Information overload

It doesn’t take long when scrolling through social media to find ‘stuff’ that promises to teach you how to sing. Some of it seems to be very good and I do understand that musicians need to make money and earn a living but I find it all rather tiring. We all have unique voices but learning how to use them to express feelings and stories and deep emotions takes time and so much of what the world wants now are quick fixes. Now I will help any singer produce the best sound that they need for a gig when they are suffering from colds and challenges but long term I know it’s a slow journey of increasing awareness, kinaesthetically, intellectually, emotionally and artistically.

I am entering my last year as President of the European Voice Teachers Association (EVTA) and my journey over the last 12 years of being part of this voluntary organisation has been profound. I have met some wonderful singing teachers of all musical genres who give so much of their time and talents helping the next generation of singers and teachers to become better performers. It is with great pride that I see students making a career for themselves in our wonderful profession.

What would I say are the fundamentals of singing, after so many years (nearly 50!)

  1. Breathe- and the quality and management is still something I am learning about as my body changes and I have the challenges of age and health…and Covid has taught us how fundamental is the air we breathe- just to live as well as to speak and sing.
  2. Resonance – understanding the core of our sound and how we use our bodies to vibrate with resonance and ring- “if they hear the ring they’ll pay you to sing” as my American friends would say, ” hang it in the beak” !
  3. Learning where and when to release and where and when to energise – our complex and wonderful bodies and minds have myriad ways of creating tension and one of the biggest themes in my teaching is RELEASE. But its not about being floppy with no energy it is about focus and intention and perception which is another buzz word for me.
  4. Then there is the story and the emotion and the creative and artistic meanings which make me more than a ‘sounding gong or clanging cymbal’ but a voice bringing a shared humanity to life for a few moments so that others can be healed.

We, in EVTA are getting ready to plan for Lucerne 2026 Eurovox and before that 2024 September at PeVoC in Santander where we will have a special workshop and EVTA Council as well as participating in the conference with voice scientists and professionals. It is such a privilege to be part of this musical world.

Too busy to blog

Well it is August 2022 and I haven’t had time to write anything for so long! But it has been busy with work for singing teaching, church, embroidery, house, garden, boats and family.

I’m just about to go to Tallinn in Estonia for Pevoc, having just came back from Vienna and ICVT. All these huge events delayed due to the pandemic but finally happening and it has been truly wonderful to meet up with faces I have only seen on Zoom!

BUT international connectivity is taking off, the world is a smaller place post Covid and there are lots of exciting visions coming to fruition. I am trying to keep notes on everything but it has been a whirlwind and my head is busy with new thoughts and old thoughts I had forgotten.

Singing has been a life saver but I would say my breath is not as good as it was, having had mild Covid, but I hope to get back to some discipline once this busy summer is over and improve my depth and range. It is noticeable in many singers I find, the lack of breath strength…

The highlight musically has been the Poulenc double bill at Glyndebourne, in spite of my heat stroke, it was a truly outstanding evening of singing, production, design, orchestra everything worked! How fortunate to have experienced it live and I am returning to the soundworld of Pelleas again which I fell in love with as a student, many years ago.

My embroidery has been a great solace throughout the pandemic and lockdowns, such challenges but also real sense of achievement in difficult techniques and a time to pray and reflect. Sadly the heatwave has meant I haven’t felt able to lift a needle let alone anything else.

Back to work, very soon and then teach, sing and stop writing emails!

Teaching on Zoom

It has been a year of many challenges but curiously it has also had hidden silver linings, some may say very hidden. I think we have had to seriously rethink about the way we teach, how we look after ourselves as teachers and performers and how we look after our student singers. I have had to prepare differently for online lessons, I have had to learn more about the ‘whole singer’, psychological, medical, spiritual and emotional elements.

I find it wonderful that there is still so much to learn and so many exciting developments. Of course I am sad and frustrated that I cannot sing in public and that my student concerts cannot happen, but I know when we do return to live music we will have to ‘up our game’ as the world has changed fast throughout this pandemic.

Face to face

Today I am going to try out my first face to face lesson for 3 months, with a dear friend who teaches me to paint in exchange for me teaching her to sing. So it will be flexible. I am moving out of my little music room to the lounge where I have my spinet and she will stand in the Conservatory with the glass door partially closed at 2 metre distance and the outer doors fully open and windows open (so virtually outside). I think we shall be safe and it will mean she can hear me and I can hear her without masks. And I will try and keep to a 40 minute time.

Well it really worked and I have to say how fascinating it is to work with someone with a different creative skill. She is an internally famous watercolour painter and I try to find images that resonate with her. And when we are working on my painting skills it is amazing how often something comes up that rings true for singing. e.g. Malcolm Martineau spoke abut the magic triangle of singer, pianist and audience and the real connection that worked between all three. She spoke about the artist, the life model and the canvas in the same way, focusing on the dynamic relationship that must ‘flow’ between all three.

She enjoyed working with the spinet instead of the piano as well, and that does give a different timbre even with the same pitch. I used a lot of the discussion I had had with Karen Leigh-Post on awareness, pricking up ears and using the vestibular system. It reminded me of the Tomatis Listening posture which is such a valuable tool to help singers build awareness. It seems so essential to be ‘alive’ and aware when we are singing of the space around us and being in performance mode even in a lesson.

Singing in the time of Covid

Today is Super Saturday 4th July and we have had over 100 days of lockdown. As a singer and Singing teacher it has been very challenging and so many plans have gone to waste. I seem to have been busier than ever and I have found that online teaching has been OK, not perfect but if I adapt and plan thoroughly and keep focused it seems to produce results. I have done over 100 daily video singing exercises on WhatsApp which seem to have gone down well and now I have taken a break for the summer.

Today is also my dear departed singing teacher’s birthday  (Mollie Petrie) as well as Independence Day in the USA and I have recently finished 5 days intense virtual conferencing and Zooming. All very encouraging as we move forward and we might even save the planet in the process. Lots of great ideas to think about over the summer.

There is more research available on the vestibular system which controls body balance and sense of wellbeing which is linked with hearing and auditory perception and the sensations of space and movement. So my findings from my PhD are at last finding some sympathetic response in the teaching world. I am sure our ‘temples’ in our skull have a significant part to play in vocalising at an optimum level, otherwise why are they called ‘temples’?

There has been a real focus on the importance for justice for our brothers and sisters of all colour, race and creed around the world and while it will take time my prayer is that we can come out of this pandemic into a better world. But the implications for many are stark with a global economic disaster on the horizon. Some arts organisations are thinking out of the box but it will be very difficult for performers in the coming months with no incomes or venues.

Teaching is going to change that is for certain but singers and musicians are creative artists and we can surely do our best to give our students the quality of teaching experience they deserve.

 

Lockdown Singing Exercise

Well I have been really challenged! I started doing daily videos of short 2 minute vocal exercises for my students and choir members and it has got to  ridiculous number, I must be on about number 70 by now. However it has been fun and creative and stimulating and folk seem to enjoy them. If you look for Renaissance Choir on Facebook you can see them all. Bear in mind they were all done under Lockdown conditions.

It is interesting having to find new ways of saying the same things because the basics of singing are the same but we need to be stimulated with fresh images to stop getting into a rut. It is refreshing to the mind and the body and in lockdown it is good for the soul!

A unique space

It would seem that we are now in the eighth week of lockdown and there are many who have died of Covid19 and yet we, here in West Sussex have been relatively free of infection. We have enjoyed our beautiful harbour and our garden, and our daily walks. I have been very careful about social distancing and I have done something to help make PPE. I have done little services for Youtube for our Harbour Churches. I have also done lots of sewing and sorting and cleaning.

I have come to the end of semester teaching and marking assessments. But since lockdown began I have done a  daily short 1-2 minute video which I have sent via WhatsApp to my students and choirs. It has been a really good challenge for me to think of fresh approaches to breath, energy, focus, timbre and resonance.

I am now working on a Workbook for French for Singing and I am trying to work out how I can put a video lesson into my blog about Exsultate Jubilate.

I have been wary about posting a picture of myself but here goes and I think I need to become more adventurous and creative with my blog.

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Update

Well… we are only in week 1 of this ‘lockdown’ and I seem to have been busier than ever. Online teaching is exhausting but fruitful and even if it challenges me I am learning so much about the best way to teach under pressure of time and distance. Yes 1-1 online is not as good as face to face but it highlights different things when I rely so much on the sound as well as the visual. I also can see myself in a different if slightly disconcerting light, I do exaggerate my facial expressions because I am trying so hard to get through the barrier of a camera lens. We are human and we long for social contact that is physical and not just virtual. BUT we must save lives and social distancing for the foreseeable future may save many lives, and many families from great sorrow.

While the world outside is struggling to come to terms with a pandemic that is killing so many people, one’s own values and faith are really questioned and the purpose of life becomes more focussed. So I am a Christian and a licensed Reader/Lay Preacher in the Anglican Church, I am a mother and grandmother, an embroiderer and a gardener, a singer and an artist, a wife, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a friend, a colleague, all these identities come tumbling around in life like in a stone polishing machine. The rough edges are made smooth or at least my prayer is that will happen.

In the meantime I work and think and meditate on the values of what and why I do and the value of HOW I do it.

Singing has come through this crisis as a release, first in China, then Italy and now here in the UK. The desperate need to sing is so clear amongst people of all ages, interests, creeds and colours. This gives me HOPE.

Virtual Singing lessons

Dr. Susan Yarnall Monks singunique.com

Susan’s thoughts on virtual singing teaching:

Okay I have had only one online lesson so far but apart from the technology I do think there are useful observations to share for what they are worth…

  1. I found Facetime closer to face-to-face teaching than Skype or Zoom but it is a virtual world and very different, so picking up nuances of communication is harder and there is a temptation to get so worried about the technology that you forget to watch the singer…
  2. I think short and sweet is better in the virtual world 30 minutes of intense concentration is enough for me and I think for the students.
  3. Planning obviously is important but agree the strategy of the lesson with your student and your shared aims at the start e.g.
    1. We will do 3 specific technical exercises
    2. Let’s work on this or that particular passage in this song and the next
    3. Lots of highly detailed attention to text, phrasing, pitch, timbre, musical accuracy
    4. Aims for next week’s practice and schedule next lesson
    5. Check singer is happy with the outcome

4. I am very aware that my demonstrations are very close -up with the camera and my very expressive eyebrows make me look funny but that is how I am

5.  As Ian Anderson Gray said the camera can drain energy from you and from your singer, that is why short and sweet is better. Try not to be a perfectionist…

6. Use daylight to light the lesson if you can

7. To be honest trying to accompany the singer gets lost in the time delay and I think it is more useful to get down into the details. The singers can practice using accompaniments on line but your skills as a teacher are about so much more, colour, timbre, emotional communication, technical abilities

8. I think there are huge benefits of virtual teaching but it will never truly replace 1-1, face to face. Being positive makes a difference when everyone is under such pressure, adapt and re-imagine your teaching strategies and styles.

9. Helping the student prepare for these lessons is crucial, again specific goals will help. e.g. “You need to work on loosening those lower abs, and try not to tighten the jaw, or really work on your vowels” etc.

10. I always have 10 tips so this is the last…teachers and students can learn from the challenges and we will be saving the planet as well! I am excited about finding how much more there is to learn!