The New Year is a great time to plan ahead. If you are thinking of doing some training this year, now is the time to book. Below is a full list of courses coming up over the next few months. Clicking on each title in the list just below this paragraph will take you to a link to the online booking page, or an email to Gunvor for more information.

We have also added a small paragraph of description for each course, and information links that will take you to the more extended descriptions in our online course catalogue.
 

Computer Voice Training January 20 in London

Belting Explained on February 10 at RADA

Successful Singing Auditions on March 3 at RADA

The Developing Voice on March 17 at RADA

Vocal Process Top Techniques on March 24 at SAGE Gateshead

Singing and the Actor Training on April 20-22 at Angus College, Arbroath

With One Voice on April 28 at RADA

Advanced Singing and the Actor Training on May 12-13 in London

Singing and the Actor Training on July 13-15 in London
 

Computer Voice Training has proved extremely popular this year, and is already full with a waiting list. Jeremy is planning another run of the computer day on a weekday in February, so if you want to join the group, please email Gunvor as soon as possible.

 

Belting Explained on February 10th is booking extremely well. This is an exciting and energising course and is a must for any singer or teacher working in Musical Theatre or Contemporary Commercial Music ('CCM'). Belting is a feature of this eZINE, so check out the report and the Your Questions Answered sections, then grab your place before it's too late!

Successful Singing Auditions is running at RADA on Saturday March 3rd. If you've read the book, come and work with us 'live'. We use all the information in the book (and some new exercises) in our private studios, and our clients have a high recall rate in auditions. Past participants on this course have gone on to get roles in the West End, places at Drama College and a veritable plethora of agents (one participant had five interested in him). To book one of only 12 places, send your audition tape to us. For those training performers in Musical Theatre, Opera or 'CCM', be sure to book a place as an observer.

The Developing Voice takes place on Saturday 17th March at RADA. Our guest tutor Jenevora Williams will be demonstrating usable and friendly techniques for working with adolescent and pre-adolescent voices. Jenevora is doing doctoral research at the Institute of Education on the vocal health and development of boy choristers. If you have any working contact with teenage actors or singers, this is unmissable.

Vocal Process Top Techniques Vocal Process is on the road once more, with a special version of this course taking place at the prestigious SAGE Gateshead on 24th March. If you have always wanted to work with us and live in the north of England, this course is an excellent introduction to our techniques and style. Contact Gunvor for more details.

Singing and the Actor Training For the first Singing and the Actor course outside London, head for Angus College in Arbroath on 20-22 April. Angus College is Scotland's most prominent community college with a mission to provide "high quality education and training opportunities which are accessible, beneficial, relevant and innovative." The Singing and the Actor Training course is packed with information, techniques and training on vocal styles and sounds based on Gillyanne's groundbreaking book. Jeremy and Gillyanne will be teaching the course together, so contact Gunvor for more details.

With One Voice is back at RADA on 28th April. Explore your personal voice use with guest tutor David Carey and find out about common problems in spoken voice. Gillyanne will guide you through some key aspects of singing voice pedagogy and there will be time for discussion on integrating spoken and sung voice. Book now by clicking here.
 

Advanced Singing and the Actor Training The first Advanced course will take place on the weekend of 12-13 May in London. It includes working with more advanced vocal sets, consonant and breath management in complex vocal tasks, and identifying targets in vocal and performance practice. This course is open only to those who have completed the Singing and the Actor Training, or the equivalent courses Core Training and Voice Styles Intensive. Contact Gunvor for more details.

Singing and the Actor Training The next London Singing and the Actor Training will take place on 13-15 July. If you are considering applying for the Integrated Voice^TM training programme and have not yet attended a Singing and the Actor Training course, book this course without delay!
 

Course report: Teaching Belt for singing teachers

Gillyanne writes: Liz Hewett, of Arts Educational Schools Tring asked me to do a training day on ‘Teaching Belt’ for her team of singing teachers. Pupils in their final two years at Tring are preparing for the profession or for further vocational training, so this was an important topic for both the performance staff and the teachers working on vocal technique in one-to-one singing lessons. The course route that I created for the group enabled them to understand the concept of belting, learn some techniques that can be used to teach belting and to have a direct experience of making the sound themselves. Three teachers gamely got up in front of their colleagues so that I could demonstrate application of the techniques. During the final part of the day we discussed does and don’ts and how techniques appropriate for belting might be safely included in the school curriculum.

If you would like to address the topic of safe belting or other musical theatre techniques in your organisation, please contact us for availability.

As you can see from the previous article, Belting is very much on our minds at the moment. Our YQA section of the website is still receiving interesting and complex questions. Here is one from a young Musical Theatre singer on three very different aspects of Belting:

"I am a 20-year old male, and I have a bari-tenor voice type with a very deep, very fast vibrato. I enter my belt around a G, and can carry that up to an F above high C seamlessly in a strong "head" voice. My belt voice is very bright and very sharp, which is ideal for singing dramatic numbers with sustained "money" notes higher in the ranger. 

1) I enter my belt voice at around a G; however, that particular note (as well as G#) are my hardest notes to achieve. My belt is weakest there because it is so near my passaggio... everything above and below sounds fine. Is there anything you can suggest to help me become more comfortable with those notes?

2) Sometimes I find it very difficult to make vibrato with my belt voice quality. I know that vibrato is a naturally-occurring phenomenon, but I at least have SOME control over it when it is in my normal range. How can I control my vibrato in my belt voice? I assume that it is probably due to that fact that I am used to applying breath-controlled vibrato in my normal range whereas there is very little breath in my belt voice. Still, I haven't figured out how to achieve vibrato any other way. Help?

3) I have trouble singing quickly-moving or lyric passages that lie in my belt range. Any suggestions?

For a comprehensive answer from Gillyanne and Jeremy, click here to visit the YQA section of the website.

If you have any questions on vocal or performance solutions, or lesson plans, email us at yqa@vocalprocess.co.uk
 

Article: Successful Singing Auditions

Our forthcoming Successful Singing Auditions course is based on our comprehensive book Successful Singing Auditions, which was published in 2002. Below is an excerpt from the book, abridged from the opening chapter, which may whet your appetite for direct input on your own auditioning skills.

The Audition Arena

Auditioning is a tricky business and one of the hardest things an actor has to do. Everyone has to go through it, and some, it seems, survive better than others. Remember the famous scene in the film Tootsie where Dustin Hoffman says - 'I can do taller'? This book is about doing better auditions and surviving the experience. It will enable you to regard auditioning as a process, not an end gain, and to accept it as part of your life as an actor. In addition, a singing audition has its own unique features that are sometimes missed by those who attempt it. Our aim is to reveal these features and show you how to use them to your advantage. Will this guarantee you success as an actor? Of course not, but you will be more likely to get through that vital first round because you will be better prepared and understand the standard that is expected. You will also begin to enjoy your auditions and to use them creatively.

So an audition is a kind of performance. What makes it different from any other kind of performance?

1. The audience hasn't paid and they won't applaud. Often they will give you no feedback of any kind/

2. The house lights are up; the audience is visible and apparently uninterested, perhaps talking.

3. There is no set, you are not in costume, you have no props and there are no other actors on stage.

4. You enter the arena as yourself and must change from self to character onstage, in full view, and back again when you have finished the piece.

In addition at a singing audition:

5. There is music and you have to sing. Generally we do not burst into song in conversational speech or when reporting events or in moments of heightened emotion. Songs serve many functions when used in a theatrical context, enabling the audience to experience the action on other levels. Spontaneous singing does have a place in our lives but the audition isn't one of those places. If you are not sure what we mean, just think about the difference between singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' at a football match and singing it at an audition.

6. There is a pianist. You do not know if this person is a friend or foe, and you have to create a performance with them without rehearsal or even a prior meeting.

7. There is a piano or keyboard. Perhaps the pianist is good but the piano is awful and out of tune; perhaps it is the other way around and the pianist cannot play your music. (Note that most auditions do not allow backing tracks; the panel wants to see a live performance.)

You will realise by now that we have used the word arena for a specific purpose, because auditioning really can feel like being thrown to the lions if you are unprepared for the experience. However, when you have understood the process and your part in it, auditioning will become yet another performing arena - it is just a special type of performance.

Measuring your success

A successful audition is not only about signing the contract at the end of the process. That is a bonus. What are the hallmarks of a successful audition?

• You leave the arena knowing that you have shown something of yourself, both in and out of character.

• You are satisfied that you have given a good account of yourself.

• You did justice to the material that you took to the audition.

• The tools of your trade - your voice and your body - were fit to present your performance.

• You interacted well with the pianist (either you worked together or you led him to the performance you wanted).

• You interacted appropriately with the panel as yourself.

• You were not thrown by unusual happenings.

• You did the best you could under the circumstances you found yourself in; no-one can do more.

You do not need feedback from anyone else to know these things.

We could summarise the content of this chapter in two points:

1. When going to any audition, be sure of what it is that you have to offer before you go.

2. If you are doing the audition to get feedback about yourself, your skills or your professional level, don't go because you will not get it!
    

The above excerpt was reproduced by kind permission of the authors and their publishers A&C Black

The next Successful Singing Auditions day course is at RADA in London on Saturday 3 March. Send us an audition tape now to secure your place on the course, or get an auditioner's perspective by joining us as an observer.

Jeremy's blog this month contains a report on the New Year's Day Concert, his first full concert with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra for more than 18 years.
http://www.singingcoach.blogspot.com