Tuesday, 10 April 2007

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

Sunday, 1 April 2007

New Joseph

I see James McCracken whom I sometimes work with is down to the last 50 in the new reality TV show which is looking for the new joseph for the musical "Joseph and his amazing techicolor dreamcoat".
Well done James and good luck you deserve to win.

Keep Singing!

Wednesday, 28 March 2007

Todays Tip On Good singing

Don't take any dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter or chocolate on a day when you are going to sing.
Taking dairy products causes a sticky film to form on your vocal chords and makes it extremely difficult to control your voice.
Make sure you drink plenty of water in order to keep your vocal chords hydrated.

Taken from The Singing Tutor E-Book

Keep Singing!

Tuesday, 27 March 2007

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!

Monday, 26 March 2007

Vocal Exercise

I can't stress enough how important it is to do regular vocal exercises.
This is especially true if you are not singing for a few days.
An Olympic runner doesn't wait until he's on the starting blocks to get ready for the race.
We don't see the months of intense training that is carried out before this race.
Like the Olympic runner it is important for singers to learn the correct methods of singing and to exercise the voice in order to keep a good and strain free vocal sound.

Keep singing!

Sunday, 25 March 2007

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!

Saturday, 24 March 2007

Nodules

I keep hearing about singers having problems with their voice only to find that they have developed nodules on their vocal chords.
This is mainly caused by singing from the throat and not using the diaphragm properly.

Nodules are like small callouses which occur when the vocal chords touch each other due to over exertion of the voice and not only prevent your voice from functioning properly but may cause you to require surgery to have them removed and it could affect the quality of your vocal sound.

Every singer should be aware of maintaining a good healthy voice to prevent problems like nodules and the best way to do this is to have proper training.

theres an old saying which says "it's never too late to learn" but in the case of the vocal chords where irreparable damage can occur it's better to look after your voice and prevent future problems than wait until they happen and try to deal with them.

Vocal chords are resiliant but they are not indestructable...

Keep Singing!

Welcome To My Blog

This is where I would like to keep updated articles related to singing whether it is for karaoke, choir, auditions or professional. If you have any comments or useful information please feel free to leave them. Thanks Keep Singing!