audiot

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…

Image via Wikipedia

i’ve been saying this for years…16 years to be precise. i was in my final school years back then with a focus on economics. then on a trip to my local music store to buy some cds, as i did about once a week, i was shocked when i saw that cd prices had doubled from one week to the next. until that moment i always found records that were around 10 bucks (deutschmarks that is). this was a fair deal to me so i bought – sometimes just because i liked the cover. and i was a good customer, i kind of spent my whole pocket money on cds and piled more than 800 records before the possibility of cd-burning even existed. then one day i came into the shop and everything was around 20 bucks. it took me quite some time to get over this but i still bought, only now it was maybe 1-2 cds a month instead of 2-3 each week – because i felt betrayed. i pledged never to buy a cd for more than 20 deutschmarks. that was also the moment when i first thought that those record guys did something wrong.

fighting your own customers is not only stupid business policy, it’s also a fight you cannot win.

although cd prices went up even further, last time i checked they were around 36 deutschmarks (meaning 17,99 euros today), i always kept my promise and never bought a record for more than 20 marks (or 10 euros) – well, there were some exceptions, records from bands with no label or something similar, where i needed to order them directly from the band plus shipping costs for instance. but that’s fine because that money ends up where it belongs. as for all the regular cds, i simply switched to ebay and bought them used, usually around 5 bucks including shipping. that way i could legally buy original records with booklets and everything and i never was disappointed with those deals. so now it’s been years since i saw a record store from the inside because i’m the customer and i do whatever the hell i want. you wanna fight me? bring it on!

nowadays i read articles about decisions the music-industry-guys make and i just shake my head in silence. they still don’t get it, maybe they never will. they’re making money selling ringtones to 11 year old schoolgirls alright, but that’s even more ridiculous than being an electric-blanket-salesman on some old people bustrip to lourdes. in a way they admitted their defeat: “it seems we can’t fool the adults anymore….so let’s fool the kids, that’s easy enough.” instead of making a step towards your customers you fight their offsprings. who are your next victims? semen? i pity you.

i’ve been saying this for years and i say it again: fighting your own customers is a fight that can’t be won.