Day 1: Welcome & What to Expect - Why perform?

welcome to your 2-week performance course! The exercises and songs we use in this course should be comfortable for altos, mezzos and sopranos. If you normally sing in the bass, baritone or tenor range, I recommend following Abram’s course instead. We cover much of the same material, and you’ll have an easier time following along with him. 

This course is beginner-friendly, but does assume that you’re matching pitch and easily accessing your chest voice and head voice function. You’ll get the most out of the course once you’ve completed my level 1 beginner course. There’s really no benefit to rushing your vocal development, so if you need to spend more time building your foundation, do that first and come back to this course when you feel ready!

Because we perform songs, not vocal exercises, this course will use plenty of song examples. My hope is that you also have a song or two you’re working on, and that you can use this course to help you prep those songs for performance, too. Any “song work” section can be repeated for homework with your song of choice. 

Let’s kick off with a quick general warmup. I encourage you to download and use this warmup before you watch a new lesson each day!

This course is split into two parts, one week each. The first week will cover all of the important steps to prepare a great performance, including mindset and dealing with nerves, song choice, stylization, and developing stage presence. In the second week, we’ll consider different performance settings like auditions, weddings, and recording. We’ll apply what we learn in week 1 to each of those settings in week 2. We’ll wrap up this course with a dress rehearsal, performance day, and debrief. I’ll always provide a song example and accompaniment, but I encourage you to work on a song of your choosing, and follow those same steps for homework. 

We’ll use some well-known songs like “Auld lang syne”, “Amazing grace” and “The parting glass”, as well as an original by my fellow 30 day singer instructor Abram, called “I’ll always change”. I’ll play and sing it now so you can get familiar with the melody. I’ve chosen a key that should be comfortable for most of you, but if it feels a little bit too low, or you want to challenge yourself to sing higher, I’ll also include the track in a higher key.