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  • TMV World Team

    Glutton for Voice

    By TMV World Team, in Articles,

    It's no secret to those who know me that I love studying anything and everything related to the voice. My latest pursuit is through the New York Singing Teachers Association. They offer live courses and webinars on a variety of topics. My first foray into the world of cyber study is anatomy and physiology of the voice which is presented by Dr. Scott McCoy of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. I've studies anatomy and physiology of the voice several times in the past, but I have to admit that Dr. McCoy's enthusiasm as he teaches makes it the best class I've ever had. The last lesson addressed lung capacity with students blowing into a baggie and then into a more accurate measuring device. Now hold onto your hats, folks, it seems that one can get more air into the lungs with clavicular breathing---HORRORS!!!! It's not so much how you take in the air as how you manage it on the exhale/sound production. Who knew? I knew that part, but CLAVICULAR BREATHING--my first teacher is rolling over in her grave. I can't wait to find out what happens next in our little cyber-classroom. Oh, and men and women are different! It seems that women use their lower abs in addition to the upper and men do not. It has something to do with the difference in pelvic structure. Recess is over----back to class!

  • TMV World Team
    I'll relate this to singing I promise And I'll even make singing exercise out of it! If you haven't guessed by now, my teaching methods can be, well outside the box. For me, anything is fair game when it comes to learning and growing.
    I'm teaching a few groups of young students at a summer camp for the next few weeks and what hit me as I was teaching was how many negative things some of them have to say.. about singing.. about what they can and can't do.. about life in general some of the things they didn't even have to speak out loud.. I can read it in their body language a heavy sigh, a roll of the eyes.. looking away If we start talking to ourselves this way from these very young ages, no wonder we have difficulty getting what we want from life or what you can do when you sing Teach yourself to speak positively and give our youth the same gift.
    The anchor to every action is a thought. If you want to anchor yourself to negative thoughts I can't hit those notes I'm not that kind of a singer teachers will take all my feeling away and make me sound like everybody else, so why study.. or this crowd is dead tonight, this is gonna be a rough one. I'm not making near enough money to be here or this travel schedule is terrible why am I here I don't need this or I wish they'd quit telling me what to do any of these negative things sound familiar you probably notice those kinds of negative things, for some reason.... keep happening to you.
    If you keep focusing on what you don't want guess what you'll get more of it, all the negative stuff will keep showing up. What you focus on you enlarge. As you think, so shall you be you wanna miss that high note. Worry about it as it's coming up and 9 times out of 10 you'll miss it's Fear is a strong emotion so when you attach fear to a thought like I don't think I'll be able to hit that note it makes it that much more powerful. And you have done it to yourself.
    Here's a way to help break that cycle and put yourself on the road to achieving all of your dreams!
    Here the exercise: First take any negative thought out of your speech and that includes you private talk to yourself and change it to a positive statement then write down on note or recipe cards positive thoughts that inspire you start building a whole deck full of cards place them where you can see them each morning mine are in my bathroom I have a set in my office and some in my wallet each morning read them out loud when you see them in the afternoon or evening.. read them out loud before you go to bed read them out loud.
    Out loud for two reasons, one I think it helps you put more passion behind the thought.. so it will help draw it to you faster.
    And two, for the singer I want you to also notice all the consonants notice how forward they are on your mouth, teeth, or face if you can learn to keep the voice in the very forward placement all of the time, you will never vocal issues. Let's look at the one that's in front of me right now, it says:
    Keep fresh goals in front of you The K and the ee force the sound forward in the mouth, the f should be made by letting the air pass over the lips, very forward.. the sh, of fresh is also forward, the g and the o in goals are or should be toward the front of the mouth, the n in the word in is forward on the teeth, another forward f and another n in the word front. of, most people pronounce this word like ov with the v sound forward on the lips and the y in you should also pull the sound forward.
    If you are supported correctly and use the consonants, like my teacher used to say, let your consonant be your guide! You'll be amazed how much projection you will have and how easy singing will feel.
    Remember, whatever passion or emotion you put behind a thought that's the future you're building. Make sure it's really what you want!

  • TMV World Team
    Perhaps I should title this "Lack of Acceptance..." as I'm pretty sure I'll find other vocalists who have had the same problem as I have. This probably applies more to those who have had a measure of success in other parts of the country and/or world, whether it be with their recorded music or performances in other cities or coutries.
    TMV a very unique site and I've invited most of my extensive email list to check it out. I'm pleased to have been featured several weeks ago. Those of you who read it will know that I do have that measure of success mentioned above. Ever since I started being heard on worldwide radio with my original songs, I have had a difficult time getting not only these songs, but any songs period, heard in the various communities in which I've lived, and especially at my home church. I've heard that even Amy Grant was not permitted to sing at her church, after the success of her first hit single, "Baby, Baby".
    When I lived in FL, I had to change churches several times before I found a small one, where I was a bit more accepted. Since moving to GA, I have found the same problem, but refuse to change churches. I'd most likely find the same problem at another church and I really do like the one where I belong except for the lack of acceptance of my music. I attend the comtemporary service there and do feel the type music performed is not unlike what I do best. There seems to be a rule that one does not perform original Christian songs, which is unusual since new songs by other comtemorary artist/songwriters are sung quite often. This makes one wonder if those same artists and/or songwriters also had a difficult time being heard at their churches.
    It's not only the churches, but also local radio stations and newspapers. I once promoted other artists and songwriters, but now have others promote my original songs. My media promoter has tried to get press for me in our local newspaper, but to no avail. Both she and I thought what she sent was really newsworthy, especially for a small city. For instance, they not only didn't write it in the paper, but never responded to her email. For example one of these stories concerned my being # 1 on the Roots Gospel chart for 18 weeks. This is an international chart and that was a record for any artist of any genre. I had also been as high as #19 on their Top 100 chart which included the likes of Carrie Underwood any many other artists everyone has heard of. More recently they learned that I've been # 1 in the country pop - christian country genres at www.numberonemusic.com. (http://www.numberonemusic.com/judywelden) for a year. I'm still amazed about this, but blessed just the same!
    There is only one radio station here, which happens to be a Christian station. I hand-delivered my two Christian CDs when I first moved here 6 years ago. Soon after my promoter started to send them PR, but they have yet to play a song of mine. I have always given the Lord credit for my original songs, both Christian and secular; I'm blessed to have been able to get them heard worldwide, but do wonder about this. It would be great to have one's music and voice accepted in one's own community, especially when travelling to perform is not as easily accomplished at this time.
    I'm wondering if other members at TMV have had these or similar experiences. I suspect they have because my promoter once asked her vocalists this question after I was rejected at church once more (July, 2007) and many of them wrote to us they'd had these as well. Since then I've just learned to accept the fact, but thought I could help others with this article. I think the best thing to remember is that even Jesus was not accepted nor respected in His own locale, so we must grit our teeth and deal with it.
    I'd love to hear from others who share this adversity. Misery loves company, you know!! : )

  • TMV World Team
    Aged about seven & hugging an over sized acoustic guitar, I remember my cousin getting quite agitated with me because I wouldn't sing the melody line along with her there I was, happy in my way, doing what I always did picking out harmonies to anything I could and to this day, there are some songs from childhood, which I would struggle to remember how the melody went, but I could sing you any one of several harmonies to it
    I was only 12, when I did my first paid session job. I remember the feel of the warm Beyer headphones as they cupped my head & the clean, dry, smooth sound of my voice, completely filling my head with my sound.
    I had never been in a vocal booth before, let alone in a proper recording studio, complete with engineer and huge desk today I was being paid handsomely to do something I did all the time for fun to sing harmonies. I was hired to back up a fairly poor band from Manchester on their first album Today these guys are famous throughout the World.
    And so in that little dark room, I began my life time love affair with the microphone
    Today, I have more than 20yrs experience as a session singer, having thousands of studio and live credits including Celine Dion, Anastacia, The Rolling Stones, Robert Palmer, Sugar Babes & many, many others.
    In my role as a vocal coach, I am often approached by singers who are keen to enter the industry & one of the questions I am so often asked is How do you become a session singer?
    I read somewhere recently, that only 1 in 1000 singers, has what it takes to become a session singer. Session singers are regarded as the best of the best of the best, the premier league if you like their musical skills & intuition having been carefully honed, primarily through experience, involving long hard hours in the studio and an overwhelming desire to deliver a perfect product. I'm always amused when singers will tell me that if they can't make it as a lead singer, they would consider being a backing/session singer.
    A session singer is required to be a vocal chameleon and a more generic sound is often the most desirable. A singer who has a particularly distinctive sound will find it harder to get work as the vocal will stick out in the mix. A good session singer is content to remain anonymous & blend in to the background. Sure, they are occasions when a more stylistic vocal is required, but this is pretty rare.
    Blending is one of those essential skills, learned through experience & a backing singer will be required to match tone, phrasing, intonation and blend effortlessly with the lead singer.
    Most of my own work has been as a lead singer, performing my own lead and harmony vocals for a variety of projects, from video games, to commercial jingles, to demoing songs for named artistes and occasionally for release. From time to time I am also hired as a background singer, performing backing vocals for tours and studio sessions.
    Much of the recording I do is on overseas projects and I am able to do this from my own recording studio. Producers like to have the choice of whether you will record for them in their studios or your own. If you are recording in their own studios, the standard varies enormously – I have sung in multi million pound studios, in converted attics & on one memorable occasion, in a guys bedroom, with the mic gaffa taped to the side of his bunk bed!
    When asked what you need to be successful in the session world, first and foremost, you need talent & the confidence to know, that you really CAN deliver the goods. Many singers come to me for assessments, with the belief they can make it as a session singer, because they are good singers. Most will have never stepped foot in a studio & when asked to locate a simple harmony, they can't find it. They may have range issues or technical issues, more often than not, they can't think on their feet They flap you can't flap in a studio…You just need to deliver, every time & when producers & song writers are paying for your time, they expect perfect delivery (often anticipating their needs) FIRST time.
    Being a good singer just isn't enough you need to develop skills and nuances, the ability to ad lib on the spot, sing in virtually any key, harmonise and improvise endlessly you need to be able to do everything that is asked of you vocally and without too much thought and often preparation. Your skills are honed to perfection and vocally you must be in complete control of your instrument. You will have wonderful, natural instincts and the ability to take a song and craft it, in just the way the writer or producer has imagined it. Of course, vocally you need to be very healthy. You need to be a vocal athlete & able to sing without fatigue for many hours at a time.
    While a lot of it is about your talent not just your voice, but your sense of musicality, it is also about your personality. A session singer needs to be the consummate professional, the quiet man, the humble man (or woman) studios notoriously record late into the night & often you are often working alone or with just a producer it can be a very lonely job, with very long hours (it is not uncommon for me to sing for 8hrs straight) and the relationships you form with the people in the control room are extremely important. When there is serious work to be done and time is money, they need positive, dependable, professional singers to come in and discreetly do their job. It is nice to be important, but it is much more important to be nice. What I'm saying is there is no place for egos.
    There is so much more I could write, but just before I go, I want to say, if you really think you have what it takes, you are the real deal, then totally go for it why live an ordinary life, when you can live an extraordinary one
    Blessings,
    Sally Rivers
    www.thesessionsinger.com
    www.coachingwithsoul.co.uk

  • TMV World Team
    Sorry I've been gone for so long. I'm having physical health complications. if you would like to inquire, PM me. Otherwise, accept my apologies. I'll be giving you an article a day starting today until I am where I feel I should be. Please understand that moderation policy for posts may make them take longer than a day to show and be approved.. Thank you.
    Singing has three main pieces: Air Flow, Phonation, and Resonance. Poor Air Flow, or Air Production, or Breathing, or Support, or WHATEVER WORD YOU WANT TO USE, WILL toss Phonation and Resonance out of balance. Just because you "don't believe in it" or "don't suggest/teach it" doesn't mean you AREN'T DOING IT SUBCONCIOUSLY. To me, GREAT Air Flow HAS to be subconcious or it's not good and "natural."
    Speaking of "natural," what IS "natural"? Oh, quite simply it's just what you are accustomed to. To a REALLY "good" singer, it's "natural" to sing correctly. To someone who is just starting as a "horrid singer," however, "natural" IS what they are doing, poor functionality and performance on a vocal level.
    What exactly IS "vocal level"? It's how the instrument is functioning. "Vocal Level" is misleading, because the ENTIRE body is actually your instrument. Most people ignore that and run into "Vocal Folds/Cords" are the key. Then they leave off everything that matters, except the Phonation. No air, no phonation, too much air, no phonation. It will cause constriction if the Air Flow isn't balanced.
    Now, balanced Air Flow HAS to be met with a BALANCED Phonation pattern, meaning the larynx and everything connected to it (again, leads to practically the whole body) must be used efficiently. Take "efficiently" how you will, as you're going to be doing that anyway.
    That just creates the frequency. The Resonance, quite frankly, SHAPES the sound into what comes out. If that's a very shrill, "ugly" sound colour, that's how your Resonance has shaped your sound. If it's an overly dull sound, again, it's how you shaped the sound with your Resonance. Resonance doesn't have to make a huge Opera sound. Actually, you'd be quite surprised how much Opera has in common with Rock, but I won't go into that.
    So, yes, Breathing IS important, but on it's own, it does nothing. If you want to "train" it, I have a suggestion. Get a balloon that is approximately nine inches (9in, or 23cm) in diameter when inflated. The goal here is to SLOWLY blow the balloon up in as few breathes as possible. Don't tie it, don't let it go. Next, do this part over a period of time to avoid lightheadedness. Slowly INHALE the air out of the balloon so it is completely deflated again. AGAIN, inflate the balloon by exhaling into it, and DEflate the balloon by INHALING it's contents. Do so slowly, and don't inhale it in one breath to avoid lightheadedness/nauseousness.
    As a side note, if a singer is missing good breathing, but has a great control over phonation and resonance, they can "cover up" their shortcomings, if they know how to use their available sounds properly and effectively. It's all in how you know to use your voice, and song choice.

  • TMV World Team
    The 38th annual symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice took place June 3-7 in Philadelphia. Our hosts were Bob Sataloff , Chairman of the Board, and the staff of the The Voice Foundation. Ray Miller and I spent the evenings with our good friends from Maine who now live on the edges of Fairmount Park in the extreme northwest corner of the city -- a truly beautiful, tranquil place on the banks of the Wissahickon River and the bluffs overlooking the Schuylkill River.
    We arrived after our 8-hour drive down from Maine just as the conference opened, with Dr. Sataloff's traditional warm welcoming and his overview of the complex physiology involved in phonation. This background proves essential to understanding and participating in the rest of the week, and establishes a common framework of language and understanding between speakers and listeners.
    Christy Ludlow, TMV member Ron Scherer, Rahul Shrivastav, Johan Sundberg and Sten Ternstram followed with a variety show of practical and delightful explanations of how the voice is produced and how we perceive it with our ears and brain. This afternoon session is alone worth a million dollars for the neophyte, and hundreds of people -- PhDs, grad students and men-on-the-street -- learn and share new ideas in the field of voice -- a tiny subsection of overall medicine, but a very personal and important one to those of us who sing or speak for a living, or who have lost our voice at one time or another.
    Thursday was an all day sharing of the latest scientific findings presented by the researchers themselves, with a lot of give-and-take and audience questions followed by truly expert answers. This is a pricless opportunity for young researchers to share the limelight with seasoned and recognized experts, and out of it comes entire new ideas for further -- and new -- research.
    Midday is an opportunity each year for a major presentation by a keynote speaker presenting extremely current and relevant research findings. This year's speaker was Chuck Larson, who's spent a large part of his career studying the control systems that affect the voice and the laryngeal system as a whole. Through research in monkeys, he's traced the mechanisms of control, from the brain to the larynx, and today he presented all-new work on the role of hearing in pitch control -- an obviously critical aspect of singing.
    Needless to say, he went home with a set of HearFones to include in his future studies.
    Thursday afternoon is a time for viewing and asking questions about posters representing research from a host of researchers, many of whom could not be afforded the opportunity for live presentations. All sorts of really interesting topics are presented, and the researchers are right there to discuss their work with anyone who drops by. Are all Breathing Strategies Equal? a Field Report on Children's Voices Acoustic and Physiological Properties of Yodeling, One-Year Follow-Up of the LAX-VOX Tube Therapy, What Do Professioanl Voice Users Learn about Vocal Use, and a hundred other topics were presented.
    Thursday night was the opportunity to attend a master class given by famous voice teacher and singer John Burrows who's established numerous programs for young professional singers including the Lyric Opera of Dallas. Witnessing how such a person can coach singers of great talent to be even better, right in front of your eyes, is an amazing experience!
    Friday opened with an all-morning session on What You Need to Know About Speaking in Public -- an excellent presentation on the psychological as well as physiological factors that affect peoples speaking experience, and Friday afternoon was filled with half-hour workshops over at the Academy of Vocal Arts including master classes, rehabilitation of the injured singing voice, body movement (Alexander technique, etc.) and dozens of other vital topics.
    Saturday is a hectic jam session of dozens of 15-minute medical presentations, broken at lunch by a full hour presentation by this year's G. Paul Moore lecturer, who this year was Michael Benninger -- a long-time researcher and currently Chairman of the Head and Neck Institute in Cleveland. Dr. Benninger offered us a priceless inside view of Evidence-Based Medicine including the research and the people who perform it as well as the people who control it. Everyone was rolling in their chairs with laughter as he related the language of PhD-speak and stories of medicine not-so-research based. My favorite was the parachute-use research which, due to the lack of randomized double-blind clinical trials, was deemed inconclusive and thus contraindicated the use of parachutes.
    A great citation of this story, extracted from the British Medical Journal, appears at:
    http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=parachute+use+to+reduce+injury+due+to+gravitational&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
    After Dr. Benninger's talk, the day continued with similar jam-sessions on Speech-Language and Vocal Pedagogy, including a study from Hong Kong on whether there's any relation between the resonance we feel while singing and any actual vibration that takes place in what music teachers have come to call the mask.
    Sunday was a continuation of Saturday afternoon. There was a great session presented by Johan Sundberg together with TMV member Lisa Popeil on analyzing five different musical theater belting styles, giving all kinds of data and examples of these -- heavy, brassy, ringy, nasal and speech-like. Who would have thought it? And who better to explain it -- and demonstrate it -- than Lisa herself with her ear-to-ear, bright-eyed smile?
    This group of people is surely among the best, most friendly and welcoming groups in the entire world. Both Ray and I have enjoyed every year we've attended, and learned more than we could have imagined. The recent mutual recognition of this TMV community and the Voice Foundation has tremendous potential for all of us who sing, and who love singing, and we couldn't encourage you each enough to consider joining the Foundation. Their dues for Associate Membership are very reasonable and offer you the opportunity to truly get involved in the world of the vocalist at the highest level.
    Pete Mickelson -- 25JUN09

  • TMV World Team
    YOUR INSTRUMENT - UNDERSTANDING THE WHOLE VOICE: A 4-PART SERIES Co-authored by Dena Murray & Hilary Canto
    The series is presented as downloadable pdf files below so that you can easily print them.
    We'd love you to have a discussion thread here in the comments section. Please add any questions/comments below.
    We hope you enjoy the series!
    Thank you
    Dena & Hilary
    Left-Click here to download Part 1
    Left-Click here to download Part 2
    Left-Click here to download Part 3
    Left-Click here to download Part 4
    Dena Murray teaches in- home and online beginners as well as professionals with her own style technique for correct placement of the voice as well the art of breathing. Books available are: Vocal Technique: Finding your Real Voice (Hal Leonard Corp. 2002), a beginner's book separating the voice before teaching how to bridge the passaggio. Advanced Vocal Technique: Middle Voice, Placement & Styles co-authored with Tita Hutchison (Hal Leonard Publishing 2007) focuses strictly on placement and a unique technical approach to bridging the passaggio.
    Vocal Strength and Power: Boost Your Singing with Proper Technique and Breathing to be published By Hal Leonard Publishing, end 2009.
    You can find her on the TMV Directory Of Experts. www.denamurray.com
    Hilary Canto teaches in-home and online and developed the TRUE VOICE COURSE specially for allowing the voice to flow freely from the heart and to teach healthy vocal technique for performance singing.
    The course is available as mp3 files with written sheets to download. You can purchase it through and see her training videos to accompany the course on her TMV, youtube and myspace pages. You can find her on the TMV Directory of Experts.

  • TMV World Team
    A client and I were talking about communication yesterday, marveling at how seemingly simple conversations sometimes go so wrong, the meaning getting incomprehensibly lost in translation.
    The language we use is so crucial to communication that I spend an entire chapter of The Art of Singing discussing the many ways that it can help or hinder learning and understanding. On the surface it seems obvious, but in fact it's often an incredible challenge to be certain that what you sayis an accurate reflection of what you truly feel and think.
    More important than the language you choose however, is ascertaining the actual number of people involved in a conversation.
    It sounds like simple addition, but look closely. When two people are talking, they are not alone. Both bring to the table not only their current, conscious selves- the part of them that hopes and longs for specific things in the specific present- but the aspects of themselves that have been formed- often unconsciously- by their conditioning and past experiences.
    If you're not sure what I'm talking about, consider the last important decision you made see if you can recall the distinct- and likely disparate- messages from your brave and centered self, and your fearful, uncertain self the part of you that knows who you truly are and where you stand in the world, and that which is still caught up in less than ideal thoughts and patterns from long ago.
    Two people are talking, but four entities are communicating and reacting to what is being said (and not said), each with their own very distinct agenda No wonder things get so confusing!
    In singing it's even more complicated, as there are actually three energies wrestling for the spotlight when a single person steps up to the microphone: the present-day person, the collection of that person's past pains, fears and experiences, and the voice.
    Certainly singing is about the physical instrument, and its development and training are obviously important. But the voice is only one aspect of the entity that is The Singer. Truly effective vocal training- if it wants to be holistically integrated with long term results- cannot only be about isolated technical development. It must also involve and listen to the hopes and dreams of the person actually standing before you, as well as the fears and issues that oftentimes push that person both forward and back.
    It's a powerful lesson for all of us: we must become aware of every message we're sending out as well as hearing, giving space to each aspect of ourselves and others. When all of who we are feels acknowledged, listened to and understood, communication- and learning- are effortless.

  • TMV World Team

    (Polygraph from U.S. Patent 4,333,084)
    The first part of "Polygraph" is entitled Exposition and aims to evoke a somewhat peaceful and relaxed dialogue, before the relationship slowly degrades to the point of sourness as personal values and beliefs are questioned and subjected to criticism.
    The Discipline-era King Crimson influence is undeniable here, and to my ear the second variation sounds like something from Steve Reich's Drumming.
    I have a particular fondness for that piece of music. One fine evening many years ago I stumbled upon the main motif while trying some tapping on my classical guitar. The TV was on to Robert Lepage's movie Le Polygraphe so when I got to sequencing the motif, I named the file Polygraph. The band was looking for its name at the time, and so I also added the word to the list of potential names that I would submit to the boys at rehearsals. An awful lot of names were suggested during that period, but “polygraph” was the first to which nobody voiced any objection, so we jumped on it.
    The Music Of The Goal Was So Near from November 2008 to April 2009, made available for those who missed the original Clip Of The Day series. Poligraf series are reposts of writings and audio clips that have been originally published on
    If you enjoy what you hear, you are invited to visit the Music section of our website and support our efforts by pre-ordering our first album entitled Samsara.

     


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