Writing A Song?

Are you writing a song?  Is it easy or is it hard?  If it's difficult, do you know why?  Have you ever tried to repair a computer or a car or a light fixture?  This has much to do about songwriting.  If you don't know enough about writing words and music, it can feel impossible.  The more you know, though, the easier it is.  Computers are more complex than cars or light fixtures.  A light fixture is easy to fix, by comparison.  Having a few tools around help immensely.  A voltage and ohm tester and tools for disassembly and assembly can help.  I fixed one a couple of weeks ago.  I found a burnt wire in it and rewired it. 

What about songs?  What's in a song?  Words and music.  They work together in a song.  There is some sort of form to it, unless you write it in such a way that it is confusing and disorganized, making it difficult to follow.  So, there's more to it than mere words and mere music.  If anyone is to like it, sing along, or remember it, it should make some sense.

The harmony in songs is more complex than the melody.  The way harmony is treated or used in a song could come down to chord selection, chord progression, chord voicing, and which instrument(s) play the chords.  Then there is rhythm.  There can be many variations to harmonic rhythm such as arpeggiated chords, chords in motion, "passing" chords and a myriad of other variations.  One thing that melody needs to do, is to rest briefly on a note within a chord, from time to time.  Otherwise, it might sound dissonant or even chaotic.

To write a song quickly, if it is to be a complete song (melody, words, and chords), a person might want to know what chords are available and what chords in a given key are available.  There are tendencies but no actual laws or rules governing this.  If you don't know chords, you won't know how they will sound or "work" in a song.  There is a fast way to learn this.  The first step is to familiarize yourself with tendencies in progressions.  The second is to hear what chords sound like, one after the other.  The third might be to hear them arranged with a bass line or with a bass line and some percussion as in a band.  What if you don't have a band or know a band?  Then what?  Want some advice on this?

Are You Stuck?

If you think you are stuck, you are.  For how long will you remain stuck?  You can determine that factor.  If you have gone for ice cream and were set on chocolate, have you changed your mind and got something else?  It's not a trick question.  It's not a question to test your resolve or your ability to follow through with an intention.  The question is, have you changed your mind and/or can you change your mind?

The best of the best of: athletes, artists, mathematicians, physicians, singers, composers would quite possibly agree that their activities are better than 90% mental.  I believe that they are 100% mental after having studied a thing called neuroplasticity, even though I studied it to a very small degree.  I am not putting forth that my hour spent on the subject makes me any kind of an expert but it has opened my eyes to possibilities, causes and effects, and ways of accelerating learning and training in multiple disciplines.

I always wondered why I had such diverse interests.  I was fascinated by: astronomy, music, architecture, art, mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, electronics, sports, and multitudes of other subjects and activities.  The answer to 'why' has become inconsequential or unimportant to me.  The more important thing is that I have functioned at a professional level in the fields of architecture, music, electronics, mechanics, and also in technician-level activities of carpentry, electricity, plumbing and others.  From the aspect of this thing called neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change, to be programmed, to be re-programmed makes me see a result of multi-field functionality.  In other words, I can now grasp not the 'why', but instead the results of such diverse cross training, as it were.  I draw on all of my experience and knowledge and can see where the intersections are among and between them.  I believe anyone can do this, if they take the time.

Two things must occur in order to master a skill.  One, there has to be sufficient knowledge to function at all and two, there has to be assimilation and utilization of the knowledge in a mental and physical way.  Mental alone may make a change but the physical aspect of training seems to deepen and broaden a skill to such an extent as to make it appear phenomenal to a person lacking the same skill.  You see this in sports and in the arts.  You hear it in professional singers. What you are observing is the after effect of training.

What is training?  It is gathering knowledge, attaching it to prior knowledge, and following through with practical application iteratively or repetitively over time.  It doesn't matter if it is a sport, an art, or even if it is writing.  All of these require mental engagement and acuity, coupled with activity, resulting in an amount or level of acumen. 

On the surface, the act of singing well sounds and looks easy.  For some people it is easy.  Others have issues or problems or empty spaces of knowledge of some of the many aspects of great singers' knowledge and ability.  There are now available to me mirroring techniques and new ways of locating and obliterating the obstacles between where a singer is and where the singer wants to be.  The mental beliefs dictate everything a singer can do.  They connect to knowledge and skill also.  The good news is that control is possible of the mind and of the voice.  The computer upon which I am typing right now is a very basic version of the human mind.  It illustrates that change is possible.  When you install a new program, you get functions which were not possible prior to the installation.  The potential was in the computer all along but it had to be "shown" how and what to do in a sequential procedure in order to carry out the task.

The experience I bring as a vocal coach is unique.  The same could be said for any vocal coach.  There are differences in that: I have perfect pitch,  I hear melody and harmony so completely, that I can write down or state what I hear, I can write it down and hand it to musicians and it will sound the same as what I originally heard, as long as the musicians are skilled in their reading and playing.  What else?  I have a very good working knowledge in acoustics, recording engineering, composition, arranging and more.  I have a broader perspective but can also bring my focus to a precise point when necessary.  My acoustics knowledge has included drawing plans for the mixing room at NBC Burbank for the Tonight Show, back when Johnny Carson was the host.  I understand sound transmission control and live end-dead end concepts.  I have taken the time to consult with ENTs and have read the writings of ENTs so as to learn how to help singers avoid injury.  I independently have studied nutrition and can offer some useful advice to singers who may have issues of vocal "dryness" or other seemingly minor problems but are major to the singer.  My musical background spans a few decades and includes working professionally in Las Vegas.  Some of, if not the best musicians in the world have worked there at one time.  The exposure to them and working with some of them brought about concepts of true state of the arts industry standards. 

What I have learned, I can share.  Several of my relatives are also teachers.  Your success is directly proportional to your involvement and participation.  You can change.  You can get more out of training that you put in to it, or so it will seem when you find yourself on stage, bright lights in your eyes, and you look out upon the audience as you comfortably and confidently share your gifts and the results of your training.  It is all in your mind.  You can make it a reality or keep it a secret for a while longer.  Your life.  Your passion.  Your choice.

WHAT DO YOU HEAR?

Is what you hear in music the same as what I hear? It is much easier to test this than it is to test if the same color of blue looks exactly the same to both of us. A song is playing. It is a famous group. We both hear the same words and the same music. We may feel differently about what we hear but we both hear the same song, essentially. The words are the same and the music is the same, no matter how many times we hear the song. It is a recording and it is all set or fixed, unalterable.

If the articulation of the singer is good enough, we will hear the same identical words. We both might be able to sing the same melodic line that we hear. In your language, you can write down what you hear but can you write down the notes with the correct pitches, rhythms, and the correct duration of each note? Can you hear embellishments and also pitches being bent? Would you know how to notate that all on manuscript paper or in a music manuscript software program, such as Encore?

You may listen to a song linearly in sequential time. Do you also notice the structure of the song? You have to take it in its entirety to discover the structure and the form of the song. There are several song forms and not a right or wrong way to write a song.

Looking deeper into the song, we notice instruments we can hear. What are they? For the sake of discussion, we can call a singer or singers instruments. Do we hear drums, a bass, a guitar, keyboards an/or other instruments? Guitars, keyboards and basses can play linear (melodic lines) or chords, although chords are usually played less frequently using a bass. Harmonic intervals may be played on bass at times, such as thirds or fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, or octaves but three note chords may sound muddy on the low notes of a bass.

The chords of the song are usually played by guitars, keyboards, and/or strings. How many chords are in the song and what are those chords? How are those chords voiced, meaning how are the chord notes spread out? Is it close or open voicing? Can you hear that? Could you correctly write down what you hear? Could you play it on a keyboard or a guitar from just hearing it? If I hear a chord, such as a Cmajor9 voiced a certain way, I might describe it as a G6 in the right hand, playing 2 G's and in the left hand there could be 2 C's, an octave apart lower on the keyboard. Could it be what looks like an Em7 in the right hand and the same C's in the left hand? Can you hear the difference and know immediately without having to think about or analyze it? From years of experience, some people can. We all hear the same thing, but do we also know precisely what was heard? You absolutely do not have to hear these things to appreciate music. You may want to be able to when arranging, composing, or orchestrating a piece.

If you have the job of transcribing music, you absolutely must hear and also analyze the music to accurately write it down. Your job will be much faster if you just “get it”, instead of having to think about it. Knowledge and experience can lead to rapid perfect transcription of music. Having great relative pitch helps. Having perfect pitch also helps but contained within perfect pitch, there is the function of relative pitch. Perfect pitch may or may not be taught. I was born with that or maybe it developed along the way. I'm not sure which. It has been put to the test, it was noticed by my college music theory teacher, Dr. Paul Whear, who is a famous composer of the 20^th century. We did a lot of melodic and harmonic dictation in class, which I found to be very easy but it was because of having perfect pitch.

The placement test for music theory class was to write out The Star Spangled Banner. I got it all right. There were no musical instruments in the testing room. We were each given a pencil and a sheet of manuscript paper. That is what got me into Dr. Whear's class. It was the beginning of “hearing”.

Are You A Singer Songwriter?

There have been many singers who did not write their own songs, over the last few decades. Some would be considered superstars or famous. There also have been songwriters who were not good singers. Some sang their own music they had written but they never became known as great singers.
Then there are singer/songwriters. They are not necessarily better or worse than "mere" singers or "mere" songwriters. They are, however, throwbacks to yesteryear, decades or centuries ...ago. Way back when, folk-ish singers had to write their own music and there were no computers, radios, or concerts within their reach from which they could learn or copy another's music. They had an instrument, such as a guitar, lute, or other portable chord making thing and they played it as they sang. 

To be clear, even though singing and songwriting are related, they are multiple skill sets. Most songwriters play keyboard and/or guitar well. They play well enough so as to be able to write chords and rhythm patterns which make stylistic sense. There are patterns on piano and there are strum or pick patterns on guitar. In addition, there may be fills and embellishments used by songwriters to enhance a song. Further steps would be orchestration and/or arranging which are still other skill sets.

The melody of the song and melody writing is another separate skill set. Writing melody and chords are sometimes learned or enhanced by having the knowledge of music theory. There have been many good or great songs written by people who only play by ear, know what they hear, know what they like and it doesn't make the song suffer at all. What if...what if a person gets stuck in the process? A lack of knowledge can cause a person to get stuck because melody writing and harmonic technique will only be as good as experience plus knowledge in those areas.

Some songs have one chord or two and most have more, but there are tendencies of many progressions. A I-IV-V progression is found in thousands of songs but the interesting thing is none of the songs have the same melody lines at all. II-V7-I progressions are interesting and can completely change a song. So can II-V7-III-Vi. Then there are chords way beyond major and minor and these all can open up what feels like an entire universe of sound.

The more you know, the more you can do. How long does it take to learn chord formation? That would be a great first step. I once taught a non-musician all chords in every key in 3 hours. I could call out a chord and she would play it with little hesitation. Is it worth the time spent to be able to do this? What if it took 8 hours or a week? Is it worth spending the time to improve?

The same multi-faceted look at lyric writing could be addressed because it is, after all, writing. There is more to it than meets the eye--or ear.

Songwriting From The Ground Up

Your experience with songs may be that you have heard songs on radio, YouTube, iTunes, or other media. You have developed preferences in what you like. You may like one style more than others. You may like only one style. You may like all or most styles of music. Now, you want to write a song or songs and maybe you have already given it a try. Maybe your song didn't turn out like how you wanted it to. Maybe it did, but you're not sure where to go from here.

Without hearing your song or your song idea, there is no way to evaluate it, so let's explore songwriting from the ground up. Somewhere in the process, we will hit your level and move up from there. Perhaps there are also some blanks to fill in along the way. If you knew everything there is to know about cars and driving, except for where the brake is and what the brake does, you will run into a “problem” eventually. So it is important to find out what you know and what you don't know and fill in the blanks of your knowledge.

To listen to a song in its entirety can be overwhelming when you start to analyze it, if you haven't done that before. There is a lot going on at once and throughout the song. There can be singing of lyrics and the accompaniment. The words and the music are two components, but those have many sub-parts, so to speak. If we back up from what we hear and get a broader view of the song, we'll see some things we might not have noticed.

STRUCTURE AND FORM of songs is what makes the analysis a little easier. Song structure is very much like structure in poetry but not necessarily the same. The structure of a song is also called the form. In a song you usually have either a verse or a chorus to start the song. Most songs start with a verse but the song “Killing Me Softly” starts with a chorus. Within the chorus is also the title of that song. The title is repeated within the chorus, too. You might listen to the song and count how many times “killing me softly” is repeated. That part, the title and the line of that song is often referred to as the “hook”. It has the hypnotic effect of repetition to anchor itself in your mind after you have heard it a few times. It is common in popular, country, and jazz songs that there will be a hook. We're not looking for a formula at this point in time.

THE SONG FORM is the way it is put together in verses, choruses, bridges, and other interludes. There might be an instrumental solo or a rap section or a spoken section, but it may have none of those. That brings us to an aspect of music which may be one of the best features of music as an art. That aspect is freedom. How free we get with music can also determine our audience. Who will like the music? We don't want to necessarily write for one group or one style, or do we? There are no rules in music but there are tendencies and norms. There are styles. In Baroque style writing there are “rules” but they are part of what makes Baroque what it is. To go outside the rules would result in altering the style of Baroque music. It is not a bad thing to know or to learn just as ballet is not a bad thing for a hiphop or jazz dancer to know, however, one may not be essential as a prerequisite to the other. There are commonalities between ballet and other dance. There are also commonalities between Baroque music and modern music. We will investigate these soon.

A song made up of music and lyrics could be viewed as a composite entity, or a composition. Again, when we look at doing the whole thing, it can feel daunting. It doesn't have to be. If we look at the lyrics, we will see there is a message in them. The message is more often than not having to do with love between two people. Sometimes it is a subject other than love. Sometimes it is about a person, place, or thing, such as a condition, an animal, a situation or about religion. A song is almost always a message of some kind. The message is supposed to be heard by someone. Behind the message there is an intention for the listener to react or respond or feel a certain way, or in several ways. Sometimes the message is intended to make something known or change a person's mind. Sometimes it is to make someone feel something or to make the listener know how the songwriter feels. Sometimes it is simply to entertain or to be funny. There is always an intention behind the lyrics. What does the lyricist think or feel? It may be in the lyrics or may be implied or inferred.

Lyrics connect to a melody, usually. Otherwise, it is a poem or prose. The melody is where we connect words with music. Within the melody is rhythm, varying tones at differing pitches, and varying duration of sustained tones. The melody can rhythmically resemble the spoken word, or not, depending on the lyricist's or songwriter's artist prerogative. There aren't rules for melodic writing but there are tendencies. Some lines follow scale or modal patterns and may also have larger intervals or skips. Theses may be characteristic of a given style but again, there are no rules, as such. Additionally, there is nothing to stop a writer from experimenting or innovating something new to a style.

If you listen to a modern pop style song, you also here instruments in addition to the voice. The instruments used and the things they play fill out the song and may make it more interesting than if it is done a capella, which is with only the voice. A capella literally means “like a chapel” or as it would be done in a chapel having no musical instruments. Usually there will be a bass, keyboard(s), guitar(s), drums, and other instruments such as wind instruments or strings. This is the accompaniment. It is what is going along with, or accompanying, the voice singing the song.

A song starts with an idea or a concept. Some writers start with a melody and add words to it. Some start with words and “make up a melody” to the words. Some start with a feel or rhythm or a beat using drums or drums and bass. Some songwriters start with chords and then improvise a melody to the chords, not unlike jazz musicians. There is not a right way or a wrong way to write a song from the ground up. It may dependent upon your skill level with lyric writing or with music. You can collaborate with someone if you are a strong lyricist but a weak musician. You also can learn more about music and then go it alone, without needing a partner in your songwriting.

It's a good idea to look at some song lyrics to see the form and the structure. A verse can be four lines, for example. They usually rhyme at the ends of the lines and in specific patterns. Sometimes they have near-rhymes or no rhymes. No rules. Just write.

You start with where you are and what you know and go from there. You have to be willing and able to learn what you don't know or work with another person who already knows songwriting. At some point you may want to learn music theory or harmonic technique. There have been hit songs with only one chord. There also have been hit songs with two chords. That isn't what made them hit songs, but it didn't stop them from being hit songs. People loved them. Some songs have complex chord progressions with numerous chords and that approach worked for those songs. If you start from where you are, you can build on your knowledge and on your skill level. You might not want to start with trying to write a hit song. Or you may. There should be the objective of having something to say and getting the message across and received with the least resistance. The beauty of a song is what makes it irresistible. Some songs are not so pretty, but therefor can convey other emotions such as anger, fear, doubt, worry, etc.

As long as you are willing to learn as you go, the more you write, the more you will improve. If it's something you think you can love, start. You don't have to wait for inspiration, but inspiration helps. Get yourself inspired and go write a song.

Chest Voice, Middle Voice, Head Voice, what are they?

I was not born with a perfectly functioning singing voice. I had no problems in chest voice or in the lower part middle voice, just above chest voice. I had a very distinct and annoying crack, which kept me from singing opera, popular, Broadway and R&B songs until I was trained. I have helped singers to no longer crack and also to help prevent vocal nodules (callouses of the vocal folds). Most people need training to gain control over the voice. A very few are born with it, perhaps 1%. I am not ashamed to have studied, because the results opened up a whole new world to me, which includes having sung professionally in Las Vegas.

Let's clarify some terms to start on the road to understanding more about the singing voice.

Chest voice, middle voice, and head voice are vocal registers, or ranges. Many people think that chest voice is a type of sound and that head voice is a type of sound. Many people don't fully understand middle voice at all. It is a never-neverland or fantasy world. Middle voice is thought to be a place that is hard or impossible to get to. It is also called: mix or bridge or passaggio. Passaggio is an Italian word, meaning passage way.

What is chest voice? Chest voice is the range in which you can feel vibration in your chest when you sing in that range. The reason is that the sound waves are larger in chest voice and they resonate in your chest, the size of which approximates the sound waves, pitch-wise. Have you ever been in a hallway or room and found a tone which loudly resonates with your voice? There will be one specific tone which will do this. Your chest will vibrate when you are in chest voice and that is how it got its name. Unless you are singing with a breathy tone, chest voice will be a full sound, which can be produced loudly when needed. This is called full voice.

Full voice is often confused with chest voice. They are not the same thing. Full voice is achieved when the vibrating vocal folds are in close proximity, to the extent that the tone is full, rather than weak or breathy. When the vocal folds are not vibrating in close proximity, excess air escapes and can be heard mixed in with the tone. It is not necessarily wrong to sing with a breathy tone, for effect when stylistically or emotionally appropriate. The breathy tone production does have the potential of causing dryness to the vocal folds (vocal cords, as they used to be called). The “lubrication” of the vocal folds is done by mucous secreting glands. It can become irritating to the delicate tissue, if it dries out.

Head voice is called head voice because your head vibrates when you are in the higher notes of head voice. In a properly trained and developed voice, the tone can be full and powerful, just as in chest voice. It can be called full voice in head or full head voice. It is not a breathy sound. When working properly, a singer can sustain a high note and crescendo from very soft to very loud, without a change in the sound of the tone. If there is a sudden change in the sound of the tone, that is what singers call a break or a crack. Things do not actually crack or break in the sense of the vocal apparatus but instead, the singer and listener hear an abrupt distinct change in the tone quality.

The hardest thing for many singers, including some professional singers, is to smoothly execute the tones throughout the entire vocal range. Most untrained singers have difficulty singing passages which extend from chest voice to head voice. Singers whose voices crack or break when transitioning from chest voice to head voice (or vice-versa) are actually experiencing a brief and sudden loss of adduction of the vocal folds. They “pop” open and then close again. Some singers will yell or scream out high notes but over time that can and has caused injury. There must be a coordination of adduction in such a way as to not hyper-adduct the vocal folds. It is a balancing act. It is the correct amount of pressure sufficient to achieve the desired tone quality. Most people need training to gain control over the voice. A very few are born with it, perhaps 1%.

SONGWRITING

I did some math today. Since November 1 of 2014, I have written 845 songs. How many did I write, prior to that? 468 from 1997 until Nov. 1, 2014. It adds up to 1313 since 1997. Before that? Maybe 20, maybe more. A famous songwriter said to "write for the waste basket". Does that sound crazy? Not if you think about it. If you set out for perfection or even to write a hit or a masterpiece, you set yourself up for self-criticism, self-judgement and maybe even self-loathing. "Perfection" is just a word. What is the opposite of perfection? That's a difficult thing to conceive. This is where we can become more aware by exploring the subjective qualities and the wide ranges of "imperfection". It lies in judgement. It is very subjective. 

So, have I been "writing for the waste basket"? No. I have been writing for the joy of writing. I've been exploring and experimenting with rhythms and chords and the rhythm of chords as they lie in a single measure and multiple measures of songs. My bottom line, I learned from Pat Pattison of Berklee School of Music. Prosody. It was a new word for me. I have distilled it for myself to where a song, the lyrics, the arrangement have to have the qualities of aesthetics and integrity, working together to make it work with the quality of making sense and having some level of beauty. The emotion can be any emotion but the aesthetics of the music are like a carrier wave in radio broadcasting. The aesthetics sit on top and float along. It has to stay on topic, make musical sense, and maybe take you to a place you haven't been before. Finding interesting twists and turns along the way and discovering new "sights" just make the adventure come to life. 

Even with my standards, they are not rules. The breakout occurred when I decided to just see if I could write a bad song. I failed. The first one on Nov. 1st wasn't bad. Some days I have written 20 songs in a single day. It is like a game. The oddest thing is no 2 songs of mine are alike. The chords are different, the melodic lines are different from each other. Many days after breakfast, I head for my studio and play. Notice I said play. Sometimes I start with the melody and sometimes I start with chords. Some days I write 4 bars of chords and then write the melody. I repeat it until I have a song that makes some sense. I do not listen to them. I do not tweak. that's for later. Write and save. 

If you are a singer and you know one song, how good will you be? If you are a singer and you know 2000 sings, might you be a little better than if it were just one? If you are a songwriter and you have written one song or 10 or 20, you could be great but would you learn more by doing more? Maybe.

REALITY

REALITY. What is it? Is this too profound for a Friday? No. You have the whole long weekend to contemplate this. Visual reality is acquired through your eyes, but what do your eyes NOT see? You don't see anything microscopic or telescopic, but it is there! Have you ever looked at blood cells through a microscope? I have. Have you looked at the rings of Saturn through a telescope? I have. Without a telescope, Saturn looks like a bright star-no rings. Without a microscope you can see blood, but not the cells. You can't even see germs with the naked eye, but we know they are there. You cannot train your eyes to see what they cannot see. If you haven't looked through the scopes mentioned, your reality of microscopic and macroscopic is merely objective, NOT subjective. "Things" are there, whether seen, felt or heard. We have evidence.

Eyes are wonderful but ears are amazing, if they are trained.

You can listen to a band and a singer doing a song and take it all in as a whole. With training and practice, you can not only hear one specific instrument in that band, but you also can write down perfectly every note played by that instrument. You can hand the manuscript to a true professional and it will be pretty much identical. I have transcribed entire arrangements, so I have subjective reality on this. What else? You can hear all the chords in a song and you can even hear the voicing of chords with experience. What's more is you can choose how to hear as a whole, OR: individual parts, chords, voicings, rhythms, and more. What's more? Form. You can hear and understand the entire piece in verses, choruses, bridges, or movements. There are even forms in lyrics and other devices, such as those you hear in poetry or prose. Ears+mind can equal a very profound and analytical understanding of music. OR if you can do all those things, you can also do another thing. You can sit back and just listen and enjoy. Over time, however, you hear without analysis--you just get it and it transcends thought.

Put Up

Try putting people "up", instead of putting people down.  The most progress is made in the shortest period of time when the good, the right, and the excellent are acknowledged.  You can only build on success.  

You cannot build on failure, but if you pay careful attention, you'll notice that the most successful people usually have also failed many more times than unsuccessful people are willing to fail.  The phrase "trial and error" didn't come into existence by chance.  

It is the wash, rinse, repeat method to success.  You see what is working and do more of that.  You see what is not working and avoid that.  You'll get farther faster by putting yourself "up".  Acknowledge the good, dwell on the good, focus on the good.  Acknowledge the bad for a few seconds and move on.  Learn from mistakes; that is all the significance they have--a learning tool.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR VOICE?

Do you want higher notes?

If your voice cracks or breaks as you go up in pitch, there is something very wrong.  Can you sing high notes with strength  AND with ease?  You could if you would have been trained correctly.  

I can help with this and it can start as early as today.  Unless you have physical injury, swelling, or damage to your voice, range is safely expandable.

Do you need and want more endurance?

Does your voice get tired or give out on you after you sing for a half hour or an hour?  Concerts, gigs and recording your voice require better endurance than that.  You have to have great endurance and strength.

Your endurance and power can safely be improved when you discover the safe and effective way to do this.

Do you want to sing in tune?

How you hear and what you hear have everything to do with being able to sing in tune.  You can hear perfectly and still sing out of tune if you haven't connected your singing to your musicianship.  

It doesn't have to take a long time to sing in tune, once you are shown how to listen and what to listen to.  Some practice will get your pitch better from the very first day.

Do you want better time and rhythm?

Do you hear time as it is or are you missing something?  Why do some drummers have excellent time and others don't?  This also applies to singers.

Rhythm and time are very mathematical, but you don't have to know very much math to improve.  If you can count to four and if you can count to sixteen, your time and rhythm can get better.

Do you want better tone quality?

Can your tone actually be improved?  If you don't have scar tissue on your vocal folds (vocal cords), you can improve your tone.  No one wants to hear your voice if you don't sound good and that includes yourself.

Effective exercises can help improve your tone quality.  This is one area of technique, which can and does involve proper use of breathing.  Every singer and every player of wind instruments, who are professional, know the importance of breath control.

Is this all?

Not even close, but improvements in these categories alone, can make huge improvements in how you sound.

Online Singing Lessons

Online singing lessons can be every bit as effective as singing lessons in person.  To qualify this more, singing lessons using Skype, Google, or FaceTime can be as effective as the teacher or vocal coach is effective.  Granted, the quality of sound is slightly less than in person, but it is better than a phone by a long shot.

What does the vocal coach need to hear?  EVERYTHING, but it is not necessarily dependent upon sound quality, per se.  Everyone does not perceive pitch the same way.  Everyone does not hear at the same "depth and breadth" of sound, either.  A vocal coach with a developed relative pitch can be very good.  A vocal coach with perfect pitch has an excellent level of sound and pitch perception.

Knowing what was sung and knowing precisely what is heard is totally necessary for helping identify the source of a singer's pitch problems.  Is it incorrect melodic intervals or is it a weak "harmonic ear" causing a singer to sing out of tune?  Singers who also play a piano or guitar oftentimes have a more highly developed "ear" but not always.

Most singers seem to not want to spend the time and effort with ear training--except for the excellent ones.  Ear training especially for singers is almost nonexistent, which is why I have taken the time to develop singer-specific exercises.

Whether online or in person, the exercises I have developed are as effective equally.  The much neglected musical "ear" is the key factor in singers singing out of tune (Pitchy, off key).  It isn't hard to handle and also doesn't require months to make it better.

Online singing lessons can be used for the various other factors for better singing, if the vocal coach is competent.

vocaleasy.de is my newest website.

chustew@gmail.com is my email address to contact me.

IS A VOCAL COACH WHAT I NEED?

IS A VOCAL COACH WHAT I NEED?

 The answer depends on two things: 1) What does the vocal coach know and 2) What can the vocal coach do?

Some vocal coaches only work with vocal technique and to the exclusion of musicianship.  Some vocal coaches work with vocal technique but exclude anything having to do with style.  If you want help with style, you may have to hire a separate person for that.

What if your musicianship is weak and it manifests that by your singing out of tune (or "pitchy").  All the vocal exercises in the world will not necessarily improve your "ear".  I've heard singers who have studied with the most expensive vocal coaches in the world and they still cannot sing in tune.  If you cannot sing in tune, you will not be hired.  You can blame a thousand other things but you will not be hired if you sing out of tune.

At $500 an hour, would you expect a vocal coach to be able to assist you with style and musicianship? You would think so but it is not necessary the case.  How about $450 an hour?  $300 an hour?   WAKE UP AND SMELL THE B.S. !     (Bad Singing)  I refuse to tell you the names of those vocal coaches but remember those prices and you might get a clue.

Some vocal coaches brag and drop names of the singing stars with whom they have worked.  If you don't know better, you might think that a coach made the career for those singers.  Not so.  They might have helped with an issue but don't be so naive as to think that a career was made by a vocal coach.  Professional working recording and concert artists look for help when they need it.  Most were already working before finding the coach.  To take full credit for a singer's success is a little (or a lot) egotistical.  Even if you teach someone proper technique, the singer has to practice and USE it.  Many more hours are spent in practice and performance than in lessons.  That is simply reality.

Do you need a vocal coach?  You probably do, since you are reading this.  Select one who is familiar with singing mastery and knows how to achieve it.  If you're feeling especially strong, have your prospective coach take a little test.

SINGING MASTERY                             TEST

FIND OUT HOW TO HANDLE STAGE FRIGHT

STAGE FRIGHT VIDEO

Obliterate Stage Fright

Why Is Your Stage Fright Still Here?

Does any of the following sound familiar to you?

• Your hands shake every time you get in front of an audience.
• Your voice shakes every time you have to speak or sing to an audience.  
• You practice and rehearse and you feel you are ready, but you have no confidence.
• You want to run away, instead of stand and let people stare at you.

• You know there are lots of people who look comfortable on stage.  They look like the love it and are having a great time.  Not you, though. 
• If any of the above sounds like you… then you're most likely in the right place.

People who have never been on stage will give you all kinds of suggestions, but probably never used any of them, themselves.  They have not felt what you feel.   They know to not get on a stage because they would probably just run off the stage.  They also think that your stage fright is funny.  Is it?

It's NOT your fault! This is what doesn't work!

• You try to picture people in their underwear, but your imagination is broken or something.  You can see they are all dressed.
• You take a drug or you drink.  You see a video of yourself and are embarrassed out of your mind.

• You get counseling or hypnosis but it doesn't work for you and you run off stage and cry.

• You talk to other performers and they say they don't have stage fright.  You know they are lying and they don't want to help you.  They tell you to "will it away".
• You look over peoples' heads and they feel excluded.  You feel disconnected from the audience.

There Are THREE Kinds Of Stage Fright

There are actually three stages of stage fright and they are related, but each is different from the other. 

What's The Next Step? 

GOODBYE STAGE FRIGHT

Obliterate Stage Fright (BLOG)

YOUR HIGHER SELF

When you see a beautiful painting, sculpture, or other work of art, and you feel a certain feeling about it, how does it make you feel?  Does it actually MAKE you feel, or, do YOU make that feeling?  When you hear a song, watch a dancing performance, or see someone, whom you find beautiful, and you feel something, that feeling was already in you and you relaxed enough to allow that feeling to be felt.  When you love someone and you know they love you, there are some "extra" feelings there and you relax and you not only love the person, but also, you love your love and you love her/his love all the more.

It's letting down the barriers, releasing the inhibitions, knowing that it is safe to love and to be loved, that allow us to be elevated to our true selves, our honest selves, our pure selves.  When we've stopped blocking others, we transcend and ascend to our higher selves and therein we reconnect to our own true power and potential.

There is a place of peace inside us all.  How do we get there?  Relax, let go, and trust.  When you find your unique self, you also find that you have something to contribute to others, which no one else can ever do.  Your unique "you" is as good as, as talented as, as perfect as anyone you have ever met.  When you admire another person, you are also seeing the good in yourself, that you maybe forgot was there.  It is there.  It is always there.  You can ignore it, cover it up, pretend, lie, or walk away from it, but it is there.

Interview With Ronnie Fabre

Chuck Stewart: When did you start singing?

Ronnie Fabre: I started singing when I was 13, when my parents gave me a guitar. I started taking lessons,

and by the time I was 15 had my first paying gigs. My dad drove me to the Troubador in Hollywood every Monday night for Hoot Night, and I was hooked. no one ever asked me how old i was..!!! 

Chuck Stewart: I first heard you in Las Vegas in a production show we were both in.  Your singing sounded amazing EVERY night, yet quite effortless.  Do you or have you ever done breathing exercises and do they help?

Ronnie Fabre: Breathing for singing is a very relaxed process for me. I was a scuba diver for many years as a teen, and I think that, and trying to sing without a mic. helped a lot.  I think breathing for singing should be a personal choice, and i never had to practice breathing technique, as it came naturally for my needs as a singer.

Chuck Stewart: Who were some of your influences, as you were growing up?  Also, have you studied voice?

Ronnie Fabre: My first influences were mainly folk artists, like: Joan Beaz, Joni Mitchell, Linda Rondstadt, grahm nash, JD Souther, Glen Frey, Niel young, James Taylor. Most of them I saw all the time at the Troubador.  Richie Havens even talked to me when I asked his advice whether I should go on tour as a singer to Vietnam with the USO. He was a big influence on me and such a powerhouse talent. I met some greats when I was just a kid. Then it was Aretha, Patti Labelle,Chaka Kahn, et al. Then I went in Legends In Concert as Ethel Merman, then morphed into Judy Garland.  My first voice lesson was with Seth Riggs when I was 43. Wow! It changed my muscled up way of singing!  I felt I had found true vocal freedom. I was with Seth for 12 years.  It was difficult at first, but i was very glad I did it.  My mom made her debut singing at Carnagie Hall when she was 18 years old. Mom never gave me singing tips, I had to do it all on my own, but I am very happy to have done what I did, and would change nothing.

Chuck Stewart: Do you practice singing every day?  How much time do you put in?

Ronnie Fabre: I do practice every day, vocalise with students, learning new songs, etc. I teach beginning guitar, and ukelele, and learning new songs is a must. I am having so much fun on uke.  I just love it, and so do my students. a really fun, happy, beautiful instrument!!!  So yes, I practice every day, and it's very important to sing every day. Bob hopes' wife Delores, recorded a cd when she was 86, and it was wounderful.  You snooze, you lose...really true!!

Chuck Stewart: Do you play piano and if so, would you say that has contributed to your awesome musicianship?  

Ronnie Fabre: i  can play the vocalises, on piano, but the guitar and uke are my instruments.  And yes, it's great to accompany yourself. It makes your time better, and you can have it just the way you like it!!

Chuck Stewart: Where have you worked and with whom?

Ronnie Fabre: I started working in Orange County (California) at various clubs, and then married my first husband Ed "too tall" Grell . He  became Bill Medley's drummer, and I sang backup, among other gigs, from 1971, till about 1976. We worked in Vegas starting in around 71', and had many gigs here. I worked in many bands, including many big bands: Nelson Riddle, Guy Lombardo and the Royal Ranadians, many R&B  bands, including The Checkmates, the Lon Bronson all star band, the first 14 pc funk  horn band here in Vegas, and lots of others.  I started in "Legends in Concert", in 1989, as Ethel Merman, and also do Judy Garland.  I still work as a "legend",  occasionally, and have a jazz band, and a second line dixieland band, and in it, I play a tricked out washboard, and sing.  I've never had so much fun!  I just love music, no matter what the venue.  My husband, Steve Golden, is a very accomplished sax player, plays 10 instruments, and has 2 degrees in music from Berklee College of Music in Boston.  We have a great time making music together.

Chuck Stewart: Where are you performing now? 

Ronnie Fabre: I do casuals, still do "legends", occasionally, and have got to work with some of the great Vegas legends, like Joe Darro, a beyond belief piano player and singer, my husband Steve Golden, and if I went on this would never end...

Chuck Stewart: Aren't you also a painter?

Ronnie Fabre: I am a stone carver and bronze caster.  You never want to see me paint, besides my house...I  won first prize  and second, in the Las Vegas Native American Competition for the Las Vegas Art Museum.  My life size bronze, "Moon Shaman" is my favorite piece of artwork, as I had to travel to Saskatoon Canada to do it,then my teacher Bill Epp, the Prof. at the University of Saskatoon, drove it all the way down here for me! What an honor it was!

Chuck Stewart: Do you have an album out currently?   Where can people buy your music?

Ronnie Fabre: I have always given out my cd, to my students, and the people who have liked my music.  I will be on a new compilation cd, with a video, coming out in late December.  It's about many musicians who have been in Vegas for a long while. It should be interesting. I will be singing Billy Strayhorn's "Lush LIfe", my favorite song of all.

Chuck Stewart:  I have had several of my students learn that song.  It is truly a learning experience, mastering it.

Thank you so much for doing this interview. Is there anything you would like to add, regarding being a singer?

Ronnie Fabre: It has been a wonderful life, one I would not have traded for anything, although Marine Biology was at the top of my list in the beginning. Seeing the look on the faces of the GI's in Vietnam changed my life forever.  Today is Veterans Day, and a day near and dear to my heart.  When as a 17 year old kid, still in high school, I took a chance to go to a war zone, and that forever changed my life as a person.

Wow!!  I sang with the Safaris' of "Wipeout", and Surfer Joe fame, from my hometown in Glendora Calif.!  I have been so blessed to be so very lucky, in my chosen field, to be a real singer, to have known so many greats, to have been a part of "old Vegas", and a part of "new Vegas", as the song goes,"Everything Must Change". Goodnight for now, and thanks for asking....!!!!  Love, Ronnie.

 It is an honor and a privilege to have you share these things.   Thank you!

Interview With Kelly Conelly

I recently interviewed Kelly Conelly Eisenhour.  I knew her in Las Vegas and was so impressed, her being able to sing R&B and jazz unbelievably well.  She is a consummate professional, as you will discover as you read.

An Interview With Kelly Conelly Eisenhour

It's October 30th, 2013, almost Halloween.

Chuck Stewart:  Do you do anything special for Halloween?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: No, nothing more than the usual handing out candy and getting my daughter ready for trick or treating. She is 12 now and wanting to go with her big group of friends and not mom anymore. Haha so I'm relegated to pass out candy. But it's fun and it always reminds me of my own childhood and the great memories of the excitement of Halloween.

Chuck Stewart: When did you start singing?

Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: I started singing at a young age. I would say about 8 years old when I first started piano lessons (that I continued until age 18) I discovered that I could sing and had a little more control over my voice than my friends. I remember in 2nd grade doing a full play where we made a "road" out of a long piece from a spool of poster paper my teacher had, and we made little stops along the way where we sang specific songs (pop songs of the day). I sang a lot of the songs and I was hooked! I also had a father who was a jazz aficionado and listened to jazz in our home hours and hours a day, so I grew up listening to jazz. Quite an education.

Chuck Stewart: I first heard you in Las Vegas, where we met.  Where did you perform there?  Weren't you singing with a group prior to that?  Who was that?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: Yes, I started singing professionally in jazz clubs at 19 in my hometown of Tucson. I remember learning a couple of jazz standards and then going to an audition for a piano bar gig. The pianist used different singers each night of the weekend. It was a Tuesday, and I did the audition singing the two standards I knew. He said great! You start on Friday. Have about 30 songs ready to go with a list of your keys. I was panicked! I ended up learning about 25 songs in 3 days (you can only do that when you are young) and made it through the first gig okay! I continued to sing Friday nights for about a year. I was also going to school and in the jazz choir at the University of Arizona. The director of that group was a well respected pianist, and I worked with him on occasion. He allowed me to be featured quite often in jazz choir and gave me fake books so I was able to learn lots of jazz standards. I was very much a jazz "snob" at the time, and was immersed in jazz, not wanting to listen to or sing anything else. I opened up a little more to other music later on, but am glad that I did this "immersion" of jazz in the beginning. It was great for my creativity and musicality in all music genres I would sing later.

Chuck Stewart: You sing R&B as well as anyone I've heard.  How did you get so good at that?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: I can only attribute it to my jazz background. When I started singing pop or top 40 music at about 22 (mostly because I could make more money!) I was able to sing that style immediately but also made it my own. I loved many singers who were iconic, such as Aretha and Chaka Khan, and listened to them. They interested me because they also had a jazz background. Later, when I sang back up with Gladys Knight and had to "prove" myself with the all African-American band in those first rehearsals, they later told me that what was different about me is that I didn't sound like I was white TRYING to sound black, that I had a very authentic sound that came from the heart. That was a great compliment. I just had that soulful style in me, and I'm not sure how it got there. I grew up in a very middle class mostly white area in Tucson, Arizona. But again, I had an extensive jazz "education" so I can only attribute it to that (or something more mystical was going on!)

Chuck Stewart: Do you practice singing every day?  How much time do you put in?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: Currently I'm doing much more teaching than singing, and so I'm not as active in my practice either. I tended to practice over the years more out of necessity (learning tunes, working songs to "fit" in my voice meaning getting comfortable with a song, practice for shows or concerts) and didn't really have a more structured daily practice. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had a really good vocal teacher when I was young to guide me in that. I never had a solid voice teacher who really knew what they were doing (particularly with contemporary music) and it wasn't until I was in my 30's that I took a couple lessons from a teacher that turned my head around. As I have gained more knowledge in this area over the years since, I am determined to help young singers understand what I didn't. That it is so important to have knowledge of how the voice works and to be training to keep your voice from taking a left and creating limitations at the least and real damage at the most.

Chuck Stewart: I have heard you sing several styles of music and they are all quite phenomenal.  How did you learn to do that or was it from listening to many singers and being able to capture a style, so to speak?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: Again, I would say that it is from my jazz background that I'm able to do that. Jazz music requires you to be your own singer and not an imitation of others, so you have to really think outside of the box. It also gives you more control and musicality. Singing as a studio session singer for many years also helped me to have more control and be a vocal "technician," doing what was required for that session quickly. I would say the hardest style I had to master was country. That was so out of my norm. It was a great experience to learn how to do it because I've been able to use the experience to help others learn styles that they may be unfamiliar with. What I discovered is that if you get the "feel" of the music, or the overall style begins to seep into your bones (through much listening), you begin to be able to imitate it without having to think of every nuance and ornament. Those just come out naturally because you have the overall "feel" right. So, to answer your question, I really try to understand the music first. What is that style trying to "say?" What is it's authenticity? And then really studying or listening until I "get" it.


Chuck Stewart: What have you been doing with music in the last few years?



Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: As you know, I moved to the Seattle area after I finished my masters degree in jazz studies, performance and composition, and took a job at Green River Community College in Auburn, Wa. I began my position in 2008 and so am in my 6th year as Choral Director and Music Instructor. I have received tenure and absolutely love my job. I direct two choirs, Concert Choir and Jazz Voices, and teach music theory, music appreciation, piano class, and others, depending on the quarter. Jazz Voices is my "baby." I hire a professional rhythm section to play for them and they do some pretty difficult music and grow immensely musically. I also like to write for them. I get a lot of satisfaction out of my work with the students. In my personal career, my last album came out in 2007 and went to number 14 on the national jazz charts. It was very well received by the jazz community and that gave me a lot of satisfaction as well. We all want to feel like we are contributing and what we do is valid. I was able to get that through this album. I have been singing periodically in Seattle jazz clubs, with a highlight of winning the Seattle-Kobe Vocal Jazz Competition and getting a trip to Kobe, Japan to sing there in 2010. I also sang with the award winning vocal group Groove For Thought for a year (you may have seen them on the second season of NBC's "The Sing Off" before I joined the group). Though the pace of that group was a little more than I was ready to do on a permanent basis, I learned a lot about group singing that I apply to my teaching. It's great to be on the other side as the singer in a group rather than the director, and I learned a lot about what my student singers need as I direct my groups. I am interested in recording another album soon, but I admit that I am a little less involved with my personal singing and am more involved with my students. I also am very active in my daughter's life, and there is only so much time! So for now I am content to do more teaching and parenting, and will do things with my singing as they come along. I've had a long career of singing already and am content with that.

Chuck Stewart: You went to Berklee School of Music?  Did I get that right?  What was that like?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: Yes, I got my undergrad degree from Berklee back in 1986. Berklee was an amazing experience that I treasure. I went there after being disillusioned with the music program at the University of Arizona. Back then there was not much for a jazz singer to be able to study! Berklee was the right place for me and I really appreciated all that it had to offer and took advantage of it in a big way. It is so expensive today though, that I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others. If you want to go there, really weigh out what it will cost particularly if you have to take out student loans, and what you will get in return for that investment. But it is a fantastic school and experience if you can afford to go (it was much more affordable back then!).

Chuck Stewart: Do you have an album out currently?   Where can people buy your music?


Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: I have two albums, Kelly Eisenhour, Now You Know, and Kelly Eisenhour Seek and Find, featuring Bob Mintzer. Both are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and other similar sites. There are also other albums that I'm featured on that are not my own. Albums by the group Q'd Up, the BYU faculty jazz band. Also, Steve Lindeman's Day After Yesterday. This one just won the first round of the Grammy award voting for best large ensemble album and best vocal arrangement and performance of the song I sang and co-wrote "Maravillas, Take Me To Wonderland Right Away." Not sure if it will go much farther but that was exciting.

Chuck Stewart:  Thank you so much for doing this interview. Is there anything you would like to add, regarding being a singer?

Kelly Conelly Eisenhour: I think that what students of singing should know is that it is important to study your instrument and study music just as instrumentalists do. There are many singers out there who give singers a bad name among instrumentalists because they don't take their craft seriously. Yes, we have the advantage of being able to get up and running and sing by ear in the way instrumentalists can't do. But to really be a professional and be respected amongst your peers, put time into developing your craft, including how to read music. All singers should be able to at least play the piano, not necessarily to perform as a pianist, but to have musical knowledge.

INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSIONAL SINGER, KAREN NELSON BELL

An Interview With Karen Nelson Bell

It's October 30th, 2013, almost Halloween.

Chuck Stewart:  Do you do anything special for Halloween?

Karen Nelson Bell:

Nada!  I live in a condo where no one goes trick or treating, but when I'm at home in Vegas, I stand on my second-floor balcony in a black cape and tall witch's hat, and I make the kids perform something to persuade me to throw down their treats for them to catch.  It's quite fun to see them become extroverted in the process.  If they don't sing or dance, they'll usually tell me a joke!

Chuck Stewart: When did you start singing?

Karen Nelson Bell:  

When I was a very, very young child, my parents and I would sing 3-part harmonies while driving in the car.

Chuck Stewart: I first heard you in Las Vegas in a fabulous group, which played on The Barge at Caesar's Palace.  Your singing sounded stylistically amazing, yet quite effortless.  Do you or have you ever done breathing exercises and do they help?

Karen Nelson Bell:

At that point in time, I hadn't studied speech level singing yet.  I did exercises I learned from an old Hollywood studio voice coach, Irene Blades. I would see how long I could blow out a tiny stream of breath as I drove over the Hollywood Hills to her studio.  I think it helped.  These days, I don't think about it... it just happens... I always have enough breath.

Chuck Stewart: I heard you do a fabulous rendition of "Lush Life" on several occasions.    How were you introduced to jazz originally?

Karen Nelson Bell:

I was a classical pianist and cellist until I met a fellow at the university with whom I fell madly in love.  He liked jazz, so I pretended to like it too.  The first thing he ever played for me was some Coltrane, whichI thought it was quite mad!  But I'm from Kansas City, so when we started talking blues, it all fell into place.  My tastes developed after that!

Chuck Stewart: Do you practice singing every day?  How much time do you put in?

Karen Nelson Bell:

Yes, I play and sing every day... the time spent depends on business commitments.

Chuck Stewart: I have heard you sing several styles of music and they are all quite phenomenal.  How did you learn to do that or was it from listening to many singers and being able to capture a style, so to speak?

Karen Nelson Bell:

My chameleon approach to styles was based on economic necessity.  I had to learn different genres to stay employed!  I've sung classical, theater, oldies rock, pop, disco, country, yodeling, and jazz!

Chuck Stewart: You were the producer of a show called "Country Tonite".  Was it in several locations?  Do you still enjoy country music? 

Karen Nelson Bell: 

I completely fell in love with country music while I was researching for the show. Classical musicians look down upon jazzers for the most part, and jazzers look down on most everything, so I was told I was selling out.  Thing is, country music has a rich history of extremely gifted musicians that you might not notice at first brush. Yes, I still enjoy it to the maximum!

Chuck Stewart: You also are a gifted pianist.  Did that come easy for you and did you have to practice much?  You played piano for Paul Anka, didn't you?

Karen Nelson Bell: 

I think the reason piano came easy is that my mom and dad both played, and it seemed to me as a 2-year-old that everyone in the universe played piano.  My mom was my first teacher.  I still have the piano she taught me on.  When I finally got a "real" teacher, Mrs. Wilson told my mom and dad that I'd never be any good.  Fortunately for me, my parents immediately switched me to Mr. Canterbury, who taught me music theory, sight reading, transposing, everything good, plus all about life, through my several decades of study with him. Did I have to practice much?  I don't know any artist who gets anything good done who didn't practice, practice, practice!  And yes, I played for Paul Anka for 2 years... I was one of the very few first females to perform with a superstar. What an education!

Chuck Stewart: Do you have an album out currently?   Where can people buy your music?

Karen Nelson Bell:

I'll let you know! 

Chuck Stewart:  Thank you so much for doing this interview. Is there anything you would like to add, regarding being a singer?

Karen Nelson Bell:

I believe everyone can sing!  Singing is a joyful expression of the spirit, and there is simply nothing like it to lift you up!

And Chuck, I think your wisdom and guidance as you dispense it today is the only true source for a person looking to understand and improve their voice.  Congrats and big thanks to you on the impressive work you do!

Chuck Stewart: It is an honor and a privilege to have you share these things.  I look forward to hearing you for years to come,  Thank you!

END

Singing Out Of Tune

I sometimes watch The X Factor, The Voice, American Idol, and America's Got Talent. I've seen way too many "singers", who sing out of tune. You can call it "pitchy", if you want. Why don't we call it what it is? It is having a condition called "amusical". Without music. Without musicianship. There is a mathematical relationship between intervals. If you sing it too wide or too narrow, within a very small margin of error, then you need to WORK on your interval accuracy. You have to use your hearing in conjunction with your voice and it takes PRACTICE to be good at it and LOTS OF PRACTICE to be professional at it. Some of the best musical ears will be those of trombonists, fretless stringed instrumentalists, and some singers. There is no getting around the practice to develop accurate interval singing. There is not a trick or a formula or a meter to accomplish this. Look at it this way: do you want to be a good singer or do you want to be a bad joke? Most people (including friends and family) either cannot hear your badness or they are just being polite or loving and not wanting to hurt you.

What does a professional hear, when someone sings out of tune? They hear laziness or incompetency or a person who was not born with it and has refused to do the work. You cannot fool a pro. So, if you haven't done the work, you may just be fooling yourself, or you don't have the pride or integrity or artistry to improve.

Two things you HAVE to hear and do: 1) Sing intervals accurately and 2) HEAR the accompaniment and yourself in relationship to the accompaniment and be in tune with it. These things are obvious to a professional.

I don't find bad singers to be funny. I think of them as sad or pitiful or in dire need of help. If they continue to sing poorly or severely out of tune, they have either done the work or they haven't. If a person has brain damage, singing in tune may not be possible. Most people who sing out of tune simply need training. I find the TV shows making fun of non-artists to be about as intellectually stimulating as bad slapstick comedy.

The more a person can hear in music, the better the singer, the person will be. If you can sing all major and minor intervals, up to 13ths and if you can hear all chords and identify and name them up through 13ths (including all altered tones, if any) you will have the musicianship to handle the melodic and harmonic interval issues, providing you can sing what you hear in intervals and in chords.

What if you don't have the time to do the work? You will be as good of a singer as you find the time to do the work.

What are you going to do about it?

A TEST FOR VOCAL COACHES

1. Where is the hyoid bone?
2. Which muscles, connected to the larynx, contract when you yawn? How can you exercise them?
3. Which muscles pull the larynx up, when you swallow?
4. What is the function of the oblique arytenoid muscles? How can you exercise them?
5. When the diaphragm contracts, does it ascend or descend?
6. Name the muscles of "forced expiration".
7. Why are the vocal folds no longer called vocal cords?
8. Is it possible to "place your sound" and what muscles would be involved in that?
9. Define "falsetto".
10. Is head voice a tone quality or vocal range?
11. Why is chest voice called "chest voice"?
12. What causes a break, or crack, in the voice?
13. What do you do to sing from the diaphragm?
14. How do you feel where your diaphragm is?
15. What muscles are used to open the throat?
16. Draw the anterior view of the larynx, showing the thyroid cartilage, the hyoglossus muscle, the cricoid cartilage, the sterno-thyroid and sterno-hyoid muscles, and the hyoid bone.
17. Draw the top view of the larynx, showing the arytenoid cartilages, the thyroid and cricoid cartilages, and the oblique arytenoid muscles.
18. Why does the lower abdomen expand slightly when you inhale? Does air go in there?
19. When does liquid, that you swallow, make contact with your vocal cords?
20. How can you prevent excessive muscle tension in the neck or the jaw when you sing?
21. How do you improve pitch problems in a singer?
22. What are the notes in a D major 9th chord?
23. Name the seven modes of a major scale. Sing them.
24. Sing a Phrygian tetrachord up and down.
25. Establish a starting note (Use A flat.) and, using a major scale, sing the scale steps 6-5-4-3-2-1. The 6 will be the A flat.
26. Sing a Dorian mode, starting on a C.
27. What is a bridge in a song?
28. What is a bridge in the voice?
29. How would you notate (as literally as possible) a swing rhythm for a musician or singer who is unfamiliar with a swing rhythm?
30. Sing a one octave chromatic scale.
31. Sing a pentatonic scale.
32. Sing a whole tone scale.
33. Sing an Aeolian mode.
34. Sing an ascending augmented 4th.
35. Sing an ascending minor 6th.
36. Sing an arpeggiated major seventh chord, ascending.
37. Sing a descending minor 6th.
38. Sing all the major scales in the circle of fifths.
39. Sing the notes of a sus4 chord.
40. Sing the notes of a sus2 chord.
41. What scales are used for embellishments in most R&B and pop music?
42. What is a fry tone?
43. What is the Bogart-Bacall Syndrome?
44. What are the ten most common problems of singers?
45. What is "middle voice"?
46. Should the jaw be opened the same on the "e" as in "bee" as on the "a", as in "bat"?
47. What is the difference between front vowels and back vowels?
48. Which back vowel has the highest tongue position?
49. Which front vowel has the lowest tongue position?
50. How do you determine the cause of intonation problems?