What do Voice Lessons Include?
Let the Vocal Technician help you with your next steps in vocal mastery.
Vocal Registration Map - Male & Female
At the very first lesson, we will determine where you are on the map. What's your highest note and what's your lowest note. We'll also discuss your goals for the range you desire beyond your current tessitura.
Vocal Development Example - Teen & Adult
Note: This is only one example. Warm-ups, Exercises and Stretches are changed each week to customize the sound capabilities for the singer.
Beginning with lip trills as a vocal warm-up, we quickly move on to a "hwoon" stretching exercise. After determining the goal of the singer to develop the "sound" they desire for a specific song they're working on, we will do exercises for the chest voice or chest dominant mix, trying to stay out of fry until the very end. This develops vocal cord control.
To accomplish the goals, we may go into voiced plosives that include twang "gagg" on an interval of 151 with a high larynx on the low notes. Then we'll do a voiced plosive such as "bwihb" on an interval of 8351 to develop a louder (non-airy) strength as they come down the upper range into their chest dominant mix.
The more blending of the register work that is done, the better the singer can create the desired sound and range in many different genre and styles of music.
Child Vocal Development Exercise
Note: This is only one example. Warm-ups, Exercises and Stretches are changed each week to customize the sound capabilities for the singer.
After a quick warm-up singing "mum" on a 123 interval pattern, we will sing sounds with the animals such as the hissing snake to develop proper breath control.
Then we move on to the hoot owl going up and down their range to mark the date of their current tessitura on their Vocal Registration Map to determine future growth.
We also discuss throughout the lessons about singing through colds and congestion and how to properly care for the vocal cords.
Much work is done in allowing the children to sing from their heart as any character they wish to be in the moment.
We explain the Vocal Registration of High, Low and the Ability to Blend them and then work on the chest to develop a strong bottom of their voice, the head voice for stretching and the mix for blending between the registrations. This becomes second nature for children and their ability to cross genres and music styles become much easier for them as they mature.
What are Voice Lessons Like?
NOTE: Parents are welcome to attend lessons and sit in the designated sitting area.There are no toys for the siblings but theycan bring their own toys to play quietly
in the sitting area with a parent present. Studio props are for the music student only.
Voice Lessons are engaging and fun including the elements below in most every lesson:
Music
Your repertoire, of course.
Teen/Adults, bring your soundtracks or Karaoke videos (Internet links) or Music Score or Lead Sheets.
For the child singer, list your fun songs on the emailed enrollment interview form and I'll help with your repertoire until you learn some basics and can bring your own. The sky is the limit here!
We also teach music elements so any singer, all ages, can read music fluently.
Costumes
Children love to pretend to be someone else singing! And they have tons of fun doing so! So, for ages 11 and below, we have a few costume items and invite students to bring their own dress up props.
Who knows, a friendly, colorful parrot just might pop in to take a listen to the marvelous sounds happening!
Fry
No, we're not talking about fried chicken or cat fish.
We are referring to the lowest sound of an individual's range that requires no breath. Sounding out the "fry" is very healthy for the vocal cords. Click the picture below to hear a live demo on SoundCloud of Rebecca reaching her Bb Fry with mentor Justin Stoney of the New York Teacher Certification Program.
Warm-up & Stretching
No, this is not body calisthenics.
The vocal cords need to warm-up and stretch safely and regularly to meet the demands of the range of some songs; thus, producing a strong tessitura for the individual. Click on the picture below to hear a live demo on SoundCloud of a "Warm-up & Stretching" taking place in Rebecca's voice lesson with mentor Justin Stoney of the New York Teacher Certification Program.
Belting
No, it's not karate chops.
But "YES", chest voice is celebrated and developed to reach the widest range, or tessitura, possible.
Flageolet
No, this is not a woodwind flute.
Both male and females will stretch past their head voice and falsetto to discover their highest note range just before their whistle sound.
This stretching is necessary to strengthen their chest voice to give them the best flexibility possible.
Vocal Student Demonstration
When young students dress up as the character in the song and sing the sound they feel best suits the story in the song, well, just about anything can happen. And we love every minute of it laughing and playing together as we learn about vocal technique.
Our example today is a young, female singer demonstrating the +2 Larynx position.
Click the picture and you'll go to our Rumble Channel to hear this remarkable demonstration of fun voice lessons.
Comical
The demonstration song here requires a funny character with an appropriate sound. How can you sing a song about Cactus any other way than with a comical sound and character?
Larynx Designed Movements
I bet you didn't know you could move your larynx up and down. Yes, you have laryngeal elevators that raise your larynx and are responsible for opening your jaw and helping you swallow. Other muscles help lower the larynx and close the jaw. It's an amazing creation by God so you can talk and sing and swallow.
+2 Position
The larynx has a neutral (our conversational tone), +1, +2, +3, and a -1, -2, and -3 positions. The larynx position is mainly responsible for a singer's style. Click the picture to hear this student demonstrate her +2 position larynx position while singing a song about cactus.
Same Vocal Student . . .
The same student who demonstrated the Comical +2 Larynx position while singing a song about Cactus is now going to sing for you, acapella, our National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner". Click on the picture and it will take you to our Rumble page where all our videos are stored now. Watch the movie and listen as she sings. Enjoy!
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