Blog

Begin Your Journey as a Musician

GET STARTED

Editorial credit: FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com Last November, I wrote a blog giving you 10 child-appropriate pop songs. Because this is such a popular topic, I decided it was time for another installment of pop songs for kids to sing. Before I start, I’d like to reiterate that I as a voice teacher I strongly believe […]

Taylor Swift performs and turns on the Christmas Lights at Westfield Shepherd’s Bush, London. 06/11/2012 Picture by: Steve Vas Editorial credit: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com Anyone who’s worked with me knows that I don’t endorse a lot of restriction on what kids are allowed to sing. Children’s love of a song often has nothing […]

Kelli O’Hara Memorial Day concert, by Tabercil, under CC BY 2.0 When you think of contemporary musical theatre singing, belting, or at least a conversational mixed voice comes to mind: a powerhouse bringing down the house with “Defying Gravity,” or a Schuyler sister rapping and speech-singing about New York City. And to be frank, it’s […]

You’ve sung pop music all your life, but now an audition’s come up, and you need to sing a musical theatre song. Sound familiar? If this is the case, and you don’t have time to suddenly develop a legit musical theatre voice (think Rogers and Hammerstein), it’s very important that you don’t choose your audition […]

At some point, you've probably heard someone sing in falsetto, that disconnected (usually higher) sound in males. But do females have falsetto, or just head voice? In the vocal pedagogy world, there's a lot of controversy about the topic.

I get this question a lot from loving parents who want to do right by their kids and get them the best education possible: "My daughter loves singing Adele and Taylor Swift, but should I get her classically trained first so that she can sing pop music 'correctly'?"

This month, songs by the teen Indie-pop sensation known as Billie Eilish have been making their way around my studio, and it's easy to understand why. Her dark, Lana Del Rey-inspired lyrics, coupled with her breathy, hypnotic vocals are beautiful and evocative. But singing quietly consistently, especially something as rangy as "When the Party's Over," can be extremely challenging, and in some ways harder than just being loud. That's why we decided to do something unusual and pick a song known for its quiet vocals instead of its powerful ones for our newest Hard Songs to Sing post.

There are plenty of think pieces and listacles on what the best MIDI controllers in each product category are, ranging from key size to price point. With a seemingly endless number of feature combinations and niche options, it might be time to stop looking for what is the best MIDI keyboard, and look for the best MIDI keyboard for your DAW. In this article we'll run through the best option for each major DAW. For further reading you can check out our previous post titled: MIDI controller buying guide, this MIDI controller master list from Audio Assemble as well as this post from Output on choosing the right MIDI controller.

It can be challenging to remember to do at first, but if you work on applying this technique to your singing, everything, from operatic singing to heavy belting, will be more comfortable and healthy.

The techniques and habits that you develop like proper breathing and control when learning to sing normally, are all techniques that you will use doing hard vocals.

The life of a musician might seem glorious and exciting all the time. But the truth is that musicians don’t really spend all their time at concerts and parties. Writing and singing music is not an easy job and it requires a lot of hard work and talent to make it in the world of […]

Straw phonation (i.e. simply singing through a straw) is excellent for pedagogical reasons, like breath management, but it's also great for vocal recovery.