SINGING PRACTICE

5 Things you can do to improve your singing practice.

You can listen to this blog post here:

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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!

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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

Why have a singing teacher?

I have been visiting various singing websites lately and have found many of them to have great ideas and ways to help singers.

One thing I have noticed on a couple of the websites is their claim that you don’t need to have face to face lessons to sing well, just watch my videos and you can become the greatest singer. For me this is a one way street.

My comment to this is if you don’t know what you are doing wrong, you can never know what you are doing right.

Feedback is integral to good progress. Feedback is the rocket fuel that propels the acquisition of knowledge and without it, no amount of practice or watching videos is going to get you there.

A singing teacher is not merely there to offer encouragement and assessing levels of concentration, they are also on the lookout for small technical glitches that may have escaped the attention of their student.

You can get the basics from reading material or watching videos, but I would highly recommend you seek out a singing teacher or at least a mentor who can give you appropriate feedback and guide you on your musical journey.

teaching singing

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!

How to get back into a practice routine

It’s the beginning of 2016 and you haven’t practiced any singing since before Christmas. Does that sound like you? I am a little bit guilty of this too. The Christmas season was so busy for me I hardly had any time for anything else. It was a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends and I did sing heaps of Christmas carols, but most things like practice got put aside. Now with the new year we find ourselves back into more of a routine, but finding the motivation to get back into practice can be a bit challenging.

You might want to start by sitting down and writing out a couple of goals for your singing this next couple of months. My goal at the moment is to come up with a list of ten songs I would like to start learning as I need to build up my repertoire for performance and auditions.

However, it is important that I don’t start singing all these 10 songs straight away. Over this week all I am trying to do is get my voice back in shape. I need to do my vocal “push ups”. Just like the rest of our body, if we don’t exercise consistently, things get out of shape. My vocal chords and the surrounding muscles need to get a good work out.

I need to do this slowly, a bit to start with and then lengthen my sessions later on in the week.

So to start I will just do some light warm ups. Sirens, bubbling lips, humming etc.. through my vocal range. Then some exercises to extend my vocal range and work on my resonance and then get into learning songs.

Starting with 15 – 20 minutes and then gradually increase this time over the week.

Just like the rest of your body, if you go out and exercise full on straight away, you will most likely be very sore the next day or may even do some damage. Your voice is the same. Go slowly and gradually build up your strength and stamina.

Here are a couple of exercises to get you started:

Breathing:

5 note scale on ah:

practice makes perfect

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.

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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.

It’s Eisteddfod time

Eisteddfods are a great opportunity to use as motivation to learn repertoire, improve your skills and practice performing.

Eisteddfods date back to the 12th century in Wales.

Eisteddfods are competitions that involve testing individuals for singing, dancing, acting and musicianship. The Royal South Street Eisteddfod in Ballarat has been running since 1891. The Sydney Eisteddfod commenced in 1933 and offers some 400 events across all Performing Arts, catering to 30,000 performers annually. Modern equivalents in Australia are competitions reserved for schoolchildren, though many have open sections where anyone (including professionals) may participate and compete. Typically, a prize may be a scholarship to pursue a further career. Many young Australian actors and dancers participate regularly in the various competitions scheduled throughout the year.

The main Eisteddfods in our local community are:

The Sale Eisteddfod (entries have already closed)

The West Gippsland Eisteddfod (entries close 7th June)

The Latrobe Valley Eisteddfod (entries close 30th June

The Yarram Eisteddfod (entries close 1st June)

Please note there are costs involved such as entry fees, purchasing sheet music, paying for rehearsals with pianists. There are also rewards such as a sense of achievement, prizes that include cash, and feedback from the adjudicator (the person judging the performances)

If you would like to know more about entering an Eisteddfod or would like singing lessons to help you better when performing in things like Eisteddfods click here and send me a message. Would be happy to help.

For a list of Eisteddfods and festivals in Victoria click here.

I have a limited number of places available for in person or on line lessons. To enquire about singing lessons click here.

Musical Problem Solving in 10 easy steps

When practicing it is important to have specific things to focus on during practice sessions.

Quite often we go through a song, find challenging sections within the song, struggle through these, get to the end of the song and then go through it again. This doesn’t achieve much as you continue to struggle through these difficult sections.

What you need to do however is to “chunk” the song into parts, and then focus on the parts that are giving you difficulty. Once they are resolved, then go through the whole song.

Below are 10 steps you can follow to help you with your practice:

1. Listen

Listen to the performance of a piece or section of a piece.

2. Diagnose

Where are the problems?

3. Choose

What should I fix first?

4. Isolate

Find the problem “bite” to fix in five minutes

5. Simplify

What can you do to get more comfortable with the problem?

6. Repeat

How many times do I need to repeat this drill to get it right?

7. Connect

Place the corrected “bite” back into the section of music.

8. Generalize

Are there any similar problems in the piece to fix?

9. Retain

What do I need to remember to do in practice to fix this problem?

10. Set Goal

What will you accomplish with this song in the next week?

Congratulations! You are now a successful Problem Solver!

50 years of The Sound of Music

At the Oscars this year The Sound of Music celebrated 50 years. I love the Sound of Music (I have performed twice in this show, once as Sister Sophia and once as Mother Abbess, and I have also helped with a performance last year with my daughter’s school. By the way, Rose also had the role of Sister Sophia). The music is simple but beautifully arranged and I like to use the pieces My favourite things and Do re mi when I begin young students with singing lessons.
It was an interesting decision that was made at the Oscars to allow Lady GaGa to perform a medley of the songs. No one would think that this was her style of music.
Lady GaGa did train classically, but went another way obviously with her outrageous style of music and persona. However, I would have to say that she did a wonderful performance at the Oscars. Very tastefully dressed and she performed the songs with confidence and style. Apparently she practiced every day for six months for this gig. (makes you realise it never ends, even for professional singers).
I have posted a video of the performance for you to have a look at. What is your opinion?
I would be interested to know what you think.

An Overnight Success?

A major dilemma I face with some students is that they come to me for singing lessons expecting that in a short time, maybe six months or even less. they will be on stage wowing them at a show like “The Voice” or landing that dream role in a major stage musical. This however is an unrealistic expectation.

With most performers you rarely hear about the months and years of hard work behind the scenes. You rarely hear about the major catastrophes followed by major miracles that brought about their success. You rarely hear about the hours and hours of grind.

If you don’t have realistic expectations, you can quickly get into the wrong state of mind. You’ll be thinking that to be a success in music you should be a star on stage in just months. Then you’ll give up way too soon.

This notion of overnight success is an urban legend, and very misleading. If you’re starting something new, expect a long and challenging journey. They say 10,000 hours to become an expert. If your worked on your skills for one hour a day that will take 27 years. That starts to put things into perspective, doesn’t it?

But that’s no excuse to move slowly. Many singers think they can achieve fame and stardom without the practice. Put in the practice EVERY DAY and you will see significant improvement fairly quickly.

Usually what brings about an “overnight success” is that the person is willing to persist until they achieve the success they desire. This is key in achieving the results you want.

If you are curious about how I can help you to achieve the voice you have always dreamed of then just click here for more information.