end notes well) laryngeal setup and laryngeal modes (1, 2, & 3) – for opera, pop, belt, rock, crooning, falsetto etc semi-occluded vocal tract (SOVT) exercises demystifying chest voice, head voice, and mix
Connecting (making sound) Read More »
Songwriting lessons, mentoring, song critique and blog lyricists music writers and composers songwriters (words and music) singer-songwriters (whatever your instrument) amateurs and professionals music students I have 35 years experience studying song and songwriting – as a published songwriter and choral composer, composition teacher, songwriting mentor, professional singer, and singing teacher. And I’ve worked with pretty much every type
Lunchtime Recital: 100 Years of Theorbo Song (1603-1703) Thursday, 28 November, 2019, at 1.30pm Harris Manchester College Chapel, Mansfield Rd, OX1 3TD Alexander Massey (tenor) and Matthew Faulk (theorbo) will be sharing 40 minutes of songs from Italy, France and England
Lunchtime Recital, 28 Nov 2019, 1.30pm Read More »
Download a PDF version of this article. Many singers find it easier to sing a tune on single vowel sound, rather than singing actual song words. Adding consonants to a vocal line can be a real problem – the musical line suffers, singers find themselves running out of breath much more quickly, their throats get
Singing Consonants – 9 useful Principles Read More »
Download a one-page PDF of this article. Vowels and vowel sounds are not the same thing. In the English alphabet, there are 5 vowels: A, E, I, O, U. However there are many more vowel sounds. This document deals with vowel sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) maps all the language sounds the human voice
Vowel sounds and mouth positions Read More »
This is the third in the blog series Singing as Storytelling. There are many big name singers doing cover versions of the classic hits. It’s easy money, because the songs are already well known favourites, and the singers already have a fan base who are prepared to buy whatever the singer records, and attend whatever
‘Mr Bojangles’ (Singing as storytelling 3) Read More »
This is the second in the blog series Singing as Storytelling. The majority of singers – famous ones as well as amateurs – work hard to produce a stylish and technically excellent performance in terms of musical delivery, whatever the genre. However, it is rare to find a singer who genuinely delivers the lyric in
‘Cry Me A River’ (Singing as storytelling 2) Read More »
Jule Styne (writer of ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’, ‘Three Coins in a Fountain’, and ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’) famously said: “A song without words is just a piece of music.” The singer’s job is to make sure those words both be heard, and also be understood. That’s not just
Misheard lyrics and mondegreens Read More »
