I've been sick lately

Hi, sorry it's been awhile. I actually injured my voice & got a cold as a result from having to sing too high at a job. I hate it when you have to sing above your range & push because you are getting payed & the songwriter can't change the key of the song.
Anyway, my voice is hopefully coming back little by little.
So a tip for all. Don't sing higher than you are used to.

do your own warm ups.

After becoming disillusioned with people taking so much & not doing the warm ups with us, on youtube, I figured we'll have to improvise.

So you need a piano so you can know what key to start singing in.


The reason you should practice with an instrument & not just random notes you hear in your head, is to firstly keep track of how much progress you are making. Secondly, hearing a piano while you sing is good for your ear training & pitch training as well.


So if you have no piano at home here are some cheesy online pianos:

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/javapiano/javapiano.htm

Where you should start your warm up depends on your voice. Start comfortably. Not too low or high. For girls, Find middle C & go down a few notes maybe to G & do what Eric does, first go up & down the scale comfortably doing lip rolls & then start changing to to La la la & then different sounds like, ma & mu & li & da, yei & so forth. Doing different sounds works out different parts of your voice.
The hardest sounds to sing nicely are eeeeeeeeee sounds. Like the word "me", it tends to get all nasal. So practice that too, by opening your mouth/throat & make it sound more like ay. Of course I always thought the eeee sound was really modern so whatevs.

About Youtube vocal videos.

Well, sometimes they just blab the whole time instead of sing. I'm still looking for one where they just play the darn piano & do all the warm ups you need for 20 min.

Today's lesson

Today's lesson is part 3 of Eric's vocal warm up.
He says, "if you sound good while you are doing it, you're probably doing it wrong." Nice one.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=lSOn-b3V6rQ

and continuing on in the weirdness here's part 4
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AnmlpVe3B40

Warm up Part 2

bbbbbbbbbbbbbrrr....lip rolls.
Remember he is a guy. So girls, when you copy him, remember to change into your speaking voice range & then, head voice for the lip roll part.
After that he plays the piano so he'll tell the girls where to come in.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ_RwV52DMw&feature=channel

It's not THAT easy.

"Yeah!!! Rad.
So now that I'm drinking, like, tons of H2O & sleeping till the crack of noon, my voice will just be so awesome, I won't have to do anything else, right."

Uh, NO. Training your voice is like training an athlete, you have to work out & warm up & stretch & all that.

Here is a very simple video on YOUTUBE to start out with. It talks about the diaphragm which is probably one of the best things you can learn about & learn how to use.
EVEN ALL YOU SCREAMOS OUT THERE, unless you use your diaphragm while screaming, you will ruin your vocal chords.
Here is ERIC ARCENEAUX, teaching you the Shhhhhhhhh exercise which is one of the best for warming up the diaphragm:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5CWsFaVnWM

Sleep Sleep Sleep.............................

I'm sure there have been numerous occasions where you stayed up late partying & doing God knows what, & when you wake up the next day your voice is all low. While you think it may sound quite sultry & cool, probably all you are good for is muttering sweet & low nothings to your dahling but for singing, nothing will hinder your range & energy levels more than lack of sleep. Thankfully voice inflexibiliy related to lack of sleep is treatable, much more so than say tonedeafness. (Another good topic for later) But all you have to do --howerer not as easy as it sounds-- is GO TO SLEEP ALREADY!!!!
Sometimes, (rare occasions) I will say to myself: "gee I sound pretty good today" & then I'll realize I had a really good nights sleep. I know this sounds indulgent but 10 hours of sleep can do wonders. Probably I'm just paying back sleep debts & wouldn't need 10 hrs forever but the nights I have slept that long I have given the best singing results.
Although not talking directly about sleep for singing here is an interesting article about sleep & sleep debts:



http://www.relfe.com/07/sleep_apnea_disorder_problem_kid.html