Mark JW Graham: Singing Lessons Nottingham
Mark is the Midlands' leading Certified Voice Coach, providing professional singing lessons in Nottingham. Mark is known for getting BIG results in voices, fast. – 0115 871 7660 || [email protected]
Reading time: 4 minutes
Before we go any further, let’s recap some of the material I’ve covered from the workshop with Rhonda Carlson.
In part 1 we established the importance of a specific backstory. This enables you to inhabit the story the song is already telling, and give it nuance and a personal connection.
Continue reading “Performance Tip #3: How is your WHO reacting when you sing? (Rhonda Carlson Workshop)”
Reading time: 3 minutes
In the first performance article we talked about Rhonda Carlson’s advice on having/creating a backstory to whatever song you are going to sing. The more detailed and personally invested you can make the character singing the song, the easier it is to inhabit that story and sell it… but to sell it, you can’t sell it to a blank wall, or even an arbitrary personality. You’ve got to sing the song to an ACTUAL person, ideally in an actual place.
Continue reading “Performance Tip #2: Have a specific WHERE and a WHO (Rhonda Carlson Workshop)”
Reading time: 5 minutes
I once went along to a weekend stage performance workshop with Rhonda Carlson, performance coach to a host of performers across Vegas, Broadway, and more. I wanted to share some of her pearls of wisdom with you regarding how to perform better, and engage more powerfully with the song, and (in turn) your audience.
What do you do with your hands?
How do you move on stage to convince them you mean what you’re singing?
How do you show emotion?
Which emotion do you show?
Uh-oh. That’s tricky!
And this is where Rhonda’s system comes into play. The whole system she has created is logical and very simple to follow. The starting point in this article, is on the critical importance of having a specific backstory for each of your songs.
Continue reading “Performance Tip #1: Have a specific backstory (Rhonda Carlson Workshop)”
Reading time: 3 minutes
I was having a discussion recently regarding a mainstream artist and their vocal/musical style. We got to discussing why a large number of contemporary artists are increasingly resorting to vocal gimmicks to get noticed.
I wanted to share my current thinking on this topic, in the hopes it educates and informs some of you to think a bit more intentionally about your own singing, your own pursuit of vocal style, and to inform what you process when listening to other singers.
Continue reading “Why do singers resort to gimmicks to get noticed?”
Reading time: 3.5 minutes
I’ve done articles before on vocal longevity, on making sure you give yourself rest periods when practicing and singing. This week I want to expand on this in a way that most of you should find helpful – I want to discuss the idea of “micro-rests” and “macro-rests”.
Runners HAVE to pace themselves. Sometimes they will reduce their speed a little, or a lot, often before a key stretch they know is going to take a lot out of them. It is personal for each runner what their strategy is (mainly based on what they find challenging or fatiguing) but they must each strategise on how to pace themselves and above all, to do it in a way that allows them to keep going and maintain their performance.
Continue reading “Pacing yourself: “Micro-rests” and “Macro-rests” (Vocal Longevity)”
Reading time: 3.5 minutes
Vocal fach is a topic that has been going round my mind for a while now. Vocal fach is also a topic that is rarely talked about in a helpful way.
What is ‘vocal Fach’?! I hear you cry…
Continue reading “What the Fach? Let’s talk about YOUR voice and vocal fach”
In the classical world there is this idea of the “covered” sound, and in a video I’ve linked below, Pavarotti demonstrates covered sound.
What this broadly translates to is a sound where the brashness of chest voice is rounded off as the voice ascends, to create a deep and powerful sound, but with appropriate darkness and brightness therein. The easiest way to demonstrates this is with a clip, and who better to demonstrate than Pavarotti himself!
Continue reading “Pavarotti demonstrates covered sound”
Let’s talk about something important – speech level singing. One of the comments that comes up a lot in voice training is the discussion of volume. What is the optimal volume for singing at, how loud/soft should one sing etc? While that is far too broad a topic to cover in one post, one aspect I do want to cover is the appropriate volume for the BEGINNING of vocal development, and this leads to the idea of “speech level singing”.
Continue reading “Finding “Zero” – Why we have to start with speech level”