Steph Hill

Vocalist, Performer, Composer, Teacher

Simple but effective – Dynamics for singers

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Hello! It’s been a while since my last blog post, but I really have been meaning to give you some simple tips to demystify your singing in your self-directed practice. I find it so interesting to listen to self-taught singers and ask myself – “what are they doing well?” One such musical technique that can dramatically affect the style elements and expressiveness of your vocal performance is adding musical dynamics.

Dynamics is the umbrella term for musical loudness, and is often described in the Italian words for very soft (pianissimo) soft (piano), moderately soft (mezzo piano), moderately loud (mezzo forte), loud (loud) and very loud (fortissimo).

Not to go into too much detail, but the thickness of the vocal folds affects pitch and volume. Paying attention to your dynamics, or the dynamics of a song you’re wanting to imitate, can give you a short-cut to getting the registration and style of a song correct – and creates more interesting performances! (Sidebar: If you’re not familiar with vocal registers, some common terms for those are chest register/mechanism 1, head register/mechanism 2, flute or falsetto register/mechanism 3 – they’re sort of the different ‘zones’ or gears of your voice).

I ran a workshop recently when we had one of the competent singers in the group demonstrate a pop song. This singer sang the song in a similar style to the original artist, but without over-manipulating her natural voice – lovely. Then a second girl in the group asked how to perform a stylistic “flip” between her two primary vocal registers (similar to a subtle yodel) which the first singer had done with ease. The second singer’s technical vocal training had smoothed out her register transition beautifully meaning she could sing with consistent tone throughout her range, but this made a stylistic un-smooth change difficult for her! I explained that we can simply listen to the technique through the lense of dynamics, instead of analysing the registers. We found that the “flip” also involves going from moderately loud (mf) to soft (p or mp) in a split second. This gave her a simple way of practicing this song at home.

Wanting more of a belt and less of a mix? Try thinking of your sound in terms of dynamics – go a little louder (keep your whole body involved… more on that some other time) and see what happens! More of a mix and less of a belt? Try calming down the dynamics! Want to sound more rhythmic? Try adding in quick crescendo-decrescendos to accent your rhythm (see the last blog post for more on this pulsing technique). Want to put your own stamp on a song? Experiment with your dynamics!

I hope this has given you some great ideas of how to develop your voice without the help of a teacher; however, if you have questions about how to apply this, or want some help developing your vocal register zones, please hit the Contact Me tab up the top of the page – I’d love to help you find your best and most expressive voice.

Happy singing!

The more I know… (or, free singing tips!)

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I’m now in my 10th year of teaching singing and I will admit, I’ve gone through phases of favourite singing techniques, sometimes cycling back to ones I’d forgotten from years ago. I’ve studied the intricacies of the vocal setup, including how intention, acoustics, and biomechanics affect our singing. But as I get more experienced as a teacher, I’ve found a lot can be achieved with the simplest instructions. In the next two blog entries, I’ll share my simple not-quite-secrets with you.

Legato

Legato is the Italian term for “smoothly, well-connected” and part of the general music vocabulary. Legato is essential for singers in contemporary commercial music (CCM) styles, regardless of ability level or prior classical training. Because a lot of CCM is rhythm-focussed, singers without CCM-specific training often stop and start airflow to achieve rhythmic emphasis. Accomplished CCM singers actually use rapid crescendo-decrescendos to emphasise rhythm without stopping their airflow entirely. If you pay careful attention next time you speak, you’ll find this is exactly what we do to stress syllables in speech. When applied to singing, Irene Bartlett calls this “pulsing the breath”. Another way of describing this technique is that there should be a thread of legato underneath waves of rhythmic accents.

You may require the assistance of a qualified CCM-style singing teacher to perfect the pulsing technique to be style-appropriate, but if you’re experiencing low to moderate vocal fatigue, either across the board or in specific songs, you can improve your singing by practicing legato. Take even a heavily rhythmic song by someone like Ed Sheeran or Sia and temporarily apply extreme legato to the note and word changes, before returning to sing it normally, should help you find rhythm with flow. A thread of legato through your singing will reduce vocal fatigue and help you sing in-tune. (If you’re experiencing more than moderate vocal fatigue, a trip to a speech pathologist is the correct path.) Some degree of legato is essential to correct breathing technique for singing.

Psych yourself in

Fear, uncertainty and nerves dramatically affect your voice. The fight or flight syndrome limits the freedom of the rib cage for breathing; the throat also tightens with fear; the tongue pulls back during sadness. I can almost guarantee that if there’s a note you’re struggling to sing, you’re probably worried about it.

If you have ongoing issues with mental health outside of singing, help is available! Your GP is a great first port of call. If however you just get worried when you’re singing a tricky song or note, you can apply mental tricks like distraction, imagining the note or phrase is significantly easier or lower than it actually is, or singing the phrase in a more comfortable pitch range then replicating those physical throat/torso sensations when you return to the true pitch. You’ve probably experienced a time when you sang better when you weren’t trying, or were distracted with another task like driving. Intentionally applying psych-in techniques leads to a confident mindset, which leads to a freer voice. Mental toughness is a great asset to a singer, especially when combined with a willingness to experiment and take advice.

I’ll never forget the day I learned I could belt an F#5. It was a few years back and I was (am) so into the song “Birthday” by Katy Perry. My voice was healthy and at the point in the song that I’d usually lazily mark the high note, I thought – “I wonder what would happen if I just gave this a crack” – and pardon the pun, but there were no cracks – a strong, in-tune note came out! I’ve done it every time I’ve sung the song since.

I hope these tips have given you some simple ideas you can apply to your singing right now to help you grow more proficient.

 

Steph

Who are we really hurting?

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Something I’ve noticed is that we, as artists, always compare our secondary and other areas of expertise quite harshly. Our lack of confidence or consistency in other areas is something of which we can be painfully aware. I have this one friend who is a phenomenal dancer – teacher, choreographer, performer. She’ll always say of her singing that she’s not very good at it.

As a qualified ear, I think she IS good. But I do the exact same thing with my dancing, which just doesn’t come as easily to me. As a dancer I suffered setbacks including growing pains, injury, and the fact that I sometimes felt (through my very human, teenage lens) that I didn’t know how to please my dance teachers. I’m working on my dancing now and having technical rehab with an amazing dance physio, but, I think time has been lost and getting it to a standard I’m happy with is going to take time and dedication.

I have insecurities regarding my piano playing though this is mostly due to my own laziness! I have the tools to get my piano playing up to the standard I desire because it uses the same learning techniques I use every day in the singing studio, but it is going to take perseverance and a lot of time. I think about this often. But the thing I hadn’t thought about is who these comments are really hurting.

I’ll never forget the time I remarked about my poor piano playing in a singing lesson with a student who had recently recommenced her own piano lessons with a colleague. As I said “I’m sorry my accompanying is so crap,”, she responded “Well if you’re crap, what am I?”

Recently I read an article on genius Lin-Manuel Miranda where a professional in the industry said, “Lin can’t sing”. Now, I’m not a concert pianist, but I “can” play the piano, right? If I can play Twinkle Twinkle, I can play! How good a singer does someone need to be before we say they “can”?! (I say Lin’s voice is exactly as skilful as it needs to be for what he does, and is out-of-this-world expressive as he is a consummate actor).

When we put ourselves down in front of others, especially our students, true or untrue, we are running the risk of accidentally criticising them by comparison. Outside of the teaching studio, putting ourselves down in front of other artists plays on their insecurities, which really does not make other artists nicer to work with!

So what’s the solution? I have some favourite terms to use in the studio these days: “Beginner” and “yet”. You can be a “beginner” as opposed to “expert” rather than being “bad” as opposed to “good” to not only more accurately express your learning journey, but also to keep yourself in a positive, growth mindset. You can also say “I’m not good at that yet” to encourage yourself without having an inflated self-view. In the end, any singer worth their salt is still learning, addressing their relative weaknesses (hey! These words are good too). This week, I encourage you to adopt the words “beginner” and “yet” when talking and thinking about your artistry. Happy singing!

First Blog!

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Hello!

My name is Steph, and I’m a singer and singing teacher. I’ve had a blog section on my website since forever, but it’s always been something that’s gone to the “one day I’ll…” list. As I’ve gotten more experienced as a teacher, I’ve found I have a lot on my mind and some wisdom to share, so I’ve finally taken the plunge!

I initially wrote a post that will probably go up next week, as I realised it wasn’t a very good topic for a first-ever blog. Instead I’ll share a bit about how I became a singing teacher, that you won’t find on my formal bio.

When I was 18 or 19 I was working part-time as a receptionist when my childhood piano teacher happened to walk into the business. We’d had a great rapport and I’d learned from her for 7 years. During the course of our conversation, she offered me a job at the music school she was running. Little did she know my piano playing had gone seriously rusty… but I have a bit of a life philosophy of say yes whenever an interesting opportunity comes, and tread water for dear life if you end up being out of your depth!

While this job not only forced me to brush up on my piano in a way with some appropriate external motivation, it also led to someone approaching me to teach their daughter both singing and piano. Now I was studying songwriting and composition at university, but also taking singing lessons with one of the University’s singing teachers, the fabulous Kristina Kelman. I was learning a lot from her, and the difference between her teaching style and that of my first singing teacher helped me to begin forming a lot of opinions on how singing training should progress… so again I said yes… and discovered I LOVED teaching singing.

I have so many favourite parts of teaching singing. Some of them are a bit self-gratifying; for example, I have quite an analytical personality and I’m intuitive and logical, so listening to a voice, diagnosing any problems, then analysing the student’s personality and devising a solution is just a fun thing for me. But I also love that I get to champion my students – be their cheerleader, coach them through their own vocal self-discovery and the pursuit of their dreams, and getting to celebrate their successes with them.

So, that’s a bit about me and why I teach. Thanks for taking the time to read my first blog post, and in the coming weeks I’ll be sharing some of my teaching philosophy, top singing tips, and some stories from my journey as a singer and teacher.

If you need a coach in your corner as a performer, I’m available for in-person lessons in Melbourne, and everywhere else via Skype.

I am a singer, songwriter and music teacher in Melbourne, Victoria.

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