How to Read Music Notes and Practice Music Without Your Instrument

The foundation of our musical training is the practice time we spend with our chosen instrument. Musical study away from our instrument, however, develops our level of sophistication and understanding of the music we are playing. Many activities that we already participate in can be opportunities for developing our musical knowledge. We will explore some these activities, and how to integrate...

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How to Hum Your Way to Better Projection

It really pains me to see how people struggle with projection. If you sense your voice is weak or that it has no power behind it when you sing certain notes, you’ll need to take a quick step back to analyze how you sound. Take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror if you can while you’re at it. I’m going to point out the most common reasons why good projection eludes a lot of people, and...

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Are You Singing in One Straight Line?

Singing in one straight line is very typical of the untrained voice. To sound interesting when you sing, you’ll want to be able to work your voice around as many highs and lows within a note or a group of notes. Did that sound a bit like Chinese? I’ll explain. When a new student walks into my studio for an assessment, the first thing I do is ask them to sing so I could hear what they sound...

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