Wise words on singing from Jenny Taylor

[darricklucas]

Post was just made on another songwriting board. Sharing the love from user "Jenny Taylor"

Hi all, sorry to start ANOTHER thead. my day job is teaching singing and leading choirs. I have noticed that some people write good songs but struggle a bit with representing their idea because they feel they can't sing. First of all, congratulations on doing it anyway and putting your songs up for review. I just wanted to share a few bits that might help some people move forward with their singing.
I highly recommend a CD and book by Ann Peckham, a Berklee Voice professor. I think it's called Contemporary Singing. I have used it for years . The CD gives you basic warm ups, extended warm ups for high and medium voices. It's nothing fancy, but it will help you develop good healthy singing. Start slowly. Like any group of muscles, your vocal instrument needs to build slowly or you can damage it. Move forward incrementally, increase your range and volume as the muscles learn the pathway to organise themselves. Hum gently, use a narrow OOOH sound.

When you sing songs you are dealing with intervals, pitch, language, rhythm, emotion, dynamics etc. Scales give you a break from that and let you just build your instrument. SInging is a physical activity that requires muscles to be ready, it's bit like running, if you try and run a marathon without building up to it you will fail. If you judge your singing without having helped yourself by doing some scales and excercises, you are not giving yourself the opportunity to discover what you can do. THere are great singers who've never had lessons or done scales, but they have usually always sung.
Thinking you can't sing is like thinking you can't run because you never do it. Be gentle, always encourage your voice, it is a very sensitive instrument.
I'll try and put a blog together in coming weeks.
If you want to write songs, let yourself sing them.
One of the things with singing is the better you get, the more pleasure it gives you. And if you've been told you're tone deaf, just know that people can be quite ignorant. Give yourself permission to find out what your voice can do. x

[Billy's Little Trip]

I bet if you posted this thread in the "fight discussions and reviews" forum, you'd get a lot more replies.

[darricklucas]

I bet if you posted this thread in the "fight discussions and reviews" forum, you'd get a lot more replies.

now that's a roflcopter

[darricklucas]

I bet if you posted this thread in the "fight discussions and reviews" forum, you'd get a lot more replies. [imgf[/img]

Did you check out Anne Peckham?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Did you check out Anne Peckham?

No. That would be like Mozart checking out Joey Ramone for tips on composition.

All joking aside, still no. But thanks for the post. Most people here at the mighty Song Fight could use her advice, but will never accept it. *whispers* god complex

[darricklucas]

Did you check out Anne Peckham?

No. That would be like Mozart checking out Joey Ramone for tips on composition.

All joking aside, still no. But thanks for the post. Most people here at the mighty Song Fight could use her advice, but will never accept it. *whispers* god complex

Oh yeah I remember reading that in Mozarts autobiography 'at the age of eight I was pretty good at music so I made a firm resolution to stop working on my craft and spend all my time being an alcoholic with daddy issues'

I can't remember how the book ends but I think it has a happy ending.

There are definitely better resources out there but my point is that there is so much friggin' information out there and the market for songwriting is shrinking while simultaneously getting more and more aggressive, if we want to stay relevant as artists or keep food on the table we have to be forever hungry for new ways to improve our craft. #songwritersunite etc.

Speaking of which - I just saw the new title for this weeks fight, have you started a brainstorming list?

Songwriting is unique in that there are no two identical methods. I want to have conversations where we talk about the process and obstacles we run into, how we overcome them etc. That is how we can learn the most from each other.