Vocal Domain

Anyone who has gotten up in front of other people (singing, speeches, teaching, etc.) will tell you what it’s like just before you get started. As you go over in your mind what you think is going to happen during the performance, your heart starts to race, your breathing rate increases, your hands start to get all clammy. Many call it stage fright others might only get some pre performance jitters. Even the greatest, most world-renowned performers and singers attest to still getting that rush of anxiety and emotion just before going up on stage. So what are some good techniques for overcoming that stage fright or those pre performance jitters?

Prior to going in front of a crowd, I always try to envision putting on a great performance and I experience all the joy and pleasure I would get afterward from knowing I did a great job. I try to focus more on how great I will feel afterward than the on the details of what I will do during a performance. This helps to alleviate my anxiety and allows things to flow more easily as I get started.

When on stage or in front of a crowd, I always try not to look at faces in the crowd right off the bat. I look just above people’s heads so that it appears that you I’m looking at them without actually having to make eye contact. As things progress and my anxiety subsides, I gradually look at peoples faces and try to really feel the audience’s emotions.

It’s not anything new to find that your favorite artist or band has either or admitted or been caught using some type of mood or mind altering substance just before going on stage or even during a performance. I’m not trying to judge anyone and if you’re into that sort of thing than so be it, but the worst thing you can do is ingest some type of substance just to get past your stage fright or pre performance jitters.

First of all alcohol and especially cigarettes are horrible for your vocal chords, and just like the actual affects of drug abuse, using substances to get over your performance anxiety will only lead to relying on these substances throughout your musical performance career. Not to mention the possibility of addiction and overdose. Besides, the audience wants to hear you perform, not some drugged up or drunk version of you.

Instead, try singing and performing at smaller venues until you get comfortable and then work your way up to bigger audiences. You’re never going to get over the nervousness, so instead use these feelings to your advantage to put you into that hyper aware state that will really prepare you to rock the crowd. After you get on stage and embrace the anxious energy rather than fight it, you’re only going to grow as a performer and singer.

The best way to overcome stage fright and pre performance jitters is to simply practice. I can’t emphasize how important practice is to really get that edge you need in your performances. After all, the best confidence booster is just knowing that you’ve been there and done that before. Just have fun, and try not to over think about how well you’re singing or performance will be.

Criticisms should start with what is good about an individual’s singing technique and build from there. For some reason this seems to run counter to what many singing and vocal instructors incorporate into their teaching style.  A great many instructors find everything you might have done wrong and attempt to fix all of these supposed problems.  What I’ve found to be the greatest talent of my favorite singing and vocal instructors is their ability to find what I’ve done right in my singing technique and then continually build on this.  In the end this always takes care of the original problems that were found in my original singing technique.

Obviously one of the goal’s should be to address problems and work toward solutions, but constructive criticism is just that – it is constructive.  So ask yourself, “How can I build someone up if I am only focusing on this person’s weak points in my analysis?”  Don’t dwell on what is wrong with a singer’s performance to the extent that the problem becomes a distraction.

One of the most clever techniques for dealing constructively in your criticism is to give out what I’ve come to know as a good-bad-good sandwich - slice of critique in between two pieces of compliment.  Start out with what a singer is doing right, transition into what is needs improvement and end with another compliment of the singer’s strengths.  This way your student is opened up by the compliment, the problem is addressed and then they’re left with the good feeling of another compliment.

Lastly, keep in mind your non-verbal behaviors, like posture or facial expression. These are powerful indicators of your thoughts. If you look relaxed, your student is more likely to accept your critic because his or her self-esteem won’t be damaged.

Many singers go into a practice session with songs that they very much enjoy singing, and they simply sing these same songs over and over.  Sometimes the singer is looking to improve the singing voice, other times the goal is to simply get better at singing the given song for an upcoming performance.  What often happens, however, is that there are particular sections of the song that you might feel just don’t work out right.  Instead of singing the song over and over again to improve, the solution is to simply break the song down into parts for optimal practice sessions.

This might seem a bit obvious to some, but many times we overlook the thing that is staring us right in the face.  What you can do is break apart all the sections of the song that you feel you are doing right and separate those from the parts that seem to be running flat or just out of tune.  Work on each difficult section individually until you eventually eliminate the whole list of parts of the song that you are having a problem with.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed by going through this process, but as you overcome the various portions of the song in which you are having trouble, you will build confidence and self esteem as the list dwindles and you eventually tackle the whole song.

A drill I’ve found that is very helpful to go along with this process is to strip all the words out of the various portions of the song and replace all the syllables with a “Nay”.  So for instance if you were singing a line like “Here I go again on my own”, instead you would sing “Nay nay nay nay-nay nay nay nay.”  This makes it easier for your mind to focus on the notes since it won’t be preoccupied with also having to form words to sing.  This greatly increases the speed at which this process works.  Once you get all the notes down in a particular section, put all the words back into that part.  Wash, rinse, and repeat until you get the whole song down pat.

Take care and good luck.

These are questions any serious musician and particularly any singer needs to answer clearly to themselves before they will have any real success.  Have you ever really asked yourself why you want to sing?  Is it really about the music, or are you just on some ego trip thinking your following the path to fame and fortune.

So many people, and this is true of many young people who see music as a career, just want to get into the entertainment business without realizing that talent and the potential can only carry you so far. You have to really understand that the music and singing is not only about you. It’s sad listening to a person sing that I can just tell is only into their own feelings and what is going on in their own mind.  So many of the memorable entertainers are able to reach down and be about themselves but in a way that communicates and shares with their audience.  Without fail, the one’s who get up on stage or go to the recording both for primarily selfish reasons always go down in flames.

Music isn’t about money or making you ‘dreams’ come true. I have dreams, everyone’s got dreams, but if this is all you think about then what is life to you?  Music is a gift.  You have to work with it everyday, and grow with it as you mature and learn new things. Really focus on the music, not the dreams about becoming famous.

Any form of entertainment is about a give and take experience.  The principle of “give and you shall receive” is at the heart of what it really takes to become a successful singer and artist.  Give to your audience.  Consider others first, and you will reap the rewards and benefits that come.  It may not be fame and you might not gain a fortune, but you will have the true joy and satisfaction that comes only when you put others first.

One of the things highest on the list of many songwriters’ and musicians’ list of priorities is the protection of their musical work from potential thieves. Many musicians think that whenever they finish writing a song, or even when they have their main ideas worked-out, that they need to immediately go out and get their work copyrighted. While making sure you’ve properly protected your hard work and energy is definitely something every musician and songwriter should take seriously, it is certainly a subject on which you should not spend too many sleepless nights.

In the US, original works are pretty much copyrighted automatically just by the mere fact that your created it. It’s the proving that you were the creator in the first place that’s the hard part. Of course getting your music officially copyrighted before some thief pulls the rug out from under you is the most effective option, but there are other steps you can take to prove you are the creative source for a given musical composition.

Send Yourself a Copy Certified Mail

The easiest way I’ve heard to prove that you were the one who first came up with an idea is to mail yourself a copy certified mail. When you do this, you have proof certified by the Federal Government that you had a copy of the music you created on the day the mail gets delivered to you. But don’t go opening the letter because then all you’ll have proof of is that you sent yourself a letter. Mail the music to yourself certified and then hide away the unopened package or envelope. If you make it big and some thief has stolen your music in the past, or if some big rock star somehow starts playing your music while your still trying to get signed, you’ll have proof that you were the first to come up with that special lick or melody.

Establish a Strong Web Presence

It doesn’t matter how far along you are in your career as a musician – one of the best ways to build up the fact that you are the creator of your original work is to establish a strong presence on the Web. This might go against many of your instincts when it comes to protecting your work, but believe me, nothing says “That is mine!” like online word of mouth. Put together a Myspace page or even your own personal domain/website and make your music available for download. Make it clear that while you offer the music for free-download, the creative rights are yours and it may not be used without your express permission. The value of letting others download your music for free and listen to it over and over is of much greater value than the pennies you might make from people willing to pay for a download of a band of whom they’ve never heard.

Once you’ve established yourself on the web, people will begin to use your name or the name of your band as search terms on Google or Yahoo. Having your website at the top of the list for a given song or for your band’s name is a pretty good deterrent for any of those would-be thieves who are looking to steal other artists’ music for their own commercial gain. Establishing a strong web presence early on will pay in dividends as people start to show up to your gigs and possibly buy your CD’s after hearing your stuff online.

Embed Audio Watermarks

This is kind of a techie move, but once you have your music ready for recording, creating an embedded audio watermark is a novel way of protecting your music form potential thieves. Just like you’ve seen on all those photo websites that want to protect against people using their photos without permission, the computer geniuses out there have come up with new and innovative approaches to adding frequencies that are imperceptible to the human ear. Granted this approach is only valuable to those who have their music ready for the production phase, but it is still a promising technique to help artists get compensated for music that is rightfully their original work.

Microsoft has a free downloadable program that will add digital audio watermarks to your music files. Here you can read a quick rundown of the whole system.

I heard a story about guy who turned on the radio one day and heard a new band playing a song his band had been working to get published by the major labels. That happened in the 60s, but if you browse around you’ll find plenty of similar examples - usually someone lifting a hook or riff of some sort. A lot of these cases end up in the courts and hopefully you don’t have to experience this in your career. The bottom line is that as long as your music is out there for others to experience, you really have no absolute control over how it is used. Just relax and be grateful that people enjoy your music and want to listen.

If you search the web for singing instructors or vocal coaches, you’ll inevitably come across instructors advertising the fact that they offer lessons over the telephone or through an Internet connection. Face to face singing lessons are always the greater option in my opinion for various reasons, so the only time I would advocate lessons over the phone or Internet would be on a temporary basis. But if singing or vocal lessons over the phone are your only option, there are some things you should consider.

Limitations Presented by Taking Over the Phone Lessons:

The connection between you and your instructor does not always present the most optimal listening experience for either party, so you will need to incorporate a great deal more imagination into your lessons. You and your instructor will have to exert that much more patience with one another because of this fact.

You will need some type of speakerphone setup in order to do things right. It’s not like you can have a one-hour lesson while holding a phone to your ear the whole time. But if you have ever used a speakerphone, you know that you often have to shout or raise your voice just so the phone/mic will pick up your sound. Going above your regular singing to actuate the speakerphone will definitely have an adverse affect on your voice and throat.

Long distance charges are another thing to consider when taking over the phone singing instruction. Many instructors take care of these fees, but if not, this will be an added charge you need to consider. This is why it is advantageous to do your lesson through a webcam and with a free program like Skype.

Recording your lessons can also be difficult when doing your lesson over the phone. Nearly all of the instructors I have worked with offered recordings of our sessions together for practice on my own. If my instructor didn’t offer recordings of the lessons, I always have my own digital recorder to keep track of things myself. If you’re having your lessons over the phone or Internet this option is nearly impossible. It will be very difficult to get good recordings with your own digital recorder, and it will be just as difficult for your instructor to make a recording as well. If you instructor is able to make recordings, its not like they can just hand you a copy of the session. I’m not saying making recordings is impossible while taking lessons over the phone, its just one of the major headaches from the whole process.

You and your instructor loose the connection that comes from face to face contact. Not only the mental connection, but there are times when your instructor needs to make physical contact to make corrections to your posture or breathing. An instructor is not able to demonstrate with their own body the things they are referencing in a lesson over the phone.

Reasons to Have Your Singing Lessons Over the Phone:

The main reason for having a lesson over the phone is in the case your instructor lives at a greater distance than you are able to travel. With the price of gas these days, the distance that is just too far is getting shorter and shorter, and transportation costs should always be factored into what your lessons actually are costing you. If you do have to do lesson over the phone or web, consider having every other lesson in person. That way you still get that one on one with your coach or instructor.

Taking time off for vacation can set back some of the progress you’ve made especially, if your vacation is for a considerable length of time. This is the perfect time to consider over the phone lessons. The only obstacle here is setting things up with your instructor in advance.

Besides vacations, being on the road in general is a time when you might need to have a lesson over the phone. Say you’re just not getting that edge that you want, or you need that confidence you get from being in contact with your vocal coach. You might want to have a few lessons this way any time you are on the road.

If that great instructor you’ve heard so much about is on the other side of the country or even in another state, you might want to have lessons via phone or Internet connection. This is especially true if you very much want to take singing lessons from a great instructor but you live away from a major metropolitan center where there are a great many more instructors to choose from.

Injuries that leave you laid up in bed would also prompt one to look for over the phone lessons as well. If you are very sick for a short period of time, then singing is probably not high on your list of things to do. But say you broke your leg and it’s a huge ordeal to make it out to your vocal coach twice a week, then phone or Internet lesson might be ideal for you.

It might take some time to find the perfect instructor or coach within driving distance of you, but before you find who you are looking for it might be easier to do lessons via phone or Internet connection. Just be sure to weigh your options, be extra creative, and keep these things in mind before you get started. Good Luck!!

A concern that invariably comes up for those just starting out in their singing careers is the ability to sing at the right pitch.  This was one of my biggest up-hill battles when I was first getting involved in singing.  Many people sing with the thought in their mind that they are hitting the right pitch, but to those listening the singer is just slightly flat.  Other singers can hear that they are doing something wrong, but they don’t know how to get right into that proper tonal level.

At the time I struggled with this problem, I was in that category of singers who could hear the problem but had a hard time fixing it.  One of the tricks I would use to hit the right pitch would be to sort of “slide into the pitch.”  When I could hear that my tone was a bit flat, I would slide slightly up or down a bit in my tone until I hit what I could hear was correct.  But this is hardly a solution, and it is a fix that is easily picked up by the audience.

So how is one to go about hitting just the right pitch without having to use some trick after you’ve already let the note out?  A simple fix but one that comes with practice is to let go from your diaphragm.  This is an part any vocalization that gets hammered into all young practitioners, but really breathing out from the diaphragm while singing or vocalizing is a deliberate action that has to be developed until it becomes habitual.

A simple yet practical drill you can do on your own is to match random tones on a keyboard or piano.  Really you could do this with just about anything that emits musical tones, so you could try this drill even if you don’t own a piano or keyboard.  You can even record yourself doing this exercise and then play it back afterward.  How you hear yourself in your own head compared to how others hear you is markedly different, so the sound you hear from your recorded voice will give you a fairly comparative version of what others hear when you sing or vocalize.

One of the best pieces of advice I received from one of my first instructors and one that helped me to clean up my pitch problem is this.   Instead of sliding into the proper tone or pitch during the out breath during singing, hold the idea of the sound in your mind during the inhale so that you are prepared as you exhale.  It is more than just having an idea of what the note should sound like in your head, and this is where the keyboard drills I mentioned before will come in handy.  This idea will make more sense as you practice individual tones and then gradually incorporate this technique into all of your singing routines.  Practice thinking, hearing and feeling the note as you take a breath, and then as you breath out with your singing voice, it will become easier to get the pitch that you want and out of the flat spots.

Any vocal coach or singing instructor worth their salt will emphasize the importance of vocal warm up exercises.  Just like warming up your muscles before a physical exercise session, warm up exercises are vital to protecting the vocal chords and throat from undue wear and tear.  But unlike most athletic trainers, your average vocal coach or singing instructor pays no attention to or is often unaware of the importance of vocal cool down exercises.

Any athlete or even casual exercise enthusiasts will tell you, you can do a great deal of physical exercise and then just walk away, but you face risking future injury and decreased muscle development without a proper cool down and stretch.  The same is true of your vocal instrument.  You need to go through a proper vocal cool down after any length of singing or vocalizing.

The mechanics involved during any increased level of singing or vocalizing are similar to those involved in physical exercise.  In both instances, greater flows of blood are directed to the area being utilized for exercise, in this case the voice, throat, and larynx areas.  Just as runners continue walking after a long run, singers and vocalists should perform a cool down after a session in order to bring blood levels down to normal in order to avoid damage to the vocal instrument.

To perform a vocal cool down, a good exercise is to try quiet lip or tongue trills up and down your range, or softly and quietly hum five-note descending scales in the middle of your range.  Keep in mind that this is a vocal cool down, so you don’t need to go through all the exercises from the warm up session prior to singing or vocalizing.  The idea is to bring things down from your peak performance level, just like bringing down your heart and breathing rate after a bout of physical exercise.

If your vocal coach or singing instructor doesn’t currently include, make sure you request to have this included in your regular lessons from now on.  If not, don’t be afraid to make a change where your instructor/coach is involved.  You must take every precaution necessary to protect your vocal instrument.

Through my training as a singer, I’ve been through five different vocal coaches, and I’m happy with my current vocal coach. A mistake I made early in my training was not moving on when it was necessary.  When I finally realized a given previous vocal coach wasn’t providing what I needed, I found it very difficult to leave because they were genuinely nice people and seemingly helpful.

But time is an asset in short supply! As soon as you truly realize this fact the better off you will be. I wish I had moved on faster than I did. Trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to find a new vocal coach if you feel you should. Even if your coach means well, their caring isn’t going to make you a better singer. I felt guilty leaving the vocal coaches I have had in the past, but in the end I really lost way too much time by sticking with them.

You need to remember that you can’t hear yourself the same way as your vocal coach. Your vocal coach hears what you are doing wrong –when your flat, pitchy, or not hitting the note. For that matter, your vocal coach hears when you are doing the right things, even when you may think you hear things differently. This is all assuming you have the right vocal coach for your needs. Above all, if you feel your progression is not going the way it should, don’t be afraid to switch to a new coach!

One last thing.  There might be some confusion here as to what in the professional world of singing is meant by a vocal coach compared to a singing teacher. In the professional world of singing, a vocal coach teaches you how to interpret the music. They are not necessarily teaching you how to utilize your vocal instrument to it’s fullest potential and capacity. That is what a teacher of singing does. Just be sure that the you and the person you are training with are both focused on the same outcome.

Singing is technique. You as a singer will spend a great deal of time and effort developing your vocal technique. One of the most important aspects to consider in developing your technique is balance and control of your airflow. Too much or not enough air through your windpipe results in overworked and overused vocal cords, and this eventually leads to painful swelling, hoarseness of voice, and eventually damage to your vocal cords. Many singers do not much consider the damage they may cause to their vocal cords even though this should be a priority one item any singers should guard against. Having the sound you want is useless if it eventually leads to irreparable damage. So first and foremost – protect you vocal cords!

One common misconception is that you need a great deal of air in your lungs to be able to sing, especially when it comes to belting out those big power high notes. You don’t need more air than you can muster; you just need to manage the air capacity that your lungs already have. If you take in more air than you’re comfortable with, you wont be able to manage it properly to start, so you’re following a self-defeating approach. Of course there are exercises that will help build and expand your lung capacity, but until you get there, you need to be comfortable with your current abilities.

When you take a breath, inhale with your diaphragm into your lower rib cage area, aka your reserve tank. Your stomach should expand while you make this action and you should do so without lifting or tensing your shoulders. As you are singing, press upward with your diaphragm. This way the effort and pressure of making sound is not completely on your vocal cords. When you sing, your ribcage – the reserve tank – should be full/expanded and you should sing as if it were coming from your stomach.

When it comes to singing, always remember to protect your vocal chords. One way to do this is to always remember to engage your diaphragm on both the inhale and exhale of you singing breaths.