| |
|
|
Welcome
to Vocal Process eZINE 21
This
edition includes photographs from the recent Vocal Anatomy for Voice
Professionals course and the new Singing and the Actor Training. We
have reminders of the Vocal Process courses in 2007, and news of our internet rankings.
We are including a Teaching Drama article on warmups and Jeremy has news of a
new role for the summer. |
 
|
Larynx in a lunchbox
The
Vocal
Anatomy for Voice Professionals course in October revealed some
interesting artistic talents. Guest tutor Dr Meribeth Bunch Dayme
encouraged the participants to use modelling clay to create 3D
models of the larynx and the muscles of the tongue. As you can see
from the results below, the multicoloured clay helps to make the
different segments and details clearer.
Hover your mouse over the pictures for more details...
 
Singing and the Actor Training
You
are the two most excellent mentors. I won't forget your teachings or
the positive methods you have used. Inspirational. CP, Lecturer
in Voice.
Fantastic
- very clear. MK, performer and scholarship holder
Our brand
new course,
Singing and the Actor Training, had its first highly
successful run at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College at the end of
October. We have had tremendous feedback from the participants, many of
whom have already asked to sign up for the Advanced Singing and The
Actor Training in 2007.
The new course format included concept work, structured group learning and
personal interaction. The experiential work in pairs and small
groups allowed participants to feel, hear and witness the information
at their own pace and to relate the work to their own
genres
The
insight sessions included both
laughter and spontaneous tears from the entire room as one
participant, following instructions from Jeremy, experimented with
changing her voice quality to fit the storyline.
Singing
and the Actor Training is a pre-requisite for the
Integrated VoiceTM
training programme. If you would like to be considered for the
programme but have not yet attended this course, at the end of the
following section we have news of the next run...
Courses in the New
Year
January 20 2007 sees
Computer Voice
Training at the Vocal Process studios. This course will help
you improve both your personal vocal practice and your ear for vocal
foibles in others. See the article below for more details.
Belting
Explained announces its arrival (loudly) on February 10.
This has always been one of our most popular courses, and places are
already filling up, so
book online as soon as you can.
Successful Singing Auditions strides confidently onto the
stage on March 3 in London. We have had some amazing feedback
(including stories of immediate job offers) from past participants.
We only have 12 places for singers on this intensive course, and
entry will (of course) be by audition. See the website for details
of audition tapes or mp3s. Once more we are welcoming observers at a
greatly reduced rate, so come and discover how auditions work, what
to take and how to "work" your audition to your advantage.
Jenevora Williams joins Vocal Process again on March 17 to answer all your
adolescent concerns with her course
The Developing Voice. If you work with young singers either
as a coach or teacher, this training day is a must.
If you can't make it to London this season, check out the Vocal
Process presentation in Gateshead in the north of England. Gillyanne
will be appearing at the prestigious Sage Gateshead on Saturday 24
March for a Vocal
Process Top Techniques course. This course appears courtesy
of the MusicLeader and Youth Music initiative, and is being
organised for Peer Development by the Singing Squad Tyne and
Wear/Northumberland. This is an excellent way to gain experience of
Vocal Process key techniques.
Click here for more details (new window opens to an external
website).
If you would like your group to receive onsite
Professional
Development training from Vocal Process, you can contact Gunvor by
phone (020 8291 1758) or email.
In the meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled for further news of Vocal
Process public courses in London and across the country.
And finally we have just finished organising the first
Singing
and the Actor Training outside London. Angus College in
Arbroath is dedicated to providing "high quality education and
training opportunities which are accessible, beneficial, relevant
and innovative." The College will be hosting the Training on April
20-22 2007.
Email Gunvor for more details.
Computer Voice
Training
 The Computer Voice Training course
in January will
contain a number of new features.
Jeremy
says: "Having created the new Singing and The Actor Training course,
we noticed that our clients were very interested in consonants and
their effects on the vowels. One of the most common mistakes that
performers make is to sing an 's' instead of a 'z' at the end of
plural words. The difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants
is clear when viewed on the computer voice analysis screen, and
seeing your own voice working words and sentences can often be the
trigger you need to rework your singing.
"On the
course in January I will be looking at voiced and unvoiced
consonants, starting and finishing notes in a variety of styles, and
encouraging participants to identify and expand their own vocal
practice."
This course is already filling up and places are extremely
limited due to the use of computers throughout the day. This is a
practical course, so if you are interested in attending, you can
book your place online today by
clicking here.
Internet success
We are
happy to announce that Vocal Process is number one on website search
engines worldwide. For those of you who are new to internet search
engines, getting a number one spot is a holy grail to a great
many people, and "search engine optimisation" is big business.
If you
take a little time now to type the words Vocal Process into the
Google search engine, the website tops the list of more
than 1,900,000 vocal sites around the world. The Yahoo search engine goes
one better, and has the website as 1, 2 AND 3 of more than 5,800,000
sites.
And
typing the words video endoscopy and ebook into Google brings up a
first page with the top nine spots containing links to the
Looking at a Voice series. Only fitting for a UK
first!
Article
Following his body of work for The Music Teacher magazine, Jeremy
was recently commissioned to write an article for the
magazine Teaching Drama. The topic was vocal information for Drama
Teachers in secondary education. Jeremy chose to focus on the vocal warm-up and interviewed three people on their use of vocal techniques
in class. Many of you will already know
Jenevora Williams, our guest
tutor for the Adolescent voice courses.
Gillyanne of course needs no
introduction. The third person interviewed was Pamela Hall, actress,
singer and trainer, who has just completed the second module of our
Integrated Voice TM
programme. Pamela's interview was particularly extensive, and we
hope to bring you more of her thoughts in a later edition.
In the
meanwhile, here is an excerpt from the article, which appears by
kind permission of Teaching Drama magazine and Rhinegold Publishing.
Vocal Warm-ups for Drama Teachers
Body
and breath
Many teachers will be familiar with breath exercises, but
what are the benefits?
Williams believes it’s because “you’re controlling the airflow. What would happen
naturally is a whoosh and a fizzle, which is not
useful for any kind of projected or elongated speech, and
absolutely no use for singing. So you need to control the onset so
that it doesn’t whoosh, and control the tail-off so that it doesn’t
fizzle.” All three trainers use unvoiced and voiced fricatives to
help the body/breath connection, and to provide a stable outflow of
breath.
Larynx and vocal folds
Warming up the larynx
prepares the vocal folds themselves for extended vocal work. Kayes uses a number of different
techniques for finding and maintaining a clear sound across the
range. “After doing some physical work, loosening their body,
finding their space, we would move probably into onsetting of tone.
We might do very gently nn, mm, ah, eh, ee sounds, making sure that
there are no hard attacks and that the throat is open. You can do a
bit of double-checking here by doing silent breathing or the silent
laughing exercise for getting the false vocal folds out of the way.
It’s a very useful exercise for quietening an excited group down.”
The siren, a small ng sound
gliding up and down in pitch, is a favourite. The sound is quiet and focussed,
and the pitch glides start small and increase in range (but not
power). One interesting variation is the rollercoaster or corkscrew.
Students design their own vocal rollercoaster, with slow climbs,
fast swoops and loops or figure-eights, all done quietly and with
the minimum breath. Hall often splits her class into small
groups and elect a leader to direct each group. This exercise can also be done on a voiced
fricative, rolled 'r' or lip trill.
Click here to read the full article
And in your spare time?
 For
the last four months Jeremy has been going through an extensive
interview process for a special post. This week it was announced
that he will take over as director of the Scarborough Spa Orchestra
for the 2007 season.
The Scarborough Spa Orchestra is unique in being the only surviving
seaside orchestra in the country. Based in a 1900-seater listed Spa
building in the north-west town of Scarborough, the orchestra
performs an astonishing 150 concerts over a 15-week season, with no
programme repeats!
The players cover an extremely wide range of music from Palm Court
to classical, popular and jazz standards. The orchestra's heyday in
the late 70s included regular television and radio broadcasts under
its principal conductor, the violinist Max Jaffa. Jeremy will be
conducting from the Bosendorfer concert grand, in a role that
includes accompanist, orchestral and solo pianist, leader and
presenter.
In fact, if you are in the area on New Year's Day 2007, be sure to
join the regular audience for Jeremy's first full appearance, with a
programme of Viennese classics.
And finally,
 Jeremy's blog
this month contains three sections on working with a singer-pianist,
thoughts on phonetics, and the process of putting together a cabaret
using songs and stand-up comedy.
http://www.singingcoach.blogspot.com
 
|
