Category Archives: Tips for Singers

How to Learn a Song Fast: Preparing for a Performance (Part 2)

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Here are a few more tips to follow when you’re learning a song from scratch:

  • If you’re having a hard time with the pronunciation of a word, drop all consonants from that word and practice transitioning from the previous word to the vowel(s) of that tricky word. Then add the consonant(s) immediately preceding the vowel(s) you’re singing on. When that feels comfortable, add the other consonants too. For example the word “blessed” has the two consonants “bl”, which, combined with “e” make the word sound a little funny. Practice singing the “e” alone first, coming from the previous word. Then add “bl”, and finally “ssed”.
  • The tendency to run out of breath too quickly usually indicates a flaw in your placement. When you place your voice correctly all the breath you use turns into sound. But when the placement is not right, the sound becomes “breathy”, as if it had a leak. So you use up a lot more air than necessary and run out of breath. Warm-ups where you focus on pronouncing and enunciating your vowels very clearly can help fix this issue.
  • If you’re not holding the pitch it usually means that you’re not relaxed enough. You’re straining your voice, or “pushing”, and when you get tired the pitch tends to drop. Long tone exercises (holding a note while consciously relaxing your throat) can be very helpful with this issue.

Needless to say, it’s extremely helpful – especially for the last two issues – to have the guidance and feedback of someone who can correct your placement and demonstrate for you the correct way to use the voice.

 

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS ANY OF MY VIDEOS, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Click here, then click on the red button “subscribe”. If you want to be notified every time I post a new video, click also on the bell next to the “subscribe” button.

Sincerely,

Ramesha                        

How to Learn a Song Fast: Preparing for a Performance (Part 1)

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When learning a new song most people tend to repeat the song over and over, hoping eventually to be able to sing it flawlessly. This approach, although helpful to memorize the melody and the lyrics, doesn’t address any “rough spot” that almost every song contains.

Here are a few tips to follow when you’re learning a song from scratch:

1) Memorize the melody

Learning the melody is essential in order to work on the song. Get a recording of the song and listen to it many times. You can also hum along with the recording to help you fix the melody in your mind.

2) Go through the song once or twice

Circle with a pencil all the “rough spots”. It can be a high note, a change of register, a word that’s particularly hard to pronounce, running out of breath, difficulty holding the pitch, and so on.

3) Address each issue separately

If you’re having a hard time with a high note, practice holding that particular note long enough to fine tune the placement and get more comfortable (long tone). Use the same vowel as the word you need to say on that note. For example, if the word is “love”, practice holding the vowel “uh” on that note. When you feel comfortable, practice saying the whole word and holding it for a few seconds. Lastly, practice singing the previous note followed by the tricky one. For example, if the words are “deep love”, practice transitioning from the word “deep” to the word “love”, until you feel comfortable and the transition is smooth.

If you’re struggling with a change of register practice going slowly from the note in one register to the note in the other register. Take the time to hold each note long enough to make sure they’re placed correctly. When that’s the case, not only will they sound good, but you’ll also feel comfortable and relaxed singing them. Then gradually practice making the transition more quickly, making sure that the quality of sound stays good and you remain relaxed. (to be continued)

 

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS ANY OF MY VIDEOS, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Click here, then click on the red button “subscribe”. If you want to be notified every time I post a new video, click also on the bell next to the “subscribe” button.

Sincerely,

Ramesha

The Importance of Vocal Training

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Sometimes people ask me why they should train their voice, when all they want to do is “express their feelings through music.”

In this video I answer this question and offer a bigger picture about what the role of a performing singer can (and should) be.

Enjoy!

–Ramesha

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Sign Up for My FREE Singing Mini Course and learn the fundamentals of singing technique in just a few, easy steps!

 

 

Are You Trying Too Hard?

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by Ramesha Nani

free singing tipsA few years ago I read a quote from a great musician and composer of the 18th century whose name escapes me. He said “Those who don’t do too much, aren’t doing enough.” Even though I couldn’t figure out why, I remember feeling that he was wrong. Too much is simply too much!

Every worthwhile goal requires a huge amount of energy, concentration, and effort, but that most certainly doesn’t mean that there’s not room in the process for relaxation. In fact, we can’t concentrate deeply if we’re not relaxed. Our efforts will only generate increasing amounts of physical and mental tension, diverting our focus toward the strain, rather than keeping it on the task at hand.

In singing, relaxation is paramount! A tense throat will never produce strong, resonant, and reliable sounds. Even while doing one’s best to work on the many details of good vocal production, we need to allow room for relaxation. I remember once, during one of my voice lessons, my teacher told me “Remember to focus on this, and that, and also that…” After a few minutes she added “You’re thinking too much! Relax!” I felt like I couldn’t win! But later on I got what she meant: concentrate, but without tension.

Have you ever had the experience of being stuck on a problem and relaxing and letting it go, only to find the solution present itself, often in an unexpected manner? This process works well with singing. When you repeatedly fail to get the sound you want, it’s often a good idea to stop and take a break. You can free yourself of the physical and mental tension blocking your efforts with a short walk or deep breathing.

Performing singers need to include practicing relaxation as part of their vocal training. Why? Because of the all too common tendency to be nervous in front of an audience. Nervousness will trigger an already existing physical tension, noticeably compromising the vocal quality. Nervousness is not always easy to control, but the conscious practice of relaxing the body and mind and make that a habit significantly lessens its influence on our voice.

[If you want to learn how to deeply relax your body and throat, click here. If you need help with stage fright, read this article.]

An important part of vocal training for most singers is ridding the throat muscles of needless tension. Vocal relaxation is essential to being a truly good singer. Without it, most of the energy and focus is directed toward the throat, rather than on the music you’re sharing with your audience. It’s like trying to write an inspired poem with a defective pen: your focus is always on on the pen, rather than on the flow of inspiration.

https://www.facebook.com/vocalbliss/UPCOMING: Free vocal coaching on Facebook Live!

Join me for a LIVE event on my Facebook page called:

“SINGING FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE AFRAID OF SINGING”

When: Thursday, June 22 2017 at 11:30 PDT

Where: On my Facebook Page (please go there and like it if you haven’t yet!)

How to join: ​

  1. ​Go to my Facebook page
  2. Like it and follow it
  3. Once that’s done, you will receive an invitation from me through Facebook to join the live broadcast on Thursday, June 22 at 11:30.

 

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How to Boost Your Chest Voice and Why

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Incorrect use of the low rang is one of the most common issues that I run into in working with singers. Most women resist singing in their chest voice and tend to sing everything in their head voice. I believe this is because it’s easier and the quality of the tone is more ethereal and less masculine.

There are significant problems with this approach:

  1. The voice in the low range sounds weak and breathy
  2. It’s extremely difficult to sing low notes as they simply won’t come out!
  3. It’s impossible to sing loud in the low range. Volume decreases the lower you sing.
  4. The quality of the tone is often gravelly.

There can be other reasons for not wanting to use the chest voice, ones that are rooted in our emotions and psyche. I discovered this while helping public speakers develop a strong, resonant speaking voice.

A strong, yet relaxed speaking voice is deeply connected to self-confidence. Often those who speak with a breathy voice were told many times as a child to be quieter. They may have been told to not sing, or to just lip sync because they were judged to be inadequate singers. When working with these students and we touch on making their voices fuller, buried emotions are often released, revealing the deep connection between the voice and our emotions. Working on the voice acts as a catalyst to bring deeply rooted issues to the surface.

A full voice communicates clarity of expression and conviction. If it’s forced out it’s often perceived as revealing insecurity. A voice that is full, strong, resonant, and without strain, conveys an attitude of self-confidence that is not imposing and is without ulterior motive. This predisposes the audience to be more receptive to you and what you have to share.

For a singer, a full, resonant voice means a larger “bandwidth”, better suited to sharing energy and inspiration. The correct use of the chest voice ensures that inspiration is grounded, practical, and accessible by the audience. Fullness and volume are but one aspect of what you are offering to your audience. Remember to remain open to the flow of inspiration, which can only work unimpeded when you get the ego out of the way.

Learning to balance strength and self-confidence with selfless expression of inspiration is a constant process of fine-tuning and recalibrating our intentions as performers. The reward, however, is the growing, overwhelming realization that we are part of something much greater, and through singing, we can access this and share it with the world.

CHECK OUT MY LATEST VIDEO

How to REALLY Sing – How to Be a Charismatic Singer

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Let Music Talk to You

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Are you familiar with Star Wars? It’s a series of seven sci-fi movies that tell the story of a small band of heroes (the archetypal good guys) fighting against a huge army led by an evil emperor on a campaign to conquer and rule the galaxy. The first three movies that were released starting in 1977 are fun, witty, and full of action. The characters show depth of feeling, courage, and many qualities that  resonate with us. The later three movies, although a lot more engaging from the perspective of technology and special effects, lack depth of humanity, making the characters and their experiences feel stilted, almost fake. Although the pictures dazzle the audience with incredible special effects, one leaves the theater with a sense of emptiness. Yes, the movie tells a story, but it does so without much feeling, much like the experience one can have reading a history book.

This is similar to the experience of hearing someone sing with a gorgeous, well-polished voice who lacks the ability to convey feeling. Feeling, not a perfectly trained voice, is what touches the heart.

Recently, my wife and I were in Switzerland visiting family. While there, we attended a Christmas concert performed by a family of seven singers called Gruppo Vocale Famiglia Sala. We had heard them before, but this time I had a greater appreciation for their ability to feel the music deeply together, to enter a timeless zone where they feel and breathe together, where they and the music become one entity. The church where they sang was packed and yet it was pin-drop silent. I could feel that the audience was captured and transported on wings of inspiration.

We had a chance to meet them personally last year. Beside their incredible talent, we saw many qualities they shared: an innate, child-like joy, deep love for one another and for what they do, and a sincere desire to inspire people with their music. Not much room for ego there!

I sincerely believe that this is the secret to a magnetic performance: to humbly tune into the music and our fellow performers, to try to feel and breathe together, and to remain open to what the music itself is guiding us to do, instead of egotistically using the music to show off our talent.

Truly inspired music creates a strong flow of energy. If we tune into it, it can take us and our audience soaring on wings of inspiration, upliftment, and joy. One song can completely change us, if we are receptive.

The great American scientist and botanist George Washington Carver wrote “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.” Using our talents in service to music, supported by our deep love and sincere desire to tune into the music, will unlock for us the secret to deeply inspiring and magnetic performances that can transform us, our audience, the entire world.

 

CHECK OUT MY NEW VIDEOS

1) How to Sing in the Low Range

2) How to Sing in the Low-Medium Range

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3) How to Improve Your Singing Tone

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Become a Singing Athlete!

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Let me start with a confession: I don’t practice my vocal exercises as much as I should! I know I can always rely on my years of training to handle any small performance in which I’m involved. HOWEVER, when preparing for a major performance, I have to adopt a different strategy. I start practicing every day a couple of weeks before the performance. I don’t emphasize the songs and solos that I’ll be singing, which I know fairly well. I focus on stretching my throat muscles, making them strong and pliable. My goal is to feel that my voice is ready for anything and responds to the slightest nuance the music requires.

A singer friend of mine wrote to me recently asking why he often gets hoarse and loses his high notes after singing for an hour or so. He’s a singer with many years’ experience. I asked him how often he sings and whether he warms up his voice before singing. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t sing all that often and most of the time doesn’t warm-up before singing.

Let’s make something clear: if you sing regularly, perform regularly and need your voice to always be in top form, strong and healthy over the years, vocal exercises have to become part of your daily activities! You need to practice a twenty to thirty minute routine of vocal warm-ups that addresses the different aspects of the singing technique. These exercises are best practiced every day, but at a minimum, five days a week.

Singers need to take care of their voice the same way athletes take care of their bodies. This is especially true as you get older. Vocal cords, just like all other muscles, tend to become stiff and need regular stretching and exercise to remain strong and flexible.

It’s also very important to warm-up your voice before singing. When I was in my twenties I could sing without warming-up and I was fine. When you are young, you can also go running without warm-up and stretching. But as you get older, you start to notice that, without proper preparation, your muscles are more prone to injury. The same is true for the voice. And don’t be mistaken: even if you talk all day, that doesn’t mean that your voice is warmed-up for singing! When you talk you use only a very small portion of your vocal range. You don’t hold any sound for very long, so you don’t really need a lot of breath. Also, many people (including trained singers!) don’t use their speaking voice very well, which makes the act of talking all day far from ideal in terms of preparing their voice for singing.

I find singing to be one of the most powerful sources of inspiration, for oneself and for others, and God only knows how much the world needs inspiration right now! I feel it’s my duty to keep my instrument – the voice – as healthy and strong as I can. I hope you will do the same.

Expand Your Throat – Open Your Heart

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Have you ever tried to play a string instrument such as the guitar, while covering the hole in the sounding board? The tone becomes soft and weak: no resonance, no richness, just a dry and uninteresting sound. Similarly, when you sing with your heart closed, your singing will lack resonant heart qualities and you’ll be unable to convey true feeling. You may try to “fake it” by making your performance more emotional, but the audience will be able to tell the difference. People relate to authentic feeling. They may be momentarily swept up in the drama of your emotionalism, but they’ll leave the performance feeling empty (and empty-hearted).

​Music, in order to truly benefit us, has to resonate with the heart. If the heart is closed, the voice will tend to be tight, and vice versa. Learning how to relax and expand the throat and how to place your voice correctly will assist you in opening your heart, which will allow you to express more of who you truly are.

​A constricted voice can be an indication that a person is fixed in old habits and resistant to change. When learning correct voice placement (including learning to open your throat) you go through different stages. At the beginning, you won’t necessarily understand the point behind everything your voice teacher asks you to do, which requires you to have a certain amount of faith in the teacher. Sometimes, in fact, after a few weeks of training, you may end up sounding worse than when you started! Why? Because the teacher’s job is to help you get rid of bad habits, tendencies you must unlearn before you can learn the correct way, and this leaves you temporarily betwixt and between—gone is the old but you don’t yet know how to do the new!

​In my experience it’s often more challenging to teach a student who’s been singing for many years than it is a beginner. The more advanced singer may be attached to the way he does things, which makes it hard to let go of old, less effective ways of singing. Or maybe he simply doesn’t trust his teacher enough to take that necessary leap of faith. BUT—as soon as the student becomes willing to change, the learning process becomes smoother and faster and, ultimately, much more satisfying.

​People who keep their hearts and minds open and receptive, who are easy-going and harmonious, will tend to have an easier time letting go and making the shift to a new way of doing things. In their eagerness to learn, they manage to remain free of tension; to avoid excessive expectation and pride; and to operate with no (or very little) ego.

​So, what’s my point? Joyfully embrace the process of learning new vocal techniques. Relax and expand your throat and then focus on singing from your heart. As you increase the resonance and heart quality in your voice, your singing and spoken words will become filled with healing vibrations and you will be a blessing to others. And because, as Paramhansa Yogananda, the great Indian master, often said*: “The instrument is blessed by that which flows through it,” you will be blessed as a result.

​The more you dedicate yourself to using your voice consciously, the more Inspiration and Power will flow through you every time you sing or speak, making you a channel for a higher Consciousness.

 

Neutralizing Stage Fright

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I started performing when I was only five years old. My mother gave me a toy guitar that I used it to “accompany” myself singing all the songs I knew.

One day it was announced that a local singer was giving a concert for the elderly people in the small village in Switzerland where I lived. I was very excited because he was my favorite singer and I knew all his songs. My anticipation grew as the day of the performance drew closer. Only a couple of days before the performance, the singer cancelled due to lack of funds. My mother didn’t want to tell me, because she thought that I might be too disappointed. But when she did, I said “No worries mom, I’ll sing instead!” The day of the event I climbed on stage and for over an hour I sang all the songs I knew, strumming my toy guitar! Everybody loved it, perhaps more because of my courage and young age than my talent.

It’s amazing how children can be so free of  nervousness or self-consciousness, isn’t it? I’ll talk more about this later.

There is a wealth of information on the internet about the psychological and emotional reasons behind stage fright. Rather than exploring the reasons for stage fright, I will share what has worked for me to keep stage fright at bay in my many years of performing music as a singer and instrumentalist.

Breathe!

One of the most effective and fast acting practices that dispels nervousness and anxiety is deep breathing. When we’re nervous, scared, or worried our breath tends to become shallow and irregular, minimizing oxygen intake. One of my favorite breathing exercises is called “Regular (or Triangular) Breathing.”

  • Inhale slowly, counting to twelve
  • Hold the breath for the same number of counts
  • Slowly exhale for the same twelve counts.

This is one round of “regular breathing.” You can increase the count to 16:16:16, or decrease the count to 8:8:8, according to your capacity, but be sure that the three phases of inhalation, retention, and exhalation are equal. Generally speaking, a slower rhythm is better, providing you are comfortable and don’t get out of breath. As you absorb more oxygen and you are able, you may want to increase the count in later rounds.

This technique helps me with stage fright, or nervousness or agitation of any kind. I find this technique particularly useful when confronted with situations (or people) that irritate me. Equalizing inhalation and exhalation calms the reactive process, enabling you to expand your perspective and accept situations and people as they are, rather than reacting (negatively) to unpleasant situations.

Another helpful practice is to simply close the eyes and concentrate deeply at the point between the eyebrows. This area is the location of the pre-frontal lobe, the most evolutionarily advanced portion of the brain. Science has shown that concentrating on this area decreases anxiety, fear, worry, and sorrow. This powerful practice increases mood control, fear management, stress reduction, and general happiness level. (You can download for free a practical Routine to Neutralize Stage Fright at the end of this article).

A main cause of performance anxiety is the tendency to let the ego’s concerns rule the scene. If we’re excessively concerned about ourselves — our outlook, our gorgeous voice, our amazing magnetism – we often become anxious and nervous about every little detail about ourselves. We then arrive on stage a bundle of stress and nervousness. More importantly, we lose sight of our primary motivation for performing: to share something of value with our audience, to touch their hearts and change their lives.

If we keep in mind that our goal is to serve and inspire our audience, we can keep our ego in check. Using these techniques to achieve a more balanced perspective will result in a decrease in nervousness and anxiety.

Then, performing becomes more about giving to the audience than serving the ego’s insecurities. This allows us to return to that child-like simplicity I had during that performance at age five. There wasn’t any thought of me, only the joy of singing and sharing those songs that I really liked.

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THANKS FOR EXPRESSING YOUR OPINION!

This coming year I want to make sure that the content of my blog posts matches your expectations and needs. Below is a list of possible voice-related topics. Please email me and list one or more topics that you would like to learn more about in the coming year. You can also propose something that is not listed here!

  • Vocal Range
  • Purity of sound
  • Vocal Warm-Ups
  • Vocal Health
  • Performing Issues
  • Vocal Routines
  • Singing With Inspiration
  • Magnetism
  • Nervousness
  • Getting the Most Out of a Song
  • Illnesses of the Voice
  • Overcoming Shyness
  • Deeper Benefits of Singing
  • Choir and Its Many Benefits
  • Voice Registers
  • Boosting Your Confidence
  • Other
  • …

I look forward to hearing from you and learn about your preferences!

 

 A Community of Voices

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Music has a power. It changes those who listen to it and those who sing and play it. J. D. Walters, an American composer, said “Music is so much more than entertainment. It doesn’t merely reflect a state of consciousness: It also generates it.”

I experience the truth of this statement every Tuesday night, when I rehearse with the choir. Even if I’m tired, had a bad day, or am in a bad mood, I always know that by the end of rehearsal, I’ll feel light, joyful, and energetic, sometimes even to the point where I have a hard time going to sleep afterwards!

I found an interesting study on www.chorusamerica.org. Here’s an excerpt:

“Chorus America’s study found that an estimated 42.6 million Americans regularly sing in choruses today. More than 1 in 5 households have at least one singing family member, making choral singing the most popular form of participation in the performing arts for both adults and children.

That’s good news because the study also found that singing in one of the 270,000 choruses in the U.S., such as a community chorus or a school or church choir, is strongly correlated with qualities that are associated with success throughout life. Greater civic involvement, discipline, and teamwork are just a few of the attributes fostered by singing with a choral ensemble.”

Music can do that. But the group magnetism also plays a very important part. A choir is like a small community. Its strength and positive influence on the people in it, as well as the audience, is directly related to the singers’ willingness to blend their voices and energies together to create a unified sound. As long as the desire to stand out and be noticed is present, the true spirit of group singing is absent. It’s only when each singer humbly offers their voice to become part of something much greater than any individual that the choir can become a powerful instrument to uplift and inspire.

Here’s a short interview with John Rutter, a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music, about the importance of choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-Pm1FYZ-U

A lot of what’s happening in the world today seems to undermine people’s trust in one another, creating disharmony and division. Singing together is a simple, fun, and effective way of building bridges, fostering harmony, and creating a sense of community. Try it!

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NEW AND UPCOMING

I’m very close to publishing my new online course How to Sing High Notes Without Effort!

It’s a series of 18 videos with instruction and guided exercises to naturally and effortlessly expand your vocal range, and overcome once and for all fear of high notes.

I will send out more information and samples soon. Stay tuned!