Tuesday 5 February 2013

Sing like a Red Lipstick Girl



 I love to sing


This is no secret. I sing anywhere - anytime - anyhow.

I'm one of the very lucky few people that has managed to take the thing they love and attempt to make some kind of career out of it. To take your passion and turn it into something you can live off of takes a lot of determination and hard work. It does also require luck and a lot of being in the right place at the right time. You need to be confident in yourself and what you have to offer because no-one else will push you forwards, especially in the early days. 

For me music is my passion, my hobby and (hopefully) my career. I love to play the piano and saxophone but most of all I love to sing.

The human voice is amazing, it's the one instrument we are all born with. I know a lot of people say they can't sing but that is just not true. Everyone can sing - sometimes you may just need a little training. Singing encompasses all things, we sing when we're happy and when we're sad. We sing to worship or to rouse. The power of a song is incredible, it can be used to celebrate any occasion or to convey the depth of feeling when we're grieving. 

I love looking to my red lipstick icons when I'm practising with my voice. I spend a lot of time emulating Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Dusty Springfield, Wanda Jackson, Helen Shapiro and Doris Day.

The reason I spend so much time trying to emulate these ladies is because I feel that the way they used their voices was absolutely incredible. There was no such thing as auto-tuning so what you heard was pretty much what you got (although often drowned in reverb!) and the way these ladies manipulated their voices was wonderful. 

Sometimes it feels to me that "great" singing is considered to be the ability to hold one loud, high note for a long time. Certainly some ladies can do this to great effect - take Aretha Franklin for example. However this is only one small part of what it means to be a great singer. Nina Simone was certainly not known for warbling big high notes over her songs yet she is seen as one of the greatest singers of all time. 

So many people I have worked with strain to hit high notes instead of working with the strengths of their voice. By maximising your strengths you can create an amazing sound without risking your voice, I always feel sorry for the young girls on X Factor who seem to battle to outdo themselves with louder and higher songs – it’s all a recipe to hurt your voice.

If you want to start singing the best thing you can do is find your natural range. That is find the song you can sing comfortably without feeling any strain and without having to “push” your voice. It might be a low song or maybe a high one or – if you like me – you might sit comfortably in the middle. Once you’ve found this natural sitting point it’s possible to train your voice (and learn some little tricks) to go much higher or lower.

I constantly listen to old songs and try to emulate my favourite singers – I love how they phrase certain things and how much feeling there is in their voices. You’d be amazed what you can do with your voice when you have the confidence to give it a go.

I definitely recommend that everyone try and sing as much as possible. It’s so much fun. If you’re a newbie to singing and fancy giving the karaoke a go there are a few top tips I can give you:

-          #1 
       Don’t push yourself – Diva’s have spent years training their voice. You won’t sound like Mariah         first go and sounding like a slowly drowning cat will hurt your confidence.
-           
      #2
      Sing something that you love. All songs sound better when you put some feeing into it – whether it’s something you can shake your tush to, something you can do a kick ass guitar solo to or something you can wave a lighter to.

       #3
           Own it – who cares if you’re more Ella Fitzgerald or Jedward, just own whatever you do and you’ll be fine
              
       #4 
      Enjoy it! Singing is awesome and you are awesome – don’t forget it.

I’m thinking more and more about offering vocal tuition to anybody that would be interested. For me cultivating your singing voice is not only about making sound good but it’s also about developing your confidence and inner pizzazz... There’s so much more to singing than just hitting notes in the right order and I’d love to offer that to people. If anybody out there is remotely interested then please let me know!

Mrs P

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