Tips for Singers – Crescendo Music Loft

An Introduction to Vocal Pitch Monitor

Sandy Ervin — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 17:47:02 +0000

Google Play’s app Vocal Pitch Monitor can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it, but it can be VERY frustrating if you don’t.

I use this tool in my studio every day to help singers gain skill in intonation, and I would like to share an exercise I’ve developed that will help you learn how to use it effectively.

Even if you don’t study singing or consider yourself a singer, you might enjoy playing with this app and using this exercise. You might be pleasantly surprised by your results!

Download Vocal Pitch Monitor

I find it easiest to use this tool on a tablet (iPad or Android), but it also works on phones.

The app icon looks like this:

Configure the Settings

If you change a few settings, it will be more helpful. “Out of the box,” the default settings for the home screen look like this:

I don’t know about you, but I find those colors difficult to work with. So click on the little hamburger menu in the bottom right hand corner to call up the little menu, and click on “Settings”:

It should take you to a screen that looks like this:

What we’re going to do is change the colors for all those weird sounding names, “1st Tonic,” “Second Supertonic,” etc. They’re just fancy names for the pitches in any given major scale.

Click on the top gray box across from “1st Tonic,” and it should show you a screen like this:

You can experiment with different colors, but I recommend using cyan, so click the cyan box.

And then, continue changing the colors for all the scales tones EXCEPT for semitone. When you get to semitone, change it to teal.

Upon completion, you should get a screen that looks like this:

Now you’re ready to try my little exercise.

Find a Piano to Give Yourself Some Pitches

It’s most effective if you can get with a piano or a keyboard in person somewhere, but if that’s not possible, you can use an online one like this Pop-up Piano. Only thing is, you’ll really need to have two devices handy so you can operate both the keyboard and the Vocal Pitch Monitor at the same time.

Learn the Centering Tune

Vocal Pitch Monitor works best when you are just working with a very few notes, so I’m going to give you a five note phrase to start with. It’s C – D – E – D – C. On the Virtual Piano, middle C is notated with the red dot. If you don’t know what the names of the keys are on a piano, here’s how to find them. Notice the groups of two black keys and three black keys. Find a set of two black keys in the middle, and C – D – E are the white keys surrounding them like this:

Find them and play them in this order: C – D – E – D – C. Now try singing the pitches and using the letter names as words. It should sound something like this:

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/C-D-E-D-C.mp3

Practice Singing & Playing the Centering Tune In Really Slow Motion

Sing and play:

“C—————————“
“D—————————“
“E—————————“
“D—————————“
“C—————————“

Hold each note out for about two seconds.

Now Get With Vocal Pitch Monitor

Now you’re ready to get some feedback from Vocal Pitch Monitor. Set up your device somewhere close to the sound from the keyboard and play the notes in order while watching the VPM screen. It should look something like this:

It’s kind of hard to see, but you should get little yellow lines RIGHT ON TOP of the cyan colored lines. The reason for playing the pitches for yourself on the piano first is to help you get oriented on the VPM screen. You can see here that I played C4, D4, and E4. (See my Tutorial In Scientific Pitch Notation if you don’t know what these numbers mean.)

Male voices will find it better to use C3, D3, and E3! Find the C, D, E the octave below the ones in the middle of the keyboard.

Now trying singing the same three notes in the same octave and see how your yellow lines compare to the ones you played. Mine look like this when I sing “C, D, E, D, C” :

My voice has some vibrato to it, thus the wiggly lines. It’s hard to sing a complete straight tone, so you might find that yours is wiggly too. The goal would be that some of the yellow crosses the blue line that corresponds to the note you’re wanting to sing.

Kirsten Livingston sang the same exercise just now, and hers looks like this:

She sang hers connected together. Beautifully executed!

Now It’s Your Turn!

When you can orient yourself with a keyboard and the Vocal Pitch Monitor, now you’re ready to try some more difficult exercises. You will, however, have to know what the names of the pitches you are wanting to sing before Vocal Pitch Monitor can be helpful. Getting with a classically trained musician will help a great deal.

The following guidelines will also be helpful:

Find out what key you want to sing in and set VPM to that key. (Click up in the top left hand corner where it says “C Major” to change the key. NOTA BENE: if your screen is set to “nighttime” or “dark mode,” you won’t be able to see the names of the keys.)
Restrict the melody you are singing to just one phrase.
Sing the phrase really really extra slowly so VPM can gather enough data so you can see it.
Restrict the amount of time you are doing this to just a few minutes (I call it Two Minutes of Torture), otherwise, the entire experience will be frustrating, and you’ll never want to do it again. LOL!

Give it a go and let us know how you make out!

Yay! You Have a Head Cold!

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 19:24:43 +0000

If you’re a voice teacher, at certain times of the year, you get a lot of calls and messages like “I have a head cold and can’t possibly sing, so I’d like to cancel my voice lesson.” Or, from the parent: “Amy woke up with a sore throat and a cold, so I think it would be better to cancel her voice lesson today.”

If You Can Talk, You Can Sing

Most of the time, it’s just a little scratchy throat or a little extra mucus, and it’s just that you sound different to yourself, and you think your singing voice is going to sound terrible. The reality is, you’re probably going to sound different, not necessarily bad, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor by pressing through and learning how to sing while you’re sick.

In the 40 plus years that I’ve been a professional singer, do you think I’ve had a few head colds? Also, do you think I’ve had some bad ones ON THE DAY of an important performance?! Oh my goodness, I have some stories. If you’re fronting four to six or more musicians who have been rehearsing toward the big day, and you call in sick, it does not bode well for you.

Practice Singing While You’re Sick

Seriously. Do it now when the pressure is low. A voice lesson, for example, is low pressure. (Let me help you learn how to sing while you’re sick.) Use your normal practice time to experiment with your voice and test your limits.

A Few Guidelines

Here are my guidelines for myself and my students:

If you can talk you can sing.
If you have laryngitis (an inflammation of your voice box from overuse, irritation or infection), stop talking or singing immediately. It’s called vocal rest, and you should start now. One way to tell if you have laryngitis is if it hurts to talk.
If you just have a sinus issue or a sore throat, try singing!
MAKE SURE YOU WARM UP!

Don’t Be a Baby

This can also be referred to as “going diva” or “going divo,” and it’s a bad stereotype to feed into. TRY SINGING! Just because you don’t like how it sounds doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t sing. Your responsibility to your band mates should be greater than your desire to sound a certain way. Get over yourself. Learn how to sing no matter what your voice is doing (unless, of course, you really need to go on vocal rest).

Singing With A Head Cold Can Be Fun

One thing I enjoy about singing with a head cold is all the different tonalities I can play with that I don’t have access to while I’m well. My lower range gets extended, and I can get that scratchy, bluesy sound I’m always trying to get when I feel good.

Go Easy

While you can sing through a head cold, it IS possible to push it too far. This is not the time to be belting. You could push yourself into laryngitis. Also, if you’re not feeling at the top of your game, NEVER sing outside in the cold or even inside somewhere where the cold air is blowing. (In fact, it’s just a bad idea anyway, no matter how you’re feeling.) One time, I pushed myself a little too far on a gig. It was an important show with at least seven or eight other musicians. Since I was one of three lead singers, I figured I could muscle through. It was the middle of winter, and the front door was right next to where the band was set up. People kept coming in and out of the room through that door. Within about 15 minutes, my cold turned into laryngitis, and I couldn’t even talk. Rrrr! I was not popular that night, but, oh well. There was nothing for it.

Test Your Limits

If you practice singing during non-stress times, you can figure out what your limits are. Then, when it comes time to make a decision about whether or not to carry through with a gig, you can do so with confidence either way. You’ll know if your body can carry off the songs or not.

Make Sure You Start with a Warm Up!

Start by singing some vocal exercises very, very quietly, and as high as possible. Take your time! It could take as much as an hour or more. Take breaks. If you do it right, your voice will start to open up. Sing through the crackiness! Let your voice crack. Don’t push through it.

Tea & Honey Does Not Help Your Voice

It might make you feel more warm and cozy, but it will not help your voice one little bit. That tea and honey never make it to your vocal cords. Staying hydrated is the more important goal, and you can do that with just plain water.

Comments from Jilian Grey

I sent this article to my good friend Jil Grey to see if she had anything to add. Jil is the band leader and lead singer for two successfully working bands: Cherry Pie and Hot House. At one point in her career, Hot House had a two year stint in Las Vegas playing six nights a week. If there’s anyone I know who has had to manage head colds during a long professional career as a singer, it would be her! Here are her comments.

It’s Snot

That’s right, all that mucus gets in the way of your singing. It can make you cough, clear your throat, and all kinds of other fun things you shouldn’t do. If you absolutely must clear your throat, don’t do that big “achem” sound. It’s very damaging, so just lightly try to cough, and drink, drink, drink. And that does not mean booze, or soda. Coffee and tea can also dry you out. Water is your best friend. Honey is a natural humectant, which means it does moisturize. I have found it helpful – it’s soothing and will help keep moisture on your vocal cords.

Anti Anti-Histamines

If you’re really drippy, and don’t want to have a box of tissues and used Kleenex scattered on the bandstand, take some cold medicine that will help with your stuffed up nose. But use very judiciously, don’t overdo!! Those very strong anti-histamines can dry everything up, and that’s not good either. You’re better off using saline, squirting that stuff up your nose and breathing deep and try to do it as often as possible. Preferably in a bathroom stall where nobody can see you.

Postponing Is Possible

If you’re sick, and you can have the option to postpone a gig, (it’s not an easy task!) do it. It is easy to push yourself and wind up with some serious vocal issues, the least of which is laryngitis. But if you’re careful, follow these guidelines, you’ll be just fine. Make sure after the gig you do a cool down. And then do as much vocal rest as possible, and drink water, water, water, water!! And my little tip for not getting sick at all: get Sambucol. This is a black elderberry natural cold remedy/prevention. As soon as you start feeling slightly under the weather, start taking it! I have used it many many times and have avoided getting sick. If you do get a cold, it lessens the severity and you get better quicker. I make no money off of it, it just works.

Jilian Grey

Lead Singer & Band Leader for Cherry Pie

COVID Times Are Different

All this being said, COVID times are different. I’m writing this at the end of the first wave of the virus when many of us in the USA have been vaccinated, and now the variants are on their way. All of us have to be way more careful about being in public when we’re not feeling well.

My advice here applies to pre-COVID conditions, and I’m only speaking from a technical perspective about the fact that it is possible to sing with a cold. It could be that it will never be socially acceptable to be in public with a head cold, and even less so to sing in public or with other musicians while you’re in that condition. These things remain to be seen.

Meanwhile – you can still take the opportunity to work through some of these ideas so that if the world ever returns to any sort of normalcy in this realm, you’ll be ready to go.

Check Out Mark Baxter’s Series

Mark Baxter has posted a series of three VERY HELPFUL videos on YouTube on this very topic: Singing With Cold.

He demonstrates how to do a warm up while he’s got a full-on head cold.

Enjoy! (LOL!)

Eye Contact Is Crucial

Sandy Ervin — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 13:58:56 +0000

If you want to add power to your vocal performance (singing or speaking, for that matter), the number one way to add power to your performance or message is to make eye contact with your audience.

As a beginning or intermediate performer, though, it can be the most difficult skill to incorporate. After you learn all the notes, get the rhythm right, and memorize your lyrics, learning how to make eye contact with your audience is the final mile.

There are three ways beginning singers tend to avoid mastering this crucial skill:

Keeping eyes closed
Looking at a lyric sheet
Looking in any direction EXCEPT at the audience

Let’s discuss how to overcome each one.

Open Your Eyes

The best way to shut everyone out is to just close your eyes. I can understand why beginning singers might utilize this tactic, but once you’re all good, I don’t understand why it keeps getting employed. For me, it would be the same as having a conversation with someone, and they closed their eyes every time it was their turn to speak. Wouldn’t that be weird?

I suppose it could come across as “Oh, he’s just focusing on the technical aspects of the song and trying to remember everything,” or “She must really be getting into that song.” In either case, the performer is shutting off any potential for audience engagement. It seems weird to me.

There are times, though, when closing your eyes could add power to the message. During a conversation, say, you might close your eyes while speaking to express a really strong emotion. For example, “I was just getting so FRUSTRATED!” And you might close your eyes when saying that word and scrunch up your face. But apply it sparingly so it adds power and doesn’t become your modus operandi.

It could be that because so many musicians are employing this technique, it has become acceptable, but I just don’t like it. If you are able to keep your eyes open while you’re talking, there’s no reason why you can’t keep them open while you’re singing.

If You Must, Use a Cheat Sheet

Memorizing lyrics is my Achilles heel, so I have a soft spot for people with this same issue. I also have less mercy because there are ways to address it. I believe everyone can memorize lyrics. It’s just that it takes some of us a lot longer than others. (Do the work, people!)

The idea of going on stage without that precious piece of paper can feel terrifying, I know. But go the next step and see if you can’t make a cheat sheet. See my post on “Ten Steps for Memorizin g Lyrics” and get through to the part called, “Whack It Back to a Cheat Sheet.” Take your cheat sheet on stage with you, but practice looki

ng up from it. If it’s a true cheat sheet, there’s no reason to look at it the entire time you’re singing. In fact, practice performing in such a way that you can steal glances at it without people even noticing.

Nota bene: never take a cheat sheet on stage with you without testing it ahead of time. I’ve made that mistake!

Look People in the Eye

Some of you have the gift of memorizing lyrics, and you are already singing with your eyes open, but you have a habit of looking in weird places. Looking up at the ceiling can come across as if you are trying really hard to remember the lyrics. Looking down at the floor can come across like you’re not feeling confident or like you don’t want to be there or like you did something wrong and you’re going to get in trouble.

I’ve heard some teachers coach people to look just above the heads of the audience. I don’t like this one either because it is still not giving power to your performance. The audience will feel like something is missing, but they might not know why.

What’s more interesting to look at? A person staring off into space or a person who is looking someone else in the eye?

Compare and contrast these two videos of James Taylor and Carly Simon and tell me which one is more engaging with regard to eye contact.

Something way more interesting happens to your face when you are looking someone else in the eye. The other person’s face responds to you, and, in turn, you respond to them. It’s natural! And the rest of your audience becomes way more interested in what’s going on.

But don’t just pick one person out of the crowd and focus your gaze on them. That will feel uncomfortable for everyone. Continuously look around the room, engaging several people in each sweep for about 2 to three seconds only.

Practice Feeling Weird

For those of you who need to work on making eye contact part of your performance, here’s a heads-up: it’s going to feel really uncomfortable and weird at first. But don’t let that stop you! Press through it. Practice singing while looking someone in the eye A LOT! One way to do this is to practice singing to yourself in the mirror and making eye contact with yourself. Incorporate the vulnerable feeling into your performance. You’re putting your voice out there, now put your soul out there. You’re letting people hear your voice, now let them see your soul. It’ll be okay. They’ll be nice to you.

Embrace Your Voice “Cracks”

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:58:46 +0000

What Is a Voice Crack & Why Does It Happen?

First of all, what constitutes a voice crack or a voice break? A voice break is the point in a person’s range where you’re moving from one part of your register into another. (See my post on How Many Vocal Registers Are There?) Sometimes that transition can be smooth, and sometimes it is not. When it isn’t, people often call it a “crack.”

There are a lot of reasons why a voice will crack:

At puberty when the entire vocal production apparatus just gets way bigger in a short period of time
Pushing your voice higher or lower
Vocal chord lesions due to extreme use of the voice like screaming
Dehydration
Laryngitis
Tension due to nerves

(You can see this short article on Why Does My Voice Crack? to learn more about each of those reasons.) But the reason I would like to discuss is the move from one register to another. It most often happens when someone has not developed their “mixed” voice, and they are moving straight to head from chest voice.

You Have Four Choices In Dealing With Your Break

If you are using the full extent of your range, you have to switch from one register to another, and you have four choices for how to handle the switch:

Only sing in one register of your range so you never have to switch
Learn how to smooth out the transition with training in mixed voice
Continue singing out of control and in such a way that you occasionally risk cracking
Learn how to work WITH your break

It’s this last one that I want to talk about. Billy DiCrosta gets on me about calling it a break. He wants everyone to think positively and call it a bridge, which I totally respect, but until you build the bridge, it IS going to be a break, and it IS going to crack.

Make Your Break Work For You Instead of Against You

You can’t get control over it until you know exactly when it’s going to happen. I suggest singing through your break as much as possible until you can plan for it. See if you can make it happen at the same time every time.

Some famous singers actually make the break part of their “sound.” They make it work FOR them. One of my favorites is Sarah McLaughlin. You can hear it in “In the Arms of An Angel.” There’s also Hank Williams “Lovesick Blues.” This is more of a yodel, but he’s still making his break work for him.

You gotta go back and forth across the break a bunch of times before you can start building the bridge.

Some singers feel it’s the worst thing in the world when their voice cracks in the middle of a performance. They feel like the entire performance is a failure or the recording of the song isn’t even worth sharing because they had one voice crack in it. This is a sad way to look at it.

The way I look at it, the voice is an interesting instrument because everyone’s is different. There is no such thing as vocal perfection. Everyone has unique qualities to their voice that they should try to bring out, voice cracks and all!

Learn To Be Content With Your Break

After singing through your break a bunch of times, you ought to be able to plan for it. At least, if it’s gonna happen, just make sure you know when and see if you can make it happen at the same spot every time.

If It’s Still Bothering You, Get Training

A vocal coach who knows how to train people in mixed voice is your best bet, but I can get you started in the right direction with a few tips:

Sing more softly in your chest voice so the switch isn’t so obvious.
Strengthen your entire range every day by doing a Daily Workout. The weaker the voice, the greater the chance of breaking.
Sing in your head voice A LOT. Usually people’s head voices are the weakest part of their range, so singing way up in your head voice every day can really make a difference. Just take a song you know well and sing it as high in your range as you can. Abigail Connolly was cracking me up in the car one day by singing along with several Jacob Collier songs in a row an octave up. She said, “Welcome to my Octave Up Concert.” Lol! That’s practicing your head voice.
Do slidey exercises where you sing a long note starting at the top of your range and sliding it down into your chest range over and over again.
- Work toward making the slide smoothly.
- Slow it down, and notice how it feels when you go through your break.
- If you’re doing it smoothly, well, there’s your bridge!
- Try to slow down the slide when you get to your bridge and stay there, singing the rest of the note right in your bridge.
- Now you’re singing in middle voice! It’s like learning how to ride a bike. Once you find it, you can usually get back there over and over again.

You’ll notice that the more warmed up you are, the harder it is to make your voice crack.

Make a Lifestyle Out of Being at Peace With Your Break

Even the best of us are going to have a moment when we’re not paying attention, or we’re getting lazy, and that voice crack is going to happen. Just smile, and KEEP GOING! If you’re fine with it, your audience will also be fine with it.

I’ll leave you with the example Shawn Mendes sets for reacting to his own voice cracks during a performance.

10 Steps for Memorizing Lyrics

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 28 May 2021 15:31:04 +0000

Let’s Memorize Our Song Lyrics Together

Personally, I think a vocal performance is more powerful when you have memorized the lyrics. So, whenever possible, I encourage students and even a few performing friends to do so. I feel so strongly about it that, if I feel I have “permission” to give feedback to a friend, I’ll say, “I’ll give you a dollar if you’ll sing that without looking at the lyrics sometime.” Sometimes they do! And I welcome them to The Dollar Club.

What’s interesting to me is that there seems to be no middle ground with this skill. People fall into one of two categories:

You can hear the song once, and you almost already have it memorized
You can hear and sing the song a million times and still feel uncertain about some of the lyrics

I fall into the second category and so do at least half of my students. And let’s just get this right out there in beginning: I have no judgement about this topic because I often find myself in scenarios when I need a lyric sheet.

The Dreaded “Jury”

When I was studying music in college, they conducted these awful things called “juries.” A jury would take place at the end of a certain period of study, and you would have to perform a certain number of pieces FROM MEMORY in front of the entire music faculty. (I’m certain they’re still doing this.) And just to make things even more difficult, I had to sing pieces in German, French, and Italian. Omg. I did okay, for the most part, but one time I forgot the German lyrics for a few bars, so I just did some German scat. (I.e., I don’t speak German, so I just made up words with some German sounds.) Thank goodness my professors had a sense of humor and gave me a pass.

Since that time, I have developed a system for memorizing lyrics that seems to work for me and for most of my students.

A Song To Work With

For the purposes of this blog post, I have obtained permission to use the lyrics of a song I regularly cover called “Postcards From Hell,” written by Oliver and Christopher Wood (a.k.a. The Wood Brothers – one of my favorite bands and two of my favorite songwriters).

Here are the lyrics in their entirety:

Postcards From Hell

by Oliver Christopher Wood

Verse 1

I know a man who sings the blues
Yeah he plays just what he feels
Keeps a letter in the pocket of his coat
But he never breaks the seal

Verse 2

Set up in a barroom corner
Playing for tips and beer
People carrying on and drinking
You gotta strain to hear

Verse 3

I’ve seen him playing some old cheap guitar
But he could play on pots and pans
You never heard a soul so pure and true
It’s flowing right out of his hands

Verse 4

He can sing sweet as a choir girl
Or he can sing a house on fire
I’ve seen him calling up the angels
And use a breeze for a telephone wire

Chorus

And if you ask him
How he sings his blues so well
He says
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
And I don’t read postcards from hell

Verse 5

Says he came from down in Texas
Playin’ out since he’s fifteen
You can hear a little Chicago
And a lot of New Orleans

Verse 6

He can take you on a freight train
He can take you down the alley
He can take you to the church
He can walk you through the valley

Chorus

And if you ask him
How he sings his blues so well
He says
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
And I don’t read postcards from hell

Verse 7

I’ve seen him sleeping in a doorway
Maybe living outside
On his back just like a cockroach
But he ain’t waiting to die

Chorus

And if you ask him
How he sings his blues so well
He says
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
I got a soul that I won’t sell
And I don’t read postcards from hell

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

You’ll need the following:

A piece of lined paper
A sharp #2 pencil with a good eraser
Access to the lyrics of the song

Step 2: Write Song Info at the Top

Refer to my post “The Seven Things You Should Know About the Song You’re Singing,” and write all that information at the top of your paper leaving at least a 1/2″ border. Invariably, once you create this important document, you will be sharing it with people, and if you write outside of the margin, the copier won’t pick it up. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found my handcrafted song maps in the binders of complete strangers.)

Here’s how mine looks so far:

Step 2: Give Each Section a Name

There are industry standard section headings like verse, chorus, and bridge, but it doesn’t really matter what you call the sections as long as you know what you mean. This is a pretty simple song, as far as sections headings go. Stay tuned for a future post called “How To Create a Song Summary Chart” when I will go into more detail about how to make song maps that are more useful for more complicated songs and helpful in scenarios like band practices. Right now, we’re in survival mode just trying to memorize lyrics.

Step 3: Make a Song Map

Write the section headings in order, giving space between each one.

My song map looks like this:

I added in where the Intro Riff comes back because it helps me think of the verses in groups.

Step 4: Determine What the Song Is About & Create A Story

It is still shocking to me that people sing and play songs that they have no idea what they’re about, but it happens all the time. Spend some time with the lyrics to learn what the song is about. Be able to articulate the meaning of the song in your own words, even if you are only guessing.

(I have done extensive research on “Burning Down the House,” but there is no meaning or story. I heard from someone hat David Byrne just put together a bunch of phrases that he liked the sound of. The result? I don’t think I will ever be able to memorize those lyrics.)

In the case of “Postcards From Hell,” there’s not much of a story. It’s more about describing what this artist is like and describing his character, which is the crux of the matter.

I would summarize each section for myself in this way:

Verse 1: A guy sings the blues and keeps a letter that he never opens.
Verse 2: He plays in noisy bars.
Verse 3: He plays a cheap guitar, but it doesn’t matter what he plays because his heart and soul comes through the music his hands make.
Verse 4: He can sing with all kinds of emotion and meaning.
Chorus: He ain’t sellin’out.
Verse 5: He came from Texas but sounds like Chicago and New Orleans.
Verse 6: He can transport you to all kinds of places with his music.
Chorus: He ain’t sellin’out.
Verse 7: He lives like a homeless person, but not like a person without hope or purpose.
Chorus: He ain’t sellin’ out.

You don’t need to write this down for yourself, but going through this exercise in your mind will help you with the next step.

Step 5: Determine Key Lyrics For Each Section

For each section, figure out which lyric(s) or phrase(s) might help you remember the entire section, and write those next to the section headings. Try to write as few words as possible because you can always add more in a later step. Often, you don’t even need to write anything for the chorus because you can remember that no matter what.

Here’s mine:

Step 6: Try Singing Through the Song Only Using Your Song Map

It is of utmost importance that you do this step WITHOUT singing along to the original recording! You don’t realize how many cues you are getting from the singer until you take him or her away. And if you can sing along to a karaoke track or some sort of accompaniment, even better.

Make note of where you might need more help with lyrics.

Step 7: Adjust Your Song Map Accordingly

Add in as few lyrics as possible until you can make it all the way through the song in confidence.

And learn from my mistake: never take an untested song map on stage with you.

Step 8: Whack It Back To A Cheat Sheet

After singing through the song successfully a few times, now it’s time to whack it down to a cheat sheet. Write a new song map with fewer lyrics and repeat steps five through eight until you can do it with just a few notes to yourself.

Mine looks like this:

Step 9: Rehearse with Your Cheat Sheet!

Sometimes I need to take these cheat sheets on stage with me, but I prefer being to use them in rehearsals a few times. Then I can jump off the cliff and go chart-free at rehearsal first so I can feel ready for performance.

Step 10: Store Cheat Sheets in an Organized Fashion

I keep my all my cheat sheets in binders in alphabetical order so I can refer back to them when I want to perform the song again after not having sung it for awhile. In fact, I keep my original song map AND my cheat sheet because sometimes I need to go all the way back.

And now! You should go watch The Wood Brothers perform this song. Enjoy!

Wanna See My Uvula?

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 14 May 2021 16:25:55 +0000

We Have to Discuss Uvulas

At some point during vocal training, we have to discuss uvulas. It’s sort of an awkward topic, but it must be done. You don’t need to necessarily do anything special with your uvula, but, in order to get a good open tone on the biggest vowel sounds, it helps to get your tongue down in the back of your mouth to the point that you can see your uvula. It’s that little fleshy part that hangs down in the back of the mouth when you say, “AH” for the doctor. It’s the part that they often illustrate in cartoons when someone is screaming.

How I Found My Uvula

I don’t know what possessed me to do this in college. I don’t think any voice teacher ever explained it to me, but I spent a great deal of time in the practice rooms looking in the mirrors trying to see my uvula while I was singing. Some of the practice rooms had entire walls of mirrors, so there was no getting away from yourself. I just knew it was going to help me get that big sound. It took several weeks, but I was finally able to get control over that part of my tongue.

The Voice Needs a Resonating Chamber

In order to produce any sort of acoustic sound, an instrument needs a resonating chamber. Acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments have bodies, wind instruments have different shaped tubes, and pianos have the part that encases the sound board. Voices only have the body, and, to a certain extent, you get what you get. Fortunately, though, there is a lot you can do to manipulate the shape of your mouth and throat to get a warmer and rounder tone.

The number one thing you can do is OPEN YOUR MOUTH BIGGER! I’ve discussed this several times, and I’m going to keep talking about it over and over again. If you haven’t read my post on Opera Open, now is the time.

Imagine the sound that a small toy plastic horn makes in contrast to the big sound coming from a trumpet or an even bigger wind instrument like a trombone or a tuba. The bigger the resonating chamber, the bigger and warmer the sound.

Get Your Tongue Down in the Back

After you get your mouth open big enough to stick two fingers in there, the next thing is to get the tongue down in the back. Remember, we’re trying to create as much space in the mouth and throat as possible. Once you have a good amount of space, then you can start manipulating the shape of it to get different vowels and tones. If the space is small, you’re not going to have many options.

Check out this video of Adele doing Carpool Karaoke with James Cordon. I like it because even though she’s goofing around, she’s making beautiful shapes with her mouth, and, while you can’t see her uvula, you can see that her tongue is down in the back.

This Is Really Awkward, But…

I’m going to show you my uvula and the difference it makes in the tone while I’m singing. It’ll just take a few moments.

How I Prepare to Perform a Song

Kirsten Livingston — Fri, 07 May 2021 19:21:11 +0000

Recently, I’ve been having a glorious time in Sandy’s Thursday evening Core Curriculum Class. I’m learning and applying music theory lessons while having a lot of fun. And… one of our class members suggested that we each take turns performing for each other. I’m not in the habit of singing and performing as an adult, and I now need to identify, learn, fill out and perform songs that I think will work for my voice and resonate with me and don’t all sound the same as each other. . . That can be a tall order!

To learn a song from the ground up thoroughly and properly, see Sandy’s post Steps I Use to Teach Someone to Learn a Song.

Step 1: Choose a Song

I look for a song I can sing reasonably well. I won’t try to reproduce it perfectly note for note according to the sheet music. After all, I’m the only person singing, and I’m working with a backing track. I do want to sound good, and I need to be able to follow the melody of the song well by ear. Each of us has our own criteria for choosing songs. I like to sometimes choose songs that are right in what I would call my “sweet spot” — songs that will be easier and simpler for me to figure out and convey; other times, I challenge myself with a song I wouldn’t ordinarily try. Right now, I’m working on “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).”

Step 2: Check Out Other Artists’ Versions of My Song

I look for the song on YouTube (or Spotify or Apple Music). I often have a version in mind that I like, but when I look for different versions to see what other artists have done, I often find treasures. Right now, I’m preparing to sing “Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” and I hit the jackpot with my research! I’ve included YouTube recordings below for four different artists with five different versions of “Bang Bang…”

I absolutely fell in love with the original, sung by Nancy Sinatra — spare voice, with a little echo, lonely, very little adornment. But there was a lot more to come…
Daniela Andrade chooses to go to town on the “downs,” but stays with a lot of the feeling of the original (she sings in a higher key).
Cher really pumps up the story and gives it a driving rhythm, making it feel like an entirely different song. It’s not really for me, but I had fun watching her and admire what she’s done with it.
Which brings me to Lady Gaga. This woman can perform a song — wow! I had to include two separate performances because each of these is quite different and fabulous. She tells a story each time, honors other musicians on stage, moves beautifully, and what a belting range! That last verse that she sings an octave up is out of this world!

I am now sufficiently inspired. I wish I could put across Lady Gaga’s version, but I think that may be out of my range.

Step 3: Find a Backing Track and Download Onto Phone

I did some looking around, and my backing track is most likely going to be the Nancy Sinatra version. I’m okay with the limitations this imposes. I can decide how much to fill out within this framework. I download the backing track onto my phone or some other portable device so I have it with me wherever I go. I also keep it on my computer.

Step 3: Learn the Melody Cold

And now it’s time to memorize the melody.

Depending on the level of difficulty and how familiar I am with the song at this point, I learn the melody first so I understand where my voice will be going and when. If I need to take time to sing along with the full track before dropping out the singer, it’s okay with me to take my time. I slowly, bring myself along until I know the melody well. I never force the words until I’ve really got the melody down!

Step 4: Print Out the Lyrics and Memorize Them

Once I know the melody well, I print out the lyrics BIG on a sheet of paper. It’s very easy to search lyrics online, I search the song title. When the lyrics come up, I copy all of the lyrics, paste them into Google Docs at 14pt and print out. When the type is nice and big, I can see the words to cue myself as I get more familiar — I can look away and look back.

I drill the lyrics by themselves, just speaking at first, then with the backing track. If there are rough sections, I go back and sing only those sections.

Step 5: Practice In the Car

Remember that backing track I downloaded? Now that I’ve memorized everything, this means that when I get in my car, I can put my backing track on and sing my song to my heart’s content whenever I’m driving. Most songs are less than three minutes long, so I can practice my song many times a day in my car. It’s a terrific way to practice and a fantastic way of getting the whole process to be second-nature!

Step 6: Make the Song My Own

This is perhaps the most difficult to define and the most important step of getting a song ready. I need to live inside the song, make the story mine, feel every word make sense as it comes out of my mouth. I often stand and move with the music, letting my arms and hands flow. My entire being must believe in what I am doing — my body, my heart, my brain, so that it all finally will show itself in my voice and face. Because as you see in the final step, the stage/screen on which I will be performing is very small.

Step 7: Final Rehearsals Before the Performance

My performances have been on Zoom, so my final rehearsals are sitting in front of my computer screen facing the camera. I stay with my song just as above when I “made it my own.” These sit-down rehearsals in front of my laptop feel a little strange, but are beyond helpful! You can record yourself ahead of time to see how your performance comes across.

Diphthong Management in Singing

Sandy Ervin — Fri, 07 May 2021 15:20:26 +0000

I get the same sort of reaction from voice students when I want to talk about diphthongs as when I want to talk about glottal stop management:

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

According to Google search, a diphthong is a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side). And I just learned today that it has two pronunciations: dif-thong and dip-thong. I always thought the second one was incorrect.

Why You Should Care About Diphthong Management When You Sing

Besides getting your mouth open (see Opera Open), learning to manage your diphthongs is the next most effective way of improving your singing. Unless a country singing style with a Southern accent is your goal, you need to learn this technique.

Remember the Five Basic Vowel Shapes

Before you can understand diphthongs, you need to understand the five basic vowel shapes in singing for those of us singing in English. You can watch the 51 second video here for a demonstration, but here’s the list:

Combine Vowel Sounds for Common Words

Many of the common diphthongs in English aren’t spelled the way you might think. The main one that we sing all the time is “I.” It combines the AH and EE vowel sounds.

According to FluentU, there are eight official diphthongs in American English. Here’s there list using the International Phoentic Alphabet (IPA):

/aɪ/ as in “Light”
/eɪ/ as in “Play”
/eə/ as in “Pair”
/ɪə/ as in “Deer”
/oʊ/ as in “Slow”
/ɔɪ/ as in “Toy”
/ʊə/ as in “Sure”

I don’t know about you, but the idea of learning the IPA seems more painful than sticking pins in my eyes. Click on the link above if you want to know more from them and get a demo of all eight.

I only want to address four using my spellings of the pure vowel sounds:

AH + EE as in “I” and “High”
EH + EE as in “Hey” and “Say”
OH + OO as in “Slow” and “Hope”
OH + EE as in “Boy” and “Joy”

Notice that your mouth tends to be more open for the first vowel and more closed on the second vowel.

The Big Bang for Your Buck

What will get you big results is this idea:

Hold out the open vowel for as long as possible before closing to the second vowel sound.

In John Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High,” the last word of each line of the chorus has the diphthong AH + EE, and he holds each word out for at least four beats:

But the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high (Colorado)
Rocky mountain high (Colorado)

Enough Talk, Here's a Demo

I will say that only AFTER I made this video, I watched Katy sing it, and she does close down to the “ee” when she sings “ignite,” but it doesn’t bother me so much because she keeps it open when it counts on the word “Firework.” “Baby, you’re a FAAAAAAAH-er-work!”

Learn How to Pronounce “STR” Consonant Combos

Sandy Ervin — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 16:05:39 +0000

This may be my last rant in my series of rants about agita-inducing pronunciation idiosyncrasies in singing, but I’m not promising anything. So reader beware!

For those of you needing to catch up, my last couple of turgid and riveting posts were entitled “I Can Tell You Are From Connecticut” and “Glottal Stop Management.” Go ahead and read them; we’ll wait.

Here we go. The third way people from all over the country are lazy in speaking occurs whenever the consonant combination “str” shows up in a word. It comes out more like “shtr.” I think it’s because a person is preparing for that “r” sound while he or she is saying the “s” sound.

Say an “s” sound by hissing. Then very slowly move to the “r” sound, and notice how you have to move through an “sh” sound to get there. It’s easier to move to an “r” sound if you’re already on the “sh” sound. It’s almost like saying the word “sure.”

Say the word “stir.” Now say “shtir.” Notice how it’s a little easier to get to the “r” sound.

Here’s a demonstration:

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Sure.mp3

I have been brooding on this topic for several weeks while thinking about composing this post, so my radar has been extra sensitive while listening to newscasters and podcasters. I knew about the more common words like:

street
strong

While listening over the past week, however, I’ve noticed it happens in the middle of words like:

restaurant
yesterday

And then I almost fell out of my chair when a guy on a CNET podcast said, “ashtronaut.” ASHTRONAUT?! Come on, people!! Omg.

Here is me saying all of these words:

First, the lazy way
Second, the way the dictionary says you’re supposed to pronounce them

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Str-versus-Shtr.mp3

Now, I want you to all practice saying the following sentence:

The strong astronauts strutted down the street to the restaurant yesterday and played a bunch of stringed instruments.

Do any of you have pronunciation pet peeves you’d like to share? Add them in the comments below.

I Can Tell You Are From Connecticut

Sandy Ervin — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 20:56:43 +0000

Now that I’ve gotten myself on the topic of glottal stop management, it brings me to a point I would like to make about the Connecticut accent and how it affects singers.

My First Job in Connecticut

I grew up in the South and moved to Connecticut in the fall of 1982 after graduating from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. We won’t talk about why I moved here or why I could only get a job as a waitress at that time. We will just talk about my first day on the job as a breakfast waitress at The Colony Inn on Chapel Street.

I was getting training from a beautiful, nicely-dressed, well-spoken woman in her mid-forties on how to make espresso. Everything was going smoothly until she said, “You’ll need to press this buh-en first, and then this buh-en…” and so on, I thought to myself, “SERIOUSLY? That’s how they say “button” in Connecticut? I don’t know if I can live here.”

Dead Giveaway That You’re From Connecticut

We could go on and on about accents and how they come across and make first impressions, but I want to address an ongoing pet peeve I have with the Connecticut accent in particular. People from Connecticut will always respond, “But I thought Connecticut had no accent!” Well, some people do and some people don’t so much, but there is one dead giveaway:

The use of a glottal stop instead of a “t” sound before the consonant “n” and “m”

The Glottal Stop “T”

When you’re talking, it’s not so much of an issue, but when you’re singing, it’s really a glaring. Here are three words that Connecticut people say differently from most other regions:

Button
Mitten
Fountain

It happens with other words too, but it is most noticeable when the “t” sound is being followed by an “n” or “m” sound.

There’s no way to really spell these words in a way that you could pronounce them, but they’re more like:

Buh-en
Mih-en
Fowh-en

The distinguishing characteristic is that the tip of the tongue never reaches the top of the mouth in order to execute the “t” sound.

I will say them here in the manner of someone who is known to have a thicker Connecticut accent than most.

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Glottal-Stop-T.mp3

As soon as I point that out to someone, their immediate reaction is to become OVERLY emphatic about the “t” and say:

But-Ten
Mit-Ten
Foun-Tain

This sounds ridiculous and is not what I would hope for in a correction. I will demonstrate the ridiculousness here for you:

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Overly-Executed-T.mp3

How to Fix It

Unfortunately, though, what I would hope for in a correction is not easily executed by people who have grown up with this accent. And perhaps there are those of you out there who are completely content in your Connecticut accent, but I will attempt to explain it nonetheless.

The correction is force the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth to begin the execution of the “t” but to then, instead of pushing air through it to make what’s called plosive, keep the tip of your tongue behind your teeth and immediately go to the “n” sound by using a glottal stop to get there. This, to me, sounds more normal and more like the way the rest of English-speaking people would say it.

Here’s my demonstration:

https://www.crescendomusicloft.com/wp-content/uploads/Proper-Glottal-Stop-N.mp3

Another Inappropriate Use of the Glottal Stop “T”

Another correction that I am often making is when a person is singing the word combination “at me.” There’s no way to spell it, but here is my attempt:

Short “a” sound (as in cat) followed by a glottal stop followed by the word “me”

This one is even harder to fix. It’s very subtle, and you really almost have to see it to hear it, so I’ll do a video demonstration. The correction is the same as the one above, and the result should sound something like the following:

Would You Like to Give It a Go?

Many of you reading this post are probably from Connecticut, and you might be asking yourself, “Do I speak that way?” Feel free to record yourself saying any of the example words or singing the first line of “Misty” and upload them here for a free assessment.