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YOUR
REAL VOICE - the vocal ezine for real people
January 5, 2006
#17
FEATURE EDITORIAL
Make the Most of Your Voice in 2006
Happy New Year to all of you! I know, I know, you've heard it so
many times in the last two weeks it doesn't quite register
anymore. But now that all the resolutions nags are gone, I
propose a goal for 2006 that will actually benefit you.
Let's make the most of our singing this year by setting up some
specific singing goals. Now I know, you're saying something in
your head like, "Yeah, so what. I already know I want to be
better at high notes!" Ok, so if you do, let's put together a
SPECIFIC set of goals and a plan for how to get your voice there for
2006. Here's why: I have noticed over the past few years
that the way my voice improves the most is when I tackle a specific
problem or vocal issue, rather than just trying to work on improving
the whole voice all the time. I have also seen that when my
students just keep singing without a specific goal in mind, the voice
doesn't improve near as much.
For instance, eighteen months ago, I took on mastering breathing and
support, and then studied only that specific skill until I had it
mastered. For the entire eighteen months of lessons and practice,
my technical focus was on great breathing and support in the
voice. During that time, I did NOT worry about improving high
notes, or fixing my tongue or tone or resonance or any other
issue. I just focused solely on mastery of breath support.
Guess what happened! ALL of the other areas of the voice,
especially the high notes and tone and resonance improved without me
working on them because of the difference in my breath support.
Now, eighteen months may seem like a long time to commit to one
specific task, but the difference was made because I worked on it UNTIL
I mastered it. That made all the difference in the voice and
improved everything else about my singing. The high notes I
always wanted, I now have, but NOT by working on high notes.
So how does this apply to YOU?...... What is the Top Five List of
your Vocal Goals for 2006? What?! You mean you don't have
them yet? Good, because that means we can create them over these
next two weeks and really get specific about what you are up to this
year in your singing, and most importantly, what you are really
committed to take on about your voice. As an example, I
will use two of my vocal goals for this year so that you can see how
specific to get on you own. My top two vocal goals for this year
are:
#1) Anchor every high note onto a specific target on my sternum
#2) Use my mask resonance right below my eye sockets for 80-90%
of all my singing
Those are extremely specific, precise and measurable goals. Most
importantly, I can practice and track my progress easily on each of
those goals. Because I'm not just trying to "sing better,"
I know exactly what element of my voice I'm working on mastering.
I also know precisely when I hit the target and when I didn't
. I'm not left wondering, "How did that sound" or "did I do it
better that time." I can feel in my body exactly what's going on
and whether or not I hit the target. A year of working on that
will leave me having mastered those two skills completely!
What area of your voice would you like to take on, and how can you
state that specifically so that you know exactly when you got it and
when you didn't? If you are working on "high notes," my
suggestion is that you pick a more specific element of singing it to
focus on, like relaxing your jaw or opening your mouth wider every time
you sing a high note. Having something specific to FEEL in your
body that you can monitor is the key to being able to work on it
effectively. You can't just work on "singing better high
notes" and hope it will happen because nothing about the high
notes will improve unless you target a specific element of it.
Pick a few goals that you are really willing to work on to make sure
they get done. If your vocal goals are specific enough, you will
be able to find songs to work on easily, because you will know exactly
what you need to do, and you will have a much easier time measuring
your improvement over the course of the year. If you have any
questions about your vocal goals and how to get them specific enough,
send me an email at info@sing-in-tune.com and I will give you
feedback on them. I really want each of you to have vocal goals
for this year because that is the ONE thing that will improve your
singing the most in 2006!
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REAL VOICE is the best vocal e-zine for real people! It
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Contact Athena by e-mail at info@sing-in-tune.com
or learn how to sing
perfectly in tune at her web site at www.Sing-In-Tune.com
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