Jan 2012 – Making the Most out of Vocademy Singing Lessons

Happy New Term Vocademy Singers!

It’s great to be back in the saddle at the Portsmouth Vocademy – we had a brilliant first week back, some great new singers and lots of excitement about the new songs we’ll be working on this term.

This month I want to give you some really handy tips to help you make the most out of your Vocademy sessions.

If you come prepared to your sessions, with a good understanding of your songs, you will be able to really hone in on your technique and focus your learning on areas that you want to improve.

Don’t forget to ask your tutor to help develop any aspects of your singing that you want to really work on this term. You might want to work on tuning, performance technique, registers or backing vocal work. Have a think about it and don’t be afraid to ask – we are here to help you!

We can work on different warm ups that will help you develop better vocal technique.

Preparing Songs for Sessions

You should all know what songs we will be working on this term and you might even have printed out your own copy of the lyrics.

If you have already been allocated your colour or vocal parts, still learn the rest of the song, you need to understand the whole song to be able to perform it with confidence and to the best of your ability!

Your tutor will tell you what song you will be working on in your next session. Listen to it a few times in the week between and have a go at singing it a few times. This will mean you can go to your session and sing confidently and clearly in front of your class – this will mean your tutor can focus on developing your technique as opposed to helping you learn the song or melody.

« BREATHING

Mark out on your lyrics where you need to breathe to give your voice the best support and control of your tone. Listen to the original artist recording for ideas about this.

I use a big “V” to show where I need to take a big supportive breath and a smaller “v” if I need to snatch a sneaky breath quickly. But you might prefer to draw a tick.

« PHRASING

Start learning the melody straight away. Listen to the original artist and sing along using your breathing marks. Think about how you want to sing the melody. Think about where you will pitch it in your registers and if you should sing any dynamics (areas where you sing louder or softer)

It can be handy to draw pictures on the lyrics for example if you need to sing the melody specifically high you can draw an arrow pointing up above that word or if you are singing a part with a tricky rhythm (timing) you can put dashes in for gaps etc.

« BACKING VOCALS

As soon as you start working on a new song, listen out and have a go at pitching the backing vocals. Make sure you can hear them and learn them just as you would the main melody line as well. Singing backing vocals is a great way to improve your ear and work on tuning and voice blending – skills that will make you a better vocalist!

« SONG STRUCTURE

How is the song built ?

Learn how long you need to count for the introduction. Is there an instrumental section? How many Verses and how many Choruses does the song have? Is there a Bridge? By understanding the song and it’s structure, you will be able to perform it with more confidence.

Practice your songs thinking about these four points before your next Vocademy – you will find you learn the lyrics faster too!

Don’t forget to ask your Tutor about any areas of technique you want to work on in your sessions.

Happy singing everyone!

Bubsie :0)