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Do you want to work on creating your own sound when you sing? Many singers use inflections (sometimes called intonation) when they sing. Inflections give your voice a more distinctly different sound. It is related to a change in pitch or tone; the rise and fall of a singer’s pitch. Adding infections into your singing adds variety and it is used to emphasize what you are singing. If you spoke in the same monotone voice, at one pitch, your audience…
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. There are 2 ways to hold a note, with vibrato or holding the note solid without vibrato. Very skilled and experienced singers will alternate between the…
Scientists have been researching how music impacts the brain for years. When you learn how to sing or play new songs on the piano (or any instrument) there are many benefits to the brain. The research has been exploring how music affects brain function, human behavior, reducing stress, reducing pain, helps symptoms of depression, cognitive skills, motor skills, spatial-temporal learning, and neurogenesis (brain produces neurons). For all of my science geeks, the results can be seen on an MRI, the…
When you sing, if your vowel sounds are poor then everything else vocally will just sound mediocre. Articulation is when you sing your vowel sounds clearly and correctly; forming them into a well-crafted sound. It is also true for piano, playing the notes with articulation creates a clean and professional performance. The art of articulation is the formation of clear and distinct sounds, clarity in playing piano or singing successive notes. Have you every noticed how the British singers always…
Here are some tips on how to submit a demo to the record label and create the best chance of getting signed. Select the songs you’re the most proud of to send to the record company. Let your friends listen to the songs you’ve chosen and get their feedback. If you choose the tracks you love and they like them, the A&R Representative will ask to hear more of your songs. You will need to upload your chosen songs to…
Every singer and pianist must know how to count in music; knowing when to start and stop in a song, it’s all about rhythms and timing. The time signature at the beginning of a song will tell you how to count. For instance, If the time signature is 4/4 (the two numbers are written like a fraction), you will count 1,2,3,4 repeatedly. The Waltz rhythm is 3/4 time signature and you would count 1,2,3 over and over. The time signature’s…
When putting a song together you need some basic elements. An Artist will have their own unique way of expressing the song and the way they want to structure the song. But these are the basic important elements in music for song: 1. The melody, it is the single most important part of a song. This is what the artist would sing or Carlos Santana would play on his guitar! 2. The harmony is when 2 (or more) people sing…
Trying to define your own style or image as an artist can be intimidating, but it’s less scary if you have some simple steps to guide you along the way. There are a few things you can do to help create the image you feel inside. Finding your own personal artistic look takes time, thought and research. You need to know what clothing items work for you and which items meet the criteria. The first step is to look into…
You should think of music as a language all it’s own. Let’s look at the letters C and K in the English language; they have different letter names but can sound exactly the same (cat and kick). The word enharmonic in music has the same concept. An enharmonic is two pitches (tones) that sound exactly the same but the note name is different. Pitches such as F# (F sharp) and Gb (G flat) are written differently in music notation but…
If you desire to sing beautifully, you need to work on some basic vocal exercises that will give you a well-rounded singing voice. There are many ways to build flexibility and develop stamina to tackle difficult songs. All of this happens through daily practice! Let’s look at some of the ways you can build your vocal technique. Learning how to sing many different scales, major, minor and harmonic minor scales really help with versatility. A singer can use these scales…