First singing lesson
lucylespian
Posts: 2,403
HAd my first singing lesson yesterday.
Pretty nerve-racking at first, having to demonstarte how complete crap I am, but luckily I seem to have found an excellent teacher, and soon i was working through some exercises and really enjoyed myself.
I'm looking forward to beign able to bring songs more to life by having a workable vocal to tell the story.
It's already got me reading a playing melody to accompany myself.
Anyone else doing vocal lessons or considering it ?
I thought I might blog my progress here so anyone else thinking about it can see how it goes.
I took some PJ stuff to give her an idea of what I want to achieve, so should be working on some PJ soon.
Pretty nerve-racking at first, having to demonstarte how complete crap I am, but luckily I seem to have found an excellent teacher, and soon i was working through some exercises and really enjoyed myself.
I'm looking forward to beign able to bring songs more to life by having a workable vocal to tell the story.
It's already got me reading a playing melody to accompany myself.
Anyone else doing vocal lessons or considering it ?
I thought I might blog my progress here so anyone else thinking about it can see how it goes.
I took some PJ stuff to give her an idea of what I want to achieve, so should be working on some PJ soon.
Music is not a competetion.
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i loved it though. Stick at it, there's lots to learn but you see the improvements fast yes?, and that's the incentive to keep going.
Good luck with it and keep us up to speed!
Not young am I, though old.
Trying to sing With or Without You tonight, and peaking out at E or maybe F# if I'm lucky and need an A.
Anybody got an A to spare ?? Damn Bono !!!
Weird how I've played stuff for years without caring what notes I was hitting, but now I need to know and can suddenly read music.
I actually think this miracle woman has removed my learning block against that.
The fact you already know guitar well is a huge bonus, because you already know what the note sounds like and you can just relate that to the paper you are reading.
kudos to you!
I'll probably take vocal lessons eventually, it's on my list of things to do along with learning saxophone.
7/9/06 LA 1
7/10/06 LA 2
10/21/06 Bridge 1
My problem wiht reading music is complex and long-standing. I've learnt a bunch of times, but it was always a struggle, and I could not retain it. I can read rhythm, time sigs, key sigs etc, but when it cam e to reading the notes, I was Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit and painfuly slow. Now I am reading melodies easily. Playing the vocal melody in open position and singing along is really helping me with my voice pitch but also teaching me so much about what is happening on my guitar.
There is another round of Weekend Warriors starting soon, and they have actually got a decent song list this time, including Betterman, so I'm going along to that as well, so I may be onstage soon.
I get a huge boost of enthusiasm form all the guys here who are out playing live, so keep talking about it everyone.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
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Thanks Jeans.
Hey, long tmie no hear, and you are up to 15 000 posts too.
Just who have you been so chatty with to get there ??
Let us know how you progress!
So you've decided to give Weekend Warriors another go? That's great!
It does sound like a great idea as long as it's a good crowd, like if the fits not right that can mess with everything. And a great rapport with your singing teacher is crucial I think. So it sounds good luce, all systems are GO!
oh and I have no idea how the post thing added up the way it did, I just looked up one day and there it was.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
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YOu know, I really thought the same thing.
BY the end of last winter, between work overuse, some relux and cold weather, I could hardly talk, and fell into the habit of whispering.
It was actually a patient who told me she had been through the same thing, and during speech remediation learnt that whispering is one of the worse things you can do to your voice.
I have gone from barely talking, to believing I can learn to sing, even if I don't have the best vocal tone out there.
You are certainly capable of more than you give yourself credit for.
Think about trying some vocal coaching. A good coach will surprise you with what experienced teaching can achieve. Just as you could bang around on an out-of-tune guitar for year a achieve nothing, vs learning to play a song in your first proper guitar lesson.
I am sure you are not beyond hope.
Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can.
Anyone else find themselves given a position of off-stage importance for the school musical ??
Had lots of fun practising over the last week, playing the vocal melody on guitar, and slowly weaning myself off that to singing without accompiment. Found myself choking up a bit today and not doing as well as I had at practice, until I thought of the White Stripes song, Little Room, and remembered that "when you're in a bigger room, you might just need to remember, how you got started, being in a little room", and that opened things up a bit.
Tried doing a bit of Betterman, worked out how to play and sing it at the same time, just a matter of getting the vocal phrasing right. Tried Come As You Are too, but there is a high G needed, just out of range for me, so I'm not going to try that at the Weeekend Warriors this weekend. I'll stick to Am I ever Going to See Your Face Again, which is basically punk, no talent required.
Anyway, on the lessons, I have increased my range a full tone in both directions over last week and now have some more slightly weird exercises to do to improve my nasal resonance. I also have Clapton's Tears in Heaven to work on, which is a nice song so do.
I find those make a huge difference.
So describe these exercises to improve nasal resonance please, I'm curious!
Good work though! It's amazing what a difference a week can make if you practice correctly.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
Breathing is just singing simple 5 note major scales and arpeggios using the various vowel sounds. I'm pretty used to diaphragmatic breathing from diving and martial arts, so I don't need too much work there. I actually find the lessons incredibly relaxing, and my teacher has such a similar approach to life and stuf as me, which makes it very easy, so I'm not tensing up too much and forgetting to breath.
The nasal resonance exercise goes like this....
Singing a single note, starting on low C
Nnn-Ahh Nnn-Iii Nnn-Ooo Nnn-Ayy Nnn-Eee
then repeat a tone higher, until you get to high C, and your nose is tingling. At the end of this exercise, hold out your begging bowl, and hopefully you will score a few shekels, though you may also be subject to a security check or possibly recieve a five star pass to Gitmo.
then
Ah - lay - loo - yah , all on high C, then go down a tone to B and so on,
(sounds like part of Do the Evolution)
Yup! That sounds familiar! We used to have to do them crazy games in Voice classes at Uni. I found the first few weeks very confronting because I felt like a complete tool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e2kaQqxmQ0
My singer teacher used to get me to this diaphragm and breathing exercise while I was walking. Breathing in through the nose, filling up the diaphragm and holding for 4 steps as I walked and then exhaling slowly for another 4 steps. The more I did it the more steps holding in the air.
Anyway, it all sounds great Lucy. A good teacher, some one you relate to is so important. And if you're finding it relaxing must be all them endorphins and extra blood flow!
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
Like whether the soft palette is up or not, whether the space in the mouth is focused or not, prepared or not, whether the tongue is forward or not, whether the mask is buzzing...it's so interesting!
Ah, the Knights of Nih, forgot about them.
It was remiding me of someone who couldn't quite make up their mind.
I was feeling a bit like a tool the other night, cos had visitors, and I wanted to practise, but woosed out.
Weekend Warriors in a few hours. I've made a mix disc with a few of the songs, and I'll pound that on the way.
Some songs are a bit more complex than lst time, so I'm sure there will be a few trainwrecks tonight.
Come as You Are is going to be interesting, cos it's recorded in D standard, bu I'll bet they expect it to be played in E, and that'll throw a few people.
With ir Without YOu is on the list too, and there is an octave jump during the chorus, and it'll be interesting to see who has the vocals to pull that off.
Do they give you all this info up front with Weekend Warriors? About the change of octave and stuff? I'd wanna know that before I started I reckon. I recall a truly humiliating night at Karaoke when I discovered they'd put Carly Simon's You're So Vain up into a higher key and I was so used to lower I went to the lower register and pretty much hoped to die there. :rolleyes:
They recorded it too! My brother still asks me if I grew testicles for that song that night!
Anyway, be good to hear how it went Luce.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
Nah, it's not that they change it, it's how Bono sings it. One phrase ends on an F#, then the next phrase starts on the next E which is 7 tones higher and then goes up to an A. The lowest note is a G a shade over 2 octaves away, so you need at least a 2.5 octave range to get all the notes in that song correctly. I can just squeeze out the A, but I can't stay up there for as long as the song demands, and the A is very shaky.
I went to the WW last night, but there was no-one there. There must have been a change of time or venue or something, and I drove 3 hrs just to get the shits. Oh, well, maybe in my next life I won't turn into an idiot when I turn 40.
Nasty trick on the Carly Simon. Key change always weirds me out because I am so used to hearing stuff in the original key.
It's more about the fact that most music is recorded by girls and castrati, it seems, so balls are optional, or in fact, redundant to requirements. Which is why I like Ed, cos lots of his stuff is middle baritone, which is just me. Songs like Thumbing My Way are bang in the middle of my range.
Teach is starting toi get a bit more demanding with atention to pitch,and going straight to the correct pitch rather than wavering before locking on.
Turns out my pitch sense is better than I always thought.
More work on resonance and starting to focus on shaping vowels more.
Seems it's more about the vowels sounds than the consonants. Get the vowels right and the consonants just follow, which is opposite to normal speech.
The meaning of speech is in the consonants, and the vowels are just there to flow from one consonant to the next.
No new song this week, just lots of areas to improve on in the ones I have.
But I think I will start to work on Black as well. I was spending time on With or Without You, but it has notes that just hurt my voice, which is not helpful.
Anyone else, consideringf vocal lessons yet ? I really can't say just how much fun it is and how no matter how hopeless you might think you are, if you love music, you can probably learn to sing.
I had put myself in the totally lost case basket before this.
yes meee!!! I remembered my first lesson(years ago)it was frustrating ,I was so so nervous my body was shaking ,no horrible but then I felt really good and I can't explain it, was a great sensation:)