BBC Singing Lessons

All this week I will be working for the BBC, teaching Aggie Mackenzie from the hit television show "How clean is your house" how to sing. By her own admission she can't hold a tune and therefore steers clear of anything to do with singing. She told me she went for a lesson with a top vocal coach in London but left at the end of her lesson no better.
My challenge is to get her good enough to sing live on the Macauley and Co. radio show on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday. You can find out how we got on and if I managed to get her to sing confidently and in tune by tuning into the show each day at 10:00am.

Xtra Factor 2009

I got a call last week from the producer of Xtra Factor (the sister program of reality talent contest show X Factor)asking me to appear on their show. unfortunately they wanted to film the following day as the show was being aired on the sunday evening. I reluctantly had to decline their offer of using my services as vocal coach as my schedule was full on the day of filming. These things happen at times!!!

singing exercises helps muscles

Hi,
I just thought I would let you all know that one of my pupils who has been coming to me for only six weeks for singing lessons told me that he has been visiting a Chiropracter with back probelms.
The Chiropracter had noticed that there was more blood going to the muscles in his back due to the breathing exercises which he had been practicing thus helping his recovery.
Even more proof of the benefits of vocal coaching.

Robert

Singing Audition

Hi,
i just wanted to share a couple of tips that may help you is you are going for a singing audition.
BE PREPARED!
Too many "singers" turn up at singing auditions unprepared. They haven't given any thought to what the audition is for ie: what type of job it is pop band, solo, choir, stage play etc.
Do your homework before you go and find out as much about what the auditioners are looking for.
Be prepared with at least two short songs (no longer than 2 minutes each).
Be well dressed and take a bottle of water with you.
Don't be put off by rejection, this could be because of anything rather than you singing ability eg; you could be too short, too tall or any number of reasons.
Many singers fail many auditions only to go on and have fantastic a singing career.

Robert
The Singing Tutor

P.A Equipment

The most common question I get asked by professional singers is, "how do I set up my P. A. (public address) system to achieve a good sound?"
It saddens me when I hear a singer with a good voice and well produced backing tracks have their performance ruined by a poor sound caused by their lack of knowledge on how to set up the sound system... Read More

Equipment

A singer is only as good as the equipment they use.
You can be the best singer in the world but if you sing through an inadequate P.A system, no matter how good a singer you are your sound will not be good.
The same rule applies to being able to use the equipment to it's best.
In other words you can have a great voice and top of the range sound system but if you don't know how to set a good sound it will still sound terrible.
Read more in my article http://www.thesingingtutor.com/equipment.htm

X Factor Winner gets £100k for five songs.

X Factor winner Leona Lewis was flown from Los Angeles to Glasgow and paid £100,000 to sing five songs at a birthday party.
Bra tycoon Michelle Mone payed the extorionate price as a surprise for husband Micheal's 40th birthday.
Leona has become Michael's favourite singer since appearing on ITV's The X Factor reality talent show.
Nice work if you can get it!
Michelle also gave hubby a new Bentley and flew guests to Barcelona to finish the party.

Keep Singing!

Backing Tracks

I went to see a singer working self contained (using backing tracks) a few days ago.
She was a good looking girl, with a good voice, nice stage presence and a good P.A. system.
Did I enjoy the show?
No!
So what was the problem you're probably asking?
The problem was her backing tracks. She had paid great attention to everything in her act except her tracks.
Don't get me wrong some of them were very good, but that was the problem. In amongst the few good quality tracks were tracks from karaoke discs which had fade outs (very unprofessional), tracks made directly from midi files which included the melody line and badly recorded tracks.
Most of the tracks played at different volumes so she spent most of her act making adjustments at the mixer.
I always advise singers to get all their tracks from one source, that way they are guaranteed to be the same quality and play at the same volume.
For great quality backing tracks, listen to some of the samples at mp3backingtrax.com and you'll see what I mean.
This cabaret act had obviously spent a lot of time and effort getting her act polished and yet it was all for nothing as it was spoiled by bad music.
Don't let your stage performance be ruined by inferior backing tracks.

Keep Singing!

Todays Tip On Good Singing

Styles Of Singing

Don't just sing one style of music.Try singing in as many styles as you can like swing, musical Theatre, pop, rock etc.This will train your voice to be versatile when it's needed….

Full explanation can be found in the singing tutor e-book