Archive for the 'Vocal Health' Category

News for June from Sing Your Life

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

June Newsletter – 2009
 

Our Singers’ Network is growing daily and from what I see, it’s becoming a real resource for our members. Let me encourage those of you who have been part of the Sing Your Life family by reading the newsletters to take that next step and join the community of singers we have created for you at www.singyourlife.ning.com
 

I think I have figured out why many of you are reluctant to join. I think as we mature, some of us become extremely private and do not wish to expose ourselves to the trivial chatting that comes with being part of a social network. Am I correct about that? Even my SoCal contingent, who have supported me for years have been laying back from coming into our “family� for fear of having unwelcome emails showing up in their inbox on a daily basis.
 

So let me once again, make this very clear. My Singers’ network is a safe and nurturing space, where YOU decide what messages you get in your inbox, YOU participate in whatever way you choose to:
·        you can read what your fellow singers are expressing about their singing lives,
·        or watch an instructional video by yours truly,
·        or post some music
·        or simply lay back and stay pretty much anonymous.
It’s totally up to you, singers!
 

So let me tell you what we’ve got coming up.
 

Coming in July, we are planning a “live� tele-class on performance issues, and we will be joined by a special guest whom I have coaxed into joining us. We will cover some of the issues you wanted addressed with the Q&A series of videos, but which require more in depth responses like:

  1. How to sing with Emotion
  2. Being totally comfortable on stage
  3. How to put together a show
  4. How to hold your audience for the duration of the performance

My special guest, and dear old friend has been a musical director who has worked with a gazillion singers, (including me), and has been a conductor for many famous artists. He will offer his unique perspective on what it takes to truly succeed on any stage.
 

We’re also continuing with the mini-lessons on vocal technique, and the Q&A series on video.
 

And we’re planning a “DUETS� Project for members ONLY! Two of you will join forces, (and voices) to create a duet. The song can be one that was written specifically designed for 2 people to sing, or it can be a song that was not written to be performed as a duet, but you want to sing it in that way.
 

Here’s how it’ll work:

  • Those who want to try it, will send me a list of songs they’d like to sing with another singer.
  • I will compare the lists I receive and suggest people who I think would sing well as a duo. Of course, you may always state your preference for a duet partner…this IS a collaboration after all!!
  • Together, we will arrange the songs, giving each singer their share of  lines to sing and their harmony parts if they want to sing harmony.
  • The individual parts will be recorded, and then
  • We’ll mix them together in a duet.

The tracks will be posted and voted on for which duet was the best, and the winners will be awarded a special prize to be announced at a later date.
 

I have already posted a duet that was created here by me and one of our members just to get the ball rolling. Naturally, our duet is not officially a part of the DUET project, just an example of how it can be done.
 

Okay! That does it for news from the Singers’ Network site! Please JOIN US!!
 

………
 

On with this month’s featured article!!
 

With the “hoop-lah� finally over with this season’s “American Idol�, I have become inspired to write another book as a companion to the “The Art of Singing� series, we’ve had on the market now for 7 years.
 

Those books have hit a resonant chord with singers of all ages, all skill levels, all genre preferences, and from all corners of the earth.
 

The first book teaches basic singing technique to give the singer the correct way to sing as an automatic cell memory so he/she cam perform without ever having to think about how to breathe, how to “attack� notes, but just concentrate on communicating with the audience.
 

Book # 2, on Stage Presence, which is offered on our singers’ network as our gift to our members, talks about the ego’s interference and other distractions when we get up onto a stage to perform.
 

The 3rd Book is all about musicality, and seeks to teach the singer how to understand the notes, rhythms, and

harmonies of the songs he/she sings, and how to know his/her range and keys he/she sings in, and how to count the beats of music.
 

And the 4th Book is all about Promotion, and how to navigate through the labyrinth of “come-ons� and move from the

hyped up salesman speak to controlling one’s own destiny with regard to a career in music if that is the desire.
 

And NOW, since watching this season’s American Idol, where it became pretty clear that the outcome had been planned to be exactly what it became, I decided upon a serious guide book of rules for the aspiring singer, which I am naming, �Get Off The Bandstand�. Generally speaking, this book is meant to keep you in a state of total gratitude for your talent, and in the mood to share it always, but with respect for it and for yourself!
 Have you ever been to a wedding where one of the guests approaches the bandstand to request that “Aunt Sally� be allowed to come up and sing for the happy couple? After many moments of Q & A with the band members, which might go somewhat like this:
“What would you like to sing?�
“Um…Gee, I can’t think of anything.�
“Well, how ‘bout a nice wedding song?�
“Uh, Yeah…I know um…the “Hawaiian Wedding song?�
“Okay, key?�
“Huh?�,
“What key do you sing it in?�.
“Oh! Dunno! Wait! Someone once told me I sing in C. Does that sound right?��
“whatever!�
Aunt Sally sings the song, in the wrong key and forgetting most of the words, but nevertheless, the wedding guests, wishing to be polite and supportive, enthusiastically applaud her efforts…which she reads as artistic approval, (wrong read…entirely), and so she decides to sing more songs. The problem is that Aunt Sally cannot really sing, doesn’t really know any song all the way through, and after the initial support from the crowd, they are restless, embarrassed, clearly uncomfortable, and the band doesn’t know how to graciously get rid of this person, as she has most assuredly worn out her welcome…big time!
 

My book will serve as a guide for aspiring artists who have the urge and desire to sing, but do not yet understand the correct protocol for doing so. Whether a professional singer or not, if you choose to perform, please know when you do, you represent an art form that celebrates personal expression of the deepest level and therefore MUST be treated with reverence and respect, even awe!
 

I suppose it was inevitable that mediocrity would eventually creep into the world of the Arts! And indeed, some would say, it has always been here…hiding in the shadows. I suppose that’s correct. And I can remember my parents absolutely despising the 50’s doo-op songs, but their disdain motivated them to take us kids to the opera and expose us to big bands, or insist that we listen to the Greek Hour every Sunday. And my parents’ parents probably thought Benny Goodman was as dangerous as Elvis, so sure…it’s a matter of personal taste, and I get that!
 

And it could also be said that although commerce dictates the “trends� in music, and that the bubble gum sounds of the Disney Channel represent a segment of the listening public who keep the music business’s economy running, this fact alone is not enough of a reason to relegate music into some insipid “entertainment� category, much the same as video games and gambling. Shouldn’t we be maintaining the importance of music in our lives as more than some superficial “feel-good� pill?  Especially for those of us who SING to express ourselves, it IS so much more than that, isn’t it?
 

“To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and to soar, to coast into the hearts of people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found.�
Joan Baez - American Singer/Songwriter

 “When I am singing, I am inside of it…I feel, oh, like it feels when you’re first in love, when you’re touching someone–chills, things slipping all over me…A lot of times, when I get off the stage, I want to make love�
Janis Joplin - American Blues Singer 

 “Once I had a dream to live and love, and this dream became music. It touched all of the beautiful experiences I have searched for or known. Each sound was a color, and each color was a warm feeling, and my heart kept the tempo.�
Les McCann - American Jazz Pianist 

“He who lets his breath, hence his life force, flow consentingly as a willing sound sacrifice from the depths of his body, sings his life; for singing means to affirm life, to free oneself, and thereby to bring happiness and prosperity to oneself, and consequently to one’s fellow man.��

Marius Schneider – German Musicologist who found musical symbols in German Mythology

I know I’ve used these quotes before, but I write them down here again to remind you of the value of the gift you have been given of a singing voice. It’s a gift to be grateful for and to be cherished and treated with care and respect, always!

Note: I am gathering stories about experiences you may have had either as a singer singing with a band, or as a band member dealing with a singer on stage. Please send me whatever you have, funny, sad, outrageous, whatever. Feel free to change names so no one’s embarrassed, okay?
 

See ya next month, Singers!!
 

Sin[g]cerely,
Chrys
 

Posted in Attitude, Vocal Health, Performing, Vocal Basics, Motivation & Inspiration | 6 Comments »

Vocal Anorexia

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

This article was written by me last year, but I have decided to reprint it here for your comments! So comment, already!      

We know what Anorexia looks like, right? A 5′4″ woman, weighing 80 lbs. will stand in front of a mirror gazing at her image and will see FAT! To her eyes, as she stands in front of the mirror, examining every inch of her body, her body weighs 250 lbs. Anyone else; yes, ANYONE ELSE sees the reality of her weight which is 80 lbs. Her skeleton is clearly observed below the skin surface, which has such little mass, that to the objective observer, this woman appears malnourished and maybe even close to dying. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that this woman is seeing a distorted image her body that no one else, I mean NO ONE ELSE sees. And that’s her illness! The cure, if there is one, is several weeks in an institution where the “patient” is taught to rely on AND TRUST what OTHERS are seeing, and not on his/her own reflection in a mirror. Once the patient is able to understand that her view of her body is not real, but distorted, then she starts to see herself through the objective eyes of those around her who are telling her the truth…the truth that she has not been able to see… that she weighs 80 lbs., not 250.
Well, how does this relate to what I call “Vocal Anorexia”? “Vocal Anorexia” is a condition where a singer will hear the sounds that emit when he/she sings a song that NO ONE ELSE hears. Take the case of the people who audition for American Idol.
They will sing…badly…excruciatingly AWFUL. Simon will say, “Do you think that was good?”, and they will reply, “Yes! I was great!”
But they were about as terrible as they could be. What’s going on? The person is hearing something that is not real; sounds that objective listeners hear as unpleasant and even painful to hear. The only person who does not hear how bad it is is the person singing. And that’s an illusion. It takes hours, months, maybe even years of ear training for a person with this affliction to improve their singing. And I know this because I’ve had students like this in my studio, and believe me, they CANNOT hear how bad they sound. They remain under an illusion that they sound great…a false illusion! 

By the same token, I have encountered numerous singers who will sing a song, and sound exquisite, simply wonderful. The vocal tone, the expression of the lyric, the entire performance could make one melt, but to the singer’s ear, it sounds frightfully horrendous. If this singer is told how wonderful he/she sounds, it translates in the singer’s brain as, “They’re just being nice”, or “They didn’t hear all the mistakes, so they don’t know”. The same inability of the anorexic patient to SEE what is plain as day to an objective eye is apparent here as the anorexic singer cannot HEAR what is clearly beautiful to the objective listener. And the cure, if there is one, is for the anorexic singer to hear him/herself through OTHERS’ ears and not his/her own. This takes discipline and a continuous inner conversation where the singer must repeat often,
“What I am hearing is not real. I will not judge my singing or rely on my own listening for it is flawed by my condition.” This is what Martha Graham was saying to her student, Agnes DeMille in her letter, and although I have referred to that letter many many times, it bears repeating here once again.
Agnes DeMille, for those of you who do not know, was the choreographer for the first Broadway production of “Oklahoma”. She became so critical of her own work that she almost quit, but instead wrote to her mentor, Martha Graham, for some advice. And this is an excerpt of the note she got back. I strongly recommend that you read it SLOWLY, making sure you understand every word, especially if you feel that you may be one of those who suffer from vocal anorexia.  There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others. As always, your comments, positive or negative are welcome, singers!   

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