Singing calms the nerves

Hi all, 

Just a wee tip - if you're getting anxious in the midst of all this crisis, turn on the radio or a CD and sing at the top of your lungs - don't worry about who hears you.... It will really help calm you down.  

I was in Tesco earlier today and got really freaked at how close people were standing to me... So, into the car and turn on some voice exercises and it really worked.  

If you're interested I'm posting a song a day on my choir Singmarra's Facebook Page to sing along with .... I'll add a link for the lyrics too.

Singing Tips: an easy and essential warm up exercise

Warming Up

Why do we bother to warm up our voices?  We don't need to warm up when we are talking... No, but we all sound a bit croaky in the mornings, especially as we get older, and it takes a while for me anyway to be talking full throttle as it were.  

Like runners getting ready to go out for a jog, it pays to do a little bit of stretching to get the muscles gently moving.  

Here's my favourite ...

Lip Trills 

It sounds comical - like blowing a raspberry -  don't try doing it if you're laughing :)   And it looks even worse, believe me.   We never get through more than 3 or 4 of them in choir warm ups.   

It has the effect of letting your vocal chords loosen, not shaping a word.   If you're a teacher, or if your voice is a bit tired, a minute or two of doing this will make your voice feel fresher again.  

So, here's a video of a Nashville vocal coach, Cari Cole, demonstrating how to do lip trills - she looks a lot prettier than I would do with the same thing - expensive camera and better lighting!! Ha!!

Let me know how you get on.

Joining in for the first time with Wednesday Around the World

Dealing with a cold on the road

This is the season for colds and flus - and there's a really nasty virus doing the rounds as well, giving people sore throats and awful coughs - and it just won't go away (this from personal experience).

Getting a bad cold at any time is horrible - we've all been there.

But what do you do if you need to sing (or talk) when you have a cold?

Well for me, warm ups are the thing - and rest - and fluids.

To warm up, I start early in the day just humming - and gradually expanding through my range - doing 5 minutes every hour or so - very gently so that someone 3 or 4 feet away from me could barely hear me.    I then progress to Lip Trills - the traditional singer Tommy Makem who found fame with the Clancy Brothers, always swore by these - he would do 15 minutes of lip trills before every gig .... There are lots of examples of how to do a lip trill on You Tube - This is one of the better ones I've found.  From Cari Cole who is a Nashville vocal coach - I probably should prepare one of these videos some time myself, but .I wouldn't look nearly as pretty as her lol



Coping with colds and jet lag when you're performing is not easy.   It's not always possible to get the rest and quiet time that's needed to recover.  Most singers carry a virtual pharmacopeia with them but in recent years I have stopped doing this as I've found it made me feel even worse, anticipating feeling bad.   However some sage sweets or honey and lemon to make a soothing drink can be picked up most places.  Throat sweets are usually very sickly and sticky so they can make matters worse, unless your throat is very sore and raspy in which case that sweet stickiness can be very soothing.

If the cold is a bad chesty one then you will probably need to change the key of songs to sing a bit lower but if there are other members of the band get them to shoulder a bit more of the singing.   Tom has been great on tours where I've had a problem, doing a few extra songs to let me rest.

I hope that helps.   Just keep warm and watch your voice - it's a great indicator of how your whole body is doing.

Do you have any great cold cures?  I'd love to hear about them.   Stay well this Winter.

Learning new skills - go gently

Today I'm reminding myself to go gently.

I did a search for some music to go with this phrase and found this artist whom I'd never heard of before ... Suzanne Ciani - she's a synthesist ... I love the melody...

.......

A friend called the other day to get help from my other half with her computer.  She was berating herself for not being able to do basic things on her new laptop,   I was trying to tell her that we all feel like that even if we're using the computer all the time but she wasn't hearing me to go easy and she'd get there.

Recently I've been working on arrangements for singing workshops and for my choir.  It's something I've avoided assiduously for years because the relevant software is sooooo slow to work with and on the face of it quite complicated.  And of course, having a go every 2 or 3 months isn't going to help the learning process.   By the time I get back to it, I've forgotten the little bits I did learn.

We live in a culture that demands instant gratification and that rewards speed and competence.  But what happens if we just slowed down and did a little bit everyday - eventually we get the desired result - a new skill or whatever.   And especially as we get older, or just have too much going on in our heads it gets harder and harder to learn everything quickly.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson - to learn something new, something old has to go out ... or something along those lines...
I love that idea, and it makes sense to me when I'm trying to learn more song words - something simply has to be forgotten to make room to remember something new.

So, deep breath and back to see if I can finally get to grips with this software.


Keep trying y'all and go gently.

Reasons to Sing

Singing is good for you – it’s official. Recent research carried out at the University of Frankfurt in Germany indicates that singing strengthens the immune system, increasing significantly the levels of immunoglobulin A (proteins which functions as antibodies) and hydrocortisone (an anti-stress hormone). This German study and other research findings on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years have yielded encouraging evidence of the health benefits of singing.
	12  good reasons to take up singing
1	Singing boosts the immune system, improving circulation which oxygenates your cells
2	Singing improves your mood & helps combat depression; it releases the same ‘feel good’ endorphins as chocolate and sex!
3	Singing gives your upper body a  workout – lungs, abdominal, intercostal muscles & diaphragm – and improves posture
4	Singing is aerobic & releases muscle tension
5	Singing keeps your vocal chords in good shape and your voice youthful
6	Singing improves concentration, memory & mental alertness
7	Singing gives YOU immediate pleasure (your sacculus organ in the inner ear is connected to the part of the brain which registers pleasure!)
8	Singing clears your sinuses and respiratory tubes
9	Singing boosts your confidence
10	Singing combats stress and improves sleep
11	Singing stimulates insight into poetry, prose & the inner meaning of words
12	Singing is a spiritual experience (regardless of what is sung!) This blog is Day 25 of Sarah Allen's 30 day blog challenge

Singing Tips - grow your own movie

Singing to me is first and foremost about painting a picture .... if I can't see the scene in words I'm singing, like my own private movie, then I can't get into the song and find it very very difficult to sing.   To me, that is the x factor, and when another singer has their picture clear in their mind, the words that they sing allow the listener to see their own movie....

I've found over the years, that the first picture I see when I first hear a song, stays the same forever unless I consciously try to change it.   If you are having difficulty with your voice on a  certain phrase in a song you're practicing, forget about the notes for a while and instead picture the words - each word ... what do you see when you say the word moonlight for example .... where is the scene?  Is the moon full or crescent or on the wane?  is it winter or summer, raining or clear etc...  build up the scene in your mind's eye and you'll soon find that the notes are taking care of themselves.

Moon over Carlingford Lough

This blog is Day 9 of Sarah Allen's 30 day blog challenge

How Wolves Change Rivers; Singing Tips.

A weird combination of a subject line you might say, but bear with me ....

I thought this video was so interesting.   What Nature can do when it's left to its own devices.  It's only 4 minutes long but well worth the watch.



One of biggest problems for students of singing is getting out of their own way to allow their voices to improve.   The nature of our voices knows exactly what to do to sing but out heads stop us.  The thousand and one voices in our head that tell us we're not good enough need to be stilled and if we learn no other lesson from a singing class then this one is the most important.

So how do you do that?

For me, it's about concentrating on words ... I wrote a blog about it here ....  If, when we're talking, we didn't focus on what we are saying, we'd come out with some serious gobbledegook.   Try it .... Think about your clothes for example and then try talking to someone .... It just doesn't work.   Or if you were to think about how you're talking - same thing - your mind is not on the words your saying.

So why should it be different for singing?   If we concentrate on what we're trying to say (sing) to the exclusion of all the worries of I'm not good enough, I can't sing, they'll think I'm stupid etc - your voice will then be able to get on with improving on its own.

This blog is Day 6 of Sarah Allen's 30 day blog challenge

Sing an old song

I have to confess to shamelessly stealing this quote from the internet.  But it's just perfect. 

After my post about Singing and Dementia the other day, my friend over at Teaching at Pempi's Palace was asking for some songs that children could sing with older people or people with dementia.   This is a brilliant idea and I'm dying to see what you come up with.  Here's some of my rambling thoughts on it ... went on a bit longer than I had intended lol

I think this is a very regional thing ...in my experience the songs that work best are those that were familiar when the people were very young.   So you need to start with whatever was popular then or was popular when the parents were kids.   So local folk songs and dance songs, and they're best if they're singalong and have a chorus....

Here I'm doing mostly Irish songs for that reason - cos the wider radio and record business wasn't really reaching the country areas here back then ... so songs  like The Spinning Wheel, Let Him Go Let Him Tarry, A Dacent Irish Boy, If I Were A Blackbird, the Connemara Cradle Song - Danny Boy and the Moonshiner and so on...

And I also do some Ruby Murray and Doris Day songs that were in the charts in the 50s - Softly Softly, Que Sera Sera etc - and even songs from shows - the Black Hills of Dakota being one that comes to mind.

In England I would suggest that a starting point would be the songs of Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn as well as Doris Day and Ruby Murray. 

Here's Gracie singing Wish Me Luck As You Wave me Goodbye

People in their late 70s and early 80s now were children during the war, so songs like We'll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover and also Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry which Gracie also sang - Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye, It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Pack up Your Troubles in Your old kit bag - songs that would have been sung in World War One.

I find a lot of these songs incredibly moving ... so it may need a bit of trial and error.

And then there's also the songs of the Pearly Kings and Queens - Down at the Old Bull and Bush, Roll out the Barrel, My Old Man said Follow the Van - although I find that a lot of these songs, people only know the chorus - perhaps just learning a few well known choruses might be a way to start.   There are a lot of videos of Florrie Forde and many others on You Tube that give all the words of those.

Here are more common universal ones and much lighter in theme.

Happy Days Are Here Again

You are my Sunshine

Swinging on a Star - this would be a fun one for kids as well

Scarlet Ribbons

Mona Lisa

Lili Marlene

Tommy Steele - Little White Bull

Early Disney songs - When you wish upon a star

Zip a dee doo dah

Early Cliff Richard songs

and old standards like 

Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do and 

Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly.

There's a couple of really nice ones in this compilation video although I have to confess I hadn't heard about a lot of them.

And Christmas songs are easy ones to include.

I was going to suggest Lonnie Donegan and George Formby ...
they'd be great for the older folks, but I'm not sure about for the kids...  

You could check out  

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it's Flavour on the Bbedpost Overnight!!  
(although on second thoughts maybe not!!!!)

And My Old Man's A Dustman

And George Formby ... Leaning on the Lamppost

In Scotland there's all the great ballads as well as more come all ye songs like
I'll Take the High Road, Show me the Way to Go Home, Go Lassie Go etc

And in the great American song book,
songs that Frank Sinatra, or Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald sang - the simpler ones.

Finally, Josna at her blog Tell Me Another mentioned the Young @ Heart chorus in America that also do old rock covers like the Zimmers in England .... This is them on the Ellen de Generes programme a few years back! I love it.  And no warning needed this time ;)

I'm sure you have lots of suggestions for songs that you could add to my list, songs your parents loved to sing, or songs you've sung with seniors groups etc so I'd love to hear from you.

Singing and dementia

It's well established now that music can have an affect on people with dementia.   

A few years ago I witnessed this first hand when we played in some Alzheimer's wards of local hospitals during Bealtaine Festival.  

People who were motionless and silent gradually came to life and sang along to the old songs that we were singing from their childhood.  

One woman sang from the very first chord we played right through until the last note - we thought she was perfectly ok, but the nurse sitting with her told us afterwards that she hadn't spoken a word in more than 6 months and no longer recognised her children or grandchildren.  Yet the songs from her young day were there as an automatic response.  

I was both delighted and really saddened.   

It was an amazing gift she gave us to allow us in to her life for a few moments.  

I'm always ranting on that everyone can sing - just open your mouth, throw back your head and let whatever noise comes out just happen - you'll feel better for it.   This video proves my point .... it just makes my heart sing.

Taken from an inspiring documentary made a few years back pointing out the loneliness of our senior citizens in old peoples homes.  The documentary is inspiring to say the least ... all links are under the video on You Tube - take a look if you have time.

Last night we played to a full house in Blanchardstown in Dublin - lots of seniors groups in the audience and a good night was had by all :)

Tuning your voice ...

Singing Tips  - do you think you sing out of tune?

Singing is really therapeutic ...

So what's stopping you?

Have you been told that you sing out of tune?

Or that you're tone deaf?

Tuning problems may be quite easy to fix: 

Yeh right I hear some of you saying!  
It's the people who have to listen who'll have the problem ... 

It is not our normal state to sing out of tune 

One problem may simply be that you have  learned the notes incorrectly.  

Try This....

• Go back and listen to the song you have the problem with.
• Really listen - don't sing along with it.   
• Just listen.   
• Then repeat the problem phrase until you feel you've got closer to it.  
• Now ... tape yourself ... on your phone or whatever you have handy.... is it a bit closer?

This is important : Women and men usually sing in different keys, so it is vital that you listen to someone in the same key as you  - so if you're a woman, make sure you listen to a woman singing the song; and if you're a man listen to another man singing it.   

If you're still unsure, ask a friend that you trust to listen to you singing the phrase... and just keep singing for yourself, or join a choir and get that muscle working ... You'll be amazed at how your confidence will grow and how much better you'll feel. 

Has that fixed your problem?

Other possible reasons for singing out of tune:
Over projecting - trying to hit the back wall of the hall with your voice .... do you still have your old school teacher in your head telling you to sing out?   If you change your focus of where you're singing to .... say, aim for the front row of the imaginary audience ... you'll find that you'll stop singing sharp.

Coffee -  too much coffee before you sing will make you jumpy and behave overly nervous and out of breath ... this again can make you sing sharp if you're not aware.

and the converse
Worrying about what your voice will sound like can stop you projecting at all and make you sing flat.

Let me know how you get on....

Lyrics - understanding and remembering.

Listen to Lover's Eyes

Singing Tips - Understanding the lyrics
Many years ago, I decided to learn At 17, the wonderful Janis Ian song.   I struggled with the chords but ended up doing a passable job of the song.   In those days you had to keep replaying the record to find the words and hoped that you didn't ended up scratching the precious LP.

Many years later I came across my songbook with the lyrics handwritten into it and realised that I had misheard and misunderstood many of the lyrics - wrote down what I understood, as a  very unworldly 17 year old.   They were very funny...

Nowadays it's much simpler to find words on the Internet.   But as I've been teaching young singers I've realised that they don't always understand what they're singing.  And I'm not sure it's such a bad thing.   It means that if you believe today what you are singing, then you can sing the same song throughout your life and it will take on a new meaning as you grow and the song will still be fresh for you - a great example of this is Judy Garland singing over the Rainbow as a beautiful 13 year old in the Wizard of Oz and as a world weary 40 something year old.  Both wonderful, but very different.


Do you have problems learning lyrics? 

This is what works for me - write it down ... long hand.
Play the track and write the beginning of each line ... do this right through to the end without stopping the recording.
Now go back and play it again and fill in another bit of each line - again play the song right through to the end without stopping.
Repeat, until you have all the words.

Now, cover the piece of paper and write it from memory.
Once you've done that go back and check it with the original.
If there are mistakes, correct them, like a primary school teacher, with a different colour pen - stroke out the wrong word and right in the correction.
You may have to repeat this step a couple of times, depending on the length or complexity of the song,

The whole process will take you 20-30 minutes and that will get faster the more you do of it.
I promise you, the words are pretty well fixed in your memory now.

Emotions in Singing

Firstly here's my E song - Erin Grá Mo Chroí which means Erin (Ireland) Love of My Heart (from my CD A place of My Own).  


Singing Tips - Getting Emotion into your singing
There are two kinds of singer in my opinion - technical and emotional.   Heartfelt words of songs can bring us all back to a moment in time, a moment of intense joy or extreme sadness.

So the ability of the singer to bring emotion across is key in a good performance.   But how do you do that?

Many young singers believe that they have to put something onto the words in order to express them correctly but in fact all you have to do is mean what you say.

That's your job as a singer - sing the word with the same focus and concentration you have when you're talking to a friend.

For example, when you say the word rose, what comes into your mind?   What colour is the rose?  Is it open or just a bud?  Is it in a vase or on a bush?  etc etc … All that information will be instantly in your mind when you say the word so do the same when you sing the word …. your concentration, if it is totally on what you're saying will bring those same expressions and emotions into play.   And that in turn will allow the audience to see their own images and experience their own emotions.


If you are thinking about the shopping list, or what you're wearing, or worrying about what people think of you while you're performing, then you're not concentrating on the words.   Try changing your focus and you'll find that all your nerves disappear and any of the problems you're having with your voice will start to vanish.

You can contact me on Facebook 
or on Twitter
Or sign up for my newsletter here ...
Videos are on YouTube

Who said you couldn't sing?

I've just come back in from a walk in the mountains - our visitors haven't left yet after the Festival and it sort of feels like I'm on holiday still and it's very hard to sit down and do some constructive work!!  A blog feels a bit half and half - work and holiday:) 


People ask me regularly can they learn to sing cos somebody told them they couldn't sing .... and I thought that would be a good subject for today's blogalong...


Everyone can sing ... if you can talk you can sing!  
And you already know how to do it ... but sometimes we all need a bit of coaxing to trust what we can do...

Who said you couldn't sing?!

Was it a teacher?  or a relation? or a friend? who said that you should keep quiet and stand at the back and just mouth the words? .... what abuse!

I recently had a student who was told when she was very small that she couldn't sing  - she's now retired.  So she kept joining in, wanting to sing, but always felt that people were laughing at her and saying she wasn't brilliant...or so she felt.     After her initial nervousness and doubt about coming to class, we discovered a lovely sweet voice in there... totally in tune and with  a perfect sense of time - not a big voice, but lovely all the same.  What a waste! ... all those years of believing she couldn't do something she loved so much.  

Let me repeat this ....

"Everyone can sing ... if you can talk you can sing!"  

I feel like I need to shout that!

Now the big problem is, if we can't sing like Pavarotti or Streisand or Ella or whomever our ideal voice is, then we think we can't sing at all .... 

Total rubbish!!  

The thing is ... you can never sound like one of them because our voices are totally unique - there can only be one Pavarotti or Streisand or Ella, just like there can only be one you.   But you can still sing!


I believe that we have a physical need to sing - just see how much your spirits lift after singing to yourself in the shower or the car.  

So, if you've always wanted to have a go, just get on with it and practice - sing more in the shower or in the car and perhaps find a community choir or a teacher near you - someone who will encourage you and guide you.  And your voice will get stronger every day.   

Blogalong with Effy Day 2