Sunday, March 25, 2012

How To Get Off The Crack

The chance of accidentally finding how to get your voice to stop cracking is about equal to throwing all the pieces of a watch up in the air and expecting them to come down in the precise place and in the precise order to have functioning watch.

I wish this weren't true. I really struggled and worked at getting my voice to not crack. I practiced and practiced but the crack did not go away. Why? I was practicing the wrong way. I did vocal exercises that did not help. In fact, some of them made me hoarse and they were actually great vocal exercises but I did not know how to do them properly. So, I was getting nowhere in a hurry. I even bought a book by one of the top vocal coaches in the USA, but until I was shown how to use the book, I just kept failing and flailing away getting more and more frustrated.

There is a way to get your voice to not crack. The question is not if it works. The variable is how long it takes because every singer is different from each other. We have differing levels of ability, intelligence, and we learn things at varying rates. IQs prove that. You probably already know that IQs have been being measured for quite some time.

Habits are a huge problem for voices which crack. The crack is actually a habit. Another factor is mindset or mental attitude. WHAT? It's all in my head?! Not entirely, thank goodness! But the change, like any other, starts there. It will take physical control to start eradicating the crack and it will be in conjunction with using the mind to gain muscle coordination to not crack. I have actually noticed that good athletes progress faster than non-athletes in this.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

How To Prepare For A Singing Competition

1. Get a vocal coach who knows the voice, musicianship, style, acting, and dance. OR
2. Get a vocal coach who knows the voice, musicianship, style, and acting. Study dance at a professional studio. OR
3.Get a vocal coach who knows the voice, musicianship, and style. Go to acting classes and dance classes.
4. Give yourself 6 to 12 months to prepare.

Taking one voice lesson is about as smart as taking one flying lesson and then piloting a plane. Good luck! Someone said that when preparation meets opportunity, that is what luck really is.

BAD MUSICIANSHIP = BAD SINGING It doesn't matter if you know the terminology nearly as much as it matters: if you can hear melody and harmony accurately, if you can hear rhythm accurately, if you can understand and assimilate music accurately.

Most singers do not want to become a national joke. Study and preparation can help avoid bad consequences.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

TV Singing Competition - The Fallout

This will be short, but not so sweet. There are casualties from the barbaric TV singing competition shows. The legal teams of such shows have done a fantastic job of protecting the TV producers, judges, and all affiliated workers from the competitors and their families. It is easily justified because "artists and singers are soooooooo crazy! They might retaliate!"

WAIT A MINUTE!
To those who have "uneducated musical ears": There are singers who never arrive at the actual show and are not selected to participate. These people are sometimes spiritually, emotionally, and artistically crushed (sometimes destroyed) in the process. (Thank goodness the lawyers protected the show!!!!!) We could say that the fragile singers should have been stronger. The singers should have paid attention to the documents and contracts they signed and should have got a clue then. We could say all kinds of things because after all, it is just music; it is just singing. When a nasty rat of a producer says, "There is nothing unique about you," He is showing that his intelligence is lacking, his manners are absent, he is not aware enough to notice differences. Hell! He probably has trouble getting his shoes on, not knowing his right foot from his left. The same producer says, "You sound like you are a Christina Aguilera wannabe." Another potential career goes down the toilet. Who's fault is it? Why do you think those contracts were so skillfully prepared? People get hurt. The world is getting colder. People are growing apart. Political correctness is an agenda to simply "divide and conquer." But it justifies keeping distant and NOT caring. Why do French people kiss 3 times when they greet one another? Because in America, that would get you sued.

Compassion is no longer in fashion.
People's value systems are clashin'.
They take hopes and dreams and they're dashin'.
People are just numbers, so it's fine to smash them.

Yeah, the last was a "near rhyme".

You want to see some honest pain? Look at the face of Jennifer Lopez at times. There are critics and there are artists. Mingle criticism with art and you will always get conflict-some inner and some outer. Conflict=plot=interest=audience=commercials=sales=who gives a crap if people are hurt or destroyed because WE ARE MAKING MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be right back after this word from my sponsor...

Thursday, March 01, 2012

TV Singing Competitions

TV Singing Competitions - Looks like these things are springing up like weeds in a garden! How many are there now? One thing is consistent. Singers who sound bad, fair, or fairly good are suffering from the same disease: Allergy to Pitch. Sure, there are some who have no clue about rhythm or style, but the consistent thing, the common thread running through the bad ones is usually BAD musicianship. The producers of the shows think this is hilarious stuff! What could be more funny than people attempting to create an artistic performance making complete fools of themselves? The same people who think that is funny probably also laugh when people fall and hurt themselves.

WHY? Why do these shows keep happening? It could be the "Rocky Syndrome". Unknown person rises beyond him/herself, finding fame and fortune. Only thing is, how many people actually DO get hurt along the way? As long as people will pay and watch, the sponsors are happy. Makes you wonder how much it cost to watch people get eaten by lions, or to watch people fight to the death. What an extreme analogy! How dare I! Why should I care? It is entertainment. Is it art? Have our standards of art and manners dropped? Take a quick guess. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Time's up.

One day there may be a singing competition where the audience votes by opening trap doors under the singers. Seems like there was a commercial like that. Hmmmmmmm Foretelling the future?

What IS musicianship? I wrote about it some time ago and will be releasing more information about musicianship soon. If you cannot define it, how could you possibly have a profound understanding of it?

Not to banter about semantics, but most people have absolutely NO idea what the word "Algebra" means. How many of us took that in school? If you were confused about Algebra, maybe it would have helped to have understood what the heck you were studying. Anyone can memorize and maybe get a good grade OR cheat in class. Where will that get someone? Turn on the TV singing competition shows. OR NOT. Some people like a ballet while others prefer an old fashioned circus. They do not look alike. They do not smell alike!

Several singing competition winners were allergic to singing in tune. Think not? Longevity will usually accompany skill, artistry, and great musicianship. That's it. Sermon on musicianship. Time to study. Time to pray things get better.