Just because you don’t have something set on the calender to sing does not mean you shouldn’t be training regularly.  You never know when you are going to get that call and how much time you are going to have till your first rehearsal or performance.  You want to have your voice “locked down and ready to go” at any moment.  Your last minute energy should be put into prepping material for a performance, not prepping your instrument.

I’m speaking from my own experiences on this one.  I can remember numerous times in my life when I was slacking in my vocal training and received calls for vocally demanding gigs.  It is very stressful.  I would be stuck learning and memorizing new music while desperately trying to get my voice into pristine vocal shape for it- sometimes with only days to do so.  The feeling of dread comes to mind when I think of those times and the stress I was felt.   The outcome was often frustrating, because I knew that I could have been better.  Remember, nobody is out there thinking how good you could be if only you had some more prep time.  They are judging you in the minute they hear you.  Your audience will think that you are performing to the best of your capacity whenever they hear you.  Make sure they hear you at your best.

It’s time to start building your vocal stamina.

Don’t get caught out of shape.  If you are, you will not give your best performance, and you will stress your voice, body, and emotions out trying to get through it.

Rather then waiting till you get hired for a good gig to get into vocal shape, get into great vocal shape so you are ready when you are hired for that great demanding gig!

Singing opportunities will not check your training schedule first. If your hope is to book the “marathon” role, tour, gig, or show- then you need to be prepared vocally for it when it comes.   Big singing requires big training.  Put yourself in training for that vocal marathon now so you are not off  ”your game” when the singing work does come.  The healthier and stronger your voice is, the more stamina you will have.  The stronger you are as a singer the more able you will be to bounce back from the blows, strains, and over taxing you will be  put through in a heavy performance schedule.

Don’t just get in vocal shape, rather, train to be in fantastic vocal shape.  Think about all the football, basketball team movies we see,  they take the underdog team bring in a new coach and work them to an insane degree, run them, make them do weights, eat healthy, pile on practices  that no other teams are required to do.  This makes them ready for anything.  You can do that for yourself as a singer slowly building stamina with longer vocal warm ups and healthier practices.  Start three times a week, then 5 times, then start adding second practices in the evenings etc… Singing through 5 songs then increasing…You will as a result be prepared for anything.  Your body will be strong.  You will be able to sing out longer.

Prepare yourself for the big.  Why do anything less.  You will stand out with your great singing and radiate confidence as a result.

Now go Vocalize!!!

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.

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So yesterday morning I had a sound check and orchestra run through for a concert I did last night.  Call time was at 10:15 am.  As you can imagine that is not ideal for the singing voice!  It reminded me of a time in my life when I used to sing at schools through L.A. Opera.  It was an educational program that brought opera to schools all over.  We had 8 a.m. assemblies to perform in sometimes!  Being that I am a coloratura soprano (the one who hits the highest notes), that was a tough morning prep.

I came up with a routine from that that really helped me get through it which I would love to share with you.  Try and hit as many of the steps as you can.  This routine is ideal, but I do realize that we can not always reach our ideals.  So do your best with it.

So how do you prepare yourself for an early morning singing performance, audition, or rehearsal?

Here are 15 steps to try follow when preparing for an early sing:

1.  Wake up early.  Not only do you need time to get ready, practice, and prepare, your body needs time to wake up and get itself going so that it can be there for you to do these things well.  Give yourself an extra hour or so.  (I know it might be painfully early, but especially if you are going to be singing high notes, you need to get yourself out of bed.)  It is important to somehow convince your body that it is not to early to get everything moving required to sing.

2.  Take a hot shower.  It will help wake up your brain as well as your body.  The warmth of the water on your muscles will help to start getting the blood going.  You will need these muscles to support your voice so that you can sing well.  So you need to wake them up!

3. Do yawn sighs really gently in the shower, humm a bit sing very gentle warm ups. Nothing serious.  Just make easy singing sounds.  Continue doing this during your morning routine, keep them light.

4. Slow stretching.  Again, you want to wake up the muscles of the body.

5. Breathing exercises, I have great ones on my first v.1 of Voice Lessons To Go- Vocalize and Breath.   This will open up your ribs, get your abdominal muscles working and make space for your resonance.

6. Physical exercise.  If you can get on a bike, take a walk, do a yoga tape, or even dance to some favorite tunes, even 10-15 minutes will make a great difference.  This will invigorate your muscles and activate them to “alert” mode  so that you will be prepped when you are singing.

7. Eat.  Singing takes energy.  Feed your body.

8. Drink something warm.  I like to drink a tea called “Throat Coat” before I sing.  An herbal tea is a great warmer and soother for the chords.  I keep one going all morning.

9. Get dressed. Give your body a few minutes to digest before your practicing begins.

10. Warm up your voice.  Take it nice and slow.  At this point your voice should be a bit warm from your humms, and yawn sighs.  Start easy on your vocal warm up.  Voice Lessons To Go is perfect for this.  You may not have complete resonance when you are singing at first if your body is not totally awake so take it easy.  Don’t push, let your voice come in naturally as your warm ups progress.  Do a nice slow long warm up if you can so that your voice really wakes up in a healthy non intrusive way.

11. Walk away and finish getting ready.  (That’s right, I didn’t say practice your music yet).  Give your voice a little time to settle down from the warm up while you are arranging your stuff, putting make up on, getting directions…whatever.

12. When everything is done and prepared sit down and practice your stuff. Make sure that you really sing through everything well so you don’t feel that you have loose ends on your way over to where you have to sing.  I always like to make sure that on my high notes I am warmed up higher than required of me that day so that if my voice settles by the time I have to sing, I have extended my range stretch in the practice past the point necessary.  This helps me to feel more confident when I walk in to sing.

Do not over sing or strain.  This is not the time to practice new exercises, and repertoire, range broadening, or stamina building.  You need to save to good stuff for your actual performance.

13. After you practice.  Be quiet.  Go get yourself to where you are going.  Spend your time thinking about the words, staging, and rhythm on your drive or walk over.  Your body by now should be really warmed up.  Keep a warm drink with you for the event. I also like Glycine drops to help keep the voice moist.

14.  Once you arrive and before you actually begin singing, do a few breathing exercises, stretches, and something physical such as jogging in place for a minute or two to prep the body for your sing.

15. Don’t forget to bring in an excellent attitude even though it is early morning.  Say your good mornings with a smile, everyone is suffering with the call time, be the one to help people through it rather than the one complaining about it.  Everybody will appreciate your good energy.

Happy singing!

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!)

I was listening to a live version from the Doors song recently on a classic rock station which was awesome. The concept and beauty of “singing live” really hit me.  Almost everything we ever hear on the radio today has been manufactured to a point.  Of course we all know about auto tune, but I am speaking about great singers as well.  Recordings usually are made in sections in a studio.  You punch in different lines as you sing them well and swap out weaker takes until you get your “best performance”.  Thus you have your recording that we buy and think you sound like all the time.

That is a tough reality when you hear certain bands play live… like on American idol, or Saturday Night Live.

Perfecting your sound in a recording studio is fabulous, but I find something incredibly charming about the imperfect yet good recording as well.  I love to hear the true singer, the breaths, the swallows, the stronger notes the risk.  There is no risk in a studio recording.  It’s just something for you to think about in your upcoming vocal prep.

Can you do your performance in one take?  If you are singing on stage you will have to, that is what you need to aspire to.  Being good every time, saving a performance from a tricky spot and salvaging it every time.

Why don’t you start recording yourself audio and or video and force yourself to do complete takes of your songs Without restarting.  And then sit back and watch or listen to the whole thing. How good can you get it?  And if you struggle with a passage, how well can you get out of it while remaining focused. Concentrate in assessing your overall performance of a piece rather then each note.

If you’d like, after you have these recordings, send one in for a Vocal Assessment to find out what I think!

Don’t depend on your recording studio to make you great.

It is a great thing for us singers to be able to use today’s modern recording studios for the “ultimate” recording.   But on an everyday level start to think in terms of a full song performance. Divide your practice time like so:

1.  Warm up (Voice Lessons To GO is an excellent resource for that ,

2. Take your songs apart in sections to practice things that need work,

3. Finally practice FULL RUNS (no stopping) of songs.

You can’t stop on stage and take a part over just because you didn’t get the perfect connection, so learn how to sing through your imperfect moments while still giving an overall great performance.

The key is a good performance, not a perfect sound.  It is a wonderful thing to aspire to perfect singing, but it is not realistic.  Don’t get caught up in perfection.

Sing Live as much as you can!

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.

Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

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