More Great Free Singing Tips – Learning New Songs In 6 Simple Steps

February 5th, 2010

Why is it that some students can easily learn numerous songs in a short amount of time, but others struggle to make improvement on a small number of tunes after many tiring practice sessions? When students seem to be on the slow side of this process we always revisit how they are spending their practice time.

Keep in mind that while it would be great if singing students sang their assignments every day, the real world says that more practice time gets accomplished in the car when singing to the radio and simply singing the songs they love. Let’s face it, when you love a song and you listen to music regularly, you listen to that song over and over again. So we place a lot of concentration on how to apply good singing skills to ANY song they want to sing.

Learning a Song in 6 Easy Steps

1. Listen to the song without making a sound.

If you can anticipate what is coming next (including lyrics) then you are ready to move on to the next step.

This is probably the hardest step for most singers. If a song moves you, you want to wail it not LISTEN to it, right? If you are one of those singers that just has to go for it, be smart about it. Follow good boundaries and recognize those sections that don’t come easily to you. Remember, muscles have memories. If you consistently sing a song with poor vocal skills, the memory of the involved muscles will include those poor skills. Breaking a bad habit in singing is much more difficult than creating a good habit from the get go.

2. Hum the song.

Make sure that you feel the buzzing sensation in the front of your face; moving up and down your face as your pitch changes. Your goal is to make that buzzing very specific with each note — just as if you were playing specific notes on a piano. (If you need more information on Tone Placement, see Singing is Easy, Lesson #6).

If you are new to this process, you may need to repeat this step many times. Be sure to monitor your airflow. TIP: Your notes need to be connected on an airflow river, not resembling someone standing on the shore skipping stones.

When you can hum the song completely with ease, connecting the notes on your airflow and feeling very specific about the buzzing sensations on your face, you are ready to move to the next step.

3. Sing the song with the lyrics at a very natural volume,

don’t push and don’t hold back…find the balance. Your goal is to place the words in exactly the same place that you felt the buzzing sensation when you were humming. Sometimes creating words makes us move the articulation arbitrarily around our mouth and makes singing much harder than it needs to be. Keep the words focused where you felt the buzzing and you will have more success. When you can sing the song easily at a comfortable natural volume with good vocal tone, you are ready to move to the next step.

4. Review the lyrics for performance purposes.

With each stanza assign a one word adjective that best describes how you want the audience to feel during your song delivery. This adjective is the emotion you put on your face, in your vocal tone and in your body language during your performance of that song portion. So if you believe the main adjective for a stanza is “hopeful”, it is much easier to perform hopeful than all the many words included in the lyrics. Try it, it really works. For those students that have never had acting training and feel a bit self conscious, this usually does this trick and helps them perform very moving performances…very quickly.

The only rule is you cannot use the same adjective twice. Remember, how do you want your audience to feel? Perception is everything.

5. Perform the song

Now you are ready to perform your song at a comfortable natural volume using everything you have practiced so far: good tone placement, good airflow, etc., AND add the emotional performance to the mix. I usually recommend sitting down for this step. In fact, to make the most progress I recommend that part of the performance practice be confined to the face. If you can move your audience with just your voice and your facial expressions, that’s an accomplishment. Use your body and movement as an embellishment, not something that your performance relies on for success.

The comfortable, natural volume is very important. If you are using poor vocal mechanics you will be unable to create some notes without “belting them” and that needs to be addressed. Keep in mind that although it is a natural comfortable volume, you should not sacrifice your vocal tone. Think of it like when you turn the radio down. You still hear the peaks and valleys of the song, still crystal clear, just at a lower volume. This is your goal as you perform this step.

6. Perform with full movement and voice, adding stylistic nuances where appropriate.

Be sure to use a mirror to help you make good choices. If you have followed the other steps correctly, by this step you will naturally begin to sing with more power as you become more comfortable with the song, the power properly reflecting the emotional peaks and valleys.

Again, if you are new to this process you might have to repeat each step several times. Singers that use this technique regularly will find that it gets easier and easier, and that songs are learned more completely with great speed.

“I encourage each and every one of you to share yourself through sincere song performance. Don’t settle for just good singing, strive to be a true musician that breathes life into every tone.”

About the Author
Do you want to improve your singing voice quickly with minimal fuss then visit my new blog with free singing tips from singing experts and reviews of the best singing related educational products. Please feel free to visit the blog and leave your comments. Free Singing Tips Blog http://singoramania.blogspot.com/
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(© Yvonne DeBandi) SingSmart.com

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Web Tip: A Guide on RSS Tools

February 4th, 2010

RSS is an abbreviation that has evolved into the following, depending on their versions:

  • RDF Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.9; the first version of RSS)
  • Rich Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.91; a prototype)
  • Really Simple Syndication (also known as RSS 2.0)

Today, RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’

RSS tools refer to a group of file formats that are designed to share headlines and other web content. This may be a summary or simply 1 to 2 lines of the article. Links to the full versions of the content (the full article or post), and even file attachments such as multimedia files. All of these data is delivered in the form of an XML file (XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language), which has the following common names:

  • RSS feed
  • Webfeed
  • RSS stream
  • RSS channel

They are typically shown on web pages as an orange rectangle that usually has the letters XML or RSS in it.

RSS feeds can be used to deliver any kind of information. Some of these ‘feeds’ include:

  • Blogs feed – each blog entry is summarized as a feed item. This makes blog posts easier to scan, enabling ‘visitors’ to zoom in on their items of interest.
  • Article feed – this alerts readers whenever there are new articles and web contents available.
  • Forum feed - this allows users to receive forum posts and latest discussion topics.
  • Schedule feed – this allows users (such as schools, clubs, and other organizations) to broadcast events and announce schedule changes or meeting agendas.
  • Discounts or Special feed – this is used to enable users (such as retail and online stores) to ‘deliver’ latest specials and discounted offers.
  • Ego or News Monitoring – this enables users to receive ‘filtered’ headlines or news that are based on a specific phrase or keyword.
  • Industry-specific feed – used by technical professionals in order to market, promote, or communicate with current (and prospective) customers and clients within their specific industries.

RSS feeds enable people to track numerous blogs and news sources at the same time. To produce an RSS feed, all you need is the content or the article that you want to publicize and a validated RSS text file. Once your text file is registered at various aggregators (or ‘news readers’), any external site can then capture and display your RSS feed, automatically updating them whenever you update your RSS file.

RSS tools are useful for sites that add or modify their contents on a regular basis. They are especially used for ‘web syndication’ or activities that involve regular updates and/or publications, such as the following:

  • News websites – as used by major news organizations such as Reuters, CNN, and the BBC.
  • Marketing
  • Bug reports
  • Personal weblogs

There are many benefits to using RSS feeds. Aside from being a great supplemental communication method that streamlines the communication needs of various sectors, RSS tools and feeds can also have tremendous benefits in your business, particularly in the field of internet marketing.

RSS tools and feeds provide Internet users with a free (or cheap) and easy advertising or online marketing opportunity for their businesses. Below are some of the RSS features that can help make your internet marketing strategies more effective.

1. Ease in content distribution services.

With RSS, your business can be captured and displayed by virtually any external site, giving you an easy way to ’spread out’ and advertise them.

2. Ease in regular content updates.

With RSS, web contents concerning your business can now be automatically updated on a daily (and even hourly) basis. Internet users will be able to experience ‘real time’ updates as information in your own file (such as new products and other business-related releases) is changed and modified simultaneously with that of the RSS feeds that people are subscribed to.

3. Custom-made content services.

With RSS, visitors can have personalized content services, allowing them total control of the flow and type of information that they receive. Depending on their interests and needs, visitors can subscribe to only those contents that they are looking for (such as real estate or job listings).

4. Increase in (and targeted) traffic.

With RSS, traffic will be directed to your site as readers of your content summary (or 1 to 2 lines of your article) who find them interesting are ‘forced’ to click on a link back to your site.

These are just several of the many things that you can do with RSS. The possibilities are endless, and they are all aimed at providing you with an effective internet marketing strategy for your business.

RSS Subscription

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Guitar Style

February 3rd, 2010

Guitar Brands

An important aspect not to overlook is that guitar looks alone is not a prerequisite to a guitar which will be perfect for you and that you will be absolutely, perfectly happy with.  Sure, guitar looks are important, as each guitar beginner will naturally build up from the very start an emotional attachment to the guitars that they are interested in.  One thing to remember though is that it is no good rushing into to buy a guitar based on looks alone.  It serves no purpose to buy a guitar purely for the reason that you wish to wow your friends, if upon coming to play guitar, you find that this particular guitar after all, it’s sounds quality, is not for you personally.

All is not lost however.  Sure you can find a great looking guitar from the marketplace out there, upon seeing a guitar that you like the look of first though – go to a guitar shop or guitar store and share with the owner of the guitar store the guitar make and model that you are ultimately interested in purchasing.  Heed their advice, take their guitar experience on board, listen to what they have to say, as they really will only have your best interests at heart.

It may just be that the guitar that you think looks wickedly cool, the one that you thought would really impress your family and friends actually does not produce the right kind of guitar sound that you are after.  What you want to do obviously is to seek to find a balance between the two, good looks and a great guitar sound.

By all means, ask any dealer for their advice.  As a guitar beginner, no question is too dumb to ask.  The guitar dealer has heard all of these same questions before many times over and he or she will not mind at all you asking the same questions too.  He / she knows from their own guitar playing experience most likely within just a few sentences, the kind of guitar look and sound that you want, let them advise you, take full advantage of their guitar knowledge and be guided by their words of guitar wisdom.

You only have to ask too, and the guitar dealer in your guitar store will with a very high likelihood allow you to hold and play the guitar of your choice.  Try out various guitar models, see how they feel in your hands, don’t just stand there, if there is room, feel free to move around with the guitar, just as you would naturally, as if you were playing it, of course being careful not to inadvertently break anything!

A guitar which feels natural in your hands, fits your stature and build very well, produces a beautiful guitar melody and sound, you’ll just know when you’ve hit on the right guitar note for you.  Even if you don’t buy there and then, at least now you have it fixed in your mind the guitar that you want to buy.  Take your time with your guitar buying experience, and enjoy and learn as much as you can at the same time.

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