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Welcome to Vocal Process eZINE 27
In this edition we report on the extraordinary idea behind the
CalendarSongs website. We have a plethora of course reports from our
very busy Autumn season, and more news on the Anatomy and Physiology
section of Integrated Voice in January. The internet is alive with
the sound of larynxes, and Jeremy meets a member of royalty. |
 
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"I write a song. You remix. We
make a record"
In 2006 the singer Calendargirl created a website,
Calendarsongs.com, with a very simple premise: "I write a song. You
remix. We make a record." Since last October Calendargirl has
written one song a month and put the vocal and separate guide
harmony track on the website for other people to remix. So far there
are more than 220 remixes of the 12 songs on the site. Jeremy
interviewed CalendarGirl as the last song was being remixed.
 Jeremy:
I've been surfing your website, Calendarsongs.com. What a great idea. I'm loving some of the re-mixes - different mixes bring
different things out in your voice too. There's such a variety of
stuff on the site already. So how does it feel to be the lead singer
of 200+ bands?
CalendarGirl: It is completely fantastic to hear my songs in
so many different settings. This project really is the diametrical
opposite of being in a band - that's one of the reasons I wanted to
do it! One of the great things about being in a band is the chance
to do the same material over and over and adapt, evolve your
performance, your part of the whole. But of course that can also be
quite tiring. Calendarsongs is kind of an escape from that for me.
Jeremy: November's my favourite month - you've got acoustic,
trance, acid, baroque (with your vocals slowed down to baroque
pitch) and a whole host of inbetweens including a sort of reggae
circus pipe organ and even samples from Vancouver air traffic
control. Have any of the mixes surprised you?
CalendarGirl: I am constantly surprised and delighted by the
remixes I receive.
Jeremy: How long does it take to write (and record) each
song?
CalendarGirl: The general pattern was: gestate the song for
three weeks and write it in a week in a state of total panic. For
two or three of the songs I re-wrote them completely at the very
last minute, for two or three I (wisely) gave myself a week or even
10 days to polish them (and then kicked myself that I hadn't done it
with all of the songs!).
Jeremy: When did you have the idea and how long did it take
you to get from idea to website?
CalendarGirl: I started planning the project in late summer
2006. It was pretty quick. I wanted a good start-date for the
project but I didn't want to wait until January, so I settled on
September as that is generally a back-to-school sort of time, and
then I was about a month late as that's how it goes with technology,
so I launched at the end of October with the October song.
Jeremy: How technical did you have to be to set up the
website, uploading and feedback?
CalendarGirl: I had to learn the basics about how websites
work: how the files and folders on your server space talk to what
you're interacting with onscreen. I also had to figure out a decent
way of navigating the site. I had some really great advice from
friends who've built websites. I hate tricky websites and knew I
wanted everything to be as simple as possible so I literally started
out with one page, with a banner explaining the "Rules" of the
project (which you can still read on the site) and my first entry:
the October song. As I started adding content I added a simple
navigation system and a way for people to leave comments, and then
as the number of remixes started growing I found a way to add
playlists to the site as all that music was making it really slow.
My rules of thumb were: keep it as remixer-friendly as possible
(I've recently added a remixer-index), keep the site simple and
colorful, and try to and add something new everyday.
Jeremy: Have you considered making a double (or triple)
album?
CalendarGirl: I have considered making a double record. If it
feels right to keep releasing remix records, and if the first one
all goes smoothly, I will definitely think about doing so. Same
thing goes for doing the whole thing over again. Never say never!
Jeremy: How's the album coming?
CalendarGirl: I've nearly finished tracklisting. I am going
to announce all the details for the record in mid December,
so come back to
www.calendarsongs.com for
all the news!
Jeremy: What's next?
CalendarGirl: I am recording as a vocalist with Freeform Five
for their new record, and I'm thinking about what kind of solo
record I'd like to make.
Jeremy: Do you have any advice for other singer-songwriters?
CalendarGirl: Write a lot of songs, keep writing and writing!
Mainly I think you should really go for the things you have a feel
for, things that intrigue you, and not try to tick all the boxes and
get a 100% finished product. Do something special and raw, and
people will remember it. Don't be afraid to put your stuff online
and connect with listeners that way, and remember that there's a lot
more to online music than Myspace.
CalendarGirl is a long-standing pupil of Gillyanne's. You can
read her
report on singing lessons with
Gillyanne in the Reports section of the Vocal Process website.
Course reports
 This has been a very busy time for Vocal Process,
with no less than six courses in five weeks. Dr Donna Soto-Morettini
came to London for her only UK course this year based on her book: Popular
Singing:
A Practical Guide to Pop, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Country and Gospel
And Gillyanne and Jeremy visited RADA to bring out the best in
the group of singers at the
Successful Singing Auditions day
(pictured here at the end of the day with their Answers on a
Postcard).
In the meanwhile,
here are reports on the four October courses:
The Voice of Violence at RADA
Pamela Hall writes:
"If the title of
the workshop, Voice of Violence, hadn’t attracted me already, the
mention of pregnant seals, vicious velars and fur balls, not to
mention the promise of screaming and shouting, ensured that my
attention was riveted throughout!
 Lise Olson describes
'violent voice' as anything that is not regular conversational voice
use; so crying/laughing, shouting and screaming all come under the
heading of extreme, and therefore potentially abusive, voice
patterns. With a long history as an actor, director, stage-combatant
and voice tutor, Lise is ideally placed to conduct this workshop.
The 20 participants came from a range of areas: singers and singing
teachers from both the classical and pop repertoires, voice
teachers, and actors.
Lise was quick to
insert the sense of energy, practicality and fun that united this
group and dominated the day. She stressed the two main keys for safe
voice use as being: 1 – warm up and warm down, and 2 – "hydrate,
hydrate, hydrate". For stressful voice use "you need nice juicy
vocal folds". And certainly, most of us got through 2-3 litres of
water during the day alone, not to mention whatever we had been
advised to consume the day before in preparation, and the day after.
 All vocal work needs
to be physically linked in order to provide support – breath and
muscular – to relieve vocal fold stress. Lise introduced a variety
of warm-ups to centre and ground, energise and connect, then focus
and articulate our voices and our physicality. The 'rubber chicken'
loosened our muscles, a stretch called Gathering the Sky centred and
regulated our breathing, reciting "twinkle twinkle little star"
while balanced on alternate buttocks released the voice, and the 'consonant shuffle' focused on effective articulation. Lise uses a
smorgasbord of vocal exercises, some traditionally voice based and
some Estill based, combined with her more picturesque re-workings of
familiar warm ups, to awaken our voices and our creative energies.
To hear more about the exercises for yelling and screaming,
including the rubber chicken, the consonant keys and scoring the
text, click on this
Vocal Process Voice of Violence report.
Singing
and the Actor Training at Haberdashers
With attendees from all corners of the music profession (opera
singers, cabaret performers, a Disney artist and a DJ), this was
always going to be an interesting course. We began the first day
with "What are you hearing?", an exercise in aural perception. Here
are some of the unedited answers for three of the tracks we played:
Wonderwall (Oasis)
Coarse, flat, nasal, raw, monotone, tone, depth, whine, no
vibrato, boring, love it, gritty, long-drawn-out vowels (like he
speaks), lets material speak without getting in the way, makes me
connect with myself
She’s the one (Robbie Williams)
Breathy, floaty, flowing, light sound into head voice, angelic,
bad placement, childlike, vocal sits with song, use of vibrato, relaxing,
nostalgic, short phrases, mostly falsetto, good notes
Deh vieni alla finestra (from Don Giovanni,
Bryn Terfel)
Like falling into chocolate, soaring, recital mode, voice is the
real deal, suppressed, love the instrument, subtle tuning, quick
vibrato, colourful, emotional, power, dynamics, lovely Italian
vowels, large range of vocal colours, trapped inside, held in then
opened out, mannered, gave me goosebumps, hated it.
As you can see, there were some strong (and
conflicting) opinions!
 The course is closely based
on Gillyanne's
seminal book of the same name, and the day sessions focused on
learning to differentiate the moving parts of the vocal instrument.
The evening sessions gave everyone a chance to try out the
techniques on their own repertoire. Highlights included one
singer-songwriter working on her own material, and an actor
revisiting a particularly challenging vocal scene in his last
one-man show.
Despite our warnings (we know the course
contains an enormous amount of information), the brain pain set in
on day 2, but work on the nasal port and anchoring revived flagging
spirits. The third day was filled with happy twangers, and the
entire group was singing in different vocal sets by the end of the
afternoon. We finished with a revisit to the recordings played at
the beginning of the course. It was fascinating to discover how
opinions of the singing had altered due to a more in-depth knowledge
of vocal function.
As self-confessed voice nerds, we guarantee that
participants on Singing and the Actor Training will never hear a
voice in the same way again.
Top Techniques at Haberdashers
"My favourite technique was the anchoring because I felt it
helped my voice a lot". "The silent laugh surprised me because I
didn't know that you do that with your body". "Very clear, friendly
delivery." "Great getting it so physically into the body". "I also
appreciated comments both on speaking and singing."
 We returned to Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham
College for the second course in our October collection. This course
attracted a wider mix of clients than usual, with cabaret and opera singers, actors,
an MD, and a lively group of 8 girls under 16, all keen to learn
more about improving their voices. Top Techniques is aimed at anyone
wanting to learn to sing better, and focuses on four key techniques
to improve voice use in any genre. This is definitely an
experiential course. Gillyanne introduced each topic, gave everyone
exercises to practise in small groups and guided the groups through
the breakout sessions with Jeremy.
Top Techniques is a good brush-up day for professional voice users.
It is also our most accessible course for young or inexperienced
singers, and we have had tremendous feedback from all of the
participants. We'll leave the last words to Alison, the young
group's teacher, who was clearly delighted with the day:
"Gillyanne came over really well - professional and adult but very
clear instruction which gained the respect of the girls as they
realised they could immediately do the exercises. They really got a
lot out of the day - I got them to individually demonstrate what
they learned in choir yesterday, which proved very good. In their
lessons this week they have got much more confidence and power, they
were really excited about the whole thing. The voices have improved
as they have been
practicing over the weekend!!"
"My voice really enjoyed the course"
Fran Palmer writes on Advanced Singing and the Actor Training:
 "This was my second visit
to the intensive 2 day Advanced Singing And The Actor Training. The
participants were a mix of singers, teachers and coaches from
contrasting musical backgrounds, appropriate for the Vocal Process
"one does not fit all" approach.
Gillyanne and Jeremy created a warm yet professional atmosphere,
essential for the practical work that lay ahead. Working as a whole
group, in small groups and pairs we explored the relationships
between what is happening at vocal fold level and breath pressure.
Each individual worked differently, not only in their preferred
voice use but also their interpretation and application of the work.
Some worked by ear, some by feel and others visually, yet our
mentors quickly and confidently tuned in to each learning type. It
was also interesting to see how those who worked well by ear could
easily mimic a sound using a different set-up to that set in the
task. As a vocal coach this experience was invaluable. This was an
ear tuning wakeup!
Day 2 brought the subject of belting, much to the excitement of the
group. Within the singing teaching industry it appears that belting
is a very controversial subject and often regarded as a mystery. The
group were taken through the essential preparation before each
successfully finding their belt set-up. As a teacher of belting this
highlighted for me the necessity of preparation for any complicated
set up.
My voice really enjoyed the course. Each task was thoroughly
explained, expertly prepared and safely applied. I used my larynx in
so many ways, yet it felt happy and healthy. With constant support
from our mentors I easily found vocal set-ups I thought I would find
hard to access. The master class was invaluable in itself and the
detailed course notes that we received will ensure we never forget
the steps to acquiring the vocal set ups covered throughout the
course.
I
had already studied Singing And The Actor work in some depth.
However, the Advanced Singing & The Actor training still had so much
to offer me. I was inspired by Gillyanne & Jeremy’s calm and open
approach and many questions about my own voice were answered. Having
thought my ears were already supremely tuned, I realised they had a
lot more to learn. The journey to excellence is ongoing."
Courses coming up -
Vocal Anatomy for Voice Professionals
Here's a reminder that the new
Vocal Anatomy for Voice Professionals begins in January. We are
delighted to welcome three authors of the Voice Clinic Handbook as
the Vocal Process guest tutors.
 Day
1 of the Vocal Anatomy course, Muscles Alive!, will be
led by osteopath Jacob Lieberman. Jacob is a pioneer of laryngeal
manipulation, and his expertise has helped numerous singers to improve their vocal
function.
Muscles Alive! will
focus on how to find and gain awareness of the parts of the larynx;
how to understand the messages we receive from the nervous system;
discovering the basics of the muscular-skeletal system and the
planes of the body. Jacob will also include a session on
'posture, breathing and support - fact and fiction'. We recommend
early booking for this new course.
Book a place on
Muscles Alive January 19 2008
Days 2 and 3, the Vocal Anatomy course, will be led by
husband and wife team, Tom and Sara Harris of Queen Mary's Hospital,
Sidcup.
 Tom
and Sara will be covering a number of important physiology topics:
how breath activates vocal fold vibration; clarifying singers'
notions of support; the vocal structure in detail; resonance issues;
disentangling your vocal note from your articulation (not just a
load of old vowels); with practical exercises from an SLT
perspective.
We're going to send out a more detailed breakdown of both courses in
a few days.
Although this part of the unit is normally reserved for Integrated
Voice participants only, we have a few spaces for advanced voice
practitioners to join us. This section of the Vocal Anatomy for
Voice Professionals unit is likely to sell out very fast as places
will be limited.
Book a place on Vocal Anatomy January 20-21 2008
Zone feature and conference at the SAGE centre
The Autumn 2007
edition of the excellent Zone Magazine contained a three-page
feature article on Vocal Process, the "innovative voice training
company".
The
article goes on to say "Vocal Process incorporates the latest
thoughts in the voice science world into their training, presented
in a clear and digestible way" and that Gillyanne is "passionate
about the free flow of information". Gillyanne is quoted as saying
"Our motto is 'Sharing Information, Promoting Expertise', and the
information we provide is clear, concrete and simple to implement.
We find that the more voice users understand their instrument, the
more effectively they communicate."
 Vocal
Process has a close relationship with Zone Magazine's online
presence, Zonemag.net,
a superb music education resource. This month the government
launched a new £332million investment in music education for
children and at the end of January, Zone is co-sponsoring the
MusicLearningLive! conference
at the SAGE Centre in Gateshead (31 January - 3 February 2008).
Howard Goodall,
the National Singing Ambassador, will be giving the keynote speech
and there will be more than 50 performances, workshops and
presentations.
You can find out
more about the conference by clicking on this
MusicLearningLive! conference
link. You can also check out the
Vocal Process presence on the Zonemag website.
The Downloads go global...
 The UK's first downloadable endoscopy video ebooks are now being
viewed in Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Czech republic, Italy,
Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Austria, Israel, Palestine, Crete,
Eire, South Africa, across the US and of course here in the UK.
Singers and teachers are fascinated by the
views of healthy working larynxes, and have downloaded the ebooks in
their hundreds.
"It's always great to actually SEE what's
happening rather than showing diagrams or offering descriptions"
David, singer-MD UK;
"The films were extremely clear in quality, and the use of
superimposed outlines to indicate parts of the larynx was very
useful to my students - otherwise I'd be stopping the film to
explain!" Katharine, Singing teacher, New Zealand;
"The demonstration of the open throat phonation followed by
phonation with a constricted throat was very striking" Rowan,
singer, Spain;
"I would like to let you know that all my 26 singing pupils have
now viewed your e-book. It has made significant impression on them"
Lizzie, teacher, UK
"The video ebooks with their instant availability are a useful
technological tool." Jane, Speech Pathologist, Australia
"I thought the information was very clearly presented and I wish
some of our ENT staff could get as clear a view" Heather, Specialist
SLT, UK
"I think it's a brilliant idea and I'm a great admirer of what
you and Gillyanne are doing for voice research" John, teacher, UK
"Superb job, and again an act of real generosity towards the
voice community" Jason, teacher, UK
 Following
the release of the sixth and final video ebook,
Working the Soft Palate, we've had a number of enquiries from universities and SLT
departments for a more department-friendly way of using the
Voicebox Videos. Work has
now begun on creating a DVD version
specifically for those who are unable to use the downloads. The six
video ebooks have been re-edited with new images, video footage and
re-recorded voiceovers. The videos will also be saved at a higher
specification. So if
your IT department is playing hard to get with online access, put your name down for a
copy on DVD and bypass them completely!
We are in the final stages of planning, and intend the DVD to work
on both Macs and PCs, and to be playable world-wide.
10% of the proceeds from the downloadable ebook sales already go to
the BVA and BAPAM, and we are going to extend this to the DVD sales
too. So click on the following link to put your name on the
Vocal Process
Voicebox Videos DVD interest list.
Your most burning question...
We're interested in the things that bug you the most. What worries
you, and what do you want to find out about?
They don't have to be things that keep you awake at night ("how
on earth am I going to get that pupil up to exam standard by
tomorrow?") but they can be the things that niggle ("what repertoire
is right for me and my voice now?" / "Am I belting safely?" /
"I can't find 'cry' - what am I supposed to be doing?").
Just drop Vocal Process an
email with
Your Most Burning Question and we'll do our best to
answer it in the next eZINE
And finally
Jeremy's four months with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra were packed
with 150 concerts, rehearsals, live interviews and even tea with the
mayor. But there was one moment that stands out from the rest. In
the penultimate week Jeremy arranged for the orchestra to play for
Prince Charles as part of his visit to the Rotunda Museum - the
oldest purpose-built museum in the country. We were delighted when
he took time out of his schedule to find out more about the
orchestra. And yes,
the jackets were my idea. They did get the royal seal of approval...
 Jeremy's blog
archive is still available for thoughts, comments and articles on
singing, performance, musical theatre and audition. Check it out by
clicking on the box!
http://www.singingcoach.blogspot.com
 
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