Quote Of The Day:

“I just wanna hear you breathe”

Lenny Kravitz from an Absolut Vodka commercial

If you have been following my blog posts over the last 9 months you probably have deciphered that my biggest vocal coaching tip is “Breathe”. As a singer, breathing needs a little more attention than just the automatic reflex of inhaling oxygen into our body.

Breathing properly is the secret weapon to becoming the best possible singer you can be. Hopefully, by reading past blogs, you are already aware of how to achieve the perfect singer’s breath: air in/ tummy out, filling up your mid section, or tank as I call it, from the belly button up to help support your notes and give your diaphragm support fuel to work with. The next step is to decipher exactly where in the song you need to breathe and how big each breath should be depending on what range of your voice the phrase is in. General rule of thumb is that your breaths will be small in capacity in your low notes (for example, you will only take in 30% of the entire size of your “tank”) but will get bigger as you ascend up in your range with the biggest capacity breaths happening in your upper mid-range full voice. (85-90% of the size of your “tank”).

When choosing a song for performance the first thing you will need to do is write out your lyrics by listening to the song. Once you have that done, comb through the lyric sheet and mark with a checkmark, asterisk, dot, or whatever will become your symbol for a breath, all the places you need to breathe. This is called the “breathing rhythm” of the song and each song has a specific and unique breathing rhythm unto itself.

Upon first glance, you may think that you will just breathe at the end of every phrase and it’s obvious where your breathmarks should go. Ahhhh, not so grasshopper…

Breathmarks are strategically placed for the following reasons: to make sure you will have the right amount of air per phrase, to support specific notes with power in Diva or Rockstar placement (your upper mid range full voice) or to infuse a phrase, syllable or word with emotion creating vocal nuances and dynamics. Sometimes you will find yourself running one line into the next or breathing half way through a line to achieve the desired effect. Here is an example of some lyrics from the Alicia Keys hit “If I Ain’t Got You” at about 2:45 of the song. (Go here to listen http://youtu.be/Ju8Hr50Ckwk) She is an awesome breather as you can hear her every breath and it gives her songs such a real human emotional feel. I have notated the breaths with an asterisk *.

If I Ain’t Got You (2:45)

 *You, You, You

Some people want it all

*But I don’t * want nothing at all

*If it ain’t you baby

*If I ain’t got * you baby

Some people want * diamond rings

*Some just * want everything

*But everything means nothing

*If I ain’t got * you, * yeah

Oh my gosh, hear how she infuses emotion and life into that song by where she places her breaths and how many there are in that one chorus? It really does create vocal magic.

Next time you are learning a new song, mark all the places in the song you need to breathe. This will help you deliver your song with the proper support for your notes, power where you need it and help you create the most amazing vocal emotional moments that will make your audience sit up and take notice.

Until Next Time… Breathe (big surprise) and Happy Singing!

Angela

ps – Stay tuned on information in next week’s blog about “Live At Angela’s” next Saturday, May 19th at 8pm PST

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day:

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That’s just copying what someone else did.

Sebastian Bach

Hang on there Sebastian (Skid Row) Bach. I have to disagree with that statement. There are so many good reasons for doing cover songs and being a “cover” artist. For those of you who don’t know what a “cover song” is, it refers to when you play or record someone else’s song that has already been recorded and most likely has already been a hit.

In my younger days of playing bars and lounges 6 nights a week and before I wrote and recorded any original songs of my own, I was a singer in a cover band. As a burgeoning singer, I learned so many skills from the artists whose songs I was performing by emulating specific nuances from their styles every night for weeks on end. I would listen intently for the textures, trills, phrasing and other characteristics of their voice, figure out how to do it, then add it to my own repetoire of singing nuances. Eventually my own vocal style was developed from a culmination of all the things I learned by listening to other singers. Just to be clear, borrowing stylistic nuances from singers you really like is a positive thing. Trying to sound exactly like another singer isn’t as good unless you want to perform in a tribute band to that artist. (We’ll save my opinion on that for another blog).

As for recording someone else’s song as a cover, well, that has kick started a lot of new artist’s careers. Recently, a friend of mine posted a video of a young band doing Adele’s huge hit from last year, “Rolling  In The Deep”. We all know and love Adele’s version and this brilliant young band gave it a different, but equally effective stylistic twist, and put their own spin on it. It’s fabulous and has garnered them over 700,000 hits on youtube. Check it out at http://youtu.be/nsqh9jHkHlM Other examples of cover songs that had a different twist and went on to become hits as well are UB40’s reggae version of the Neil Diamond song, “Red, Red Wine”, Whitney Houston’s  power ballad cover of Dolly Parton’s country ballad “I Will Always Love You”, CCR’s ratty rock version of Marvin Gaye’s soulful “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” to name just a few. I know there are more current examples out there, but those are the first ones that came to my brain. Oh, what about Walk Off The Earth’s cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”. OMG, they have over 100 MILLION hits on youtube for that song.  To me, it says that a well-written song can translate into different styles, genres, tempos and be equally as sensational. It’s a great way to fill a set list if you are an original band that doesn’t quite have enough material to fill the show. Getting creative and putting a new spin or your own style on a cover song may get you noticed and have people buying your version on itunes and adding to the number of hits you get on youtube. The bottom line is, love the songs you do be it original or cover and that emotion will translate to your audience to give them a memorable musical experience too.

Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

On a very exciting note, my 5 Point Singing System online vocal program is now available at www.5pointsingingsystem.com. Check it out and sign up for some free video tutorials. See you there!

Quote Of The Day:

“O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”

American National Anthem

It’s playoff time. There’s a lot of anthem singing going on. Being asked to sing the national anthem for a televised national event is an incredibly daunting thing. One can’t help but feel a little nervous. There are so many variables that could potentially hinder even the best singer’s performance. These variables may include: not getting a sound check, how badly the sound bounces around in the arena and affects what you are hearing, the quality of the microphone, or overworking a simple melody that was written over 100 to 200 years ago. (Haven’t we all heard that one a few too many times).

I was quite shocked earlier this week when I heard the American national anthem sung very badly on a North American televised Stanley Cup playoff game. It wasn’t that the singer over sang the anthem this time, it was just that she was not a good singer at all. I felt embarrassed for her, the team, and whoever thought it was a good idea to let this person sing on national television. It was not a good fit. Now, I am a firm believer in giving everyone a second chance and that maybe they didn’t hear what they needed to hear to sing well or whatever, but I have also been around singers and coached singers long enough to know when someone is not quite ready for a spotlight such as singing the national anthem on international television.

The following tips are to guide anyone finding themselves asked to sing a national anthem in any kind of arena, from your neighbourhood little league opening day (just did that for my son’s team last weekend and it was a career highlight) to singing for a nationally televised sporting event, which I have also done many times over the years.

Often, we singers perform the national anthem acapella, or without accompaniment. If you are unable to choose the proper key out of mid air, you might want to invest in a pitch pipe to help you start on the exact note you need to. When we used to sing the anthem with Farmer’s Daughter, we always used a pitch pipe. (One time, I hit the note as our cue, then a cow mooed on a different note just before we sang our first note, and we ended up singing in the key of cow… true story). When you use a pitch pipe it is less likely that your nerves will have you start too high or too low for the anthem. It helps put your mind at ease that you will be singing in a comfortable key.

The next piece of advice I like to give new anthem singers is to go easy on the vocal gymnastics and refrain from singing too many notes annihilating the melody so it is unrecognizable. It is my humble opinion that the whole purpose of singing a national anthem in a public forum is for people to come together in a proud moment to sing their national anthem and celebrate their country. If the anthem singer is trilling a million notes per second, this does not invite the audience to sing along to their own anthem. Yes, it is a performance, but in this instance, the anthem singer is mainly a leader for others to sing with. There is room for some stylizing and tasteful trills, just don’t overdo it. For a brilliant example of tasteful trills and dynamic anthem singing, google Whitney Houston’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner from the 1991 Super Bowl. That was perfection.

Lastly, don’t forget to breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe. The first thing that happens when we get nervous is that we hold our breath. Take a couple of big deep breaths before you walk out into the spotlight and be sure to take the required breaths between each phrase to keep your nerves calm, your pitch great and your notes floating effortlessly out onto the airwaves for everyone to enjoy and be moved by your vocal prowess and ability to make them proud to be from where they are.

Go Canucks Go… oh, too late ; (

Until next time… Breathe (don’t over sing the melody)

And Happy Singing

Angela

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day:

“I throw my hands up in the air sometimes sayin’ EH-OH, gotta let go”

Taio Cruz

Hands… they are most interesting appendages. They give us humans an advantage over other species in the animal kingdom because they are so dexterous and can do so many things. You think that would be a good thing right?

A common statement I hear when I am vocal and performance coaching is “I don’t know what to do with my hands”. One of the first things I try to bring attention to is avoiding wrapping both of your hands around the microphone when it is on the stand. Sometimes, this gives off an air of insecurity as if you are hanging on for dear life. It also tends to cover up your face, which is an important way singers communicate emotion to their audience.

Personally, I use the mic stand about 80% of the time when I am doing a performance and hand-hold the microphone for the rest. I choose to leave the mic on the stand for most of my set because I really like using my hands as a tool to enhance my vocal performance. Your body and how you move it is also a part of your instrument as a singer. Learning how to become comfortable in your vocal abilities and the way you move physically on stage is all a part of the experience of becoming a better performer.

Here are a few insights into how to look comfortable behind the microphone when it is on the stand. The first thing that you want to be aware of is moving in a way that is complimentary to the song style. For example, if you are singing a groovy r & b song, you won’t want to stand still like a scarecrow and not use your hands and your body to help project how soulful the song actually is. Give into how it makes you feel and how you want to move to it. You can move and sing at the same time in a very subtle kind of way without having to be as choreographed as Lady Gaga or Michael Jackson when singing a song. I use my hands to tell a story when I sing, just as I would do if I were talking to help animate what I am saying. You want to come off looking natural and not affected or too choreographed. You also want to avoid gestures that are too big in case it looks too dramatic and over thought. It’s all about being natural. Check out this video I did recently to see what I am talking about http://youtu.be/0Dc_ckogkq0.

One more little tip I love to share with singers is that you can really make people feel something and sit up and take notice when you ever so subtly place your hand on your own body. Things like placing your hand on your heart or running your hand through your hair or even grabbing your crotch like Michael Jackson (lol) will make people sit up and take notice whether it makes them feel attracted to you, warm all over, or maybe even shocked (admit it, those of us who remember the 80’s were a little shocked and/or intrigued the first time we saw Madonna writhing on the floor with her hands all over her own body or MJ grabbing himself on television or in a video… nowadays, that wouldn’t be shocking at all and it show us how we’ve become a little desensitized over the years. But the point is… how did it make you feel?) As a singer and performer, the more comfortable and natural you come across to your audience, the better the connection will be to project emotion to them by how great you not only sing, but how naturally your body moves as well.

Until Next Time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

ps – ten days and counting down to the launch of my online vocal program, The 5 Point Singing System… Woohoo!

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day:

“There’s nothing to fear but fear itself”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Okay, I stand here today referred to as a mature woman (if you count being 29 mature ha ha). Alright, I’ll admit I am a little older than that, but luckily, I still feel like I am 17. Lately I have been reunited with a lot of my former students who have grown into beautiful, capable, young women embarking on a new journey of singing, writing, and performing their craft. I am so excited for them as I remember what it felt like to be entering the music business with wide-eyed wonderment and a dream of becoming a professional singer and performer when I was their age. It has been an amazing journey that has taken me around the world and allowed me to create and perform with incredible singers and musicians along the way. Who wouldn’t want to experience that kind of magic?…BUT, there is one thing that can hold a person back from fulfilling such a dream and that is FEAR.

It always amazes me when I hear a person sing really well in a casual setting and when I comment on how well they sing they say “oh, I could never get up in front of people and do what you do”. My response is always “why not?” There are so many different kinds of fear: fear of success, fear of failure, fear of looking stupid, fear of being judged… I could go on all day. Well, here’s my take on that… do you want to play in the game or forever be outside looking in wishing you could play? As Nike says – “just do it”. If you love to sing, get out there and sing. In this age of reality t.v., the amount of opportunities for people to enter singing, talent and songwriting contests have exploded. Challenge yourself. Do one thing a day that scares you and if today’s fear is getting up on stage to sing for the first time because you really want to – DO IT…  I DARE YA!!! Once you do it, I guarantee you will feel so free and be so hooked. Life is too short not to follow your dreams no matter how big or how small.

Until Next Time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

ps – two more weeks until the launch of “The 5 Point Singing System” vocal program… stay tuned.

Quote Of The Day:

“It’s Written All Over Your Face”

Rude Boys, 1991

In the age of reality t.v. it seems that one can’t turn on the tube without seeing some kind of talent competition. As I was mindlessly surfing channels a few days ago, I caught a segment of the latest show that pits performers against each other called, The Voice. The scenario was a “sing off” between a couple of artists on Christina Aguilera’s team. To my understanding, they are on the same team but there is only one winner after they share the stage performing a song that was chosen for them – often out of their comfort zone. The loser of this pairing sadly has to pack their bags and go home.

We got to see the rehearsal footage of an unlikely pairing of the Nashville duo called, The Line, and the rappin’ r & b dynamo, Moses Stone. When they all found out they would be collaborating on the classic Stones tune, “Satisfaction”, it was obvious that the female in the duo, Hailey, was not pleased. Christina gave a speech to her artists saying that you have to be willing and able to be versatile in this business as you never know who will come calling to work with you and to survive you have to know how to morph into another artist’s energy. This is what she said it takes to be a career artist.

The displeasure of the song choice was obvious from The Line, but, Leland, the guy in the duo, took it in stride and when the time came to perform it in front of a live audience, he rocked it. So did Moses with his “give it all” energy and ability to entertain and grab the crowd’s attention by genuinely looking and sounding like he was having fun. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Miss Hailey. I am not sure if the poor darling has ever watched herself perform on video, but for most of the performance she bounced back and forth between looking like a scared beginner who didn’t test drive her wardrobe (see my previous blog on that) to someone constantly smelling bad cheese. Although she sang quite well, I felt like she gave little more than a half hearted performance while the dudes were giving it their all. This leads me to the title of this blog and the quote of the day that started this column. The audience “hears what they see”…think about it. This lovely blonde was singing well, but the look on her face was saying, “I am not enjoying this, I didn’t want to do this song, and I am throwing a little Diva tantrum right here for everyone to see”. Now maybe that was not the intent of the performer, but what her face was saying on that stage was enough to turn people off so that they didn’t even hear how well she was singing. Three of the four judges gave the nod to Moses and The Line was sent home to Nashville.

On the flip side of “people hear what they see”, an average singer can have a major coup with an audience by having a good attitude and by looking like they are having the time of their life, engaging the audience in their performance. Let’s face it, the average music listener isn’t necessarily a schooled musician or singer. They relate to energy (good or bad) and count on an emotional experience shared by the singer. If the song has attitude and rocks, then a singer with a sour look on their face won’t move them in any way, in fact, it will turn them off and ruin their experience. As a performer, facial expressions that match the mood of the song will win an audience and give them the emotional and entertainment value they are looking for be it light or dark. If you are having a bad day, suck it up, give it your best and be thankful that you are on that stage in the first place. Unless of course, you are singing about dark brooding stuff and being dour is your vibe.

Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day:

“Scotty, beam us up”

Captain Kirk from the series “Star Trek”

Before all you Trekkies come down on me, I did my research and this was the actual phrase used in the Star Trek series of the late 60’s. The phrase that everyone is used to hearing is “Beam me up Scotty”, but that was actually used only on a bumper sticker followed by “there’s no intelligent life down here”. (Pretty funny when you think about it.)

The reason I’ve chosen this particular quote today is to use it as a metaphor for all the current and wonderful technology we now have at our fingertips in this ever changing industry we call music.

A few weeks ago, I was lamenting to a dear friend and incredible musician about there not being any piano/voice gigs around anymore. I love singing with my big band, but I also love the more intimate piano/voice gigs where I could choose a loungier repetoire and use a different set of vocal chops than what I do with my full on horn band. His response was “let’s do a piano/voice concert from your music room and invite people to watch it over the internet”. I was stunned. “You can actually do that?” I asked. He said “yup” and this past Monday, we did. It was a fun, interactive performance between our lounge duo and all the people who registered to get the link to the performance who I initially contacted through my computer address book, facebook fan pages, and this blog. I started doing a bit of research and found out that this is a burgeoning way to reach an established audience, gain more fans and possibly make some money by doing it – all from the comfort of your own home, hotel room on the road, or venue of your choice.

With a small investment, you can buy streaming softwear that will enable you to do this. There is usually a monthly fee associated with it, but it might be a good thing to use as a marketing tool for building an audience or awareness of your band, songwriting, vocal abilities, whatever you want to share with your fans, established and new. You will want to experiment with technology a little to get a decent looking webcam for the broadcast and figure out how to make the sound be the best it can be for live streaming. I used my MacBook Pro camera and a usb Snowball microphone to pick up the room sound through the p.a. system where the vocal and piano were coming from. It was a very effective first time foray into internet broadcasting once we used the right softwear. Note: it is very important to do a streaming test hours before your scheduled performance to be sure you are indeed able to broadcast and that you are being received. (Believe me, I found out the hard way on this point when the test worked the day before and not the day of due to a server glitch – very stressful).

For all you social media savvy artists you could be playing concerts from your living room and have hundreds of people register to see your performance just by posting what you will be doing on facebook, twitter, etc. Jake, my redheaded sistah from anothah mothah” in Farmer’s Daughter, enlightened me to stageit.com where you can set up your performance to make money for yourself or a charity. You set the concert date and price and get to keep a large percentage of the gross from the ticket sales. You will need to do some leg-work to get people there by posting reminders and updates, but you are probably used to that kind of frequent communication already. What a great way to enhance your revenue stream while you are recording, rehearsing, or home on a break from touring.

This may be old news to a lot of you out there, but I was so blown away by all this technology and potential to get out there to the big world I had to share my latest adventure with you. So, “Scotty, beam us up” so that we may find our way into the screens and hearts of all the people out there we are ever so grateful to call our fans.

Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

ps, we are within the one month countdown to launching The 5 Point Singing System online… stay tuned!

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day:

‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’

Coca-Cola commercial 1971

‘H Seepage’

Earlier this week a friend of mine asked me to come be a judge at a local karaoke night which he hosts. I was a bit afraid of having to sit through a couple of hours of bad singing, but to my surprise, there were a lot of really good singers and singers with a lot of potential. If you love to sing, karaoke nights are a great way to get out there and just do it. It is a great way to get stage experience and hone your vocal skills. If you have entered a contest and get some feedback from a judge who knows what they are talking about you can get some enlightenment and make some progress with your vocal challenges. Personally, I love being able to give people who obviously love to sing some guidance on how they can up their game a little. (For those of you who are aware of pop culture from the 1970’s, the quote above is from the famous hilltop Coca-Cola commercial and is my personal mission LOL!)

At the karaoke contest, I witnessed a lot of wonderful natural abilities, but I also witnessed a few singers doing something that is what I think of as self-sabotaging. If I were to put my finger on a fairly common bad habit some singers have it’s called “H Seepage”. (Sounds a bit nasty doesn’t it?) Most singers don’t even realize they are doing it, but it can have some pretty serious implications if not fixed and may cause major frustration without knowing why.

“H Seepage” is when an “h” sound escapes in front of a vowel sound where it shouldn’t be… for example “h”I  l”h”ove  y”h”ou (I love you). Do you see all the extra h’s in that line? What happens when you do that? You deplete your air a lot faster than if you didn’t put them there AND to my ear, it sounds really amateurish. You can always add an “h” here or there in front of a vowel for emotional inflection, but when it’s ongoing, it creates a lot of problems for pitch and diaphragm support by depleting the much-needed air for proper pitch and power way too fast. You’ll end up singing flat or not getting the power you desire when you come to a big note. Why? Because you are out of air from singing too many “h’s” where they shouldn’t be.

I think it is a good learning tool to record yourself singing and if you discover you are someone who has an “H Seepage” problem, see your Dr… just kidding. Try to remove the unnecessary “h’s”, concentrate on the vowel sound and you’ll be amazed at how much more air you have to work with and how much more effortless your singing and powerful notes will become overall. Try it and let me know if it works for you.

On another note, (pardon the pun), I am dusting off my high energy lounge repetoire this Sunday, March 18th at 7:30pm PST. if you would like to join me with my amazing piano player, Steve Soucy, click this link to register to be a part of our virtual audience.

Click here for great music Sunday, March, 18th

Don’t ya love technology?

Until Next Time…Breathe, (get control of your “H Seepage”) and Happy Singing!

Quote Of The Day

“Happy Birthday… Mr. President… Happy Birthday… to you”

Marilyn Monroe

Who can ever forget the airy, kittenish performance Marilyn Monroe gave while singing “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy in 1962. It has forever been stamped in our memories as one of the defining images of 1960′s political and  pop cultures. I ask the question, “would it have become so popular if her voice had sounded like a bleeting sheep being taken into the sheering shed? (LOL – ooh that makes me wince). The point I am trying to make here is that  everyone’s voice has certain characteristics: someone may sing with pure tone and very little air, someone else may have a very airy sounding texture, like Marilyn or another’s voice may be a lovely balance of the two. What we need to learn as singers is how to identify what kind of voice texture we have naturally and learn how to manipulate it to compliment the song we have chosen to sing. For example, if a song is soft and gentle like a lullaby, (or “Happy Birthday Mr. President”), the last thing you want to do is sing it like a country singer who is all tone, nasally sounding with no hint of airiness– you’d scare the poor kid (or President) half to death. So exactly how do you take the edge off a more pointed, harsher sounding voice.  It is quite a simple thing to do once you are aware of it and that is to “pad” the tone of your voice with some air around it by balancing what I like to call, “air to tone ratio”.

So, how do we control the air to tone ratio? Air to tone ratio is controlled by your diaphragm support which is POINT 2 in the 5 Point Singing System. If you want to expel more air around your tone, pull your diaphragm in towards your backbone faster then you would to sing pure tone as it will force more air out. Of course, this means that you will have to breathe more often and take in more air because you are using it up faster when creating this pad of air around your tone. Conversely, if you want to have more tone and less air, pull your diaphragm towards your backbone with hardly any force and you will stay “toney” and not sound “airy”.

Learning to control your air to tone ratio gives you a lot of options when performing a song or singing with others. Achieving a good blend with other singers is often the result of adding more air to your tone. It is also a tool used to make your performance the best it can be by choosing complimentary tones for the song you will be singing or being able to soften with air for emotional effect.

Experiment with your own voice by adding air or taking it away. This enlightenment will give you a lot of new options to use when performing or recording.

Until Next Time… Breathe and Happy Singing!

Angela

www.5pointsingingsystem.com

www.angelakelman.com

Quote Of The Day

“When I’m Calling You -oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo”

Jeanette Macdonald from the movie Rose Marie, 1936

Okay, by now you are used to my obscure retro performer references and are aware of how much I adore 20th Century pop culture. The line from the song above is from a classic film from the 1930′s where Nelson Eddy plays a Mountie and Jeanette Macdonald his love interest. While he is tracking her brother down for murder in the Canadian Rockies, they sing this song to each other as it is legend that two Indian lovers from rival tribes (much like Romeo and Juliet) found each other amongst the canyons by singing this way. When I started researching the line for the song to use as the quote, some other interesting facts came up. The song is actually called “Indian Love Song” (political correctness did not exist in those days) and has been recorded quite a few times over the years by various artists, Chet Atkins, legendary guitar player, being one of them. It was even used in Tim Burton’s movie Mars Attacks in 1996. But, the song is not the theme of the blog today, the “calling” part is.

In all my years of vocal coaching I have had a lot of students come to me asking how to get more power out of their voice. Power comes from the interaction of two things. Singer’s Breath and Diaphragm Support. A great way to get a singer quickly connected to that power is something I describe as “Calling Voice”.

Do you know what the Heimlich Manoeuvre is? It’s when someone quickly forces your diaphragm back towards your backbone expelling whatever you are choking on by the sheer force it creates. Well, essentially, we do the same thing with a note to achieve power. Here’s how to do it, take in your Singer’s Breath, (air in/tummy out) and then pretend to call to someone across a busy street with the word “Hey”. What was your body doing to create that huge sound? If we analyze it, we took in a big breath and quickly pulled our abdominal/diaphragm muscles back towards our backbone creating this incredible power and big sound being careful to keep the throat nice and open and not “yell” but “call”. This is how you get more powerful as a singer especially in our upper mid-range or Diva/Rockstar notes and also to achieve correct placement of your voice. You must be sure to take in a big singer’s breath filling up your tank and then engage substantial diaphragm support to achieve what I deem “Calling Voice”. If you miss one part of this equation, that is the breath or the pull, you won’t get the power you desire or you will default into Mask Area placement (head tone) which most often won’t be the right treatment for the song (you can’t sing R.E.S.P.E.C. T. by Aretha in head tone). So, remember, in order to sing like a Diva or Rockstar you have to breathe and engage your diaphragm support. If you are lazy with either one of those things, you won’t get the power. Practice the “Calling Voice” exercise on it’s own and then apply the mechanics of it into your song. You’ll be amazed at the power you have.

Until next time… Breathe, (pull in your diaphragm) and Happy Singing!