With A Voice Like This

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Keeping Vocally Fit – Preface

Working that voice.
This is not the Medical Doctor you’re looking for.

I am NOT a Medical Doctor.

Who I am is a professional singer with a Masters Degree in Vocal Pedagogy (Teaching Voice) and over 25 years of professional performance experience.

Having said that, I’m currently in my busiest time of year as a singer. Which means that I’m pushing myself as hard as possible. And that means I’m concentrating on taking care of myself and my voice to make sure that I perform to the best of my ability.

That includes a lot of things that I have learned over the years through training and experience that I can pass on as tips to you. So I’m starting this series – Keeping Vocally Fit.  I’ll try to keep them short and I can’t guarantee a set schedule for posting them, but they’ll be here.

These tips aren’t meant to take the place of advice from a Medical Professional, if you need to see a medical doctor, see one!

First up: Phlegm is Your Friend!

 Photo Credit: The Local Tourist

I woke up singing

Literally. It was one of those weird, “I remember it well” dream moments. It was the song You’ll Think of Me by Keith Urban. The song starts “I woke up early this morning around four am, with the moon shining bright as headlights on the…” and that’s when I woke up singing the end of the phrase, the word

“…interstate”.

Okay, no more sleep for me. The first thing I do is check the clock, yep, it’s 4AM. And at that time of day, everything is full of subtext. Here’s my subtext from all of that:

  • You’ll think of Me is a song that Jim & Tim does. I don’t sing lead on it, but it’s in both of our ranges, so either one of us can do  it (and have).
  • Okay, not only does the song talk about waking up at 4 AM and I did exactly that, but I’m also a part of the group called 4-AM, which is short for 4 A cappella Musicians.
  • 4-AM does a Keith Urban song But For the Grace Of God and I do sing lead on that one. I arranged it for the group.
  • I woke up singing the end of the phrase I was dreaming about! How wild is that?

Now, here’s my takeaway. I’m going crazy…wait, I already knew that, so scratch that explanation.

It seems natural that I would dream about a song that I sing with one of the groups, so I guess that isn’t so surprising. It’s more that the song has ties to both of the groups I’m in and that it ties them together so well. Maybe the subconscious mind is paying attention, eh?  At any rate, more than anything else, it says to me I want to, maybe even need to sing more. I’m just not singing enough so that I end up waking up singing. And while that makes sense, it comes down to a question. How do I make that happen? Saying I want to sing more with Jim & Tim and 4-AM is the easy part, making it happen is something completely different.  And something I’m working on right now and trying things new and old.

I also think it’s something that’s going to happen as well. I think that’s what my subconscious is trying to tell me too. Stay tuned to see if my subconscious is right, I know I will.

One last thing. I’m half glad, half sorry that I don’t have a video of that. I know I’ll be hearing about for awhile as other people hear the story. Hey, if you’re going to hear voices in your head, they might as well be singing, right?

Photo Credit: cliff1066

083 – Another Snowy Night in Chicago

Recorded 23 December 2008

4-AM

  • See the preview of “Bound for Love”, the short film we’re in. Email me at [email protected] for the URL and password
  • Stories from the Sunday caroling gig – from freezing to driving to the kindness of strangers and everything inbetween

News You Can Use
Thanks to the Podsafe Music Network, here are the shows that played my music:

  • Acapodcast #52 – Christmas Angel and Deck the Halls (I go a little Fanboy on this show and its host, Chad Bergeron)
  • Getfitpod #078 – Christmas Angel
  • Geek is Chic Episode 26 – Christmas Angel

Surprise, Live Music
Okay, I tired something that required a little post production because of technical issues, I sang two of my Christmas songs live. And told a story or two and those were:

  • Deck The Halls
  • Christmas Angel

If you liked that, I’m planning to do a live streaming concert of 5 of the six songs on the album live tonight on Ustream.tv. Let me know if you want to see this happen tonight.

Comments From the Podcast Gallery
A thought or two from LaSal, the winner of the autographed copy of With A Voice Like This Christmas

Want to be a part of the show, call the Comments from the Podcast Gallery Voicemail line at 630.492.0487 or send an email along. you never know when it will pop up in the show.

Listen above or download by right clicking and saving.

051 – A ca What?

This episode of With A Voice Like This was prompted by the arranging I am doing for 4-AM and an announcement of a new contest for original a cappella pieces. There is a lot of confusion about a cappella music and what it is and so I thought I’d spend an episode exploring some good places to find out more information about it and give you access to a couple of podcasts featuring a cappella music. So here’s the list of links from this episode:

First, the A cappella originals songwriting contest submissions accepted through June 15 at:
[NOTE: page no longer exists]

The sponsors of the competition:

Vocality – A Colorado Vocal Ensemble

Virtual Voices [Edit: while the site still exists, it is not the same services as discussed in this podcast] – A company that helps sell your products on the Internet

Vocomotion – Recording studio and Labs producing products for A cappella singers

A cappella Organization

CASA.org – The Contemporary A cappella Society

A cappella Podcasts

A cappella Originals from casa.org

The Acapodcast with Chad Bergeron

And Finally, Listener’s Choice

This episode’s choice came from Kim Fenolio of Kimfenolio.com and the Girls Night In Podcast.

Kim sent in an introduction for Not Responsible by Podsafe Music Network artist Laura Clapp

Listen above or download by right clicking and saving.

043 – Interview with Gillian Kelly of VoiceQuest Inc. Part 2

Technique is the Servant of Communication

Gillian Kelly

Recorded on February 8, 2008 -In the second half of this interview with Gillian Kelly of VoiceQuest Inc., we talk about:

  • Where Gillian is performing in the next 6 – 8 months
  • The cabaret projects Gillian and Claire have in their repertoire
  • Some directing work that was Jefferson Award recommended

And of course, Comments From the Podcast Gallery. This leads to a discussion of where technique fits in the performance process and as life in general and how it affects and everything works together and how that affects working with singers in different genres and their demands on the voice.

If you haven’t heard the first half of this interview, you can listen here.

Listen above or download by right clicking and saving.

042 – Interview with Gillian Kelly of VoiceQuest Inc. Part 1

A Base of Technique

Gillian Kelly

Recorded on February 8, 2008 – VoiceQuest Inc. is a Chicago-based performance studio founded by Gillian Kelly and Claire Bigley. In this episode and the first half of the interview, I speak with Gillian about her training, past experiences and what brought her to the point of starting VoiceQuest Inc. Other topics discussed, Voice Teacher and Vocal Coach and the differences and how they are combined at VoiceQuest Inc. and all their offerings at the studio including performance classes and opportunities. Also, we talk about Davenport’s, a piano bar and cabaret in Chicago and why technique is so important in the teaching of singing. And a bit about the innovative way they use the web. VoiceQuest Inc. can be found at http://VoiceQuestInc.com.

More to come in the second half of the interview.

Listen above or download by right clicking and saving.