The normal vocalize consists of one pattern on a specific vowel repeated up and down the scale again and again.  They each concentrate on different areas such as freeing certain vowel sounds, extending range, creating agility in the voice, etc… And that is fabulous; please continue to do those…

Something that I have included over the years, (being a voice teacher who is comfortable at the piano keyboard), in my own warm ups and for my students is alternating the patterns of my vocalizes unpredictably throughout an exercise.  I find that I tend to do this in my warm up when I, or my students, are feeling stuck muscularly.

I have had a lot of success with this strategy of freeing the voice and sound, since the muscles are not sure what to prep, or create tension for.  The quick changing unpredicatable patterns help to sneak a way through some doors of resonance when a singer is feeling blocked.

Here is the link to a YouTube video I made showing you how to do this trick!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyf2tSKfnUQ

Use it during your warm ups when you are struggling to break through to your freest singing voice.

Sing well!

Ariella Vaccarino

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

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I had to have an MRI recently (for my knee) and found myself with 50 minutes to do nothing. (This is a rare thing in my extremely hectic life). I couldn’t move for 50 whole minutes. Had no one to talk to, couldn’t surf the web. Nothing. It was kind of stressful at first. What was I going to do with myself for all of that nonconstructive time?

So I began to concentrate on my breathing. Deep, slow, low breaths while I lay there.  Since everything was so still around me, I had a lot of time to concentrate on exactly what was happening in every breath. From the first to the tenth breaths I completely opened up my breathing, accessing new, deep muscles and released just by concentrating on releasing and unlocking.   And it only took a couple of focused minutes.

Once I found that breath, I was able to access it each time easily.  But I had to make a conscious effort to find the breath in the first place.  I had been laying there a long while before I began this breathing thing, and my breath the whole time was extremely limited in resonance capacity because I hadn’t alerted the right muscles.

I highly recommend adding this to you daily routine. Do it in the morning before you are officially out of bed: 10 slow deep breaths. Concentrate on opening your back, and having your lower tummy raise naturally by the breath intake. These are not shallow breaths that raise the chest, maybe your first couple will be, but think low release and watch how quickly each breath becomes more engaged and connected to your abdominal wall, lower diaphragm, and back muscles. Once your belly is rising and your ribs are expanding you’ve found your proper breath.

To go further, I have a great set of breathing exercises on my first volume of Voice Lessons To Go Vocalize and Breath.  These are extremely thorough and a wonderful work out which I highly recommend beyond the morning breaths to develop stamina, support, and capacity.  But, the morning breaths are a great way for a singer to start their day, by making them aware of their breathing mechanism and setting a productive singing mind set.–of course I couldn’t just lay there for 50 minutes…:)

Ariella (temporarily on crutches, but still thinking about healthy singing!!)

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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

Probably the number one topic I am asked about on the technique of singing has to do with bridging the chest voice to the head voice, hiding the break, and creating one voice.

Depending on your vocal style and your individual voice, you will tend to sing in either more  of your head voice or chest voice.  Head lends itself to more of a classical sound while chest is more pop.  Musical theater can land somewhere in the middle.  But no matter what, as a singer, you will be challenged to access the full pitch range that your larynx possesses.

The following exercise, that I have up on my YourTube channel, practices just this issue; taking your voice from the bottom to the top while evening out the break in the passaggio, between head and chest voices.

Add this vocal exercise to your daily regimen.

http://www.youtube.com/user/VoiceLessonsToGo?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/NGqZmzX04O4

Smooth singing to you!

Ariella Vaccarino

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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Last week, I posted and blogged about the importance of singing a quick moving vocalize in your warm-up.

Another type of exercise that you should consider adding to your regular warm up routine is one that works on sustained exposed singing.

A sustained singing warm-up is the type of exercise that you need to do slowly and properly.  Sing through this exercise smoothly and supported up to the high note and hold.  As you raise your pitch, go down in your body for maximum support.  Never feel that your larynx is rising for you to reach the higher notes; rather anchor down into your abdominal wall for support.

Here’s a link to the video I made for this sustained vocalize on YouTube:  Sing away to it !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocgTI1OF6xU

Sing well!

Ariella Vaccarino

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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

The vocal warm up process is the root and building block to healthy singing.  During your warm up there are many different aspects of singing that you can focus and improve upon.  Let’s start with the importance of a quick moving vocalize for this blog, there will be some other types to follow.

Quick singing is definitely an exercise you should include in your vocal warm-up regiment. The reason for a quick moving vocalize is to gain agility and flexibility in your singing voice.  You can’t sing runs without that.  The other benefit of moving your voice quickly is to run your voice faster than your muscles or mind can catch up, in order to bypass the tension that can grip from tongue, jaw, and throat muscles.

Here is the link to a new video that I have made of an exercise addressing the importance of a quick vocal warm up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak5NFqgbMqU

Please remember to add something like it to your vocal routine.

Sing well!

Ariella Vaccarino

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

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 I am in a position to hear many types of singing voices.  I teach group singing lessons to children  along with my private teaching, and it has given me a really interesting insight to the voice and pitch.

When someone comes to me privately for lessons, they are usually at a point in their life where they know their voice, their talents, their issues etc…  Private voice lessons are expensive, so I usually get two different types of students.  Those who love to sing and have a talent for it, and those who know they have difficulties with singing and are looking to improve their own voice so that they fit in more with the singers around them.  In general these are the two types that “fork out” the time and money to take  lessons privately with me.  Those who are not pursuing a career but sing well often don’t tend to show up at my door, they are more apt to buy my Voice Lessons To Go CDs since the time and expense of private lessons is so much more of an investment.

With the group singing lessons for kids, I offer them at a much lower rate since they are shared with many children.  My goal for these classes was to make singing and music education available to any child interested, (since music education in our public schools is, sadly, so limited).

What I am privy to hear as a result of these classes that I give, is a lot of young children who don’t know yet whether they are singers, talented, average, or pitch challenged.  Their parents also often do not know.  These kids just sing.

So I find myself faced with more pitch, confidence, and volume issues than ever.

Regarding the pitch:  I am finding that there are a few different types of issues.  There are those kids, people, who really cannot sing on pitch.  They can’t hear the melody period.  Whether they love to sing or not.  These singers usually do NOT know that they are not singing in tune.  These singers, I find, tend to be in the smallest group.

The other type I am finding is the singer who does not sing on pitch but they CAN be trained to do so.  Often times, it requires slowing them down and forcing them (kindly of course), to pay attention to the pitch.  This is often the first time they do so.  When I rein these particular singers in giving them specific pitch matching exercises, they improve remarkably fast.  It is like they just never realized they needed to listen and match anything to their own voices.

I find it extremely exciting as a voice teacher to help these young singers find their way on to the melody before they get themselves into years of criticism from others.  Here are a few exercises to practice finding a pitch center:

1. Play one note on the piano; sing it back on “La”.  Keep changing the notes.  Sometimes it requires someone singing the note to you properly for you to find it.  It is interesting to see how some singers can hear and mimic my voice but not the piano.  This too is something that they can train themselves to overcome in time.

2.  Play two random notes on the piano and sing them back.  Then try three note patterns etc…  Keep changing the note sequences.  Do this slowly to make sure you are hitting every note involved.

3.  Practice singing a Major scale up the piano.  I have a YouTube video showing you how to do this.  Take the notes up slowly.  Match to the center of each tone.  Remember the goal of this exercise is to sing correct pitch, so go slow and listen.

Here’s the link to my You Tube Video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/VoiceLessonsToGo?feature=mhum#p/u/0/aY804n86tNA

What I love about getting these singers at such a young age is that I have an opportunity to put them on the right road for a lifetime of singing filled with confidence.  Sometimes it just requires a teacher showing you the way for you take the path on your own.  The more correct encouragement you get to sing properly and in-tune at a young age, the more apt you will be to continue healthy singing your whole life.

If you are struggling with pitch, or know someone who is, take a few weeks to work on it.  If you are improving, then you can turn it around.

Sing well, and in tune!

Ariella Vaccarino

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my weekly podcasts on iTunes:

My itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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

It just takes one note.  One glimpse into what can be…

As a voice teacher it is my job to “unlock what you bestow within your larynx”… a pretty intense responsibility.

Sometimes being a voice teacher is like mining for gold.  Some students come to me and their voices are out and obvious, they just need polishing, refining etc…  And sometimes I have students who walk in with their voices literally all covered up by muscle tension and I have to peel back the layers of tension to get to their “real voice”.

I like to call these students my onions, (the whole peeling the layers back to get to the source thing ).

And just sometimes, I find a gem in that onion (larynx) that is incredible .

I am inspired to write this by a new student that I have been working with.  We started off with her vocalizng with me and it did not go well, her sound was not coming out, it was so held, forced,and pushed.

Then she picked up her guitar and sang me a song…

I have my students  do this for me, especially my new ones, because vocalizing can be so foreign and may not reflect their “true singing voice” at first since they don’t know how to connect to it.

So, she began to sing me a song, and boom this gorgeous, and I mean incredible sounding note came out of her.  Most of the rest of the song was held  and tight, but every once and a while she would release an incredible sound.  I would say- 10% of the song showed off her talent.

But that is enough for me, one great note.  If I can hear it once, it doesn’t matter what it took to get there, I know that I will have enought to build a whole voice off. By finding what worked on that note and recreating it over and over through proper vocal exercises and building it out like a wall one brick, (or note), at a time soon a full voice can be strewn together.

For me as a voice teacher it is a very exciting to find that one note in a student.  It is like “Aha” the challange is upon you.

The single note is like a door to the voice.  If you can find your way in though it, then you can find your way in again, and for a longer path each time.

Her second lesson all ready was a huge improvement because I knew just where to take her right from the beginning, and we began building and stretching upon that healthy resonate tone.

She was so thrilled to be able to have more control over recreating a great sound.  Sometimes, it just takes one break through to change the whole voice.

It was a satisfying teaching experience that hour, needless to say.  Mid-lesson I had to break a moment to take notes for this future blog- a bit “crazy mad- scientist ” of me I know, but you never know when the inspiration will come.  Thank you Brandy for the inspiration, here’s to releasing all of your sound.

So, the good news is if you can find an incredible sound somewhere in your voice, that means you HAVE a voice in there worth spending the time and effort to develop.

Happy peeling!

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YOUTUBE Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my Weekly Podcasts on Itunes:

My Itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YOUTUBE Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my Weekly Podcasts on Itunes:

My Itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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

During a performance is not the time to be doing a playback in your head of every step you are taking both good and bad.  While performing it is your job as a singer to be in the moment, not judging the moment.

You can always record yourself and sit down and do a good judge later, and I highly do recommend that. (Sit and watch or listen, use your teachers ears, or use my ears for feedback-AFTER the performance.)

You can actually see singers judge themselves on stage.  They are listening rather than emoting and being.  Don’t be caught doing that because it is obvious to the audience and will pull them out of your performance.

Singing is such a leap to experience anyway  for the audience, watching someone standing and singing words for 3 minutes is odd if you think about it.  And that is the key, you don’t want to let the audience have a moment to think about it.  They need to experience the moment just as you are experiencing it.

If you are real and in it, they will be.

So you can’t stop and judge because then we loose the 100% commitment.  We we need nothing less than full commitment of you the singet in the audience to remove ourselves from the strangeness of the singing phenomenon so we can enjoy it for what it is.

Use your time warming up and practicing at your piano or in your room to analyze your every note.  Let your teacher give you critique during lessons.  Use my Vocal Assessment service if you would like to get feedback on what you should be working on from me.

But after that.  When the performance time comes whether it be an audtition or for an audience let go of ALL judgement and just sing the thing. You will be SO MUCH BETTER AND PROFESSIONAL FOR IT!

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YOUTUBE Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my Weekly Podcasts on Itunes:

My Itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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Podcast number four is now up on itunes!  Can anyone improve their voice?  Of course I say yes! My podcast will give you  10 areas for you to work on to improve your voice.  This was inspired from an older blog of mine that you may have read.

clink here: to link to the podcast site.

or

click here: to go directly to the podcast through its  Itunes page.  Oh, and while you are there, please write a fabulous review on my itnes page.  it will help me be more “searchable”.

Sing well!

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.

Check out my instructional videos on my YOUTUBE Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/voicelessonstogo

Listen to my Weekly Podcasts on Itunes:

My Itunes Podcast

Friend me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:

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