One of THE BEST artists on the market - Aurora. Not only is she a great talent but she’s innovative and a true performer. Those are hard to come by now days. She sings, plays piano, performs and dances and makes the song truly her own. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such artistry. Thank you Aurora for sharing your talent. Enjoy as I react to her take on Ariana Grande’s God Is a Woman.
Vocal Coach Reacts to Lyodra - I'D DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE (Meat Loaf)
Vocal Coach Reacts to Aurora's - Believer (Imagine Dragons Cover)
Hey hey! Check out my reaction to Aurora singing Believer - Such a fun video to react to!
Linked videos: How to sing AURORA's part from INTO THE UNKNOWN: https://youtu.be/zLODfWhxsiU
How to Sing HIGHER: https://youtu.be/L3HQiF4suiQ
How To Sing Vowel's - https://youtu.be/XWS-hY3sEtI
The Siren Warm Up - https://youtu.be/dwi26nfHYtE
How to NAIL the chorus of Into The Unknown: https://youtu.be/ecirEUnhGG0
How to SING Into the Unknown: https://youtu.be/DHTN-24U6gs
SING IN TUNE: https://youtu.be/krRiOqDGbX8
Guys 3 Quick Warm Ups: https://youtu.be/3D5tGgbOebw
Vocal Warm ups: Breathing - https://youtu.be/xlsbzaN3NbA
Pop warm up - https://youtu.be/1SxbrxqFSfw
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - https://youtu.be/EGb9DNdP93Y
Hung Gee (forward placement) - https://youtu.be/rJrfpJHRpZM?t=70
Solfege - https://youtu.be/OkW4v_MJEUg
Schedule a lesson today! Follow us on Facebook: Serene Vocal Studio Instagram @SereneVocalStudio
Vocal Coach REACTS to Idina Menzel's performance at the OSCARS - Into The Unknown
You can learn SO much from watch other people perform. Some questions you can ask yourself while watching any performance.
How did they show up? (Sloppy? or put together and all glammed up?)
Was their first note on pitch?
What was their face doing?
Did they look like they were having fun?
Did you LIKE watching them?
Did they make mistakes? If they did, how did they recover?
Check out Idina Menzel’s performance - Into The Unknown LIVE at the Oscars. In a live performance there is ONE SHOT to do it right. ONE chance to sing your heart out. There are NO do overs during a live performance. So you may as well go BIG or GO home.
VOWELS. Master Vowels and You Can Master ANYTHING!
Songs are made up of two things, melody and words. Words are made up of consonants and vowels. In singing, vowels trump consonants in terms of importance. So in that regard, vowels are one of the the most important elements of singing. Vowel shapes in the mouth make each sound different and unique. The cool thing is, we can change the shape of our mouths to make different sounds for each vowel. Each sound sound is unique. If every song was sung on one vowel, it would be boring boring boring.
What are the vowels most important to singers? We use I, E, A, O, and U as primary or mother vowels. Remember - vowels are all about the sounds. How a vowel sounds is more important than how a word is spelled. Spelling is secondary here. So in reality vowels are all about mouth SHAPES. Check out the chart below:
I Vowel
We are going to take the latin based approach to the vowel I. So instead of this vowel saying “ih” as in the word sit, we will say “EE” as in the words meet, peace, and speed. In latin based languages such as Italian, the word bambino is pronounced bam-bēnō and the I vowel takes on that “EE” sound. It’s important to note that even though some words such as meet and greet don’t have a literal I vowel in them, they still take on that “EE” sound. So it doesn’t really matter how the word is spelled as much as how the word is pronounced. How the word is pronounced will determine which vowel shape we assign to each word.
Make sure that the “I” vowel has SPACE. The “I” vowel will come through in that “OO” space and have the trumpet lips happening here. Nice and loose and forward. Don’t worry, it WILL feel weird and you WILL feel like you’re speaking in a different language.
E Vowel
The “E” vowel is going to take on our “Eh” sound. “Eh” will be sung is the “Ah” space with a dropped jaw and a lifted tongue. Note that the tongue is the part that is doing ALL the work here. The jaw just stays open open open. If your “Eh” vowel starts to become more horizontal, you need to drop your jaw more. This vowel is a TALL vowel. Think Eiffel Tower in your mouth. This vowel pronounces words such as met, gem, and even the word said.
Notice that the word “said” is spelled with the vowels “A” and “I”. Does that matter? No. Do we pronounce the word with an “Eh” sound? YES. So we use the “E” vowel and space associated with it, to pronounce this word.
A Vowel
The “A” vowel is going to take on the largest space in our mouth while pronouncing “Ah”. The jaw is dropped and the tongue is dropped. People get scared of this vowel and try to pull up their tongue to help “place” the sound forward but it will NOT help you to get your tongue involved here. This vowel is the most open space and it needs ALL. THE. SPACE. But remember, the sound in this vowel is placed FORWARD. Do NOT swallow the “Ah” sound or you will be in a world of trouble. If you have trouble with the sound being too far back, swallowed, or too dark, try to sing “Ah” with an ever so slight smile as you sing into the large space.
O Vowel
The vowel “O” is really the most strait forward. It LOOKS like it should SOUND. You sing the vowel “O” and you make a nice big round “O” in your month. Check in the mirror to make sure the “O” shape in your mouth is nice and big, like the picture here. The “O” space slightly less open than the “Ah” space.
U Vowel
The “U” vowel should be sung in the “OO” space. The same space as the words due, blue, and you. The lips will look like “trumpet lips.” The shape on the outside is important but equally important is the shape on the INSIDE of the mouth. Check your tongue. Is it getting in the way? Make sure your jaw is dropped and your back teeth are not touching.
4 Quick Warms Ups to Sing Your Heart Out
How To Sing Silent Night - (And CRUSH it)
Silent Night is a holiday favorite! You can hear it sung at many local gatherings. I find it nice to be able to sing it well. Most don’t know how to sing it well. BUT that will not be your story if you decide to learn how to sing it right, once and for all!
When I was a child, I lived at a private performing high school that my parents helped start. Performing was a normal part of my life and happened on a day to day basis. One of my favorite places to sing music was at voice class. Imagine myself, 3 years old, underneath the grand piano singing my heart out during voice class. I was not supposed to be in there, but as long as I didn’t disrupt the class I could stay and listen. The teacher was Pamela, she was a vocal expert! She knew how to teach the students to sing with confidence, sing in tune, and sing long phrases. One of her favorite songs to use was Silent Night. Silent Night taught students how to sing those long phrases by using their breath. Silent Night had lots high notes so students HAD to use their breathing support to hit them. If they didn’t, notes would be weak, flat, and ugly. Sometimes I could not help myself but to belt out the correct notes as loud as I could. I would get a quick word, “Shhhhh! Serene be quiet! BUT she did hit all the right notes.”
Hung Gee Exercise - Perfect for choir!
How to bring your voice forward into the mask so that you can have more agility with your voice. A swallowed tone is one of the biggest downfalls for people who've been in CHOIR. Choir directors always say to blend blend blend. BLENDING does NOT equal swallowed tone. But often people think that to blend means to swallow your tone. Swallowed tone muddies sound and makes things less clear. Learn how to properly keep your sound and tone FORWARD so that you can have agility in your voice and be able to do runs and rills AND blend with your choir section.
How To Sing Into The Unknown from Frozen 2
Did you see Frozen 2? Of course you did! You probably came out of the theatre with your favorite song in your head. That or the most annoying song. For me, Into The Unknown was totally stuck! I had to record a how to sing video. Idina Menzel totally kills this song with her vocals but it’s not out of reach for your average, everyday singer either. Watch below how to sing this incredible new song. This video is best suited for singers who are intermediate to advance levels. A base knowledge of breath, support, vocal placement, belting and mix voice is helpful when learning this song. Good luck!
Recording Sessions April 2019
Students from Serene Vocal Studio, both private and group lessons, were able to record their music at Lakeview Recording Studio April 2019. Each student brought their own flair to their song and did such an amazing job. Check out a clip of Oliver Balmforth’s song, I’d Do Anything, from that popular Broadway Musical, Oliver. Oliver has been with SVS for two semesters and attended the summer camp, The Greatest Camp in 2018.
Check out a clip of Hannah Ashby’s song, Lovely, originally by Billie Eilish & Khalid. Hannah has been taking voice from Serene for a year and has progressed in her technical singing, performance and style.
Men: Learn To Sing Falsetto
Ear Training: With Numbers
Singing Exercise: Vocal Placement
Vocal Placement. What is it for? Vocal placement determines the quality of sound produced from your mouth and everything inside. A lot of singers place their sound too far back in their mouth, sometimes described as a “swallowed” sound, but in this video you will learn a vocal exercise that will enable you to move your sound to the front of your face (mask). Being able to move the placement of your voice is essential to bringing the different sounds required for different songs.
Warm Up To Sing POP
If you want to sing POP- How should you warm up??
Use this warm up video to help you warm up to specifically sing POP. This exercise helps bring the voice forward so that the voice can have the "pop sound" and create more agility in your voice.
10 Ways To BOMB Practicing
Hey there,
As a voice teacher I am constantly talking to my students about practicing. It doesn't matter what you're studying, weather it be voice or another instrument, in order to improve you must practice. Some people say to me "Why do I have to practice? I really enjoy spending money and not having anything to show for it." Just kidding. No one says that to me out loud, but it's often what is subconsciously communicated week after week when students come to their lesson unprepared and unpracticed.
WHAT makes practicing difficult?
Practicing can be a challenge because you have to 1. remember what you were taught or coached on during your lesson, 2. you have to get over yourself and JUST DO IT, 3. you have to mentally talk yourself IN to practicing by talking yourself OUT of your fears of not being perfect, 4. you have to have patience with yourself, 5. you may have household members who make fun of you during your practice sessions, and 6. you may be unsure of how to structure your practice session.
Here are 10 ways to FAIL your practicing practice:
1. Sing your piece all the way through
If you sing your song 3X all the way through and call it a day - most everything your teacher gave you to work on will get forgotten and not be implemented. It's like singing through all your bad habits over and over again.
2. Don’t warm up
Students who don't warm up, set themselves up for disaster. Disaster you say, why? Because not warming up properly is a sure way to misuse your voice and stay stuck. Staying stuck with your voice looks like not improving your range, always dealing with the same problem spots in your voice and not having a connection between the voice and the breath.
3. Forget to breathe and connect your breath
Not warming up properly leads to breathing problems. Our amazing voices are one instrument with multiple elements to them. One of the most important being our breath. If we don't connect our breath we will have a wispy sounding voice with no power behind it.
4. You practice in your car. #fail
I ask "how did your practicing go this week?" Student replies "Good! I was able to practice in my car 3 times!" Wah wah wah. When you practice in your car you're playing with your voice which is good but not as good as when you sit down to intentionally practice. It's similar to when a child eats an ice cream sandwich before dinner. Did you eat? Technically yes. Was there any nutritional value in the "food?" Technically yes. BUT what your body really needed was the essential vitamins and minerals that come from your vegetables at dinner. Your body didn't need more flour and sugar to play with. Car practicing is giving into your craving to practice but just sing the sugary fluff stuff but your body needs the broccoli.
5. You only practice once during the week
Practicing once during the week is great but it's a fail. It's a fail because your commitment to your voice equals your confidence over time. If you have a goal to become a level 10 singer in 90 days and you're at a level 3, it's going to take you a LOT longer than 90 days to reach that goal.
6. You breeze over hard spots in your piece
If you breeze over, meaning sing through the hard spots and not stop and work on them, you'll never nail those spots. Becoming an expert in any given song, means stopping to fix difficult spots. Even if you hate that spot because you're "not good at it." Oh the irony.
7. Only sing the parts you’re good at
If you sing the "easy" parts over and over you'll only ever be good at those spots. If feels good to pet our egos and sing what is easy but we need to dig in to those problem spots. Avoiding hard things is avoiding pain, which we're programmed to do because let's face it, nobody likes pain. But in order to improve, you must face that pain even as it hurts.
8. Don’t drill
If you want to fail your practicing, don't drill. What's a drill? A drill is singing one small part, like 4 notes, over and over and over and over. This is the annoying sounds of practicing. For drilling it's helpful to have your own space so you can get annoying and lean into it.
9. Don’t experiment with different vowel sounds
During your drills if you don't experiment with different vowel sounds you'll 1. not understand your voice, 2. probably sing the wrong vowels, and 3. sound awful.
10. Don’t listen to your inspiration singer
Not listening to your inspirational singer is a fail because you can learn so much from their technicalities, to their style, to their performance. Listen to them and LEARN.
Now you should have a better idea of what NOT to do during your practice sessions. If you find yourself doing any of these 10 things, don't despair. Stop doing them and practice with more intention and focus. If you need help improving your practicing, contact me and I will take care of you.
Solfege Scale: Working Within the Scale - Do, Mi, Sol
The Solfege Scale. So important. Sometimes so foreign. Yet if you watch Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, you will most likely recognize the well known and loved song 'Do-Re-Mi'. Watch that song ten times and I tell ya, you will know the Solfege Scale. But NOW you've gotta add the hand signs. Each element of the Solfege Scale and hand signs, adds multiple avenues to learn music and to train your ear to hear different intervals and pitches. All roads lead to 'do' so to speak. 'Do' is the foundation of the scale. 'Do' is the beginning pitch, 'do' is home. Always sing 'do' first on middle C. Memorize how 'do' feels to sing. Memorizes how it sounds as you sing it. Where do you feel the vibration? This video is the second video in the Serene Vocal Studio Solfege training videos.
Solfege scale with hand signs
This video teaches how to sing and sign the solfege scale. Do is starting on middle C.
Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do!
You should never cancel your private lesson – True or False?
You feel it coming on, the tickle in your throat, the sniffle in your nose and sneezing! Oh the sneezing! You think to yourself, “I can’t be sick! I’ve got a voice lesson later today! I’ve got a performance and an audition coming up next week! There’s too much going on to be down and out! Sick or no, I’m going to power through!” And then…you get kicked in the knees by the worst cold of your life. Thank you life. Just what I needed.
So many times we try to power through and think – mind over matter and attempt to will ourselves into being well. Or worse than that – we see a post on Facebook. A friend is dreadfully ill and sharing all the details via social media. Your thoughts go to remembering being sick and you begin thinking “Gosh, I haven’t been THAT sick in a while. Maybe I’m next?” Whoops! Don’t even think about it!” Next thing you know, you’re the one feeling like crud on the couch.
Opposition is a part of life. We’re pretty easily guaranteed that 50% of the time we will feel healthy and well and the other 50% we get to experience feeling like crap. I know. You’re stoked that I’m even saying this.
So, you’re sick. How do you know if you should cancel your lesson- if ever?
To me, sickness is just like a good story. There’s a beginning, a once upon a time- a middle, which is the meat of the story- and an end, a happily ever after, THE END. As soon as we feel a sniffle I know we all wish we could fast forward to the best part- THE END. We do not get that luxury, unfortunately.
ONCE UPON A TIME – If you’re at the very beginning of sickness – feeling like you might be coming down with something – you’re probably fine to go to your lesson. If you’re on the very edge, teetering on “Oh my gosh I’m totally sick”, do everyone a favor and cancel your lesson. Your teacher will thank you.
THE MEAT OF YOUR STORY – At this point you are totally and completely sick. Nothing sounds better to you than the warm folds of your sheets and the darkness of your room. Sleep is calling your name. Regardless of weather or not you’re puking, this is the time that you should cancel your lesson and go to bed! You may have magically turned into an alto (or bass) or you may have no voice at all. Sleep, hydration and rest are the most important things right now. Embrace your bed and resist binge watching Netflix so that you can sleep and really heal!
THE END – Sometimes this part of your sickness story can take longer that you think it should. Be patient. Healing takes time. Baby steps are required and sometimes you feel like you’re taking backwards steps if you over-do things. Eventually, with time, your body and voice will be back to normal. If you are on the upswing and are feeling well, go to your lesson! If you’re still not sure if you’re well enough for a lesson it’s always a great idea to talk to your teacher, tell them what’s been going on with your sickness and see what they say. Even if you can’t sing at your full capacity there are other things you can do at your lesson. Exploring repertoire and finding new music could be something you do! It’s more important, whenever possible, to keep the commitment of your lesson time and the consistency of attendance.
If you think you’re coming down with something but still feel fine, go ahead and go. But tell your teacher what’s up. If you’re sick, cancel your lesson. If you’re on the upswing, use your intuition and best judgement to decide. Again, communicate with your teacher. What ever your situation, I hope you can quickly recover so you can sing with your full voice again!