Vocal Exercises to Improve Voice Quality And Tone

There are a number of vocal exercises that you can use to improve the tone and quality of your voice. Some of these exercises can even help you develop a much broader vocal range. Here are a few classics to get you started:

Vocal Exercises: Warm-Ups

Your vocal chords need to be warmed up before you sing. Warming up helps protect your pipes from injury, and it also helps you sing a lot better.

To start, practice singing up and down the C chromatic scale a half-step at a time. This will force you to hit lots of subtle notes, and will give your voice a smoother quality.

The yawning technique is another approach. Open your mouth and sing a note. Now, without pausing for breath, keep singing the note while you change the pitch. Think of the way your voice gets higher when you yawn. This exercise should have a similar effect. Use it to go from the bottom of your range to the very top.

Try to spend at least 10 to 15 minutes warming up before you rehearse or perform.

Vocal Exercises: Range

One popular exercise to help you increase your vocal range involves playing notes on an instrument and singing along with them until you can’t sing any higher (or lower). With the help of a tuning device or a musical instrument, you can quickly identify your natural vocal range.

Other range-expanding vocal exercises focus on building a strong middle voice, which is a voice that combines the chest and head voices. Practice singing across your natural vocal break. As you sing, pay attention to where each note vibrates in your throat. Chest voice notes will vibrate lower in your vocal chords; head voice notes often vibrate at the back of your soft palate.

Practice these notes until you can routinely produce them with good quality and voice control. Go a step higher each week until you can sing well above your natural range.

Vocal Exercises: Pitch

Perfect pitch comes naturally to a rare few individuals. Most of us have to practice at it. Fortunately, there are vocal exercises that can help you improve your pitch.

The easiest way is to play a note on an instrument or in a sound software program, and sing that note as it plays. When you match the pitch perfectly, there will be a resonance that isn’t present when you sing off-pitch.

You can also practice pitch with other vocalists. Try harmonizing with another singer or two, with one singer taking the higher notes, one taking middle notes, and one taking lower notes. When you’re all on pitch, the result will be a resonating harmony.

Vocal Exercises: Volume

Volume is another important part of vocals. Sometimes you will need to sing at a higher volume, especially if you sing opera or rock music, or if you sing with a band that plays loudly.

Finding your natural volume is a lot like finding your natural range. Simply start out at a regular volume, singing in your speaking voice. Sing gradually louder until you can no longer sing comfortably. That is your natural volume range.

You can increase your volume by identifying your diaphragm (the band of muscle beneath your ribcage) and using it to push out your voice as you sing. Exhale sharply; the muscle that tightens when you exhale is your diaphragm.

These vocal exercises will help you identify and increase your natural range and volume, and add power to your notes. Practice daily to develop the best tone possible.

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This article comes to you courtesy of Singorama:
http://www.singorama.com

If you'd like to take your singing voice from ordinary to extraordinary, make a signature song all your own, increase your vocal range, hit every note with professional precision and learn every nitty-gritty detail about auditions, singing in a band, harmonizing and more, then check out the most comprehensive learn-to-sing system available.

No matter if you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced singer, Singorama can help you. Not only is it educational, it's really fun!

http://www.singorama.com

Sing like a professional starting today!
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How to Sign a Record Label As an Indie Artist

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How to Sign a Record Label As an Indie Artist
By Paul Mileny

There are several ways that each new or becoming artist must follow in order to reach the 'top of the crop' and finally sign the record deal. Here are some hints as to what needs of the music industry.

1. Great music is always in demand and that is exactly what you must have. There's so many new artists that think that they can persuade an agent with boring stuff and still sign a record deal. No, it doesn't work that way. You must have good music and you must understand the importance of it. What i mean by 'good music' is not personal taste, but the kind of music that has innovation, talent and a bit of experience in it.

2. Your potential agent asks himself a questions, "Well, why should i sign this guy"? The answer to this question is simple, you must look "signable and presentable." No one will want to sign you unless you're going to make them lots of money and profit. Make sure that you or your band look experienced and confident so that they believe in you and in the idea of making a living off of you, when you become famous.

3. Having a professional demo always helps. That's generally the second thing they ask for, after they examine your looks and how you behave yourself. Music industry is all about first impressions, great demo and appearances. All in all, it's the whole package that matters. If you have all that, then you are on your way to signing a record deal and could be very successful.

However, if you are new to this industry, there are some downsides. Most insigned artists or Indie musician think that signing a recording contract is all that matters. Actually, no. Here's what you maybe facing:

• Committing yourself to a record label is almost like selling your soul to a devil. Not literally, of course. However, in terms of locking yourself up for so many years of hard work, some new Indie artist musicians give up.
• You'd be losing your personal freedom and personal space. You'll constantly be performing, traveling, singing, interviewing, etc.
• You may be losing some money on your CD sales due to profit sharing.
• You may misread the recording contract and sign something that you may not like down the road that will affect your CD's getting released without your music-publishing rights.

If you are a real artist, great signer, performer or entertainer, do not be belittled about all that negativity about signing a record deal being said, there are still some advantages to signing with a record label. Your talents will bring you closer to signing a record label. For more details, please click here.

Paul Mileny is the content writer for ReachFame and for various other online resources. ReachFame is specifically designed to get anyone signed fast, without major industry problems and avoiding falsely promising music managers, who would charge you an arm & a leg for their services. To learn more about how to submit your demo, sign a record deal or become a music manager, please visit ReachFame.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Mileny
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Sign-a-Record-Label-As-an-Indie-Artist&id=3296933

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How to Learn Singing

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Have you always wanted to become a singer? Many people dream of singing, but few take the steps required to learn. Here are some quick tips that will teach you how to learn singing, on your own or with assistance:

How to Learn Singing – Before You Begin

Before you begin, listen to a lot of different songs in many genres. This will help you settle on a style that best suits your voice and personality. Do you want to sing rock music? Opera? Maybe country and western or rhythm and blues suits your style best.

Next, start practicing to find your natural vocal range. Sing a note that you can comfortably hit. Then sing progressively higher notes until your sound quality decreases. Go back to the first note and then sing down the scale to find the bottom of your range.

This is an informal exercise, but it will help you get an idea of which notes you can comfortably sing, and which ones you need to work on.

How to Learn Singing – Self-Study

Many vocalists teach themselves to sing. Learning to sing by listening to other singers, without formal training, is called ‘singing by ear’. While some classically trained vocalists frown on this approach, it can lay the foundation for strong pitch recognition.

The problem with learning to sing by ear is that you can develop bad habits that are difficult to break later in life. Professional lessons can be expensive, though. Many singers find middle ground by using self-study courses.

Self-study singing courses typically contain videos or audio files that guide you through warm-ups and vocal exercises. They can help you expand your lung capacity, control your breathing, increase your vocal range, and sing smoothly across your vocal breaks.

If you decide to go this route, read reviews before you purchase a product. Some systems are better than others, so user reviews can be very helpful. You can find self-study singing courses online, or at your local library or book store.

How to Learn Singing – Professional Help

If you would prefer to do your learning face-to-face, consider signing up for singing lessons. Look for voice coaches in your area, or get a referral from friends who have had a good experience with a particular instructor.

If the cost of voice lessons is a little steep for your budget, try joining a choir at your school, church, or community center. This will give you access to an instructor and other singers that you can trade tips and techniques with.

How to Learn Singing – Advanced Techniques

After you’ve spent some time practicing, you might decide that you really enjoy singing and want to do more of it. It can be a little daunting to sing solo when you’re accustomed to singing with a group, but a little practice will decrease nervousness.

You can use your self-study course or your instructor to learn advanced techniques like perfecting your head voice, reaching into your falsetto range, and developing a vibrato. You will also learn to read music and transpose your favorite songs into a different key so that you can sing them easily.

Now you know how to learn singing without putting a huge dent in your bank account. Have fun experimenting with different musical styles and gaining confidence in your voice!

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This article comes to you courtesy of Singorama:
http://www.singorama.com

If you'd like to take your singing voice from ordinary to extraordinary, make a signature song all your own, increase your vocal range, hit every note with professional precision and learn every nitty-gritty detail about auditions, singing in a band, harmonizing and more, then check out the most comprehensive learn-to-sing system available.

No matter if you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced singer, Singorama can help you. Not only is it educational, it's really fun!

http://www.singorama.com

Sing like a professional starting today!
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Banjos Selection Process

Musical Equipment

By iwmce

There are many things to look for in a quality banjo. One of the most important is the machine heads, as it determines the maintenance of the tuning, and also determines the tuning ease. Many Banjos at the entry-level price point of $125-$225 have open machine heads and for a 5-String Banjo, a friction 5th peg. The friction peg can be a cumbersome part. Normal tension allowed by the peg is adjusted by a phillips head screw. Too loose and the string will lose tension, too tight and the peg will be hard to turn. The way around a friction peg is to immediately upgrade to a geared/planetary 5th string peg. This is normally done at the same time as replacing the other 4 standard open geared pegs that come on banjos with a friction peg. The ROVER FRONT PORCH SERIES BANJO - RESONATOR RB-115 from extramusical.com for $299 is a good example of an intermediate level banjo at a budget price, it comes with geared planetary pegs. Making sure the banjo comes with a rim and quality tone ring is important. The ROVER FRONT PORCH SERIES BANJO - RESONATOR RB-115 has a traditional 11" multi-ply wood rim, that makes it another good choice for a musical instrument with function and artistry. The rim produces weight, notably an agreeable feature for a banjo, as the greater the weight normally translate into a better sounding instrument. The downside of the RB-115 is it's 24 brackets. 24 is minimum number of brackets for sustained quality and life, eventhough, there are 18 bracket banjos being sold. While the Rover Porch Series banjo has a rolled brass tone ring, an upgrade would be a diecast, that can always be added later. Other quality banjos that are impressive in their features with prices that are hard to beat, come from names like: Indiana Morgan Monroe Saga Recording King Gold Star The lowest prices available for these instruments, can be had, by going to www.extramusical.com

Online Guitar Lessons - Learn To Play Guitar The Right Way

By: Harry Rackers

So you want to learn to play guitar eh? Fortunately there are a lot of people that do, but not everyone has enough time or even the vigilance to find the way in which do to do it. Of course there's a lot of ways to do so, but there's correct ways, and then there are wrong methods. The correct methods will reveal themselves over time, and if you continue seeking you are sure to find them.

The greatest method to learn of course is by attending lessons in real life. There are a great many instructors around that will be quite happy to assist you in learning the guitar for a certain fee, however there's some people who simply don't possess adequate time for that sort of thing. There's work, home time, high school, and a lot of other items. As of late work hours seem to have been growing longer due to employers finding that it's less expensive to extend hours instead of paying for medical benefits for additional employees.

So what exactly could you do about it? Fortunately there's another option and said option is to take online guitar lessons. There are a number of sites which you can locate on the The Internet that can offer all sorts of online guitar lessons, and finding them is fairly simple. The only thing that you really have to do is perform a quick Google search and you'll locate everything that you need.

You will locate websites which have resources like videos, guitar lesson software, tips, and actually forums so that you will be able to communicate with people who are either just learning the craft of guitar playing, or have learned, and would like to assist you on the journey.

There might be worries that you will not find a site which does a great job of teaching you, though fortunately there aren't too many guitar teaching websites out there that feature a habit of scamming you because they are mostly free of charge. In the event that you do happen to find one that isn't free, then you need to take a look around the website and see precisely what it is they provide. Check with other sites that provide similar facilities and determine what the other users think of them. If you determine that they're a decent service then you'd ideally have no problem with signing up for their service.

Ordinarily upon signing up you will get admittance to a lot of different resources such as acoustic guitar lessons, electric guitar lessons, hints, help, and naturally the instructional videos.

Learning to play guitar online isn't a challenging thing to carry out, in fact there's many individuals doing it right now due to time constraints and you might discover that you enjoy learning on the Internet much more than you do in real life. That's mostly because you can learn at your personal pace and will not need to make it to any sort of engagements. If this sounds like a thing that you may be wanting to do, then check on the Internet and see if you can find anything that you like.

Author Resource:-> If you want to play the guitar, I suggest you visit the Guitar Classroom for your online guitar lessons


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Famous Drummers and Their Drum Kits

By: Julia Aidan

Rock world or the jazz world is an exclusive place to find a good drummer. There are many pop group which had come and gone, taking with them their drummers, but few of them remain in the memories of the people. Drummers like Keith Moon, Jon Bonham are still remembered.So also Neil Pert and Lars Ulrich. They are a excellent class by themselves. They are different from each other. It is by the style they play Drums. They also use different Drum kits.

Let us begin with Keith Moon. He was born in23rd August 1946 and died on 7th September 1978. He lived a short period of life because of his alcoholism and acute eccentricity. He is still famous. Some of his fans also named him as 'Mad Moon'. He was renowned for his innovativeness and was a dramatic drummer. In 1964 Keith connected 'The Who' band. He was a very fast drummer, a singer and also a composer. He used to play faster and noisy, but with authority. He used fire crackers. He used them on the stage. He was so odd that he has broken many drums and perhaps his past time was to blow up toilets.

Keith Moon did not have any particular Drum Kits. He has no made to order Kits as many other drummers had or have. He either borrowed or hired drum kits to play.He borrowed drum sets to play.He also hired them As a result, he had played with Rogers drum kit, Premier kit, Trixon kit, Lee Kings kit, Dave Clarke Five kit, Singerland kit, Ludwig kit and also Vistalities from Ludwig. Therefore he never stuck to any standardized kit.

Jon Henry Bonham was in the company of Led Zeppilin. He was applauded for his 20 minute solo performance on his drumkit.. He was basically a Rock Drummer and that too a great one. He died at 32 years.

He used three different Ludwig green sparkle instrument in Lee Zeppilin III and IV. Jon Bonham used 24" and 26" bass drums and his mounted Tom was 12" deep.. At times he played in his exposed hands. Jon Bonham had branded drum kits. He played with it.. He had used, other than from the Ludwig sparkle green sparkle, which was his choice and best sounding kit, The Black Diamond Pearl and Thermo lusture Natural Maple. He also used many other branded drums. He used different types of floor Toms, rack Toms, supraphonic snare and Ludwig Timpani. He started using Paiste 2002 series Cymbals and earlier he was using the Paiste Giant Beat Cymbals. His favorite pedal for Drums Were Ludwig Speed King Pedals.

Neil Pert joined a Toronto based band "RUSH" and classified himself with it.|Neil Pert joined in "RUSH" band. It was in Toronto.}. He was basically motivated by Drummers like Keith Moon and Jon Bonham. He was an innovative type of Drum player who found a new style combining Jazz with Swing components.. Pert was a Drummer and like Moon was also a composer of song for their band. He had a complex style. It was sophisticated His kits always give encouragement to other Drummers. With a large drum kit he often used all the Drums while performing..The drum kit he normally used was The Old Singerland Snare, Remo 'Legato' marching Snare, a 13" Ludwig Picolo on the back kit, Tama Gong Bass Drum, Promark drum sticks, Rem heads, LP Cowbells and some wind bells.

A Danish-American Drummer known as Lars Ulrich from Metallica, the heavy metal band, origin.| Lars Ulrich was from Metallica band}. He regularly used Tama drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Remo drum heads. He is seldom seen without his customized kits.|He never played without his own drums}. He also used Ludwig drums, Grtsch drums and Sambian Cymbals, Calato Regal drum sticks but altered to Eastern Ahead at a later date.

Other drummers in 1980 of Sonor drum reputation were Steve Smith from Journey and Phil Rudd.. In recent times Danny Carey of TOOL and Gavin Harrison are some of the names who play Sonor drums.

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Play The Piano - Start With The Chords

By: Angel Smith

If you or someone in your family wants to learn to play the piano, you'll first need to familiarize yourself with the chords. By learning the chords first you will speed up the process of learning the piano. It's not that hard to learn the chords no matter what your age. So now when you look at the keyboard it won't look so intimidating.

The first piano chord you will learn is the C chord. It's the easiest chord to learn and hopefully will help you on the next chords. Each chord becomes a little more difficult than the last. But with constant practice it should become easier. As most people know, the white keys on the piano named C D E F G A B are also the notes that make up the C chord. With the help of your instructional materials, you can learn all the other chords.

You may ask how will you learn all the chords. There are a variety of instruction materials in stores and online. Find one that's best for your level of knowledge. Most likely you'll start as a beginner which is great as you'll develop good habits required for playing the piano. So jump in and start to learn the chords. After you begin to understand each set of chords then its practice, practice, practice.

Learn by repetition meaning every time you learn a chord keep playing that chord until you have mastered it. When you move on to the next chord do the same but include the first chord. Keep building on your foundation until you can play all the chords. Make sure during all of this practice that you also master proper positioning of your hands and fingers.

If you have practiced all of the chords and feel somewhat comfortable with their placement you should be able to read a wide assortment of sheet music. Because you've memorized all of the piano chords you're now learning to read sheet music. This is a great way to play the piano and have fun with it.

In order to get started, begin shopping for instruction materials you feel will meet your needs. Selecting the right beginner materials is essential. Ask someone in the store to point out the most popular piano instruction manuals. You should be looking for instruction materials that make getting started easy but also challenges you later on.

To get a head start, play the piano by learning the chords first. You may be surprised how quickly you can entertain yourself and others. To sit down and play beautiful music is soothing to your soul and therapeutic for your mind. Stay focused and again practice the chords everyday.

Author Resource:-> If you're interested in learning to play the piano, please Click Here. For additional tips and information about how to find the right materials and stay on track, please visit my website at http://www.review-4-consumers.com/piano


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Breaking The Speed Barrier on the Guitar

Breaking The Speed Barrier on the Guitar

By: Mathew Marlson

In this article we will be tackling the all important subject of speed as it pertains to the guitar. We have all seen incredible guitar players that seemed to defy the laws of physics and play and the speed of light. While it may seem a bit hard to attain, with a little work and understanding we can improve our technique and increase our speed on the guitar. After all, let’s be honest for a second and admit that playing fast on the guitar can sometimes be as fun as putting the pedal to the metal in a race car. The problems arise when our fingers just don’t seem to be moving or coordinating fast enough, or we may play fast but it sounds more like unintelligible mumbles rather than a coherent musical phrase.

Let’s start by defining what we are after, what we are trying to accomplish. When you are admiring your favorite guitarist playing fast you will probably notice that there is a clarity of execution and a rhythmic stability that makes whatever they are playing very easy to comprehend. So it’s not just about playing fast, but playing fast and having a clean execution of your musical idea on the instrument.

The myth of speed

In musical lingo speed is expressed as tempo. Let me give you a little tip that’ll get you on your way to playing fast: slower crystal clear playing is perceived as faster and better than up-tempo unclean mumbling on the guitar. You will always give your audience the impression of playing faster by being clean in your execution.

So how do you do it? Where do you start? I am going to give you the secret to playing fast on the guitar, and I am going to do it with a one-word: SLOW! Yes, I said SLOW. If you’re sitting there dumbfounded, you are not alone. How can slow be the secret to fast? Any guitar teacher worth anything will understand the value of what I just said. Very few however can explain clearly why this is the case so let’s take some time and understand this principle:

Slow is the key to fast!

When you are playing fast it’s the reflexes that are taking over and doing the job. It’s more like being on autopilot. You can think of it like this: a computer program can do millions of computations and get you the result in a split second. However, you first have to write the program which is always a slow process. Putting in all the information of what makes up the program and, if you’ve written a program well it will do what it was designed to do in a second.

In much the same way you must slowly put in the information needed so that your brain can create the right reflexes. The slower you do it, the clearer and stronger you will build your reflexes. This in turn leads to greater speed on the guitar while at the same time retaining clarity.

Start by playing slow and with great care for clarity. Keep in mind that you are learning material that will ultimately be played at much higher speeds. As such it is very important to think ahead. For example, use alternate strokes instead of down strokes only if you’re picking or alternate the fingers if you are fingerpicking. Now we come to our next point:

The Gameplan

The reason why most beginners seem to get stuck in their quest for speed is their lack of understanding of the gameplan. In most cases you will be using alternate strokes when playing fast material. The up-down-up-down pattern must be constant. Any little stutter or hiccup in this pattern is akin to a runner tripping and falling face down during a race. Playing slow will allow you to see where you unconsciously put in two down strokes for example and correct it.

When you play the material at very slow speeds make sure your movements are smooth, even and don’t present any jerkiness or stuttering in them. As you play the material you’ll start to feel where tension points exist. In most cases this is because the alternate stroke principle was not respected. Correct this at slow speeds and make sure things becomes smooth before moving on to higher speeds. Make sure your freatboard hand is playing and making the position changes as smooth as possible.Increase the speed gradually and don’t move on to the next tempo until playing at that tempo you are at feels natural.

Raise the roof

In most cases the guitar players you admire perform on stage below their speed limit. This means that they work of the material past the speed you see them play onstage. By not playing at their terminal velocity on stage they allow themselves a little headroom. This is why they seem so relaxed when performing. You can also use this little trick to your advantage. Rehearse the material at higher speeds than you will be performing on stage. Once you “raised the roof” you will feel much more comfortable playing at the normal tempo.

If you put all that was discussed into practice it won’t be long before you’ll see that speed barrier crumble as you push through on your way to becoming a monster guitarist.

Author Resource:-> David Barton has been teaching guitar for over 20 years and has extensive experience both as a teacher and performer. Outside of teaching, David runs an online guitar sheet music and classical guitar tabs store. http://www.rezzonator.com

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Selecting an Acoustic Guitar

Selecting an Acoustic Guitar

By iwmce

Top 10 things to look at when buying an Acoustic Guitar:

1. Playability - Are the strings close enough to the fretboard to allow easy playability? Is the neck straight? If a beginner, are the strings a x-light guage?

2. Sound - Does the guitar have good lowend response? That is bass qualities, the brightness is easy to obtain, look for a booming bass and good midrange.

3. Woods- Spruce or Cedar top. Audiofiles choose cedar for it’s rich bass qualities. Rosewood, preferrably brazillian rosewood but a good dark-grained rosewood will help produce a quality sound. Rosewood or Maple for the back and sides, works well. An ebony fingerboard.

4. The Bridge - A very important part of the guitar. look for one that is wrapped around the top. This produces the best sound but may be patented and only available on Alvarez guitars.

5. Acoustic only or Acoustic Electric - Given the option, the most important benefits of your modern acoustic-electric is the ability to play at concert hall levels, retain the shimmering quaility of the an unplugged acoustic, but without the feedback acustomed to high volume levels. Another benefit might be the ability to plug your guitar directly into your console, without the need for an expensive mic, not to mention a relatively noise-free environment to record it in.

6.Body Style - More and more serious acoustic players are turning to classicals, even for rock and hard rock.genres. The dreadnaught and jumbo, jumbo for more mainstream country music.

7.Appearance- this is a personal choice, acoustics come with many optional appearance choices. Headstock decoration, fingerboard inlay, soundhole decorative rings, and binding dressing. Abalone and pearl are some notable choices.

8.Intonation- check to make sure the notes played at the 12th fret are the same note as the open string, just an octave higher in pitch.

9.Tuning machines- try to stick with a 14:1 or higher ratio set of tuning machine heads. A good diecast machine head is found on most quality guitars.

10.Finish- becoming more popular again is the nitro-cellulose finish. The best for a good resonant guitar.

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