Ariella's Vocal Notes - Blog

Even I, the creator of Voice Lessons To Go, struggle to warm up my voice on a regular basis and find myself getting out of singing shape. There is so much else I have to be doing!

I need to "push myself" to get through my singing warm ups when I don't have performances coming up. It's so easy to just let it all go.
I know that I want to be in pristine vocal shape and it will only happen if I train regularly.

I am sure we all have those days where we just don't feel like "singing training" ourselves. Video 1 below is just about that.

It includes a solid simple 15 minute vocal warm up.

I hope you enjoy it!

Ariella Vaccarino

As we ease back into this new year, I decided to post a more gentle vocal exercise video to start us off. When singing these "ZZZ vocalizes" make sure that your throat stays relaxed. Put your focus and energy on the tip of your tongue and front of your teeth while completely disconnecting all stress from your larynx.

Remember your body should always be engaged and strong, but the throat needs to be free. When you do these "ZZZ exercises" correctly you will feel a sense of calm and release in your larynx. Your speaking voice should also gain some luster as the muscles are disconnected from strain.

On this week's new video, Ep.1 Mini Singing Lesson- Ma, Me,Mi,Mo, Moo & We, I teach and sing through 5 different vocalizes for your singing singwarm up focusing on the sounds, "Ma, Me, Mi, Mo and Mo".
I also does a few vocal exercises on the syllable "We".
Practice using your chest voice and head voice switching where comfortable. Everyone's voice is different.

I found myself with 15 minutes waiting in my car for my son and it sparked the idea for this week's singing instruction video. We don't always have the luxury of an hour or more to properly warm up our singing voices. There are ways to get our vocal warm up going even when we only have a few minutes in between things.

This video talks about the importance of using small amounts of time towards your singing training and shows you examples of some different ways you can warm up with 15, 10 or even 5 minutes of free time.

I've been busy this past week doing a lot of filming and trying to learn about different social media platforms to release my weekly videos. It is A LOT TO LEARN!

It reminds me of singing though....we work as singers alone for countless hours for any opportunities to perform.

That is how I feel with my new endeavor that I am sharing with you every week. I am spending a lot of time at my computer these days trying to figure this all out. I will take all help!! :)

FYI- (Any shares, likes, comments you leave me directly on my YouTube videos help to boost their ranking which helps it to be suggested to people in their search.)

This week's mini singing lesson video works on humming for your singing w...

I'm sure we all have days when we destroy our voice over things; Yelling at games, stress with your family, talking over loud noise, or over singing.

Well, I seemed to be completely vocally out of wack by 7:45 a.m. the other morning.

I had a rough morning "pushing" my kids out to school, (I have 5 of them...).
It was just rougher than usually and I ended up using a lot of "chesty" yelling sounds to actually get it done.

I was super frustrated at the situation and also, mad at myself for letting all that tension go STRAIGHT INTO MY LARYNX.

Rather than pity myself, I decided to get productive and make a video about what to do when your voice feels the way mine was feeling at that moment. I made a C...

In this weeks mini lesson video I break down a longer vocalize, using 4 singing warm-ups from my v.1, Vocalize and Breath CD. I also offer both slower and faster tempi on each exercise. It is important to break down a longer-patterned singing exercise at first into parts if you are struggling to learn it. That also applies to learning any type of run in singing. This video will also just get you on the way to a good vocal warm-up.

Here is this week's video:

(This week I pull 4 exercises from my v.1 CD, Vocalize and Breath and play them straight out of my Book, Vocalize! on the piano for the video. I use them...

New Video! Tricking your singing voice into a great vocal warm-up

Tricking your singing voice with alternating vocal exercise warm-ups for results.

This week on our mini video voice lesson, I am pulling some vocal exercises from my Volume 3 CD, Pure Vowels, and changing them up to trick your muscles so that they don’t have time to set and hold while you sing.

In my own singing warm-up I often vary simple singing exercises with direction, tempi, vowels and syllables. The minute an exercise does not seem to be working for me I change it up. Often times I go back to it after I have “pushed through some walls” using other approaches.

Click to watch this weeks video. Post any questi...

The "chest voice", is the voice of today.- it's on the radio, in your modern tv movie musicals, and on every Variety Show on Television. I myself being a trained opera singer with an extremely developed head voice, want you to learn how to train your WHOLE voice of course..., but I will start with some simple chest voice exercises to get you going. :)

I can not deny the popularity of the chest voice today. Many of my incredible students mainly use their chest voice for their singing careers.

I break down the exercises so they are easy to do. Then I play with the tempo to show the value of varying the speed of your singing vocal warm-up.

I like to think of this time of year with school starting ...

Lip trills, sound and look funny for sure, but they are a great tool in your vocal warm-up so don't shy away from them.
Most singers can do them from the start, and others have to work a little harder to get them right.
Also, they can be unpleasant because when done correctly they can itch your nose and lips a bit. They also make you look funny while you are doing them for sure!

To achieve an ongoing lip trill:
1. Put your lips together
2. Keep them feeling relaxed and almost heavy.
3. Release tone into them while you blow air.
4. Practice it a lot and you will get it.

Enjoy this video showing me teaching you 3 Lip Trill exercises.