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

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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

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 bookmarking 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!)

I was thrown into an improvisatory singing situation last week that I was not prepared for, or familiar with.

A friend of mine surprised a group of us last week with a drum circle.  We were all there to celebrate her birthday and she had hired these women to come in with lots of drums for us to play together. How neat…

It was of course very interesting.  I was enjoying being a part of this circle and looking forward to the leaders she hired running it, but they were not singers.  I guess in a drum circle it is the time in which to have someone lead chants and singing while everyone drums.

So my friend, the birthday girl, said to me in the middle of the beat, “You sing Ariella, you lead us”.  (Of course this opera-singing voice teacher was totally trained to pull out an American-Indian style chant to lead in front of 10 women hat she did not know, right…? ha ha)

So as I always try to sing when asked, I did, (not warmed up or prepared in any way).

It was very uncomfortable for me.  First of all I had to lead all these women in a “repeat after me type of thing”, so I started with some “tribally” chest voice sounds.  I was completely out of my element and extremely uncomfortable with the imposed improv.  Everyone was relieved that I was doing it (since no one else wanted to).  I personally had not improvised melody in front of people like that for MANY years and was quite jarred by the experience.

So then I stopped at some point and we kept on drumming.  I was hoping someone would take over, but no one did.  So we kept drumming and it became clear to me that I should continue with my leading.  This time, I dropped the whole repeat after me concept and went into my head voice where I am most comfortable and just improvised melody- still “a la” tribal/opera (if there is such a thing).

I really sang out, sang high, and improvised right in front of all these women.

Needless to say it was quite an experience for me.

Kind of horrible, but invigorating as well.

What was horrible about it was that I was not AT ALL in my comfort zone and felt a lot of pressure.  The improviser in me, who was quite free in her guitar playing high school days, was all pent up.  I knew I had the ability to really let go and have a spiritually freeing musical experience, but I had to fight a huge battle within myself to get through it and look casual doing so.

The invigorating thing about it was that I let go.  I felt like a linebacker running through the pack, but I did it.  I got that voice out and free.

I’m not sure if I felt sick, or charged after all of it.  But what I do know is that in music as singers, we don’t always have opportunities to be creative. (If you are writing your own songs for a band it is one thing), but if you are singing opera or musical theater, you cannot often just break out into your own melody on stage as you feel it.  It is really a wonderful thing to get to do when you are tapped into it on a regular basis.  It takes a lot of trust.

I invite you to try some improv for fun, or for some challenge.  It helps to free you no matter if you enjoy the process or not.  Whether it be singing or even acting.  I can only imagine how good it is for your brain to be “in the grey”, (as they used to call it in my comic, improv days).

And no matter what it will help you on stage, because unplanned things always happen.  And you need to react appropriately to them.

It was good for me in an awful way, that drum circle.

Ah, the life of a singer.

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 bookmarking 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!)

I just finished teaching a full day of students.  Today I had a few Group Sing classes which are composed of a lot of young little singers full of energy and very important things to say (so cute).  The classes are in the late afternoons and sometimes after I teach them, my voice hurts.

Yes, me the voice teacher, creator of Voice Lessons To Go, can strain her voice from time to time too .

On the other hand, my voice does not hurt when I properly warm-up before the teaching begins, even if I sing hours before.

I can’t tell you the difference it makes between warming-up my own voice before I teach the class and teaching the class on a cold voice.  When I warm my voice up in the morning, it is set up to speak correctly for the whole day.  Whether I am teaching groups of 5 year olds or speaking on the telephone.

At the end of a working day, when I have properly warmed- up my voice feels good, when I haven’t it feels tired and out of whack.  Sometimes this vocal fatigue can lead into the next day as well, messing up a singing day.  The more often I have a tired voice day, the longer it takes to recover.  When your voice is fatigued from an event and then you have sing on it you can cause damage- something none of us want.

Sometimes, even I forget, or do not make the time, to warm-up in the morning, and I pay the price for it.  I think teaching groups of people is one of the hardest things on your voice, especially when they can be a chatty bunch.  I taught in a classroom for many years and found the same thing to be true; I needed to warm-up my voice to get through the class without over-taxing my vocal chords.

Look at it as a positive, the more often you warm-up and train your singing voice, the better shape it will be in for everything as well as singing.

Your singing warm-up will be of great benefit to your speaking voice. Remember they use the same larynx, chords, and muscle support to use them correctly.  If you are going to be speaking, do yourself a favor and vocalize beforehand.

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 bookmarking 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!)

I DO really enjoy Glee.  It can be over the top sometimes, but it is fun and filled with some great singing.  But this “pitch perfect/auto- tune“ thing where they run all the voices through a digital processor so that the pitch comes out perfect….yuck.

What is so annoying to me is that they are using it on good voices.  So, you are listening to an altered great voice.  Which is so UNnecessary in my opinion.  I enjoy the excitement of the raw REAL voice.  There is something about it that puts you on the edge of your seat.  (That is why American Idol gets so many viewers).

Once you feel the computer digitally helping the voice along, the excitement is taken away.  Yes, the show is enjoyable but the singing could be so much more if it sounded real.

I don’t know why everything has to sound perfect and the same.  When you do that, everything becomes generic to the ear.  From the bad to the great.  Put it all through a pitch perfect program and they all start to match. Making everything a little “vanilla” for my ear.

I get it if they need to use it occasionally to get someone like the character Sue Sylvester through a Madonna piece in order to follow a story line on a show;  no one really expects her to have a great voice anyway.  But honestly, I would have enjoyed her performance of Vogue much more if it was Not so enhanced.  She plays a Comic character on the show, not a Broadway singer, so she could have done her best with her real voice, if it was horrible, it could have added to the moment for her character.

So take a risk Glee and put some bad singing on your show from appropriate characters.  If you want great singing for a role or story line then CAST A GREAT Singer!- and let us hear them in “THE RAW”.  That is what it’s about isn’t it? Their talent?

This auto-tune/pitch perfect process that they put the voices through is essentially like airbrushing a model’s wrinkles for a magazine.  After a while, you can’t tell one model from another.  The same thing is happening to the vocal performances on the show.

They have some phenomenal singers on that show such as the characters of Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones.  I want to hear all of their voice not just what they let us hear.

Just sayin’….

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 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 is so easy for us when we are feeling yucky, to speak poorly.  Our throats hurt, we are congested, our chords might be a bit swollen,  so it really feels so natural for us to speak “heavy and sick sounding”.  I say nay!

When you are sick you need to make the opposite effort with your speaking voice than what feels natural.  Don’t let your voice give in to the sick,  ”lazy speak” that you would like to do.  Force yourself rather to speak “over” the cold, gently, and without any pushing, pressing, or sitting on the vocal chords.  Keep everything light in your sound.

The reason to do this is for a speedier recovery once you start feeling better.  The more you push down into that sick sound, the further you will swell those vocal chords creating an even longer amount of time until your voice is working sweetly for you again.

I am not saying that you can prevent yourself from sounding sick when you are sick, just don’t play into it and add onto it.  Keep your voice in a “healthy-speak” mode even if you have tissues stuffed in your nose.

And if it is hard for you to speak correctly, then really try to minimize your speaking until your voice improves.

The more you speak on swollen chords, the longer they will take to heal.

This blog is being written by me 3 days in to a cold.  I caught myself day one speaking with a really sick sound.  It gets more sympathy of course, and I felt terrible so I was inclined to speak awfully.  I realized I was doing it and was easily able to make a shift to speak in a higher, lighter spot.  I sounded healthier instantly and helped minimize the damage.

This particular cold has not gone into my voice, and I am pretty sure that by tomorrow I will be back up and running vocally.  If I had not shifted my speaking on that first day of being sick, my voice certainly would be feeling the effects for at least a few more days.

You  can not prevent hoarseness every time you are sick, but sometimes… you can .

This is something that we have to remind ourselves to do.  You never know when you are going to get that singing opportunity, so you must always be thinking about how you can cut down on your singing downtime, even if it only saves you a day.  That could be the day when you get called for a great recording, or audition!

Here’s to your health!

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!)