Explore the Michelle Ostrove Blog

Vibrato is a musical effect from an instrument or a voice. It is a technique used to add expression to a piece of music. Vibrato is the rhythmic pulsation, vibration and/or bending a pitch (note). Vibrato can happen very naturally with a singer. If it doesn’t happen naturally, it can be a learned technique. It is alternating quickly between two pitches that are close together. There are two ways to hold a note, with vibrato or holding the note solid…

It’s clear that the 5 lines and 4 spaces for each staff only represent some of the keys on the piano. This is why we use ledger lines (also spelled leger lines) to extend either staff (treble or bass staff) upward or downward. Ledger lines above the treble staff and below the bass staff take a little bit of time to learn, but because they follow the same pattern they are not difficult. Ledger lines can appear in between the…

Every singer wants to increase their vocal range, and hit those high notes. No one is born with the ability to sing the highest notes perfectly, expanding your range takes time and work. Vocal cords need exercise, just like other muscles, to get stronger. Start by warming up and practice specific exercises daily to help you increase your range; the bubble (lip trills) and r roll (tongue trills) are the perfect exercises. Here are some tips to help you hit…

Belting out the high notes is essentially singing the high notes and producing a strong and powerful sound. We discussed falsetto in yesterday’s blog (10/27 Singing High Notes in Falsetto). Today is the opposite of falsetto; the sound is loud and commanding. There are three important components. The first component is breath support. It is important to breathe from the diaphragm and use the diaphragm support to accomplish this sound. The power in your voice comes from the diaphragm, not…

You need breath to sustain (hold) a note. Holding a note with no vibrato can get a little boring but holding them with a little dynamic (loudness & softness), variations can be useful. The opposite of singing with vibrato (a pulsating variation) is to sing with straight tone (or what I call holding the note solid in the tone) with no fluctuation in pitch. To do this you must use your diaphragm, no movement and staying on the pitch. You…

The understanding of music is about recognizing or identifying the structure and patterns in a song. You don’t have to be a singer or pianist, even someone with no musical background can follow the patterns of a song. You have an instinct of where the melody is going or when the chorus is coming because of patters and structure. When studying music theory, you examine all of the components that are used in writing a piece of music. It is…

The piano was developed around 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Italy. Many modifications have been made along the way. Throughout the years, there has been as many as six pedals, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three. Piano pedals are operated by the foot and located at the base of a piano. The purpose of the pedals is to change the tone of the piano in different ways. Let’s talk about the three pedals from left to right.…

When approaching a note, whether it’s playing piano or singing a song, there are different ways to approach a note. For instance, to play or sing with force, loudness or soft and connected are a few different ways. How to approach a note in singing is called vocal onset. We will discuss the different ways to approach a note while singing or playing the piano (or any other instrument). Staccato: You must strike the keys or sing the note a…

A singer whose vocal resonance is even and consistently good from note to note, high or low, soft or loud, is changing the vowels semitone by and the vocal tract is constantly changing form. Singers have to work on how they form certain vowel sounds in a performance. Some vowel sounds are naturally brighter than others. For instance the “ee” vowel sound tends to be very bright and without some modification. The sound can stick out when singing a song.…

The word arpeggio comes from the Italian word arpeggiare and it means to play on a harp. If a singer sang an arpeggio or a pianist played an arpeggio, it would be a group of notes for a particular chord one after the other. It can also be called a broken chord. For instance, the C chord consists of C E & G, so you would sing or play C E G one right after the other and you can…