audiot

wow, that took a while…
if you wonder what this is about, check out:

1. part I
2. part II
3. part III
4. part IV

last time i promised you a list with music i think is great for practicing. but before i do that, i’d like to give you two links to agility-heaven. you know, drummers have their rudiments, guitarplayers have their scales and so forth. and although those do improve precision, balance etc. they’re also for developing speed. now what can a singer do get faster or maybe doing some showing-off? well, it’s not as simple as doing scales, but it’s a lot more fun. so here’s two links to (drumroll please….): tonguetwisters, YAY !!!

• the tonguetwister database
• 1st international collection of tonguetwisters

go ahead, check them out. do each and every one of them (at least in your language) until you can say them loud and clear without pausing in a normal conversation tempo or faster. the secret is starting slow. as lots of double-bassdrum-wizards say: don’t worry about the speed – the speed will come. so start really, really slow and make it a priority to speak very precisely. and once you got that down, speed it up a little. by the way, those make great warm-up exercises as well – note to myself: there should be a warm-up entry anyway.

just have fun with them and remember to work especially on those you can NOT do :-)

and here’s one of my favorites, it’s maori, the language of the original inhabitants of new zealand, and it’s nothing more than the name of a hill. there you go:

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga- horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (it’s one word)

oops, i just noticed that i still owe you the rest of my singing-workout – sorry about that, i’ll finish it soon…

but now to the question above: “can i learn how to scream?” believe it or not, i get this one a lot - yesterday for example. but this is a special one because i need to give a different answer to you than to someone who asks me in person. so here’s the answer for you: yes, you can. but no, i won’t tell you how because this is one thing you’d definitely need a teacher for. trying to do this on your own is a really stupid thing to do because chances are you’ll damage your voice – maybe even permanently. don’t let anyone tell you, he/she could show you through the net or a book or something. it’s a lie! no, not even youtube. and maybe this is the right time to tell you: first you learn how to sing, then you can learn how to scream. there’s no reasonable way around it, no shortcut. screaming is not a separate thing, it’s more like a combination of techniques you’ll have to learn first – sorry.

now there are some other things to consider. first of all, you should know what you mean by ‘screaming’. i have no idea if there’s an official definition to this – i doubt it very much. by the way: as for official definitions, singing is quite a minefield! it never seizes to amaze me, how many terms are being thrown around that don’t even have a clear meaning. usually someone is just trying to get attention by using complicated sounding words – you know, like doctors do. then you should keep in mind that screaming only works if done at the right moment. you don’t want to go over the top with this, that’ll only reduce it’s meaning. and another thing: screaming, even if done properly, is not really the healthiest thing to do, voicewise – so now would be the time to decide if you really want to go through with this……….still there? ok, then i’ll give you my definition, or more like examples to check out for yourself.

for me, screaming is what the Manowar singer does all the time. yes, i know – you don’t have to like them. just listen to some of their songs and you’ll know what i mean. by the way, i liked this band a lot when i was younger, sometimes i still listen to them – it takes a certain mood :-) and make no mistake, the singer rocks – big time! you can also find a rather famous example in Deep Purple‘s “Child In Time”. this is what i call ‘screaming’, just to not mix up different things.

a lot of people asking that question mean something else, more like nickelback (nope, i refuse linking to them – ptui!) or similar stuff. but that is not screaming, it’s just singing with more power and a little ‘rawness’ in the voice. again, ask your local vocal teacher. now there’s some other guys who say ‘screaming’ but mean growling or whatever this is called. well, there really is a way to do this without hurting yourself, although it doesn’t give you the amount of control you might want. or you could just have lots of beer and grunt away – complete loss of your voice sooner or later along the way almost guaranteed. but in that case this might be considered a good thing…

hehehe, maybe i’ll tell you about the ‘growling-trick’ someday – but not right now.

hi there.

here is something i’m thinking about for quite a while now. there are vocal lessons online one can find through google or youtube, some of them good – some not. nothing fancy so far. but because i believe singing can only be really learned with a personal teacher and not through one-size-fits-all-clips, i’m gonna start an experiment. maybe there even is such a thing but i’ve never heard of one. so here’s the deal:

i’m gonna try to teach online. basically that means direct contact between the student and me via emails and sending audiofiles back and forth to have useful feedback and advice. no matter how much i thought about this, i simply can’t know if this could work until i launch kind of a beta-version. that’s what i’m doing now. the first people that are interested and willing to help me check it out will get free vocal teaching online (and i’m not talking about 1 or 2 lessons!). i have no idea yet how much time consuming this might become, so i can’t tell you how many students i can accept in this matter. but the offer stands – if you’re interested, drop me a line right here and we’ll work something out.

basically it will work similar to regular teaching. you will need the ability to record yourself, it doesn’t have to be perfect soundquality but i need to be able to hear subtle details – for quite obvious reasons. if you’re able to shoot some pictures as well or maybe even short videos, that would be perfect (if you’ve read through some of my singer’s faq entries you’ll know why). and besides, i’m going to ask you what you think about this way of teaching every once in a while and you’ll need to provide some feedback, because that’s what this offer is about. on the other hand, i will provide you with lessons, explanations, questions, answers and tasks – for example sending you some playback. you would then record yourself to it and send it back so i can laugh my butt off and spread it all around the net analyze it with you….

good idea? then don’t wait around. this sucks? then tell me why by commenting on this post.

have a great weekend…

i promised you an inside look at my own workout, but as long as i’m writing on this handheld-thingy i’m not able to include links. so you’d have to go and find those records yourself – but google, amazon or itunes should usually do the trick.
first of all, there’s some things i work on all the time to stay ‘in shape’. and then there are the less important ones which i work on whenever i have the time… let’s start with the priorities:
precision (as you might have guessed) is the single most important aspect of every instrument. ask any pro or studioguy. you’d be amazed how much they love you if you are precise in your playing. and it makes things easy. so i’m working on precision every day because it has the bad habit of sneaking away if you’re not paying attention. for my workout, i’m using mostly two guys to work on precision: Joey Tempest and Don Henley. both of them did some great solo albums that i use a lot. i’m not a fan of the band Europe, so i can’t tell you anything about Joey’s work with them but his solo albums “A Place To Call Home” and “Azalea Place” are the perfect playbacks to work on precision – for me. (please note, that this is what works for me. there might be much better stuff for you of course. if you want to know more about it, drop me a line through the contact button at the top of this page and we might be able to figure something out together…) back to precision: i use Don Henley’s “Inside Job” record a lot as well, but also the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over” is something i like to work on.
then there’s sound. i work on that on a regular basis as well. to me it’s important that the voice is able to carry the song on its own, meaning without any instruments supporting it or together with only one acoustic guitar or piano for instance. so no hiding behind anything, the audience gets to hear it all. to work on this (i call it my built-in equalizer – more on that in a later entry), i’m using records that were made that way as well. two of my favorites, that i use all the time, are Whitesnake’s “Starkers In Tokyo” and Chris Cornell’s “Unplugged In Sweden”, both of them only one acoustic guitar and one voice – so there’s plenty of room for some singer’s ego-compensating ;-)
ugh, the batteries run out – there will be a next part to this, so stay tuned….

alright, in part one i told you about some basics, things to go for and things to avoid…

so what is the actual workout?

it’s as easy as singing the album and concentrate on one thing at a time. for example: always a good topic to focus on is precision. sing the album and concentrate on singing every single note, every single syllable as precise as you can. i do that at least 2-3 times a week to stay on top of things but if you need to build up precision first, it should be more like once a day. another thing is breathing. again, do the whole album and this time fully concentrate on breathing. do you breathe in the right spots? do you breathe in too much air? or too little? is all air gone before you breathe in again? is there a breathing-rhythm?

power, stamina, height are things that should be practiced very carefully! don’t ever overdo it with those! this could cause damage to your voice! that being said, it’s ok to push yourself a little – but concentrate on how it’s feeling. your body knows when it’s too much. and if your throat hurts, you’ve gone too far. power is not loudness (but you knew that already, right?). it comes from precision, efficiency and clearness. and there’s a slogan (i think it’s from some car-tires-ad…): “power is nothing without control” and that is it! you might get carried away, that’s fine – and one reason why you should do whole albums. if you get carried away too much, you’ll notice by not being able to do more than a few songs in a row. when that’s the case, practice on controlling the outburst as much as necessary. usually this is about volume, you got too loud – but loudness is not power, always keep that in mind. for all three (power, stamina, height) you should use a record that’s a tiny bit too high or too tiring for you, so you can stay motivated. but again: don’t overdo it. if it’s getting too hard, take a break. it will come, don’t worry.

then there’s two kinds of speed you could practice: i’d like to call the first one ‘attack’ because it’s similar to the attack we have with instruments (ask your local guitarist). this concerns the beginnings of notes/words. be there on the spot as fast as you can. i’m not talking about pitch here, although this is another thing you can work on (whole album, try hitting the notes – what a surprise…). be quick at starting notes – fast attack. and be quick at changing notes, when it comes to multiple notes in a row: think stairs, not ramp. this is an important skill to work on. the second kind of speed is the more obvious: be able to talk and sing fast in case this ever comes up. for this, sing the album without playback (just your voice) and speed it up, as fast as you can and even faster – this can be quite funny. choose lyrics with lots of words and off you go.

and then there’s whatever you think you’d need to work on….

the order of above things is not coincidence. as you might have noticed, precision does not only stand for itself, it’s also a factor for all others. without precision, you’ll always sound like….well, just bad. by the way this goes for any instrument – ask any pro. and breathing is everything anyway. so those two are the important ones, the priorities. once you got them down (hint: you’ll never really have ;-) ), the others are the topping. but work on them all to prevent boredom. if something is boring, do something else – that goes not only for music :-)

that’s it for now, the next part will be an inside look at my own workout. wooooooooooooooo…..

Image by audiot.eu via Flickr

of course there is! but since that had to be a personal workout for every single guy, i can only make this up for my students, or at least for someone whose voice is familiar to me. what a bummer, right?

ok, i’ll give you a different answer: of course there is! just make one up for yourself :-) here are some tips on how to do this right. first of all, you are the one who knows your voice best, so act accordingly. a workout is something that should fit you, meaning always keep in mind what you can and cannot do. it’s supposed to bring you forward, so it should 1. enhance or improve the skills you already have and 2. broaden your horizon or push your boundaries in order to develop new skills. that sounds a bit technical, i know. the point is, repeating something you already can do over and over and over again (as lots and lots of people do), is boring and inefficient – at least to your brain (your learning-organ). to your ego it’s pretty cool for it gives you reassurance about how great you are. but you want to learn something or get better (yes, that’s possible), so it’s important to focus on something that can be improved or newly achieved.

that being said, it’s of course wrong to set your goals too high – that would become frustrating pretty fast. so where to begin? it’s easy, just take a record that you’re familiar with. you should know the songs including lyrics. because a workout should keep you motivated, it makes sense to use a whole album instead of just one song. there will be parts that you like and don’t like, parts that are easy and parts that are harder to do – that’s perfect. i have a bunch of albums that i know inside out, meaning i can sing the whole cd from the first to the last word without pause and – if it’s live – even the passages in between songs. this makes it easy to dive-in and be less distracted.

but if you shouldn’t choose something that you already can do? how can that…i mean….ain’t that a contradiction? no. for two reasons. one, practicability: i find it important for my workouts to be usable everywhere, especially (for me) in the car. that means sheets i’d have to look at, lines i’d have to think hard about to even remember, melodies or passage orders i’m not certain about are k.o. criteria. you’d only need to listen to this record more often to achieve those things, that has nothing to do with a workout. and the second reason is: you take that, what you already can do, only as a starting point to begin your workout with. then go from there in terms of concentrating on an aspect you want to improve/learn and try to push yourself in that direction.

to be continued…

hey, this is one of my favourites. it has a lot in common with the ‘how loud…?’ question though. if you haven’t read that, maybe do it now to get a better view on the overall subject. there’s five parts of that entry, you can find them all in this same category.

anyway, you wouldn’t believe how many times i encountered this problem – actually it isn’t a problem, but it’s often seen as such… let me tell you how i got into this mess in the first place ;-) my second band was a cover band that tried to play the songs as close to the original as possible. there were songs like toto’s “hold the line” or foreigner’s “urgent”, so some pretty high stuff which was hard to do for me. i was about 16-17 then and had no idea whatsoever about singing or being in a band for that matter. i tried to sing the songs the original way and it wasn’t that bad (my voice sounded thin and funny but i did hit the notes). the band liked it, the audiences liked it and so it came to more and more high songs in the setlist until i had problems with singing a whole set because it was just too high. now the band did what lots of bands do in that situation: they blamed it on me. i just wasn’t good enough and needed more practice, if i was even able to do it at all. that hit me hard. but i was the youngster, the newbie, so i tried to comply. i practiced like crazy and managed to get it done somehow, but from that time on i was unhappy with this band. to make a long story short, there were some fights about it and i left the band because they didn’t want to understand.

ok, now about the teacher’s point of view. the voice has a certain range, which is, like the sound, unique for everyone. it depends on things like sex, body height, size of the larynx, length of the vocal cords etc. so it has absolutely nothing to do with skill or effort or anything like it – it’s simply biology. period. it is of course a matter of skill and effort to be able to use the full range of the voice, but the limits of this range are simply a matter of luck. there are a few tricks that can help you cheat on that but with very limited results and not of any use at all if your natural range is not even ballpark for the song.

so as with the loudness, the problem mainly is one of human relation. it’s wrong if bandmates want you to sing higher than you can and it’s even worse if they connect it to your overall ability to sing. i learned this the hard way and had to stand my ground dozens of times. but not anymore. my voice is what it is – like it or not. if there is a song too high (or low of course…), i sing it different – and if nothing works, i get rid of the song. that hardly ever happens but it’s a last resort.

you decide if it’s possible and how you approach it and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise! your voice could depend on it. i was lucky to not get into serious voice-troubles with that overdoing back then, but i sure wouldn’t try that again…

by the way, if you have to make a point about that, tell your guitarplayer (or bass, keyboard…) to play a note that’s not on his fingerboard but somewhere higher or lower. if the answer is something like ‘can’t do that, it’s not on the instrument’, you win. and don’t forget, you might be very well able to sing something that’s out of the question for the singer of the song you have problems with. again, if you get into those kind of troubles, rearrange the song’s vocals so that they work for you. any other approach will just sound bad and that serves nobody…

good luck :-)

in the last entry i mentioned a very common mistake people make when they’re hiring a teacher. it’s simply a matter of what to expect. many people think that, as soon as they have a teacher, they’re off the hook – meaning they don’t have to learn it themselves. they rather think the teacher just fills their heads with the knowledge and the abilities needed in order to perform the task, like filling up an empty bottle – in which case there would be an active part (the teacher) and a passive part (the student). now this is exactly how it does not work. learning requires something from you. at the least it is to be (and stay) motivated and open-minded for the things to come. our brain wants to learn, it has a desire/an urge to learn – yes, yours as well – there’s just one catch: it has to be important!

when it comes to learning a new language, the vocabulary-drill is what people dislike the most. why is that? because it’s boring and not very effective. you’re reading a list of words over and over again, hoping to remember some of them in the end. your brain notices you don’t like it/find it boring, it concludes that this is not important for you and therefore goes into standby-mode. well, not exactly scientifically correct but something like that. now another example: imagine a campfire. now you reach out and hold your hand directly into the flame. in a split second you have learned something you will never forget for the rest of your life. that is efficiency. and why? because this lesson is important. now you don’t have to get wounded every time you want to learn something, it’s sufficient to just be motivated. make your brain believe that you want, want, want, want to learn this, that there’s nothing more important, sexy, joyful to you right now than this – and your brain will gladly comply.

now back to our question: you should expect from a teacher to show you what, why and how to do something in order to learn it. the doing itself though is up to you. of course he/she should know how to motivate, but with you giving a sh!+ about it, it’s all just wasted time…

a few more things: he/she should be able to protect you from doing harm to your voice, hands etc. and should know how to break things down into smaller steps or how to take a different approach if something is too difficult for you. he should answer your questions (ask them by the dozen – important !!! ). nobody knows everything but finding a way to solve your problems is his job. that’s one of the things i love most about teaching: questions i can’t answer right there, because that means i get to learn something too, yay!

and finally (for now…): it’s about you, not him!

Image via Wikipedia

alright, this is actually so freaking easy, but almost noone seems to care about this. it’s about how we learn….and i’m not talking about learning in school because that doesn’t really work. this is different in every country of course – even from school to school – but most of those systems aren’t very effective. well, there’s not much you can do about that and if you’re not in school anymore, it wouldn’t help you anyway :-)

so if you want to learn something, anything, you’re pretty much on your own. yes, you could find yourself someone to teach you – that’s where lots of people make the first mistake, but i’ll get to that one in another entry. but still, it mainly depends on you. now what? buying books? or dvds? there’s great ones out there but this is not what i’m getting at here. there is one thing that’s more basic, easier, doesn’t need any time or effort at all and it’s also for free. join my sect and i will lead you to the final enlightenment…..oops, sorry that was meant for another blog…

let’s take a look at how children learn. now what is the single most important aspect in that? come on……….correct: imitation! you just won a free lifetime-sect-membersh…dammit! now you might think: wait a minute! to imitate something or someone, time, effort, action is required! and you are right of course.

however, there is one aspect of imitation that is different: the subconscious one. to not get things mixed up and because it describes it better, i like to call this being stamped – shaped or formed are also fine. maybe there’s someone at work who says ‘oh, my god’ or even ‘o-m-g’ about ten times every minute and it’s driving you insane. and then after a few weeks you say this yourself. don’t believe it? investigate. you might be surprised about all the things you pick up along the way, but beware, you might find out things about yourself that are not pretty at all…

believe it or not we are being stamped all the time by our surroundings. our friends, colleagues, favourite tv-shows etc. are stamping us every single moment. don’t panic! because this can be a good thing. if this is good or bad basically depends on you. there is no way to stop this stamping-process, so just don’t bother trying…feeling helpless? need someone to light your…OH, FOR GOD’S SAKE!!! but what you can do – and that’s so ridiculously simple…you can choose who’s permitted to stamp you.

ok, you might not be able to choose your workmates but the rest is up to you. you decide which radio or tv station sprinkles you and you decide whom you’re hanging out with. if you have a violent temper, the texas chainsaw massacre might not be the best choice when you’re about to meet some nerving relatives of yours. go for Bob Ross instead.

needless to say this works not just for moods but virtually everything, meaning you can use this to become better at an instrument as well – or for whatever other thing you can come up with. so if you want to become a better drummer, listen to as much great drummers as you can. actually, you don’t even have to listen. just surround yourself with them, put their music in your stereo while you’re doing the dishes or even watching tv. it doesn’t have to be loud, let it be background noise – your mind will pick it up. don’t concentrate on it, don’t make it time- or energy-consuming, even ignore it. just let it be in the background while you’re driving, reading, making phone-calls…simply all the time and it will stamp you. guaranteed.

one more thing: it’s likely that you won’t notice your progress, at least at first. but others will and if you give it a little time, you will too…

actually, this series should be called ‘saving energy’ or something similar because that’s what it’s about, but anyway. if you have problems being able to sing for hours without passing out, throwing up or just losing the voice, it’s not about more strength or power or more training, it’s mostly about saving energy. of course, if you live a healthy life – sports, healthy food etc. – it helps a lot in many ways. and if you have strong powerful lungs and lots of stamina, that’s great as well. but this here is about making the best of your current situation. i’ve yet to have a student that doesn’t waste huge amounts of energy in the beginning, so this is a good thing to do at the start. i already told you about efficiency here and here, to open your mouth (read it here) and to check out how much energy you can save before your performance suffers without any other adjustments (here and here).

the next point would be to develop a strategy for a song and for the whole gig for that matter. that’s quite an easy one. notice that some songs give you a hard time while others seem to sing themselves – energywise. this depends on the whole song, not just on how high the notes are for instance. the feel is important here. once i had the problem of not being able to sing the songs i loved the most. after suspecting the devil himself to work against me, i thought it might be wiser to use a more scientific approach. the answer was easy, i used to dig into those beloved songs too much which resulted in some kind of small burnout. the next mistake was to think i needed to become stronger because digging in any less was out of the question. the real answer is strategy. no matter how strong you are, there will always be a song that sucks you completely dry. by strategy i mean finding out how and why the song really works and using that to your advantage. for example, maybe you forget to use the guitar solo as a break for yourself to relax a bit because you dig it so much. or maybe you don’t have a regular breathing rhythm for this song because you just get carried away. it’s easy to throw some techniques overboard when you’re into it but you should fight this urge – at least while you’re developing a strategy. try to get to that song as cool as possible so you can have a clear look at it. discover the moments in the song that really eat up your energy. when you’ve found them, decide if it’s possible to save some energy there without sacrificing any of the feel (hint: it usually is!)

another trick: doing the opposite can work ridiculously well, meaning try to whisper that one word you would usually scream – this can make it way more powerful. it can, not does always.

imagine a ‘suspense curve’ (if that term even exists – you know, like in a drama or something…) for the song and notice where power is important and where it’s not needed. for many songs, it’s not a good choice to start from the top of your lungs because then there’s no room to build up from there. save this for the climax, where it belongs…

and a rather general trick would be: if you reach your climax too early, just start softer. come to think of it, this might also work in other situations :-)

it’s not about getting into it so much that you crash along the way, it’s about making it sound and feel good. there will come a time when all those techniques work automatically – then you really can let go because mr. subconscious will take care of it. but until that time….well…..you know……it just sucks to suck, right? :-) but don’t panic, with a little work on that, you’ll get over it quickly.

once again mess around with all of that and have fun…