It happens.  Singers occasionally crack when holding a note.  Usually it is due to a momentary lack of support in your abdominals.  As a result your larynx pops up unexpectedly and crack, you feel like you are swallowing your throat for an instant.  All in front of your audience that of course is giving you their undivided attention.

Oh and the sound that it makes… really it couldn’t be worse.  One moment you are singing like an angel, the next it sounds like you swallowed a frog.

Can you recovery from it?

I don’t think so.  Honestly, when you see someone perform and a crack happens, even after they have sung for an hour brilliantly, you can’t help but think of that cracking moment first when reviewing the concert can you?  No, no recovery available.  But you can move on quickly.

No, a crack is bad it stands out like a sore thumb.  But, as a singer, YOU need to recover from it mentally so you can proceed with your concert with your held up high.  Remember, it is like a model tripping on a runway, you can’t deny it ever happened, but the show MUST go on as they say.  So you must gracefully proceed in front of all the people you just cracked in front of.  Ah, what we singers endure!

So, do your best practicing to strengthen your stamina in your body so that you rarely ever encounter the dreaded crack moment.  And then, if you do, recover instantly in front of everyone.  The crack happened it is done, relax get your support grounded and continue.  If not, you may crack AGAIN because you are so stressed and you are not allowing your larynx to settle back down so that you can support your lines of singing.

A good singer will rarely crack… And hopefully it only happens in a rehearsal.  If you are finding that your voice cracks frequently then you need some help with your vocal technique.  Get yourself to a good voice teacher or contact me for a Vocal Assessment to help you with that.

Click the following to hear a beautiful tenor have a bad day:

sad example - This guy clearly is a well-trained singer with a beautiful voice who had a very bad moment.  I picked this clip because it is just audio, I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.

Ariella Vaccarino

Thank you for subscribing to my blogs!  I am working hard to bring you great content and free singing advice.  Please take a moment to spread the words via the social book marking links below to help me build my readership.  Thank you!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of  Voice Lessons To Go(singing lessons on CD) and author of  Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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Auditioning is the MOST UNNATURAL thing that we can go through.  Unfortunately, it is what is needed to unlock our world of performing for us as singers.  I’ve put together 10 tips to your best singing audition for my third podcast.  This was inspired by an older blog I wrote a few years ago.  Please check it out.

My Podcast site for those of you who do not have access to itunes:  Voice lessons To Go’s Podcast Page

For itunes:  Please subscribe and rate fabulously Voice Lessons To Go’s  Itunes Podcast page

Hope these tips are helpful!

Ariella Vaccarino

Thank you for subscribing to my blogs!  I am working hard to bring you great content and free singing advice.  Please take a moment to spread the words via the social book marking links below to help me build my readership.  Thank you!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of  Voice Lessons To Go(singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for myVocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/voicelessons2go (I love a good retweet!)

As a voice teacher for over 18 years and an Opera singer myself which is no easy cake walk to do well, I have always been in awe of the good Gospel singer.

I think most people would agree that there are not many more things more invigorating then hearing and watching a gospel choir sing out with an amazing soloist riding over them.  It is moving and inspirational to most, no matter your religion.

And why is Gospel Singing so moving and what can we learn form it?

Gospel singing is sung from the soul.  Take that in.  The deep soul, spirit.  I talk so much about honest singing and connecting to your audience.  Gospel is one of the best examples of that.

Take the essence of gospel intention and put it into your own music:

Believe it

Feel it

Experience it

Share it

Give in to it

Whether you are dying on stage in your last act of Traviata as an Opera singer,

Crooning to a loved one in a torch song,

Or screaming (hopefully fully supported of course) in rage for your heavy metal concert.

Take the essence of Good Gospel singing and use it in you to move your audience.

Get lost in your own music, get swept up, taken away, and over come.

Then you can always pull back as to what is appropriate keeping the core of soul and honesty in your sound but remaining appropriate to your style.

Sing well!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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UGHHHHH….Pathos….You feel it in your bones when they relay their pain to you on stage.  How can you be someone who does that?  The conveyor of depth and raw emotion.  How can you make it real for your audience?  Maria Callas is my Idol for this.  She moves me theatrically more then anyone I have ever heard.

Take a moment and watch her perform this aria Vissi D’arte from Verdi’s Tosca.  The first moment you see her, before she has even opened her mouth to sing, you know that she is consumed with the emotion of the character.  You can’t even imagine that she is a character and not just unlocking her true self in front of the audience.  She is so vulnerable in her expression.  She is the ultimate conveyor of Pathos.

How can you learn from her?  Well what she was Raw.  Raw in her emotion, no matter what your genre of singing that is something you should try and tap into.  Whether you are singing about love, bliss, or heart ache.

Maria Callas was a Genius performer and could make anyone feel her Pathos within seconds of seeing her face.  Please enjoy Callas and learn from from her:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZXwz0gj5fY

Pathos is a term from Greek mythology.  As quoted from wikipedia “Pathos is often associated with emotional appeal. But a better equivalent might be appeal to the audience’s sympathies and imagination. An appeal to pathos causes an audience not just to respond emotionally but to identify with the writer’s point of view – to feel what the writer feels. In this sense, pathos evokes a meaning implicit in the verb ‘to suffer’ – to feel pain imaginatively. Perhaps the most common way of conveying a pathetic appeal is through narrative or story, which can turn the abstractions of logic into something palpable and present. The values, beliefs, and understandings of the writer are implicit in the story and conveyed imaginatively to the reader. Pathos thus refers to both the emotional and the imaginative impact of the message on an audience, the power with which the writer’s message moves the audience to decision or action.”

For more in depth study of the term Pathos please check out:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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Today I want to share of you one of my Idols.  Joan Sutherland was really one of the most amazing sopranos ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs&feature=related

I have spent many an hour listening and glowing in her vocal beauty.  She is a lyric Coloratura Soprano and really absolutely amazing.  Her instrument is a gift from God and her technique is incredible.  I have often been moved to tears when listening to her beauty.

I know that many of you are not Opera singers, but as singers we can learn from all types of singing genres.  Today when you watch this link and listen to Dame Sutherland, I want you listen and feel the line of her voice.  This is something that I always talk about in singing.  How important it is to have a beautiful line.  She is the epitome of it.

You can skip the first minute and a half of the video which is a bit cheesy 60′s Opera.  She starts to sing at about 1:30 into it by 2:30 into it you can hear this line I am talking about.  There are no single notes or syllables.  Every thought and sound is leading somewhere in her sound and voice.  Her breath control is INSANE and her sound glorious perfection.  Few can even begin to touch the line that Joan Sutherland achieved over and over again.

Just thought you might enjoy listening to one of my favorites.  Please enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs&feature=related

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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At a certain level of singing, there will be a lot of good people auditioning for your role/band, or trying to get that same record contract.  When everyone is talented, prepared, professional, and looking good what can make some singers pop from the pool of others?

Your sound.  Your unique sound.  Your vocal timbre. No imitations allowed.

Can you force a unique sound?  Not in my opinion.  To me it is the difference between the great choral soprano as opposed to the Diva soloist.  You are born with a unique sound which you hope not many other people have.  I am not saying this is your only route in , so if you are a great singer with a more “common” voice don’t fret, there is still much to be done and conquered for you. such as vocal styling, image, good song writing, personality, stage presence etc…

But, if you are someone who possesses that unique timbre you are a lucky one.  If you are unclear as to what I mean by Vocal Timbre, please refer to a past blog I wrote:   Vocal Timbre Blog

When you posses a truly unique sound, the minute you open your mouth to sing people know its you without looking.  Think of Tom Waits, Frank Sinatra, Bjork, Maria Callas, Barbara Streisand, Edith Piaf, Maria Carey, Pavarotti, Paul Simon, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen- just to name a few.  They are all identifiable by the first note they sing.  That is something truly great to posses.  If you have it, congratulations.

You can’t force it though, it never sounds genuine when you do.  Singing is not about impersonating a sound that you like, rather freeing your own unique sound.  Make sure when you sing that you are being true to yourself, not following Brittany Spears or Miley Sirus on the radio.  Take song, sound, and tone, and make it your own. Let your voice out.

This can be more complicated then it sounds.  I often spend a lot of time peeling back layers of “impersonating sound” off of my students till we found their own true voice.  I can understand how it happens, you receive so much audio input over time that you may not even know you are imitating someone.

So think about it the next time you warm up and sing.  Go bare of other influences and let your own natural tone release.  You may just find that you have your own unique one of a kind gem in your own larynx!

written by: Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons TO GO (singing lessons on CD), and author of Vocalize!

Want my opinion on your own voice?  Sign up for a  Vocal Assessment on my site.  Then send me a link to your voice with your questions and I’ll get back to you with my feedback right away.

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First of all, I’d like to thank American Idol for giving me such fuel for my blogs.  They are really helping to make my job easy!

Last night watching the men again, I was ignited by Aaron Kelly’s performance of ” My Girl” .  I am not going to be commenting specifically on him, he did a good job and is only 16 so perhaps he did an amazing job.  But what I did notice first and foremost about his performance was that he performed the first two verses of his song exactly the same.  And that is an improvement he needs to work on and a great subject to blog and discuss for all singers who are going to do any type of performing.

Making a song interesting to listen to.

In general a song is made up of verse and chorus repeating.  So what can you do to make that verse or chorus pop from a repeating one?  There are several things to think about when approaching your song such as: intention, dynamics, emotion, and melody variation.

Like an actor a singer needs to perform a song like a monologue, finding the beats and the intention to each phrase.  Consider this is type of blocking that you need to do in your mind before you sing the piece.

Intention-

Who are you singing to?  What is the difference in your intention from the first time you deliver a verse and the second.  For example:  the first time you may want to be getting their attention with your words, the second time you may want them to really be listening.  Or, the first time you may be just opening up and the second you may be singing from your whole heart with resolve.  These different intentions need to show themselves and they can do so in a few different ways:

Dynamics- Simply, your volume.  For a love song a quiet intro may be a sign of your vulnerability and a louder repeat a sign of your resolve.  For a “you hurt me song”  starting on a sorrowful quiet and switching to an angry loud “fed up” verse can show growth in your song journey.

Emotions- Your first verse may be timid, the second, holding nothing back out of desperation.  The first first may be coy, the second down right sexy, etc…

Body Language- You can start sitting on a stool, then stand for the second verse, or start standing at a microphone then hold it for verse two.

Melody- You can play with one verse over the other, adding runs, holding out a note, or changing up the line.

There are many things that you can do to a song.  But you need to plan for it like an actor.  That will take you to a higher step then just someone who can sing pretty.  We as singers need to tell stories.  Use your resources of dynamics, emotions, body language and melody to help you do so.

Sing well people!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creatof of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

-want to receive immediate feedback on how you are singing from me?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment.  Then send me a link or mp3 of  you singing (audio/ or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my advice right away.

Follow me on twitter:http://www.twitter.com/singingvltg

Make sure fellow singers that you work out what note you should start your song on, especially when you are singing a cappella. You could find yourself in some bad singing if you don’t.

We’ve heard it millions of times in restaurants.  All the waiters start the Happy Birthday around the table really high and by the time they get to the last part, people are stretching their limits to hit the notes (if they even hit them).  You can’t just start the song where it feels good to start it.  You need to consider the range of the whole piece and pick the appropriate starting note from there.

Another great example is The Star Spangled Banner.  You must start the beginning at the bottom of your range because it goes so high at the end.  Often times, people drop an octave at the end just to finish the song.

Consider using a pitch pipe to play your starting note if you do not have musical accompaniment.  Also, make sure that the starting note you select represents your voice the best throughout the whole song.  You may sound fine if you start on a middle C, but if you try it on a D it may hit that sweet spot in your voice.

When you are nervous in an audition situation your judgement for a starting note might be really off.  You have so much adrenaline pumping that often you may tend to pick a higher starting place then you would have liked.  Ask for the first note on the piano or use your pitch pipe to be sure.  I often find it necessary to humm back the note I play on the pitch pipe to make sure the note is in my body before I start.

So work out the best Key for your piece before the performance or audition.  Figure out what the starting note is for that.  And then make sure you have a way of getting that note for the real thing.

Sing Well!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creatof of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

-Want to receive immediate feedback on how you are singing from me?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment.  Then send me a link or mp3 of  you singing (audio/ or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my advice right away.

Follow me on twitter:http://www.twitter.com/singingvltg