Why is it important to exercise your high voice? When a runner is preparing to run a one mile race, that runner will train by regularly running further, perhaps even 5 miles or more. Why? To build stamina so that one mile will feel “effortless”. The voice needs to be exercised in the same way. … [Continue Reading]
09 Accessing Your High Voice
Most private voice students and many people who participate in my Effortless Singing workshops believe they have limited vocal ranges. Most will say, “I can’t sing high,” or “I don’t like to sing high,” or “I don’t like my high voice,” or “my voice sounds squeaky up high.” My experience is that most people can learn… [Continue Reading]
08 BEST – Brenda’s Effortless Singing Techniques – for Healthy Vocal Maintenance
Most importantly, make sure you are consistently getting a proper belly breath – it will help you stay relaxed, build vocal stamina, be able to project safely and avoid injury in general Sing with good posture whether sitting or standing – it will help stay relaxed, keep you from over-compensating and hurting your muscles, and… [Continue Reading]
07 Reasons your Voice Fluctuates Day to Day
You’ve heard the comment, “I’m not in good voice today.” What does that mean? It could mean his/her: 1) tone is not clear; 2) range is limited; 3) air is not flowing; 4) pitch is not accurate, etc. The voice is affected by the day-to-day things we encounter and experience in life. Here is a… [Continue Reading]
06 Justification for Vocal Exercises
I recently taught 3 Effortless Singing Voice Workshops at the 2015 Folk Alliance International Winter Music Camp. One comment I received on my email list sign up/evaluation sheet was: “Many people have made me do vocalizing exercises before, but they never felt like they were doing me good. Today I could really feel the difference. … [Continue Reading]
05 Brenda’s Effortless Singing Techniques (“BEST”)
Brenda’s Effortless Singing Techniques (“BEST”) can seem like it is a lot to remember. However, when I break it down, it’s really four main points: P-BOP Posture Belly Breath Open the mouth Pucker the lips For photos of each go to www.EffortlessMusicInstruction.com , click on EMI Products and scroll down and click Effortless Singing Photos,… [Continue Reading]
04 Preventing or Alleviating Regret
I can’t regret what never occurred to me. For example, I hear of all these young people getting in their van or car and driving around touring playing music. That idea did not come into my realm of choices until I was almost 35. It just didn’t. I was on a more ‘traditional’ path. High… [Continue Reading]
03 Making Lemonade
I guess sometimes we just have to live through stuff and do our best to make lemonade out of lemons. As my ex-husband always said, “the path you’re on is not always the path you’re on.” I wanted to be a singer. I must have really wanted it because the universe threw lots of obstacles… [Continue Reading]
02 Acquire the Skills
As my first blog post emphasized, if you want to learn to sing or play a musical instrument, do it! Here is why. I’ve always said, “freedom is having choices in life.” The more skills I have, the more choices I have, thus, the more free I am. The more free I am, the happier… [Continue Reading]
01 DO IT!
I never aspired to be a music teacher; private or otherwise. I wanted to be a performer; a singer. I studied piano and learned a lot but I was not learning how to accompany myself. So, at age 12 Santa gave me my first guitar and I taught myself to play. Fast forward to 1975… [Continue Reading]