The Engaging Performer

In today’s episode, Tara focuses on what it is like to do a vocal practice time that benefits singers. She highlights steps to start—including deciding on how long your practices will be and how to go about implementing those vocal practices. This is so singers will be able to work through issues and make their rehearsal time count. 

(2:02) Practicing an instrument takes commitment.

(3:00) Practicing helps us improve in the tiniest of details.

(5:57) Having a voice teacher to go to can help motivate you to practice.

(6:41) A typical practice: Decide on how often

3-4 times a week, for kids every day

(7:52) Break down your times of practice to what works with your schedule

            1. Decide on  how long you will practice in a given day—15 minutes to an hour

(8:53)   2. Decide on which song you want to immerse yourself in that day. It can even be just a part of a song.

(10:35) 3. Take time to warmup.

(11:33) 4. Take a song and sing it through. Notice what things cause problems for you in the basic melody, rhythm and words, as well as where you breathe.

(12:20) 5. Sing the song again and be aware of technique issues. When you figure out what might be some, work specifically on those issues until you feel like you are closer to them being resolved. 

(16:44) 6. If you have a longer practice scheduled, work on a second or third piece and or hard sections of those pieces.

(17:15) 7. If you have extra time after doing the technical aspects, you can work through the expression—the dynamics, phrasing, etc. Also, if you have a foreign language piece, spend time then to learn the language pronunciation.

(21:18) If you practice, you will improve!

For more discussion and and keeping the conversation going, please feel free to join my new FACEBOOK group:

The Engaging Voice Singers (community) 

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275720043147345/

You can find this and other episodes on theengingvoice.com and at Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, iHeart radio, and iTunes

Please go to iTunes and click on RATINGS AND REVIEWS to rate this podcast. I would be so grateful! Thank you!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-engaging-voice/id1448497465

In this second episode of two, Tara discusses the ways the tongue can cause tension in our singing voice and make it feel or sound different. She helps singers know what to observe to see if there is any tension in the tongue and gives them some practical vocalises to make sure the tongue stays relaxed, loose and free.

(1:10) The tongue is a muscular organ made up of 8 muscles connected to the hyoid bone.

(3:19) Where the tongue is located during certain consonants:  d or t —the tongue is by the aveolar ridge

(3;47) k or g consonants—the back of the tongue lifts by our soft palate

(4:31) th consonants voiced and unvoiced —the tip of the tongue is gliding

(5:16) American r consonant — the  tongue is curled, retracted or half suspended

(7:10) How can you tell if your tongue causes tension? There are at least two ways to tell:

1. Grabbing your tongue while it is sticking out of your mouth and trying to keep it 

forward while you sing.

2. Hold your hands in thumbs up position. Put your thumb under your chin and see if it 

feels hard or soft.

(11:54) Exercises to help release tongue tension:  

1. Glay-glah.      Say it and then sing it 1-2-1-2-1-2-1

(12:37) 2. Sticking your tongue out and holding it while doing arpeggios.    1-3-5-8-5-3-1 or

1-3-5-3-1

(14:39) 3. Tip of tongue on the bottom front of your mouth by teeth. Keep it forward. Slide

1-3-5-3-1 or 1-8-1

(16:15) 4. (from Jacob Burton) Cover your bottom lip completely with your tongue. Sing 

1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5  5-4-5-3-5-2-5-1

(16:54)  5. Say “yuk” without moving your jaw (from Singing for Dummies)

(17:37) 6. Sing yah-yah-yah, etc    Sing without moving your jaw 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1

(18:24) 7. Yah-ee,  Sing slowly 1-3-5-3-1   Put your thumb back under your chin to check tongue

For more discussion and and keeping the conversation going, please feel free to join my new FACEBOOK group:

The Engaging Voice Singers (community) 

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275720043147345/

You can find this and other episodes on theengingvoice.com and at Stitcher, Google Play, iHeart radio, and iTunes

Please go to iTunes and click on RATINGS AND REVIEWS to rate this podcast. I would be so grateful! Thank you!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-engaging-voice/id1448497465

In this first episode of two, Tara discusses the ways the jaw can cause tension in our singing voice and make it feel or sound different. She gives practical tips for observation and some vocalises to make sure the jaw stays relaxed, loose and free.

(2:22) How the jaw affects singing—the reason why.

(3:26) The open or closed-ness of our jaw can be an originator or tension.

(4:56) How do we know if our jaw is tight, rigid or moving when it doesn’t need to?

(5:28) One way to check for tension in the jaw: move your jaw side to side while singing.

(6:13) Check in a mirror with an “ah” vowel to see if the jaw moves by singing a short scale.

(6:51) Feel your jaw muscle if it moving while singing a vowel. Try an arpeggio. 1-3-5-8-5-3-1

(7:36) The jaw is NOT needed to sing different pitches.

(8:53) We do use our jaw for “j” and “y” consonants.

(9:13) How can we release tension in our jaw?

(9:49) 1. Relax neck—stretch it and roll head side to side

(10:18)  Massage the TM Joint to loosen.

(11:14) 2. Speak “ma-ma” and “duh” to open your jaw in a relaxed amount of space.

                Sing half scale.

(13:19) 3. Sing “la” without moving your jaw; just move your tongue. 5-4-3-2-1

(15:05) 4. Sing with a hum. 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-2-1

(15:41) 5. With moving lips, not the jaw, sing “ee” and “oo” on the same note.

(17:09) 6. Bend over at waist, holding onto a chair and sing: Ha ha-ha-ha etc

1-1-2-3-3-4-5-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-11-10-9-9-8-7-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

For more discussion and tips, please feel free to join my new FACEBOOK group:

The Engaging Voice Singers (community) 

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275720043147345/

You can find this and other episodes on theengingvoice.com and at Stitcher, Google Play, iHeart radio, Spotify and iTunes

Please go to iTunes and click on RATINGS AND REVIEWS to rate this podcast. I would be so grateful!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-engaging-voice/id1448497465

Tara B discusses why it’s important for singers to train and get helpful, healthy technique. She talks about how pro athletes always do training as part of their regimen. Since singing is a very physical and mental thing, we as singers can go through a similar process to make sure our voices perform at their very best. 

(1:12) What about musicians who are gifted? Do they need training?

(2:24) Two elderly singers that blew my mind with their beautiful tone.

(4:30) Olympic and elite athletes—how do they train?

(6:15) Pro-athletes are always learning and getting better.

(6:51) High school athletes and their training—why they do it. (Social time, stamina, keeping in shape, team skills, not being injured)

(9:14) Our vocal cords change through the years and so if we want to keep them healthy, we need training.

(11:02) My voice at 50 with training and technique is even healthier and freer than just 4 years ago. This is because I’m taking lessons again.

(12:40) My story of being unkind to my voice and how I got vocal fatigue.

(15:52) Elite singers—our operatic athletes. The singers who sing up to three hours over an orchestra with no microphones.

(18:56) Why DO people train their voices?

(19:19) 1. We train to have endurance and stamina to sing.

(19:42) 2. We train to sing notes with ease and flexibility.

(20:05) 3. We train to have great control over our breath.

(20:36) 4. We trying to have clear and phonated sounds.

(21:21) 5. We train to develop natural vibrato.

(21:50) 6. We train to sing with great intonation and pitch.

(22:10) 7. We train to keep flexibility in our voices.

(22:56) 8. We trying to keep up all of our range—that we don’t lose notes we once had.

(23:31) 9. We train to sound effortless as we sing.

(23:53) 10. We train to keep up the power and presence in our voices.

(25:17) The difference between a vocal “coach” and a vocal “teacher”. 

(27:18) The teachers who can help are those who teach about the physical structure of the voice and those whom you feel comfortable with them.

For more discussion and tips, please feel free to join my new FACEBOOK group:

The Engaging Voice Singers (community) 

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275720043147345/

Also you can find teachers through lessons.com and on LInkedIn through the group “Singing coaches/teachers”.

Please go to iTunes and click on RATINGS AND REVIEWS to rate this podcast. I would be so grateful!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-engaging-voice/id1448497465

Today this episode is a tool for vocal practice for the listener. Tara has included 11 different vocalises for you to sing along with her. This is a great episode to use in the car while you are driving or first thing in the morning to warm up your voice and feel ready to go.

(1:21) Exercise 1—Deep breathing. Inhale though your nose and breath out on a sustained s-s-s-s-s-s.           You can count up to 8 or any number you want. The point is to relax our body and get used to breathing and exhaling slowly and with continuity.

(2:36) Exercise 2—Using the same pitch, sing 5 times in a row this vowel sound: Ee-Ee-Ee-Ee-Ee

(4:46) Mm—huh.  Say these two sounds together like you are agreeing to something. Then after each time you say it, sing an oo on a 1-2-1 very slowly.

(6:27) Using Vee-Vay-Vah-Voh-Voo sing the same pitches but you can go to random notes when you change. It doesn’t have to be in a scale going up and back. 

(7:54) With a slide, go from 1-3-1 very slowly, sliding through all the pitches to get to each one and back.

(10:10) Using the vowel Ah, sing 1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5.    Then back down 5-4-5-3-5-2-5-1

(12:03) Chicken Exercise. Use bwak, bwak, bwak, etc on 1-3-5-3-1

(13:24) Say “Boo, boo, Boo” in your head/float voice, then sing “Boo, boo, boo” with 1-5-1

(14:25) The Boo exercise in a lower range for guys.

(15:38) Using a lip buzz or by rolling your r’s, you can do an arpeggio for singing this one: 1-3-5-8-5-3-1

(17:47) From Roger Love’s Book “Set Your Voice Free”, this is the Ga ga exercise. Use “ga” and do this pattern of an arpeggio: 1-3-5-8-8-8-8-5-3-1

(19:44)  The Star Spangled Banner exercise: with the pitches from the beginning of the song, use an oh or oo and sing the first phrase.  5-3-1-3-5-8

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I interview 80 year old Betty Miller, a lifetime learner and musician. Betty decided to keep going in life when she was widowed at age 58. This is her musical journey of stepping out, doing new things and providing a legacy for her children through a recording.

(4:36)— Betty’s first experience with piano lessons and practicing.

(7:30)—She starts more education in her 50’s.

(8:54)—Betty’s journey into voice lessons and private study. 

(12:17)—Posture and relaxation of your body has been a key takeaway for Betty in lessons.

(13:04)—Betty delves into the world of becoming a recording artist.

(14:20)—She shares what songs she picked for her CD and the reasons why.

(16:57)—Betty explains a little of her studio experience.

(19:40)—She talks about the other processes besides recording that happen with making a CD.

(20:59)—A cd can be a unique gift to give because it is a recording of you.

(30:11)—Betty’s final advice to people wanting to try something new: “Just do it!”

To reach Betty Miller, you can find her on Facebook. Click here: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.l.miller.18

To reach Tim Zhorne for any studio recording, please click here: https://www.fstracks.com

Your voice sounds different as you go from low pitches to high pitches. Tara chats about the registers of your voice and how they all work together to form one voice. She delves into the sounds we hear as we go from low to high and back again and she also chats about the feeling or sensation of our voice changing. Tara offers exercises in this podcast to aid your singing so you can capture the range you were meant to sing with and have a smooth voice that can sound seamless and effortless. 

(1:30)— “A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular pattern of the vocal folds.” (Wikipedia)

(2:30)—Our voices have different colors and ranges.

(5:10)—Exploring our voice by reading a children’s book out loud.

(6:35)—Three parts to our voice—Chest, Middle (Mixed) Head

(7:40)—Chest voice—our lower register of pitches.

(9:18—Middle voice—where our voice changes and shifts—middle pitches of our range. (Zona di passagi)

(11:27)—Head voice—upper pitches of our voice and range.

(13:52)—What happens in the vocal folds as we sing higher? The zipper analogy.

(17:03)—Primo and secondo passaggi—the “breaks” that happen in our voice. Men vs women in their break areas:  men have a shorter middle voice range.

(20:10)—A way to make our throat open: fog up your hand.

(21:07—Exercise: Slides/Sirens slowly.     1-3-1 (3rds)  1-5-1 (fifths)  1-8-1 (octaves)

(22:55)—Exercise: Hummy sound to add to sirens or slides.

(23:20)—Exercise: Ga, ga.  1-3-5-8-8-8-8-5-3-1     Do it with a whiney or cry sound. You can also experiment with a nasal sound.

(24:25)—Exercise: Lip buzz/lip trill. This is easy on your voice.

(25:35)—Exercise: Chicken sound “bwak”. You can use an arpeggio or a couple of notes 1-3-5-3-1

(26:15)—Exercise:  Mum, mum.     You can use a scale   1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

In this episode, Tara focuses on an issue that some people struggle with in singing. It’s called monotone singing or tone deafness. She gives the listener the true facts of this topic, chats about a real disorder called Amusia and discusses ways that people can learn to sing on pitch and in tune. This is for any listeners who have grappled with the stress of wondering if they can sing or not. It’s also for teachers who want to help students acquire the skills in training their ear to be able to sing in tune and be confident.

(1:35)—Every voice is unique.

(2:57)—We speak in pitches that vary.

(6:33)—We measure pitches by intervals.

(7:43)—“Set Your Voice Free” (by Roger Love) story of pitch intervals in speaking and how people in certain occupations speak differently.

(10:35)—A story of someone who learned to sing pitches correctly.

(12:04)—The musical disorder Amusia— a disorder of pitch discrimination in the brain. An explanation of it here (via The Journal of Neuroscience)

(18:34)—To sing, start with songs that are simple and don’t have many different pitches.

(19:25)—Good singing starts with observation!

(19:52)—1st exercise to help train yourself to become a singer. Observe physical details.

(21:12)—2nd exercise—Observe your environment for sound details.

(22:47)—3rd exercise—Observe two pitches to see which is higher and which is lower.

(23:36)—4th exercise—Tonal pitch memory.

(25:55)—5th exercise. Choose a song and try to pick out contrasting vocal parts or instrument parts.

(27:22)—6th exercise. Going higher and being able to shift your voice to sing all the pitches.

(28:36)—Hummy sounds, a cat’s meow and dogs whimpering are all ways to get to higher pitches.     1-2-3-4-5 scale or same note 1-1-1-1-1

Tara’s special guest, professional singer/vocal instructor Amy Mathews-Muttwill, shares about the many avenues that her musical journey took her.  In this episode, she tells the story of how she would veer off the path of music only to return through the encouragement of key people who helped stir in her a desire to come back. Her pathway took her from the USA to Austria and back with new vision for what she could and should really pursue. Enjoy her inspiring story and some tips about the voice from a very engaging and empathetic vocal teacher!

(7:05)—The beginning of a singer’s musical journey. Amy became enamored with those who sang in church at the tender age of 7.

(11:05)—College becomes a path totally different than the rest of Amy’s family.

(12:35)—Amy relates how a job sharing fragrances turned into her being nudged to come back to music.

(15:10)—While on a music education path, Amy clarifies what her heart wants to do as a singer.

(17:39)—A realization comes to Amy after completing her music education degree. “I really need to be out there on the stage performing!”

(20:40)—Someone else is again the catalyst for Amy to follow her gifts.

(23:05)—The twists and turns of studying with many voice teachers.

(27:42)—Amy’s first experiment in teaching private voice lessons.

(30:55)—Rotary Clubs are in every city and they provide scholarships. Amy got an Ambassadorial Scholarship for study abroad in music. This took her back to Austria.

(36:15)—In the midst of taking huge risk in music and being away from the USA, Amy confesses still her lack of confidence that so many of us experience.

(39:03)—A romance blossoms in Austria amid hardships back in America.

(45:17)—Amy describes bel canto/beautiful singing and what is can entail.

(47:40)—Appoggio breathing starts with the breath housing in the rib cage. Amy speaks to this concept and helps us understand it.

(51:37)—An issue in many students is when they just want to imitate another singer’s sound. 

(53:46)—“Am I making a decision that is good for me and my voice?” A question singers need to ask.

(55:15)—The vocal fry. Amy tells how this trend is used often in our vernacular.

(56:49)—“Speak on the voice”

Using breath in singing has so many facets and parts that we need to be aware of executing. In this episode, Tara discusses the onset of singing and how air flow and air pressure effect how we produce our actual tone and sound. Tara gives practical exercises for each type of onset—for those who struggle to get tone to activate and for those who seem to “press” their sound to come out of their mouth. She also discusses the Bernoulli effect and how it applies to the vocal folds.

(1:28)—All about the Bernoulli Effect and how it is part of the workings of our vocal cords.

(4:08)—Try your own experiment of the Bernoulli Principle

(7:09)—The onset of singing—what happens when we don’t commit to the tone or pitch

(9:53)—Five exercises for committing to singing pitches

• “I love to sing” arpeggio 5-8-5-3-1
• Jumping ha ha ha ha 8-5-3-1
• Plosive sounds : kee kay kah koh koo  5-4-3-2-1
• Fricatives sounds: vee-ah vee-ah vee-ah vee-ah vee. 5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1
• Walking to the rhythm and singing “I Got Rhythm” from the Gershwin Brothers

(16:22)—For some singers, we send too much air pressure through the cords

(20:55)—Exercises to check breath pressure and make sure it isn’t pressed.

• Checking tongue with thumb under chin on “ee” or “oo”
• Singing “ee” or “oo” withe same air flow for each note:  ee ee ee——— 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1