Singing Musical Theater  -

Communication of the Word (Part 3 of 3)

Good healthy technique is a wonderful thing. How do you take it to the next level with any style of singing? By communicating the meaning of the words.  Opera has learned the meaning of conveying words from musical theater.  If you are taught the importance of the meaning of the words, it means a lot to the tone quality you create.  It helps you to know and understand your voice and unleashes another level to your sound.

“If you actually communicate the song, no matter what style it is, I feel like you can present it in a valid way”. (O’Hara)

“Meaning of the word and expression is everything.  Learn to speak correctly, for if you don’t change speech habits, that is how you sing” (Birdwell, Classical Singer, April 2012).  http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine.    In other words, if you bring unhealthy speech habits into your singing, you will start unhealthy singing habits especially as you communicate your musical theater songs in English.  A mix in the voice is healthy- bring the head voice down and bring the chest voice up a little bit, and it is combined to be one voice, not two separate sounds.  Connect your speech to your singing.

Healthy speaking habits can lead to even healthier singing.   http://bit.ly/J7zsRk

Overall, when solid vocal technique is mastered, communication of the written word is the icing on the cake and the key to the portal of healthy musical theater singing.   Think about how much you can touch your audience when you truly express the meaning of the text in your songs.  This is what is so moving about singing as an art form.  It is imperative in musical theater, why not make it a necessary component of all of your singing?

Go and develop your singing with healthy technique and connect with the beauty of communication through song.

Singing Musical Theater 

Variety Keeps Agility when Singing  (Part 2 of 3)

You can keep the voice healthy and agile through singing a variety of repertoire.  Kellie O’Hara states that if you do both classical and musical theater singing, you “keep everything loose as you use different parts of the muscle” (vocal cords).  Think of the analogy of being a runner.  If you only run all the time, you will lose your ability to be flexible and do ballet.  If you only do ballet, you will not have the stamina to be a runner.  By doing both, you stay flexible.  By singing musical theater and classical or opera and a little bit of country, you exercise the different parts of your vocal cords and surrounding muscles.  This keeps the instrument flexible.  Of course given your passions and performing venues, you will do a little more of one style than another.  You should always afford yourself the opportunity to sing different styles, even if it is only in the practice room.

You use similar breath support for opera as you do for belting. (Kellie O’Hara)  It is low and deep. You create the sound in the same place, it just resonates differently. (Buccleugh, Kathleen Farrar, “No Limitations”, Classical Singer, April 2012.)  http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine

 In introducing belt warm-ups, O’Hara’s teacher, Florence Birdwell states that there is a tremendous amount of support involved to do it correctly.  A healthy belt equals absolute support- the same support that carries the voice up in high/legitimate singing.  If you keep it free with no tension, it creates a well-supported sound.  She describes the support required to be as low as if you were physically lifting the piano with your arms and legs, not your back (as many of her students really do in lessons).  http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine

When studying musical theater and classical singing in the same lesson, the style and songs should be taught separately, but students should be reminded that what they are using in one can be used in another.  This is especially true of the emotion in a foreign language after singing a musical theater piece.

When practicing, always return to a song that you know sits in your voice well.  One that you have worked on with good technique that returns you to a good, healthy place.  Sing it at the beginning and end of your practicing.  If you can sing this song well after learning a new song and using new additions to your technique (such as belting), you know you are and will stay in a good place.

What are the other values of singing a variety of repertoire?  What has opera learned from musical theater? Read about it in “Communication of the Word” in my next blog.

Singing Musical Theater –

Classical and Musical Theater Technique (Part 1 of 3)

Spring and summer months often find voice studios and voice students focused on singing musical theater repertoire. What a fun time with so many high school musical productions. The fever for musical theater gets started.  Singers want to sing this repertoire and improve their voices for next year’s opportunities.  Dancers want to work on their singing and acting.  Actors and actresses want to work on their singing and dancing to get a better part next year.  The summer is such a great time to work on all three to improve your skill sets and have fun performing.  (Contact Susan about Summer Musical Theater Series opportunity at susananders@aol.com!)

When a singer wants to learn to sing musical theater, he or she should first establish a solid classical technique. “If you have safe and good classical technique, you can learn to sing anything.  For a classical student studying musical theater, focus on communicating the words and putting a little more spoken word into the song”.  (Florence Birdwell, singing teacher of Kristin Chenoweth, Lara Teeter, Kellie O’Hara)  (Buccleugh, Kathleen Farrar, “Know Your Voice”, Classical Singer, April 2012.) http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine

By learning the fundamentals and physiology of singing, you learn how to sing in a healthy way.  Aligning the breath, posture, and support puts your singing on a stable plane.  Once you master that you work on understanding your individual instrument. 

Where does your voice change in character?  What vowels work best for you through tough spots?  How do you make your voice work through your transition points?  After that, you can explore where your passions lie (musical theater, pop, country).  Figure out how YOU sing a song best.

Getting a firm base in technique will guide your singing to where it can and should go based both on your passions and physical capabilities.  Find out more about agility of the singing voice in my next blog.  What can singing classical music do for your musical theater repertoire?

The Exercise, Diet and Singing Connection. Can it Equal a Successful Singing Career?

One of the many examples of a successful singing career which developed from finding physical and emotional well-being is Lisette Oropresa, opera singer. Starting out her career at the Met in 2006, she experienced a personal and professional revolution at the same time.  Being overweight at the start of her professional career provided some road blocks.  As her career got on the fast track to success, so did she to take care of herself.  "Intertwining the stretching and strength positions of yoga with running and allowing both activities to fuel singing helped me to heal as a human being." http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine/article.php?id=2377

In Lissette's struggles to lose weight to achieve her operatic career goals, she found that yoga and running "created a genuine happiness in me because they have put me back in touch with my center. I thought I was lost, my spirit crushed, and that I may never sing again, until I began to grow from the inside out."

At the same time she was re-vamping her exercise, Lissette began to really pay attention to what food she was putting in to her body.  Her childhood of unhealthy eating habits was catching up with her.  Winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2005 gave her the motivations to get moving and revise her eating.  "You are what you eat" and if you provide yourself with good, wholesome food, you produce a good, healthy product.  Lots of water, fresh fruits and vegetables, portion control.  You know the drill. 

Singing is a tough business. "You are expected to do a lot more than just stand there and sing. There is a big difference between looking the part and being fit"(Lisette Oropresa). It is competitive and you are expected to look and be the part (singing, acting, and dancing, in addition to being physically fit enough to carry the role).

Give yourself the opportunity to stand out from the rest by thinking about it now. Get out there and take care of your body which in turn will improve your singing.

What do you think about the exercise, diet, and singing connection?

Fitness and Singing Revisited - Spring Exercise and Singing Goals, What can they do for you?

In the height of spring I am reminded of 2 things that are  re-invented for me this time of year:
1) New goals for singing and teaching
2) New goals for exercise

Why do they always happen at the same time?  They are inter-related.  What you do to improve your physical status influences not only your mental state, but how you use your body in singing.  In other words, exercise improves your singing, heals your soul, and motivates you to work harder. 

Think about it.  When you exercise, you get your endorphins moving and lift your spirits.  The stronger your body becomes, the more it physically can achieve or endure.  Singing is both a physical and emotional act. By taking care of the physical, we also take care of our emotional well-being.  Cardiovascular activity gives us a stress outlet and yoga calms that stress by making you truly pay attention to your body.

You increase your lung capacity and breath control with cardiovascular activity.  Running and walking are excellent forms of exercise you can take anywhere.  You create a stronger you who can do more.  Your body begins to work for itself.

Yoga helps to engage core (abdominal) muscles and to breathe deeply.  It also helps you to support with more strength.   Add to it that lung capacity and ability to sustain a phrase increases and posture improves.  Michelle Latour, faculty at University of Nevada-Las Vegas, states, "with yoga my posture improved and my desire to force my sound dissipated.  I am connected to my support all the time, my shoulder and neck tension no longer negatively affect my vocal production".  http://www.classicalsinger.com/magazine/article.php?id=2381

Interesting food for thought.   What do you think about the power of training your body to work for itself to therefore create a strong, healthy singing voice?  Tune in for Part 2- "The Exercise, Diet and Singing Connection".

Speak as you would sing, sing as you would speak

Speak as you would sing, sing as you would speak

Truly the best things you can do for your singing voice are to balance healthy vocal hygiene (water, rest, good diet and exercise, and good technique) AND healthy vocal speaking.  Speak as you would sing.  Support your sound and think of projecting your speaking voice in everyday life.  Your voice is one instrument whether you are speaking or singing.

5 Tips for a Healthy Speaking Voice (and Better Singing Voice)

1.       Support your speech as you would your singing.  Use abdominal support and make sure you breathe.

2.      Take breaths often and as relaxed and deep as you can.  Avoid catch breaths.  They stress your voice.

3.      Find your resonant space and use it to project your speech (think raised soft palate or the feeling of a yawn). 

4.      Raise your speaking pitch slightly.  Find it by saying ‘hmm-hmm’ in answer to questions.  Where does your voice settle?  Try to speak starting around that pitch. Use that 'hmm' to draw your voice forward.

5.      Inflect up at the ends of sentences as if it is a question.  This will start your next sentence higher. 

Go to my newsletter, “Speak as you Sing”  or contact me for more information.

Also focus on some simple vocal hygiene steps.  We get so caught up in our everyday stresses that we forget to take care of ourselves.  Go to bed early if you can, drink as much water as you can, get moderate exercise, support your speaking voice as you would your singing voice and go visit a vocal professional to ensure you have good vocal technique.  

When performing, try to keep your emotions in the black zone, steady yet energized. Use them to enhance your performance but out of the red which forces you above and beyond what is comfortable.  Don’t let anxiety to cause you to push the envelope.  Allow yourself one more level to go with emotion and exertion.   Enjoy the music and express yourself but stay in tune with what your body is saying.

Trials and Tribulations of a Pop Singer's Hectic Life. Is it lifestyle or health habits that can cause difficulties?

Trials and Tribulations of a Pop Singer’s Hectic Life.  Is it lifestyle or health habits that cause difficulties? 

Unfortunately the trials and tribulations of a pop singer with a heavy performance schedule bring potential troubles to many singers.  Not only are there many performances, but a lot of travel through time zones (affecting sleep), sleeping in hotel rooms (varying levels of humidity or lack of that cause allergy and dry throat symptoms), dietary changes, and stress.  The schedule of late night performances often leads to the unfortunate habit of eating very late.  Many singers cannot eat a good meal before performances (call it nerves!), therefore they eat late following performances. This late eating (and often not enough hydration) leads to vocal troubles such as acid reflux.  Among other performers, John Mayer has experienced vocal troubles as a result of acid reflux manifesting itself in a granuloma.  Although told he has great vocal technique, vocal health has bit him http://voicecouncil.com/john-mayers-vocal-challenge/ . 

Steven Tyler has also experienced difficulties but due to faulty technique.  http://voicecouncil.com/dream-on-switched-off/   Click on this link to read details about Megan Gloss’ advice on how to minimize stresses on the voice outlined below.

Strive to attain the following goals:

  Avoid Strain.

Develop a healthy technique.

Warm up.

Drink plenty of water.

Rest.

Also, watch how you speak.  Use your healthy singing technique as you talk every day.  Read my next blog, “Speak as you would sing, sing as you would speak”.

The lifestyle of hundreds of performances a year and travelling affects different people in different ways.  Take care of yourself the best you can both through healthy technique and lifestyle and how you talk.