• Techniques/practitioners/vocal styles that you think will benefit you and your singing training.

• The anatomy of the voice

• Singers you admire, and their styles

• Breathing Techniques

• Vocal Health: How can you look after your voice?

Include:

• Everything covered in the session (I have included bullet points to make sure you include certain points)

• What techniques you have learnt about

• How to apply it to your voice

• Warm-up's completed

• Strengths and Weaknesses in your own voice

• Aims for yourself and your voice

• Any feedback you have been given

• Any exercises you have learnt that you can practice in your own time

5 goals that I would like to achieve with my voice are: 

• I would like to have a stronger vibrato. 

• I would like to work on my mix voice. 

• I would like to expand my vocal range. 

• I would like to improve my breath control. 

• I would like to be able to belt better. 

The anatomy of the voice: 

• The larynx – The muscles in the larynx slightly move when you swallow, and it helps with breathing and producing vocal sounds. When producing a higher pitched sound, the larynx slightly moves upwards, and slightly moves downwards when producing a lower pitched sound.  

• The articulators – The articulators are the lips, the soft palate, the tongue and the teeth which are essential for singing. They all essentially produce recognisable words.  

• Vocal cords – the vocal cords are muscular bands in your throat that produce sound. They also assist in breathing and swallowing. 

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‘Melody’- A melody is a sequence of musical notes that forms its own unit and is simple to remember. An informal name for a melody is a ‘tune’, and some popular examples of melodies are ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’.  

Some examples of exercises to improve pitch and melody are: 

• The yawn technique. 

• Lip trills. 

• Tongue twisters. 

• Vocal sirens. 

One of the most effective exercises to help with articulation and enunciation are tongue twisters. 

For example:  

• A proper copper coffee pot. 

• Unique New York, New York, unique. 

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. 

• She sells seashells by the seashore. 

Phrasing is when singers stress certain words depending on the message of the song, and break up the words and enunciate and pronounce some of the words differently and correctly. An exercise to help with phrasing is ‘throwing the beanbag’. This is when you pretend to throw an imaginary beanbag when you put emphasis on a certain word when singing a song. You swing your arm with momentum and then add momentum in your voice when you sing the word.

The ‘one note harmony’ (or the oblique harmony) is one person/group sings the melody of a song and another person/group sings a harmony on a single note on a 1st or a 5th note depending on where the melody lies.

• How to practice getting better at Harmony work

• Describe to 3 quick vocal techniques to help you practice Pop singing

  
  

1- Wake up, and do some breathing exercises - I will do this to reset my diaphragmatic breathing in the morning so I can begin the day with an already improved technique for singing, and to wake me up in the morning.

2- Humming & lip trills in the shower - I will do this to warm up my articulators ready for the day, also to give me a bigger chance of having a better technique.

3- 1+ glasses of water before I leave the house - I would like to aim to drink at least 1 glass of water before I leave for college because I have learnt that water is a huge part of helping the development of a voice, and vocal health so I want to strive to drink more water.

4- Steamer/vocal straw - I would like to invest in things for my vocal health such as the two I listed so I am able to further care for my voice and understand how to improve it and my technique when I sing.

5- Vitamins/sleep etc - I would also like to work on my personal health with things like my sleep schedule, and I would also like to get some vitamins.

6 - Lemon and honey - Finally, I would like to have lemon and honey as often as I can and whenever I feel as though my voice is strained, but a routinely schedule could be once or twice a fortnight.

Some things that can cause singing anxiety are:

• Disappointment (to yourself and others)

• Overthinking

• Judgement

• Breath control (lack of)

• Not achieving "perfection" (it doesn't exist)

• Embarrassing yourself

• Voice cracks

• Forgetting the words

• Thinking that your voice is not good enough.

• Having everyone's eyes on you.

• Pressure.

Ways to overcome it:

• Talk mantras

• Think about end goal of where you want to be

• Give yourself a reminder of how much you love performing and your passion for being on stage.

• Have some alone time

• Surround yourself with positive support

• Imagine that you're in someone else's shoes, someone more confident.

When you get nervous on stage, your body goes into 'fight or flight' mode, which causes all of your muscles to tense up; this can cause things like a dry mouth, sweating or blanking out.

The voice reacts very strongly to perceived fear.

You could do these things to improve and build up more confidence:

• Go to a different room, and frequently change environments and audiences to sing in/to.

• Practice singing with buoyancy to feel more relaxed - this essentially uses the body to trick the mind.

• Become aware of the fact that nervousness is the same sensation as excitement.

We had to answer some questions:

1- What other student on the course inspires you with their voice and technique and why?

Grace inspires me the most because her acting through song is amazing - I get goosebumps every time she sings. She also inspires me because we were told that at the start of her first year she was very quiet, and didn't have much confidence at all, but her skill now shows how far she has come with her voice and her technique.

2- What have you learnt about your voice since September?

I have learnt the basics of the vocal anatomy and the terminology for the different parts of our bodies that help us sing. About my voice personally, I have learnt that lemon & honey works extremely well to soothe my voice when I'm ill or my voice is a bit strained. Also, I am now aware of the fact that my strongest voice is my belt voice, so I need to work to develop my mix voice etc.

3- What techniques have you learnt about?

We have learnt about many different techniques, such as; head, chest and mix voice; vibrato; belting; diaphragmatic breathing; acting through song etc. We have been taught all of this to apply to our future auditions and our FMP auditions which are coming up soon.

4- What technique do you find the most difficult and why?

I think that the most difficult technique for me would be the mix voice, as I have no previous professional experience in singing, and I have been struggling to achieve my mix voice, but it is getting there with a lot of practice and warm ups etc.

5- What technique have you improved most on?

I think I have improved the most on my breath control/diaphragmatic breathing throughout these lessons as I have noticed that I now automatically breathe with my diaphragm, which helps me a lot with my overall singing performances and my breath control.

My song choice for our FMP auditions is: 'There are worse things I could do' from 'Grease'

• Log Vocal Warm Ups and Exercises (write up or video recording)

  
  

TITLE THE MEDIA WITH THE DATE, AND WHAT THE EXERCISE/SONG IS. This will help link to your vocal diary entry.

Melisma means when someone sings multiple notes throughout a singular syllable. Some examples of artists that use this technique are: Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Céline Dion.

The soft palate acts as a ‘gate-keep’ to the nasal cavity. It automatically closes the nasal passage during singing and speaking. The tongue hits it to make the sounds ‘K’ ‘N’ and ‘G’.

The vocal folds are a synonym for the vocal cords, and are two pieces of tissue found in the larynx (the voice box). They vibrate and air travels to the lungs to produce the sound that you are creating.