I am inspired.  Jacob Lusk from American Idol sings soooo good.  What is so great about him?  You may be listening and know how his voice makes you feel, but technically, why is he so good?

Simply put, he sings in the perfect “pocket”.

As a voice teacher, I can tell you that what he is doing is anchoring his voice to the bottom of his range (which is fabulously low) and stretching up from there.  He never loses that anchor, and that is why his voice is so thrilling.   You do not lose the bottom of his sounds, even in a high note.  And as he goes higher, rather than reaching or lifting up in his larynx and body, he just stays grounded and opens up more doors of resonance and sound.

Jacob Lusk knows how to access his sound using his body and he does not get in the way of it.

It is like we are born with trap doors in front of all our resonating areas.  When we sing we are constantly doing vocalizes and visualizations to unlock and remove these doors to free our sound.  You cannot push through these doors or you will encounter muscular tension.

The resonators are in different places, your chest- the back of your head and neck, the front of you face near your eyes, and the top of your head to name a few.

Jacob Lusk has the ability to hold on to an open chest resonation as he opens more and more doors of resonance as the pitch rises.

As a human being who’s just listening to him sing,  I hear that he opens his mouth, gets out of the way and just lets the music flow through him.  Some may say, “divinely”.  He is in the raw, which is so exciting to listen to and travel the vocal journey with.  His voice rides a wave of free sound.

Here’s the link to hear his performance of “A House is Not a Home”

http://www.americanidol.com/videos/season_10/performances/jacob_lusk_a_house_is_not_a_home/

Just lovely.  You sing it Jacob Lusk!

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!)

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!)

What about a great high note makes us so crazed?  The anticipation of it, the singing of it on point, and then the release of it done well?  I think it is all three and  it is quite a thrill.  I myself being the highest type of singer, an Operatic Soprano (called a coloratura), know this subject personally.

As a singer of those notes I will say, they are quite a thrill to sing as well, even though the pressure for perfection is strong from your listeners and there are never any guarantees.  That is probably why it is so thrilling to listen to- there is such risk to it all.

When done correctly you really get a whole body connection like no other moment in a piece, as you use your body as a vessel for an incredible note to beam out, whether you are belting chest voice or a classical singer hitting a high F.

But high notes need to be sung well or they are just miserable to listen to!  Last thing we want is to hear or see any straining on a singer that is going for the golden notes.  If when singing them you feel your larynx raising up in your throat to do so, you are not going about it correctly or healthily.

There are definitely things you can do as a singer to minimize the risk of failing at your high notes.  On singing a good high note, your body needs to lock down deep- feet, legs, and abdomin to support your vocal chords. The more powerful and alert your body the freer your sound will be.

We also need to access the resonators in our forhead, top of our head, and back of our head.  In other words, imagine that there is space all around your head that you need to be creating so that the sound can bouce into and off of it.  You don’t want to listen to a note and feel you are at the “top” of it.  Rather, you should feel like there is more room for the next note up to come.   When it is totally working for me on a piece like Queen of the Night, I feel like I can’t even tell which way the sound is coming out of my head.  Like I am singing backwards forward, and all around myself.

So think of the above combination for you high note success- grounded body and sound, tension free larxnx, and space to resonate all around your head.  When you find that “pocket” like Adam Lambert, Freddie Mercury, and Joan Sutherland, or Luciano Pavarotti- you are in high note bliss for yourself and your audience.

Remember good singing is about letting your sound release not pushing your sound out- especially on a high note.

*Big recommendation though, until you sort this out for yourself, don’t attempt the big high notes in public.  When done wrong, people can be really unforgiving!

Here are some high notes to listen to:

Pavarotti- lay down in heaven for this one.  Whether you like Opera or not, his last few notes are going to make your hair raise and your eyes well!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VATmgtmR5o4

Siobhan Magnus:  The crazy note is about 1:20 into this one and is ridiculous!! (in the best way)                                                                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1nK-W0Da0

Adam Lambert:  Thank you to whom ever put this clip together couldn’t be a better example (I’ve already written by Vocal God blog on him:            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkwJURnVGxo

Happy Listening!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want to receive immediate feedback on how you are singing from me?  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 advice right away.

Follow me on twitter:http://www.twitter.com/singingvltg

Just a quick reminder to all my football fans out there.  If you are interested in singing, then you need to think about protecting your voice.  That means all the time, even during your favorite Super Bowl party.  And if by any chance you actually have tickets to the event, amazing, but you are in triple vocal danger from the average party goer.

In general if you are at a super bowl party, just watch the screaming.  Make sure you are supporting your voice at all times from your diaphragm even during the craziest play.

Yelling or talking over a crowd to be heard is really one of the worst things you can do for your voice.  It completely knocks your voice out of wack and swells your chords.  Don’t try and yell over people to be heard.  Either wait for a quiet moment to speak, or speak at a normal volume closer to someone, instead of across the room.  Also, seriously, why not warm up your voice,  www.voicelessonstogo.com, before you go so that you are in a good spot vocally when you get there.

This advice is even more important if you have a singing gig coming up.  Your voice will recover from the event within a few days, but if you have some big singing to do afterwards, you could start the beginings of a bad problem.  If your chords are swollen and you sing on them you will use your throat muscles more than normally and create more swelling, maybe even vocal noduals.  So be careful.

Support with your voice when you show your team support singers!

A friendly reminder from:

Ariella Vaccarino- creator of of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on Cd), and author of Vocalize!

www.voicelessonstogo.com

Need a professional opinion of your voice BEFORE your next audition, or just curious how you measure up in the singing world? Sign up for Vocal Assessment on my site- you send me a link or mp3 of your voice with your questions and I get back to you with a professional opinion right away.

Follow me on Twitter:  singingvltg

You may find as a singer, you tend to favor a particular vowel in your daily singing warm up routine.  Such as Ahh, or eee.  There is probably one or two of the vowels that seems to work best freeing your voice up the fastest so you use it all the time to get your voice into that good spot.  I definitly know that I do that.  Even me  ”the big voice teacher” favors an ee vowel, there, I said it!

When I was younger I used to favor the “Ahh”, but over the years have turned to the trusty “ee”.  Well, even I should be careful with this.  I have been singing through my book of vocalizes, “Vocalize!” these past few weeks to prepare my voice for an upcoming concert, and I have been forcing myself to “face all the vowels”.

My third volume of Voice Lessons To Go entitled Pure vowels is a great resource for developing all your vowels seperately.  I have been singing through all the exercises in volume 3 from start to finish and I have noticed such an improvement on every vowel.  The first day, my favorite vowel, “ee”, was great, but I wasn’t pleased with the placement of my “ey” or “i”.  But i kept doing it everyday.  Working with the sound, mouth positioning, placement in my resonance playing with the forms of the vowels, adding a little “aww” in my “ahh”, and everyday I noticed I was getting better faster.

The only way to improve your weaker vowels is to work on them, not run from them.  Always start with speaking the vowel to help you find the natural speech point to work from.  You want your singing to sound natural like extended speech. Make sure you practice warming up your singing voice on all the different vowels regularly.  You never know when you may be standing in an audition and be asked to site read a new piece on an “ahh”.  If you haven’t worked your “ahh” out you could be really uncomfortable.

Also, if you are not used to practicing all your vowels.  Don’t start just before a performance.  Do your regular warm ups before you have to sing so that you don’t throw off your voice by trying something different.  The time to work on this is a normal warm up.  Remember, on all my CDs for Voice Lessons To GO, you can always try different vowels with the piano accompaniment for variety.

Now, FACE ALL YOUR VOWELS SINGERS!

written by: Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons TO GO (singing lessons on CD), and author of Vocalize!

Need a professional opinion of your voice before your next audition?- Sign up for Vocal Assessment.  You send me a link or mp3 of your voice with your questions and I get right back to you with my Assessment!

As an American woman, I come from a group of people who speak a language with “lazy lips”.  I mean no critisism to my people when I say this, it is just a fact.    In general, Americans barely use their lips to aid in pronunciation when speaking.  Think about the French.  When you watch them speak their lips (mainly referring to the upper) are moving like crazy back and forth between their oohs like a little pucker, probably part of the reason we find the French irresistable when they do speak to us.

What they are doing is engaging the muscles on their upper lip to create a good diction.  As a result they develop the upper part of their musculature in their mouth and face.  Americans just don’t have this.  So as a singing exercise on your next vocal warmup, www.voicelessonstogo.com (my singing lessons CDs), I ask you to engage your upper lip.  Use it to come forward for your “ooh”.  This is a resource of strenth in your face that will help you in creating a rounder more flushed out sound in your vowels and ultimately your voice, giving more definition to each individual trait of each individual vowel.  I also find that it helps to get the sound out more “in front of your face”, and out of your throat.

Start off by exaggerating the whole process.  Sing though the exercises in a mirror and make sure your lips are moving to create the vowels.   Each vowel should have its own particular look.  Mimick the french in some fake french speak and see how it feels and looks.  Then try and transfer that same feeling into English.  Take note of each vowel and its shape in the mirror.  Find the shape in your face that creates the ultimate sounding version of each vowel.  Then put it into your Vocal exercises.  Exaggerate your lips at first singing a Vocalize that uses more than one vowel so that you can practice changing from one vowel to the other. This should really wake up your face and engage the musculature in your sound production.

Now I am in no way suggesting that you be making strange faces when singing through a song, just engage your upper lip.  Getting to that point though, after years of “lazy English speak”, may take some strange faces in the mirror to find it during your singing warm-ups!

Now think French and go use your upper lip!

written by:  Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go- singing lessons on CD, and author of Vocalize!

Need a professional ear to assess your Voice?-  sign up for a Vocal Assessment on my site www.voicelessonstogo.com- you send me your voice and questions, and I get back to you with my assessment and advice within the week!

www.voicelessonstogo.com

The Importance of being a physically fit singer.

While you all know the importance of healthy singing warm ups like Voice Lessons TO GO, and building stamina vocally in a regular practice schedule for your singing, it is also important to keep our bodies in good physical shape as singers.  This is for a variety of reasons:

1. The obvious, you will look better and be more attractive to people you want to be hiring, casting and booking you.  This will also give you more confidence when you step out in front of people which we could all use to get us through performing.

2. The stronger you are in your body the more stamina you will have as a singer.  The stronger your legs are to support your abdominal muscles which support your laryngal muscles, the freer your vocal mechanism will be to create beautiful flowing sounds without strain, or fatigue.

3.  You never know what you may be asked to do while singing on stage, whether it be dancing, walking around a set (up and down stairs), jumping around in a band etc…  The stronger, and healthier you are as a person the easier you will find it to do these things as a singer. – I saw The Pussy Cat Dolls in concert and was absolutely amazed at the shape they were in.  They were practically doing cardio aerobics the whole concert in their damce moves as they sang and never once did they sound out of breath.  There are few singers that can claim that.  Whether you like their music or not, the fact that these women were not lipsinking and still singing well through all of there moves was crazy amazing.

4. Breath Control-  Doing cardio such as swimming, increases your breathing stamina which is so important in good singing.  In other words as you increase your breath support you will be able to sustain notes and phrases longer.  Taking less breaths during phrases will give you more control over your choices in singing lines and will make you sound more professional. (another reason not to smoke as a singer)

So think about it this year as you follow through with your new years resolutions.  If you are serious about singing, here is one more reason to tend to your physical body and get in shape.  Your breath support will thank you!!

written by: Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

www.voicelessonstogo.com

New Years Resolution:  Start a regular singing warm up regiment with Voice Lessons To Go!

Hello singers!  We all can get into those slumps by the end of the year with ourselves, whether it be our exercise, good eating, organization, or even our — regular singing routine.

Well, here I am, to give you a friendly singing teachers nudge to get you back into a great healthy singing routine just in time for new years.  If you follow this regularly, you should be humming sweetly very soon!

As I always blog, teach, and talk about, being a good singer is akin to being a good athlete.  Your healthy singing voice is contingent on the correct muscles in your body being in shape to support your larynx so that your voice can sail freely through the air without any undue stress on your vocal chords from incorrect muscle use.  Finding the path to the perfect support system in your singing is a daily task and can easily be thrown off without proper attention.   The key to maintaining healthy proper singing is a good healthy vocal warm up done regularly.

Voice Lessons TO GO www.voicelessonstogo.com offers you four of those healthy singing warm-ups on CD for your use anytime, anywhere.  So there is no excuse!!

How to start back in on a healthy Your practice schedule:

Remember, if your practice regiment has been shut down for a bit, you need to ease back into a regular singing schedule to protect your voice- just like you would re-enter any sport.  Start slow, warm-up (vocalize) every time before you sing.  You can add a little bit more to your range, practice time, and challange as your stamina naturally increases.

NEVER PUSH OR STRAIN THE VOICE.

You can alter my four cds; Vocalize and Breath, Do Re Mi Ear and Pitch Training, Pure Vowels, or Stamina to vary your warm-ups on different days, or work with one at a time for a few weeks until you feel you have some mastery.   Now get to that ipod, piano, or stereo and start singing!

written by:

Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons TO GO (singing lessons on CD), and author of Vocalize!