30 Day Singer Blog - archives - page 11

Whether you’re learning online, at school, or attending private lessons, you’ll want to get the most out of your vocal lessons whatever way you can. Vocal lessons can be costly, especially for classical training, so of course you want to get your money’s worth! But even if your lessons are free or affordable, it’s still in your best interest to be as prepared as possible to make your lessons effective and fulfilling. Here are some tips that will make you a better student and will help you appear more professional and competent as a singer. 

Musical theatre is a combination of traditional theatrical stage plays combined with singing and dancing. When you’re singing a musical theatre piece, you’re not simply singing, but acting out a part of the story at the same time. Songs in musicals aren’t just written to sound pretty: they always have a purpose, whether that’s to advance the story, reveal a character’s hidden emotions, or add to the audience’s understanding of a character. To develop a voice for musical theatre, you need to work on your singing technique but also your ability to research a story and character and convey them with authenticity. 

Belting is a singing technique when the singer carries their chest voice beyond its natural break, or maintaining chest voice for pitches that are usually for head voice. Are you feeling ready to develop your belting voice even more? Here is a list of a variety of songs from different genres to test out what’s the right fit for you. Not all belters are created with the same style, so it’s always good to have options. Or if you’re not feeling ready to audition or perform with these yet, they also make great songs to sing in the shower or during a long car ride. 

Hi everyone! Last Sunday, one of your 30 Day Singer instructors, Camille van Niekerk streamed a lesson live. Camille went over pitch and intonation and we’re really happy that a ton of you signed up and participated by submitting questions. In case you missed the stream, you can watch it here in this blog post. 

Harmony is an important part of all genres of music. You’ll most often hear harmonies on the refrain or chorus part of the song. This is sometimes called the “sing-along” part of a song. While the verses create a narrative, the chorus invites other voices to join in. There are a few guidelines and exercises that can help you become familiar with singing harmony. 

In spoken communication, the meaning of a sentence changes depending on which words are emphasized. The words that you make the loudest are the most defined.  Depending on the point of dynamic emphasis, for example, “I REALLY like you” a subtext of meaning is conveyed. It leads to the question, “What do you mean, you REALLY like me?”  

The same thing is true when you are singing. Good singers only think about hitting the notes, while great singers think of phrases. Phrases become verses and choruses. Verses and choruses become songs. Great singers keep an awareness of that larger story. 

My first singing instructor said if you want to be a popular singer that, “sounding good is not as important as sounding recognizable”. This was strange to hear as a beginner, but I realized that singing is sometimes more about art than a technique. When you turn on the radio, you may be able to recognize singers in only a few notes. Whether you like the song or not, style is an important part of becoming recognizable and connecting with your audience no matter the genre.

As you learn to sing and immerse yourself in the singing community, you will hear other singers and voice coaches use terms such as vocal register, range, breaks, etc. 

You likely have no idea what these terms even mean, let alone how to apply them to your own vocal development. 

To make it more confusing, not all vocal pedagogist define these things in the exact same way. 

So, where do you start?

The term soprano refers to the highest-pitched singing voice. It comes from the Italian word, sopra, meaning over, on top, or above. While the majority of sopranos are women, male countertenors who can sing in the soprano range are called sopranists, and young boy sopranos are called trebles. 

Stage fright is when you get nervous and anxious usually before or during a musical performance like singing. It's entirely normal when singing around people to feel a little shy; in fact, it’s hard to think of any singer who hasn’t experienced stage fright, shyness or other performance issues. Adele, powerhouse that she is, has admitted to throwing up out of nervousness before concerts even when she was topping the Billboard charts. Here are some tips to help with overcoming stage fright when singing.