Friday, June 23, 2017 by Patti Barrow | Confidence

As singers, we've all heard it.  We're in a conversation with a friend and it plays out like this:

Voice Student:  "Sorry, I can't today. I have a voice lesson right after class."

Friend: "What do you do at voice lessons anyway? You just .. sing ... right?" 

One thing you can tell your friends is "singing lessons is much more 'just singing'."  You work hard, focusing in on learning new skills all the while learning to "let it go".  Who knew breathing to sing was so different from blowing out a candle?!  In voice lessons you learn a unique balance of training abdominal muscles to work, while training jaw and tongue to let go and you are balancing breath management with phonation. The list goes on. Outside of vocal technique, you are learning how to read music and sing in foreign languages. Then, once you learn a song,  you learn performance techniques so you can be successful performing in front of others. There is a lot to learn!

Ultimately, anyone who can identify with any of these statements would benefit grately from Voice Lessons:

• I want a better range
• I want a stronger voice
• I run out of breath when I sing
• I go off pitch when I sing 
• My voice sounds too breathy
• I get hoarse when I sing for a long time
• I get hoarse after I sing loudly
• I frequently get a sore throat or laryngitis
• My break is huge
• My head voice is very weak
• My chest voice is very weak
• My body feels so tense when I sing
• What do these italicized words mean? Rit., dim., poco a poco?
• I can't sing fast songs
• I mumble when I sing
• My jaw hurts after singing for a while
• I don't have a vibrato
• I have too much vibrato
• I need a wider range of songs to sing
• I don't know how to "sell a song" emotionally
• I'd like to explore different styles
• I want to be in a staged musical
• I've been asked to sing at my sisters wedding
• I've been asked to sing at a church event
• I have no idea what I'm doing in choir, I just turn the page when the person next to me does ...

If you ever get in another awkward conversation regarding voice lessons,

and the above list doesn't clarify it for them, just use this drawing.

Bottom line is...singing makes us happy. I hope this helps!

Friday, June 16, 2017 by Patti Barrow | Performance

Q - "How do you sing an emotional song without losing it on stage?"

The gift of every singer is the ability to provide an audience with a personal experience! Whether it's the effervescent "Popular" from Wicked, or the dramatic "Send Him Home" from Les Mis, to really sell the song a singer must become, in every essence, an actor. Although we all have to sing a song that we do our best to relate to, it's imperative that each singer has a series of songs they can truly connect to. (Especially audition pieces!)

The new Tony Award-winning musical "Dear Evan Hansen" is connecting with people on so many levels because of the emotional delivery which is given by Ben Platt and the rest of the cast. The delivery of his songs touches everyone, helps every person identify with feelings common to all of us. He was able to do that by drawing upon these simple ideas: 

1) What is the emotion that is driving the song? Find a personal experience to relate to!

Again, it's important for the singer to research music, and pick songs that one can easily emotionally connect to. Once you pick your song, come up with an anchoring memory from your own life that can relate to what this character is experiencing. The more potent your memory, the better it will be for you as a performer and for the audience. What is an emotional parallel you can bring to the song?

For instance, let's say I was singing a song about a woman being embarrassed as the man she likes finally notices her.  I would likely invoke the memory ... boy, dog, pee.  I was 14 yrs old (so embarrassing) when I was talking to a boy I liked while walking my dog. We stood in the street, he smiled and talked, I played with my hair and smiled back... and my dog, who had grown impatient, just walked up, lifted his leg, and peed. Yep. I was mortified. The boy just laughed, said something insensitive, and just walked away.  I'm telling you ... epic memory right there, on many levels. Excitement, twitterpation, shock, anger, pride, hurt, embarrassment, immense sadness... all there in one 5 minute block in a 14yr olds life. Even thinking about it now my heart sink and my breathing being to quicken and shallow. Sometimes one experience can give you a ton to pull from! 

So what kind of impact on the audience do you think that song would have if I pulled all that emotion from my life into the song?  

2) Stay centered and anchor yourself to an image!

Sometimes revisiting a powerful memory (even a glorious on!), our emotions can get away from us. It is always a great idea to anchor ourselves! Draw on something that can keep us in the moment, keep us contained if you will. Here are a few ideas:

* Open your eyes and state the obvious: The sky is gray, the stage is black, the lights are bright, the floor is marble, my dress is green...etc. Keeping things simple can reign the brain!

* You are a tree: Imagine your legs are roots, spreading deep into the soil, slowly going down, down, down, widening as they go...slower and slower...drawing from the ground the water and nutrients needed to feed the branches at the top. The energy you receive is from your roots to your toes, to your legs, to your torso, and upward. Breathe slowly and imagine this process!

* You are a tall glass tube: you can see everything, and air moves through you and vibrates inside of you, but you remain contained. 

3) Once centered and grounded...Return to step one...

Now that you are grounded, go back to that memory...really feel it, pay attention. Be aware of the emotion you are feeling... ask yourself "where in my body do I feel the emotion"? The more in touch you are with your body, the more you realize that particular part of your body will be activated during that particular emotion. Our bodies have physical responses to emotion, and your body is speaking to you!  An upsetting emotion can live in your stomach. It can live in your upper torso, your shoulders, and neck. A joyous feeling can be felt in your shoulders, in your upper arms, in your upper legs...ask yourself "When I am remembering this where specifically am I feeling it in my body?"

4) Shake it off then Join forces!

Now that you have identified your emotion, honed in your body and where you are feeling that emotion, now you can put this emotional energy to good use! First become centered and grounded, use those tree roots, that light pole, whatever you are using to help you ground yourself. The more you can integrate that positive image of a grounded centered state, the more power you will have when you recall and really draw from that emotional memory. You will feel that emotion in your body, but you will find that it won't be quite as erratic and uncontrolled as before.  If you are a singer that has worked on your technique, you will have developed that muscle memory that will stay with you as you perform. This is where your "Practice with a Purpose" comes in!

5) Draw from your body

In order to have it REALLY connect with the audience, you will then sing from where that emotional memory is centered (emotional pain in your solar plexus? joy from your lower arms? Imagine singing from that place... using that emotional energy, emotional memory, that your body has stored and then transfer it into your performance. It will take some time getting to know your body, so really spend some time to know where that tension, happiness, impatience (all of the emotions), find out where they live within you. Singing is a very personal emotional process, and even more individual is the emotional connection each person can have with a particular song.

I hope this helps!  Remember, as a singer, your goal is to find songs you like, that move you. Draw from an experience that you can relate to and you WILL bring down the house!

~ Patti