5 terrific tips for 2017

From the movie “Sing”

Hi there! Only a couple more days to 2017.

Eeeek! I cannot believe how fast this last month has flown and we are almost at the beginning of a new year.

I hope you have all had an absolutely fabulous 2016 and are excited about 2017. I have been doing a lot of thinking recently and am trying to get planned for next year. I am notorious for just floating along and when I have a great idea I just do it. However this can be a very dangerous way to live as there is always a great rush to get it done, I’m not planned and I often don’t do things as well as I would like. Being prepared and organized helps things to flow better and a lot more can be achieved.

So my first terrific tip is:

1. Plan ahead.

Start thinking ahead now. What would you like to achieve vocally in 2017? Analyze what it is (make sure you are specific) that you would like to improve/achieve next year. Write it down, plan it out. Do you need to work on your breathing? Would you like to extend your vocal range? By how much? When? What will you need to do to fulfill your dream?

2. Organize a practice time you can stick to every day.

Part of the reason we don’t have the success we would like is that we fail to practice. There is no getting around this, if you want to succeed you have to put in the work. Work out a time that you able to set aside each day to work on your skills. Then stick to it.

For some more tips and ideas on better singing practice, click on the link below.

click here for tips on singing practice

3. Have singing lessons.

This is important thing to do. There are many articles and videos on line about how to sing better, but none of these offer something very important. That is feedback. It is vital to have a mentor that can work with you to analyze and then work with you to improve your singing voice. I know when working with students that I am constantly asking questions and guiding them to hear what a good voice should sound like, tweaking and adjusting constantly. If you don’t have any feedback, how do you know if what you are doing is correct? To have lessons one on one with Mary at Singing Strong click here to register.

4. Listen to lots of music

Make sure you are always listening to good music. Think about the artists you like and listen to them. LOTS! There are plenty of ways to listen to music. You tube, Pandora and spotify are just a couple of examples of places you can listen to your favourite music. Take some time to analyze what your artists are doing that makes them a good singer.

This is my favourite song at the moment and a song I definitely want to learn.

Think about what styles of music you like and then:

5. Choose repertoire

Decide the songs you would like to learn in 2017. Think carefully about the style of music and level of difficulty. Aim to find at least 5 songs you could work on. Plan out the year as to which month each song will be learned by. Remember it takes time for the body to get used to how you sing a song. I always say allow 6 months for a song to feel right.

Do these 5 things and you are well on your way to singing success in 2017.

Want to get 2017 off to a great start?

Singing Strong is offering a Summer Singing Intensive from Monday 9th January to Friday 13th January 2017.

Five days one on one with Mary for an hour each day. You can do this with Mary in her Traralgon Studio or on line.

There are only a few places left.

Mary Mirtschin

Work on vocal technique, performance skills as well as learn a song in 5 days!

To book click here.

SINGING PRACTICE

5 Things you can do to improve your singing practice.

You can listen to this blog post here:

5-tips-for-better-singing-practice

As singers, we all want to be able to practice regularly to improve our skills. But sometimes we are not sure about what we need to make our practice sessions worthwhile. Below you will find 5 tips to help you make the most of your practice time and achieve success.

Tip Number 1:

Make sure you have all the materials you need to practice.

Use sheet music when practicing, not just lyrics. We are musicians and should be able to read music. The sheet music also gives important clues about things like tempo and dynamics.

Invest in a music stand. It is important you have something to put your music on that you can stand at. You can get collapsible stands that fold away neatly. I have a manhasset music stand which is more expensive, but is really easy to use and very solid. You can click on the pictures if you want to order them online.

fold away stand Manhasset stand

Make sure any device that you use for playing backing tracks is loud enough to sing along with. You might need to invest in some speakers if you are using an ipad or phone. Don’t practice using headphones. This is a bad habit to get into as you can’t hear yourself properly.

Headphones are great for listening to music but not so good for practice.

Tip number 2:

Have a designated place to practice.

Have a special, clean, private ready to start in space. Having a space always ready for singing makes it much easier to get started. If you are always having to pull things out to get started, or have to practice in a space where other people are, you are less likely to get going.

Tip number 3:

Be clear about what you need to practice.

Always have a plan about what you want to work on during the week between lessons. Make sure you have discussed with your teacher what will be required and then have some way to record what you have done. This way you can account for your practice sessions.

Tip Number 4:

Make it part of your routine. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Singing practice should be a part of your every day routine. Just like brushing your teeth or having a shower, we need to find time each day to practice our singing. If you start this from the beginning it is easy to reinforce. For young students, parents really need to be present in the beginning to encourage this routine. Make a time and stick to it, whether it be in the morning or afternoon. If no time is dedicated to practice, it simply will not happen.

Tip Number 5:

Warm up, then chunk it.

Make sure you warm up well. Have a warm up routine that you can do in about 5 minutes. Here is a link to a website with some great ideas on warming up. Click here.
Don’t try to do it all at once, break it up. Hopefully your teacher has highlighted what needs to be worked on. Focus on those small sections and get them correct, then put it all together.
A couple of 10 minute sessions each day is much better than trying to do an hour at a time. Committing to 20 – 30 minutes each day is quite achievable – this equates to at least 3 hours practice a week.

Use these five tips you are guaranteed to have success with your singing. Remember singing is a skill and can be developed like any instrument. Your success depends on your practice!

a-limited-number-of-places-are-available-for-term-4

Want to have singing lessons? To get started in your musical journey with Mary and Singing Strong please click here and fill in your details.

Mary will get in contact with you to assist you with your inquiry.

Mary Mirtschin

Newsletter 1 2016

Welcome back to another year of singing!

It has been wonderful greeting students for the new year, hearing about their holiday adventures and seeing their joy at returning to lessons.

For the adult students there has been less about holidays ( unfortunately) but there has certainly be the same enthusiasm as they arrive for lessons.

For students who have been studying with me for a while, it has been great to hear their voices again and realize the progress they have been making vocally. It has been so exciting to hear the way their voices have matured and developed. For new students it has been exciting starting with them and helping them uncover the voice they have inside them.

A big welcome to all the new students who have started for 2016. I look forward to working with you on your musical journey!

News from the Studio:

PRACTICE BLITZ!

Students have new repertoire to start working on for 2016.

To get you into a practice routine I am holding a practice blitz for the next two weeks.

The blitz will run from Monday 22nd February until Sunday 6th March . All you need to do is practice consistently and record your practice times on the singing strong website. (remember you have to log into your account to fill in the details. If you need help with this please let me know.) You can log in at the bottom of this post.

There will be prizes and surprises for the person who clocks up the most practice hours!

Take some time now to work out times during the week when you can dedicate 15 -20 minutes to practice. Record this on your calendar and then stick to it!

Student achievements:

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Summer Pantomime “Aladdin”. It was a fun show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself when I went to see it.

aladdin

Congratulations to Alicia Hooimeyer who played the title role and to Sophia Patikisa who was a gorgeous Jasmine.

aladdin2 Hollie Gibson was terrific as the dog and there were other fantastic performances from the following students as well:

Ella Brent

Zahra Hanratty

Ella Hill

Paige Horn

Maddison Logue

Britney Nelthorpe

Sebastian Poole

aladdinall

There are numerous students involved in the many productions that will be held during 2016. I will keep you informed as they come up.

Cafe Concert

I have tentatively booked our first term Cafe Concert for Wednesday 16th March from 6.30pm. Please put this date in your diary. I understand that some of you will have commitments on this evening, but it would be appreciated if you are able to come and sing, even if you are only able to pop in and out.

I will put out some more information about this event during the week.

So let’s get singing! Have a great week.

Dream!

Can anyone sing?

boy singing with mic cartoon The answer is yes. If you are able to talk then it is possible to sing.

Singing is a skill that can be taught just like any other instrument or any skill actually.

I have worked with many students who wanted to sing but didn’t have the skills. Over time with study and practice these students became very good singers. These students wanted to be good singers and they put in the time and effort required to get good at it.

I am an ok dancer. I can move in time to the beat and when I take time to go over a dance routine I can learn it reasonably well. But I will never be a great dancer. That is because I like dancing, but not enough to want to do it all the time and take the classes to become really good at it. My daughter loves dancing, goes to classes, practices a lot at home and is becoming really good.

But I love to sing. I have had lots of lessons and performed quite a lot and I have developed skills I need to be a good singer.

I will never be great at violin because I don’t have an interest in playing it. I would like to learn cello though.

I love to teach but I would be pretty useless as a nurse as it is something I don’t want to do.

They say it takes around 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. I think that this is pretty close. If you were to ask anyone who is an expert at something, they would probably tell you these sorts of hours. They would be working on their craft every day over a long period of time.

Learning how to sing well is like any instrument. You can’t expect to become a concert pianist with a weeks worth of practice.

When you look at the lives of some of the famous singers who are really good at their craft – you would discover that most have been singing since they were young children. They sing all day every day, listening to music and singing along, they probably go to voice lessons and are involved in any performance opportunity they can.

If you would like to be able to sing reasonably well, in tune, yes you can learn. You probably don’t need to spend 10,000 hours. Maybe 100 hours would be a great start.

How good you get depends on how much you want it. How much is your desire? Are you willing to do what it takes to get really good?

Here is a video of Jessie J at 15. You can tell she has been working on her craft for many years already.

Another video of a young Jessie J

A more recent live acoustic performance.

Dream!

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year to everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful time of celebration at Christmas and New Year. For me it was a wonderful time with family and a chance to wind down a little after a very busy year. As we begin 2016 there are thoughts about new year resolutions and goals set for the coming year. I am sure that many of us have finished up with voice classes for the year and have not sung a note since the last Christmas carol at Christmas Eve. That’s almost two weeks ago!

Just like an athlete, as soon as we stop using our voice we start to lose condition. Singing is an every day activity if we want to be at our best. If you haven’t sung since Christmas, I suggest you get back into practice asap. Otherwise all the technique, strength and condition will begin to be lost.

I am offering a one week Summer Singing Intensive next week, Monday 11th Jan through to Friday 15th Jan. This is an opportunity to focus on getting your voice back into shape. With daily hour sessions, your voice will get the workout it needs to get back into shape.

Sessions are available one on one either in person or on line.
Please note that sessions are booked at the same time each day for the five days.

Normally this sort of tuition would cost $350 but I am offering this once off opportunity for $250. That’s $100 discount.

If you would like to take advantage of this special offer CLICK HERE to book your time.

12096281_941238815943258_454555536956770829_n

Seasonal allergies and Singing

Spring has sprung! Anyway it has for us in Australia. And with it all the pollens, grass etc that brings on hayfever. This is never good for singers as the post nasal drip that occurs directly affects the vocal chords.

Sometimes it seems almost impossible for singers to perform at their best during this time of year, however there are a number of solutions that can be considered to ease the problem.

There is some good advice from the Osborne head and neck institute you can read at this link:

Tips for a healthy and powerful voice

Or you might like to watch the video below that I found on you tube (with thanks to Mark Baxter):

Wanting to work with Mary to achieve the voice you have always dreamed of?

Mary has in person and online lessons.

Click here to register your details and Mary will contact you to see if she might be able to help.

The power of “Yet”

Music and singing requires accuracy and skill to be the best at your game.
More often than not we fall short of this and usually give up. Too often I hear from my students “I can’t do it, it’s too difficult”.
And they stop. They stop trying, stop persisting and then fail to make progress.

I like to use the words “not yet” all the time.
I have learned from years of experience, that when faced with something difficult it is important to remind ourselves that it will take time to master it.
With our ‘instant’ society we tend to believe that if I don’t get it straight away then it will not happen.
Working with children I sadly see this all the time.
By constantly reminding them that it is ok to have a go and get it wrong, and try again and again if you need to, they start to realize that if they persist eventually they will get it.

If you are studying anything and finding you are getting nowhere, it may be because you have hit a road block and instead of saying not yet have not bothered to look for a way around it and given up.

Tell yourself that “I haven’t learned ________________ yet!” That little word makes such a difference to your end result.

What’s one thing to remember to ease performance anxiety?

With a cafe concert fast approaching, I thought it valuable to discuss performance anxiety.
It is always nerve wracking to get up and perform, I have been doing it for years and I still get nervous.
In the video below I talk about one thing you can do to help with those nerves. It sounds a bit obvious but we often forget to do this.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions.