Welcome!

Posted in Category Introduction Forum
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  • C
    Camille van Niekerk 4 years ago

    Welcome, Amy! Which song (and musical)?

    Welcome, Ruth! So glad you're enjoying it!
  • A
    Amy Bevan 4 years ago

    Hi Camille :) the king and I (something wonderful).
  • R
    Ruth Foote 4 years ago

    Thanks Camille! :D

     
  • C
    Camille van Niekerk 4 years ago

    Sure thing!

    Amy, what are you struggling with at this point (in singing "Something Wonderful")?
  • R
    Ruth Foote 4 years ago

    Hey Camille,

    I'm not sure if you've noticed but there's this guy (Allander) who's completely spamming the discussion post. He's writing all this random and unrelated stuff and has written about 5 whole pages in the discussion. Is there a way you can block him? 
    Just wanted to let you know ;) 
    Ruth
  • C
    Camille van Niekerk 4 years ago

    We're on it! Thanks, Ruth! I logged on this morning and let the web team know. 
  • R
    Ruth Foote 4 years ago

    All good! Oh my goodness, there's about 30 extra pages now! Maybe he's a bot..
  • A
    Amy Bevan 4 years ago

    It's more just making my tone clearer and my placement in some places, but my biggest issue is my breathing... I don't normally have enough breath to end stings.
  • C
    Camille van Niekerk 4 years ago

    Yes, Ruth - definitely a bot!

     

    Welcome, Artanae!

     

    And Amy, here are some tips on breath support; hope they're helpful:

    Breath support (general)

     

    - Maintain good posture with the chest lifted and ribs expanded! (That's more important than anything else, because once your shoulders roll forward and your chest collapses, it's much harder to stay supported). 
    - Relax belly muscles for a low, relaxed (medium-sized) breath.
    - Engage those muscles (intercostals and lower abdominals) to keep the ribcage expanded - but know that you will lose some of that expansion as you use your air. We do want air flow, and we don't want "locked" muscles. Feel this action by breathing in and suspending (holding) the air for a second or two before exhaling. You can also feel the correct (gentle) muscle engagement by singing on a lip trill.
    - If your posture and body are working well, but you're still running out of breath: be aware of extra air leaking through your vocal folds. If that's an issue, try singing with a slightly stronger, "clean" tone. If you can't do that yet, train firmer cord compression by using a warmup syllable like "GIHG" or "GUHG". 

    - Videos w/ good explanation + exercise below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDrhkt8KIA4

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Tj72oNsrY&t=1s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9z-rnZ_OyE

     

    Breath support within songs:

     

    - Within songs, we typically have less time to breathe, and the spots where we can breathe are somewhat irregular.
    - The first thing I'd do is plan your breaths out. Print the lyrics out and mark the places where you could take a breath if you needed one (between sentences or phrases, or any spot where there would be some sort of pause or punctuation if the lyrics were written as prose). Most of the time, that'll be the fix! We often forget to breathe, or don't take breaths where we could. 
    - The next thing to pay attention to is your posture. Once your shoulders begin to roll forward and/or your ribcage starts to collapse, your breath support is essentially a lost cause! Maintain that tall singer's posture at all times. 
    - And finally, you can train short but efficient "catch breaths". For example, sing a pattern like "1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1", with a quick catch breath between each pitch. Your belly should move for every breath you take, and this will train your diaphragm to drop for quick but full breaths when you need them. 
  • M
    Michael Berry 4 years ago

    Hello,

    My name is Mike.  I just joined a few days ago.  I have finally decided to try and learn to sing at age 45.  I always wanted to learn and always thought I was terrible.  Hopefully with this course I will surprise myself.

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