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

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Hi everyone,

I was interviewed last week on my thoughts about children’s voices, music education, and my new Voice Lessons To Go for Kids! CD.

- Fun for me!

Here’s the link.  It’s under 10 minutes: (Please ignore how the host says my name!!)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/connectingwomen/2011/04/08/connecting-women

Ariella Vaccarino

No matter how hard you train and prepare, the one factor that you cannot totally control in your singing is your health.  I’m writing this today sick in bed with bronchitis and laryngitis- lovely.  All my students had to be cancelled this week, there is no singing for me, not to mention my energy level… blahh.

My brain is still working though…since it is not quite a head cold, so  I am able to write about it .

This moment reminds me of the MANY times in my life when my health has failed me during a crucial singing moment and all the emotions and pressures that came with those times.  I know I have blogged about these types of things before, but it is a huge part of a singer’s world, psyche, and life.  -And it can be very frustrating if not crazy making.

Since I am not due to be recording or preforming this week, all it is costing me is quite a bit of  my income from my teaching. (Which can be problematic as well- but definitely much more tolerable than dealing with missing important performances or performing mediocre or even badly when the show must go on.)

It really is just something that happens.  For singers, more than any other artist, I believe it is the most difficult, since our performing is a direct result of what is happening in our throats and bodies.

All I can say to this is it is a part of our lives as singers.  We can do our best to stay healthy, save our voices, not yell, use humidifiers, stay hydrated, wash our hands, and stay out of crowds.  But the truth is, sometimes we will just get sick.  And maybe once a year we may just not be able to sing well for a week or two.

Rather than live crazed about this, my advice to all is just to learn to live with it.  Directors, composers, and producers also get sick.  Audiences get sick. They all need to accept that we are not super human.  Sometimes we have to cancel, step out, or just say no.  Do it respectfully, and hopefully not too often, and let it go.  Don’t spend your time feeling guilty or pressured by it.  It is part of what you signed up for – using your body for  a career.  And it is a risk that anyone who hires you has to take.  That is why they invented the understudy.

There will be moments that are crucial that your voice will just not be there for you in life.  And it will be very hard to accept.  But it is all a part of the journey.  Whether it is  a MET final, an American Idol performance, or your senior recital, there are always health risks that can be devastating in a moment of opportunity.

The odds are always in your favor though.  We tend to be healthy most of the time.  Enjoy those moments and sing gloriously through them.

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!)

You are first to know. (I haven’t even begun PR or called any stores)…

I am extremely thrilled to be announcing the release of my new Voice Lessons To Go CD:

Voice Lessons To Go for KIDS!- v.1- Sing Out Proud!

It is such an incredible feeling to have these CDS in my hand.  It has been a project I have wanted to do now for a long time.

I have been working with kids for 18 years now and have developed a singing program on this CD that is designed to develop a young singers voice and musical interests, through healthy vocal warm-ups, singing advice, and musical enrichment ,while being both educational and fun.

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!)

There are a few vital seconds at an audition that have nothing to do with your singing voice.  That is your entrance and introduction.  Often times there is room for a small bit of banter before you start to sing – make it count, really show up for it and shine.

American Idol is a great resource for watching the audition process. You will find that often you will like the person before they start singing and be rooting for them to be good if they have a good personality. – Remember the judges are feeling the same way.  If they like you, they will want you to be good.  Therefore, they may be a bit more forgiving and open to your audition.

There are very fine lines between impressions that a singer can give.  Confidence verses cocky.  Humble verses shameful. Fun verses loony.

You want to set a good positive lasting impression of yourself, but you can’t force or push it onto the judges.  They need to find and discover how great you are from your entrance and introduction.  So watch some auditions and learn the difference between things like; what is annoying and what is funny, or what is remarkable and what is forgettable.

Watch some singers and then see who sticks out in your mind both good and bad.  Learn from it.  It is such a fabulous resource.

You want to walk in and give the judges an honest look at the best you.

This is all before you open your mouth to sing…

Ahh the psychology behind singing!!!

Ariella Vaccarino (The voice teacher who spent many uncomfortable years auditioning too!)

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!)

I am regularly receiving questions from singers regarding the subject of vibrato; people wanting to change theirs, add more, make it less, etc…
So, I thought it would be good to write a blog on vibrato to address some of these issues.

First of all, what is vibrato?

“Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterized in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation (“extent of vibrato”) and speed with which the pitch is varied (“rate of vibrato”)^[1].”- from Wikipedia

Please read the full explanation on vibrato from Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato.

Your vibrato is a direct result of the release of tension in your voice.  If your voice is free of muscular tension, you should have a natural lovely vibrato, not too strong or too slight.  Vocal tension though, can cause your vibrato to be off in two extremes: out of control fast and heavy, which can lead to a warbled pitch or a speedy flutter, or sometimes when pressing on the larynx unnaturally, your vibrato can be stifled and repressed causing a straight, often flat, tone.

Good healthy singing is what you as a singer need to focus on.  As a result you will find your natural vibrato.

There are different styles that then lend themselves to varying degrees of vibrato as well.  On one end of the spectrum is early music classical singing.  In this style, very little vibrato is preferred, and singers sing it with a straighter tone, which they manipulate to do so.  On the other hand, in Romantic Opera the vibrato is rampate, but hopefully not overpowering.  Both of these sounds can be effected or manipulated, but it is ideal to sing the style in which your voice naturally lends itself so that your voice remains healthy and pliable.  So for example if you are born with a naturally straight-ish vibrato, Verdi may not be for you.

I often have people writing me asking me how their vibrato can be like some other voices that they like.

Everyone has their own natural healthy vibrato.  To sing like someone else would not be healthy for you.  You, of course, can mimic another sound, but that is a skill of impersonation as opposed to great singing.

Sing well, sing true!

Ariella Vaccarino

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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!)