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Welcome to Vocal Process eZINE 33
In this edition we're giving advance notice of the courses in
January, there's information on the forthcoming Integrated VoiceTM
Module One, and Jeremy hobbles around the country with Hatstand
Opera. We're also adding a very special Christmas bonus (available
only to
eZINE readers), and Gillyanne chats to rock singer, teacher
and voice researcher Daniel Zangger Borch.
And finally,
Jeremy's blog includes an update on the new Vocal Process
MusicalStore, a new article on content versus context, and a cartoon
for cat lovers |
 
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Heads
up!
This is literally a heads-up for the two anatomy and physiology
courses coming up in January.
So many of you wanted to be with us last year but felt that you
didn't have enough time to make your travel and timetable
arrangements. So here's almost two months notice.
 Both
of these courses together form the Anatomy and Physiology for Voice
Professionals unit - the first unit of Integrated VoiceTM
Module One. We're inviting you to join our Module One participants -
you can either book on Muscles Alive alone, on the Anatomy and
Physiology in Depth alone, or on all three days.
 Muscles
Alive!
returns with Jacob Lieberman on January 24 2009. This excellent
one-day course looks at the connection between the moving parts of
the body, and how to identify potential problems. Jacob has worked
with singers for many years, and is brilliant at debunking the
posture myths associated with singing.
 Anatomy
and Physiology in Depth
has Tom and Sara Harris returning to Vocal Process on January 25 and
26 2009 to help you discover how the entire vocal apparatus fits
together. Breath, vocal folds, resonance, articulation and the
various vocal mechanisms are presented in detail - if you want to
know more about your vocal instrument and how it works, book your
place on this course.
We recommend that you read the specialist Vocal Anatomy For Voice
Professionals letter we've prepared - it has many more details, and
the links to book on the course.
You can read the
details of the courses by clicking here.
We hope to see you there!
Integrated VoiceTM
Module One
Integrated VoiceTM Module One - Fundamentals of Vocal Integration -
will begin again in January 2009. The training comprises five units,
covering the topics we believe every 21st century singing and voice
teacher should be aware of:
Vocal Anatomy for Voice Professionals will run in January with three
highly experienced trainers - Jacob Lieberman, Tom and Sara Harris -
and sets the scene for the multi-disciplinary approach that embodies
Vocal Process training. In addition to the practical courses
described above, the
unit includes assignments and assessments to help your understanding
of how the vocal mechanism works, and the relationship between what
moves (the structures) and what emerges (the sound).
Computer Voice Training helps you polish your own voice use in a
highly practical way - are you really doing what you think you are
doing? The follow-up session includes individually tailored
exercises from Jeremy with targets for personal practice.
Practical Phonetics is an introduction to the use of phonetics, to
support your personal and teaching practice, and to provide a
framework for accent and dialect analysis (ideal if you need to sing
in Standard American, RP or Cockney).
The Developing Voice is one of the key courses for the contemporary
trainer, dealing with young voices and the vocal problems that arise
from poor voice use during the years of voice change. Jenevora
covers the physical and vocal development from birth to adulthood,
and the course includes exercises for identifying the five stages of
change in adolescent boys. The follow-up session includes practical
assessments of developing voices.
With One Voice brings together the teaching styles and
knowledge-base of two different disciplines - the singing teacher
and the (spoken) voice trainer. David Carey and Gillyanne share
their knowledge of working with singers who act and actors who sing,
and identify the exercises and terminology that work for both
singing and speaking voice.
The Module also includes mentoring sessions with Gillyanne and
Jeremy to explore, embed and expand the information in the training
courses. We are also on hand by phone or email to give support
throughout the programme.
Module One begins on January 23 2009. If you have completed Singing
and the Actor Training or Core Training with Vocal Process, and
would like to deepen your knowledge of vocal function and increase
your personal skills, please give Gillyanne a call on 020 8291 1758.
We're
filling up!
 Despite
the recession, we've been inundated with clients from Sweden,
Belgium, Spain and the UK arriving for coaching, training and
audition work.
In December we're
doing our annual retreat to Norfolk. Gillyanne will be focussing on
her PhD work, and Jeremy will be building more Vocal Process
resources. This means that we really do only have a few hours
available for coaching until the end of the year.
We've had a number of
people wanting audition coaching from Jeremy, or technique clarification
sessions from Gillyanne, so if you do want to book a private
session, BOOK NOW, don't leave it too late!
Be sure to
email Tawny or call the office now to find out when we are
available.
Hopalong Opera
 This
autumn, Jeremy has been performing all over the country
with Hatstand Opera. A
typical week might look like this:
Thursday: Hammersmith, London, doing a ‘Well Wicked Opera’ workshop
to an entire school of girls in fancy dress (aged 3-11)
Friday: Stratford Upon Avon, performing at a Shakespeare gala dinner
(‘120 Lovers And Counting...’) for the Stratford Upon Avon Music
Festival
Saturday: Cornwall, presenting ‘Golden Moments from Opera’ in the
seaside town of Portscatho.
Oh, and the residents of Barmouth in West Wales before that, and
across the country to the Suffolk town of Halesworth the following
week.
And believe it or not, we did shows as far north as Newcastle and
Alnwick the week before that. And the weekend after we were in the
beautiful Frank Matcham Gaiety Theatre in Douglas on the Isle of
Man. It's a wild timetable but it makes a pretty pin-and-thread
design on the map...
That must count as a
mileage record, does anyone have anything to beat that?
PS The travelling
and the shows were made all the more fun by the fact that Jeremy was
on crutches for three weeks, having snapped a tendon in his knee.
It's fine now, but getting the plane back from Glasgow was an adventure!
A problem for us, an early Christmas bonus for you...
  We recently opened new boxes of
Singing and the Actor Audio Guides and Voicebox Videos DVDs and discovered that the contents
had been slightly damaged in transit.
We only have
a few that have injured boxes or wrappers, but we've come up with an early Christmas bonus - a special
price for each disc that is only available to you as an eZINE
reader.
These are links
from Vocal Process eZINE 33 only, and once they're gone, they're
gone! So it really is first come, first served.
Get a copy of the Singing and the Actor Audio Guide for
£13.99 £9.79, that's 30% off.
Get a copy of the Voicebox Videos DVD for
£47.00 £32.90. That's also 30% off.
(And remember, if
you have any work colleagues that would like to get copies of the
DVD or Audio Guide, they need to go to the homepage to register on
the bouncing box first!).
And just to let you know, the
Singing and the Actor book (2nd edition) is now
back in stock - it was touch and
go, but we have copies in the office now, so you can order those for
Christmas too (well, you might know a voice nerd who would like
one...)
Rock, Soul and PopIdol with Daniel Zangger Borch
 Earlier
this month, Gillyanne interviewed rock singer, teacher and
researcher Daniel Zangger Borch. Daniel talks about working as a
vocal teacher in the Pop/Rock/Soul world, the business of vocal
registers, working on PopIdol, and his discoveries as a voice
researcher.
The complete
interview is on the website, but here is a taster for you to
enjoy.
Your Top Tip
Gillyanne: So Daniel, do you have a top tip for your rock pop
and soul musicians.
Daniel: Yeah, to warm up and to cool down. That is one I think.
Another one is to use your pauses to rest your voice.
Gillyanne: Yes, I read that in the book.
Daniel: In recording sessions and live. Don’t sit around with all
the guys all the time talking. Just go into the toilet or read or
take a walk, if you have one hour for lunch or something. So that
you rest your voice in between. And then I would say focus on
rhythmic stuff too.
Gillyanne: You’re very strong on rhythm, I remember.
Daniel: That’s because no-one does that I think. Not singers and not
teachers, they don’t talk about the rhythmic part. And all the
really great singers of this world are good at that. Stevie Wonder,
Michael Jackson, they know exactly where the rhythm is. And that
gives you also … you and your audience, that this person is a very
musical person. It feels like there’s a total musical talent, not
just a tone or a voice.
Gillyanne: Yes, it was something again that I thought about after
working with you in Sweden. It was the idea that in fact some of
your rhythm exercises, like the ghosting which has a strong rhythmic
impact, requires a lot of vocal dexterity.
Daniel: What’s that?
Gillyanne: Dexterity is a lot of expertise, skill, fine control.
Daniel: OK, yes.
Gillyanne: In a way that you might not expect to learn as a
vocalist. It needed a lot of practice, actually
Daniel: I know, And for the classically trained singer it’s nothing
that they’re used to either. I know when I practised just
sightreading rhythm with a classical teacher a long time ago he was
so stunned that the pop musician has a beat that is so technically
correct, you know, we’re on time. But we’re used to drum
machines in exact bmp [beats per minute] style, so this is in us
from the start. So if you’re trained more fluently, to have tempo
more moving, with the classical music sometimes it’s more like the
unit who decides together…
Gillyanne: Yes
Daniel: Ok, are we now doing an accelerando together? Oh, yes we
are. Now we’ll move from 102 to 104 on the next beat. It’s that type
of rhythmic world. But for us we’re used to keeping it all steady.
So to be able to move in and out of that beat is what makes you even
greater after you manage to keep the beat.
Gillyanne: Yes, I think that’s very interesting and an important
aspect of pop, Because when you listen to popular music, so much of
it is about rhythm, and yet showing people how to perform that
rhythm… I know you’ve had a background as a drummer. Did you train
originally as a drummer?
Daniel: Yes, I started when I was nine as a drummer, but not for
that long. The thing was, then I started to play the guitar and then
I started to sing my songs and writing songs, that’s my background.
But I’ve always been interested in the rhythmic part of music, riffs
and so on. And I played electric bass, and that’s only because I had
the beat from the drums when I started, and I had the ability with
my fingers from the guitar playing. So then bass is perfect. But of
course, you have to be interested in this to be able to… that’s for
everything we do. All the questions and everything we do, some day
it comes from us, and the more we want to work on it, the more it is
from us.
 Gillyanne: This is true. Now, the warm-ups and cooldowns and the
other advice you have for your rock and pop musicians, that’s all in
the book isn’t it? [Ultimate Vocal Voyage].
Daniel: Yes it is
Gillyanne: And it has a CD that goes with it.
Daniel: Yes
Gillyanne: I have it here in English, and I know it’s published in
Swedish. What other languages is it published in?
Daniel:
No others for now, but I know we have some questions from Spain and
from Germany. And it’s released in the States and it’s released in
Australia and the UK. It takes a long time for this to get a
platform to work on. It’s doing pretty well I think, compared to
others – I don’t know anything about what it sells, but I know that
my publisher is satisfied, and that’s the best, because then I can
do one more maybe!
Gillyanne: Exactly. So where’s the best place to get the book?
Daniel: I would say Amazon.
In fact,
you can get a copy of Daniel's book, The Ultimate Vocal Voyage, from
the
Vocal Process MusicalStore, powered by Amazon. Daniel's book is
number one in the Recommended Reading section this month.
Click here to
read the rest of Daniel's interview with Gillyanne
Have you sent yours yet?
If you're looking for bespoke Christmas cards,
we can heartily recommend one website in the UK. We've already used
the excellent Moonpig site to create a bespoke Christmas card, and
we'll be going back for more. Moonpig has been around since 2000,
and lets you create your own personalised card from thousands of
originals. It'll even post it for you. Just click on this www.moonpig.com
 link for more ideas that you
can shake a snowy branch at.
And finally
 Jeremy's
blog contains more
news on the new Audition Essentials section of the Vocal Process MusicalStore, a fascinating article on
a social experiment with Joshua Bell and a $3.5m Stradivarius, and a
brilliant cartoon short from Simonscat for all you cat lovers out
there
Click on the box
to find out more.
http://www.singingcoach.blogspot.com
 
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