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My first online vocal recital on the 26th was quite the success!
The basic format was simple; every student pre-recorded their solos. I then created a playlist and shared each video over Zoom with the attendees. I was a nervous wreck for the entire recital. I wasn’t worried about my singers – they sounded great – but it was the first time for me to use Zoom in such a way that all the technology was quite intimidating. However, I learned a lot and the next time I have an in-person recital, I will be able to easily create an online version for parents and family that cannot attend in person. I will post some students’ songs in the near future – there were some incredibly creative performances that will make you laugh and cheer. I want to share a longer version of two thoughts I wanted my students to come away with during the recital. Every year I hold these recitals and give the same general speech of “how great the year was etc…” This year has been different. We have been robbed of our daily routines, jobs, financial security and health concerns. It has been a tough three months. But we are going to get through this as a nation and as a community TOGETHER. It is almost comical how many challenges our country has faced since its birth. Wars, bank runs, economic depressions and domestic instability seem to happen literally every decade. But Warren Buffett says it best – “it’s a terrible mistake to bet against America.” No matter how incompetent our politicians or disastrous our circumstances, we as a people and nation seem to get through each struggle stronger and more resilient. One virus will not bring down our country’s future. Finally, the best part of my day is seeing my students walk through the door. I do not teach voice lessons for the music or the money. I do it, day after day, year after year, because I love getting to know my students, their quirks and passions, and watch them develop through their school years. Getting to know you is the best part of my job. I look forward to seeing you all in-person very soon. God bless you and your family. The top picture is before the coronavirus; the bottom is after for online voice lessons. I've taken over the guest bedroom as the Internet router is located there, which helps reduce lag. The guest bed is now serving as an extension of my desk. I miss all my students and can't wait to hear you sing in-person again!  The most important reason to take singing lessons, in my opinion, is to develop your own unique sound and style. Without voice lessons, you sing with the habits given to you by your surroundings that may or may not benefit you.
As a singer whose parents are from Chicago and spoke with a slightly nasal tone, my environment conditioned me to sing with a nasal tone. Through years of voice lessons, I learned to recognize and eliminate nasality from my singing as I sang in genres that ask men to sing with a clear sound that removes all nasality. Removing all traces of nasality was hard, but because of all those years of work and struggle, I have a bounty of tricks and tools to help you make nasality a thing of the past! Nasality, like many vocal qualities, is not necessarily "bad." It all depends on context. Some music genres want an element of nasality and others use it occasionally for effect. However, most voice students start off their singing lessons without a choice - they sing nasal without meaning to. My job, as a voice teacher, is to give you that choice. The first way to solve a problem is to recognize if you have one! The simplest way to know if you are singing with a nasal tone, other than listening to yourself on video, is to do the "nose test." I start my voice students on a simple scale and then ask them to use their fingers to close their nose on the sides. Then they alternate between opening and closing their nose as they sing the scales. If you find your sound changes quality as you open and close your nose, that means you are singing with a nasal tone. Air is traveling through your nose as you sing, which creates a nasal tone when you "unplug" your nose. The second step is to figure out how your nasality is being created. There are two possibilities. The first is that you have a lowered velum - or what we normally call the soft palate of the mouth. The soft palate is located in the back of the mouth. You can easily find it by tracing the roof of your mouth with your tongue. In the back, you will find the tissue is not hard but soft and gives way. That is your soft palate. The velum has to be raised while you sing in order to shut off air from the nasal passageway. The second source of nasality is often your tongue...if you sing with a tense tongue, you often create a nasal tone. A tense tongue is often heard on high notes as your body tries to compensate for the high pitch by creating tension. Again, this is easily seen by just a glance in the mirror. When you sing, check where your tongue is. If your tongue lies relaxed on the bottom of your mouth and the tip of your tongue rests behind your bottom front teeth, your tongue is probably relaxed. If your tongue is retracting into the back of your mouth, then your tongue is tense and most likely you are singing with a nasal tone. Solving the problem of a lowered soft palate or tense tongue requires voice lessons. I have numerous tricks to solve these vocal issues and they solve nasality remarkably fast. You then learn how to sing WITHOUT a nasal tone, and then can decide for yourself how much nasality you WANT to sing with. Remember, voice lessons are not about creating the "correct sound;" it is about giving you the choice on how you want to sound. While moving my singing lessons online was a challenge, I have NOTHING on this lady! A great piece by the New York Times on how private lesson instructors are moving their piano and voice lessons online. It is definitely worth a read!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/virus-piano-lessons.html I have posted several times about how singers can improve their acting skills during their voice lessons. Acting is of supreme importance to singers; there is nothing more boring than a pretty-sounding voice with no personality. We are visual creatures, and therefore, our singing must have a visual component!
Acting for singers has changed dramatically during COVID. With most voice lessons online, acting has become up close and personal and requires a very different acting style than a stage-oriented one. The basic principle underlining this change in perspective is simple: when you are acting for a camera, all acting gestures and emotions must decrease dramatically in size and form. When you are on stage, singers have to act for the back row of the auditorium. The closest audience members are AT LEAST twenty feet away. This entails a very dramatic and exaggerated style of acting because you must be able to be seen from a distance. Therefore, stage acting is quite large and facial expressions are much grander and big than your typical day-to-day emotions. The opposite is true when you act for a camera; all of the sudden, your audience can see EVERY slight twitch. A simple raising of the eyebrow, which would NEVER be seen on stage, all of the sudden becomes full of emotions when done in front of a camera. Therefore, acting for online voice lessons becomes much more subtle and small; any sort of movement is easily captured and interpreted by your audience. What makes this such a great teaching opportunity for voice students and teachers alike that my students are getting the best of both worlds. When we conduct voice lessons in-person, my teaching style was focused on acting for the stage. My students now are focused on acting for the camera and the benefits and limitations of a much smaller style of acting. I am enjoying the challenge and I know my voice students are loving the change of pace and perspective! In the age of online voice lessons, I've had to change my teaching methods in order to help my beginning voice students understand how to breathe for singing. How you breathe and how you regulate the airflow is perhaps the most important factor for good singing. Here are some warmups I'm using a lot for my voice students.
1) In order to help my voice students practice, I've create recordings for every student to help practice at home. While I've always made recordings for songs for practice purposes, creating vocal exercises to practice at home has been a new and educational experience. It has forced me as a voice teacher to become much more clear on my instructions when the voice student is not in the same room and relies mostly on my voice to guide them through exercises. 2) I'm relying more than ever on creating vocal warmups that have some sort of feedback for students to learn from. For breathing, I've asked my voice students to use the old stand-by...lay on the floor with a heavy object on your stomach, and then practice your breathing using counts to keep the airflow regulated and consistent. 3) In a typical in-person voice lesson, I can easily see when a student is breathing poorly. Due to the limitations of camera setups, that is not always possible online. I'm using my ears a LOT MORE to figure out when and where students need help with breathe on certain musical phrases. 4) Feedback from my students is essential. In a voice lesson, I always ask my students how a certain phrase or pitch felt. By getting a voice student's own physical feedback, I can typically diagnose vocal problems. This feedback has become essential for online voice lessons. The vocal cues of technical problems are more subtle online, and so hearing my voice student's own description of the problem is vital. A voice student once said I sounded like a doctor in voice lessons because I was always asking "How did that pitch or phrase make you feel?" I feel like a doctor all the time now because I am so reliant on hearing how my voice students feel. Please stay safe out there and keeping singing! |
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