Hey you guys and welcome back to The Singing Studio. Just like our previous video, this is another review episode except we’re going over episodes six, seven, eight, and nine. Hopefully you’ll go back, rewatch them, and do the supplemental videos. I’m really excited for another fun mashup and I hope you enjoy this video!
Hey you guys and welcome back to The Singing Studio.
Hey you guys welcome back.
When I say music, you say theory! Music! Music!
Welcome to The Singing Studio!
Episode 6: What in the world is my range?
What is our vocal range? Everything in between our highest note and our lowest note that we can sing is our vocal range. So let’s go ahead and start with a base range. Typically a base range is found from a “G” all the way to middle “C”. Let’s move on to tenor. So that is typically found from a “C” all the way to this “F” above middle “C”. For our altos: “G” below middle “C” all the way to an “E”. And finally we have our sopranos. And they are the “B” right next to middle “C” all the way to “G” and beyond.
You may find that other teachers and instructors may teach this a little differently and may have a different location of the different ranges on the piano. And you know what? That’s totally fine! We all have our different experiences with music. However, I just thought I would let you know that I did consult with some musicians and this was the range that is pretty much the average and what you see in most music.
Mezzo-soprano is somewhere between an alto and a soprano and a baritone is somewhere between a tenor and a bass. So the middle voices between all the different vocal ranges that we just went over.
Can our range change over time? The answer is yes. As our bodies change through the years our voice does as well. We can actually train our voices to expand our range. We work with our voice teachers. We work on warming up, taking care of our voice, and practicing. Eventually we can train our voices to hit those higher notes. The same on the lower spectrum. We can hit those lower notes as well.
I’m really excited to dive into some theory because I feel like all of us as singers and musicians need to have some sort of understanding of certain terms that you will hear and see often in music.
Staccato – That means short and choppy.
Legato – That means smooth and connected.
Dynamics in music indicate the volume.
Piano – It means soft.
Forte – It means loud.
Mezzo-piano means medium soft.
Mezzo-forte means medium loud.
Crescendo – gradually getting louder.
Decrescendo – gradually getting softer.
Music theory – the elements that make up music composition.
Episode 8: A Tale of Two Registers Part 1
So we’re going to talk about the chest voice today. That is our lower register. The chest voice is typically the easiest register for us to sing in. And I think that has to do with the fact that our chest voice is mainly sort of the register we speak in. So when we are singing in our chest voice we can feel a lot more comfortable. Sometimes we tend to get lazy with things that we already think that we’re good at or comfortable at. So here are some tips and things to remember as we do these chest voice exercises.
First off, always have good breath support. The next thing that you need to remember is to keep things nice and light and to really relax your jaw. And then finally, make sure you’re drinking that water. Drinking water is really important as we do a lot of these exercises.
It’s really, really awesome all the wonderful things we can do with our voice, but in order to do all those fun, stylistic type things we need to understand our different registers and the abilities that we have within those registers, as well as how to strengthen those registers.
Episode 9: A Tale of Two Registers Part 2
Our head voice is our upper register. Singing in the head voice can be intimidating for some of us because singing high can be uncomfortable. I mean, I know for me sometimes I can get a little scared if I’m asked to sing something that goes up really high.
As we’re going up higher into our head voice, we can get a little bit squished with the sound because we’re thinking, “Oh no it’s going higher, it’s going higher! I have to squish, I have to squish!” When really that’s not what we should be thinking at all.
Having that good breath support is going to help us with this next goal which is to keep it nice and open. The higher I go, the more space I’m going to have. Sometimes if we’re thinking, “Oh no, oh no! I’m going high! It’s getting smaller!”, then it reflects in our voice. Make sure as you are singing that you’re mentally thinking of that nice and open space. Finally, we want to make sure that we’re keeping a nice vocal consistency. That means that we are exerting the same amount of, I guess you could say, power and energy and forwardness to our voice. And we’re keeping that even. So openness, vocal consistency, and under all of that we’re having that good breath support.
Don’t forget to check out the supplemental videos!
And that is all for our episodes six to nine review. Make sure to like this video and I’ll see you in our next one!
I do these videos every other week, but if you still want more musical theatre, check out my newsletter! It’s called “Beyond The Score”, and it just takes a closer look at musical theatre history. You can find that here.