THIS IS NOT THE MASSAGE YOU GET AT THE NAILS PLACE

Hey Guys!  So I never plug anything… and I am a very frugal person as many will tell you.  I probably single-handedly put Colony out of business… I have regrets… I'm going to Hell…. I know.  I'm sorry.  But this is something I just tried for the first time and am going to recommend to you.

I tried a massage at Lifelight Massage yesterday and it was incredible.  I feel 100% better overall and I can even see a difference vocally.  I've been having an anxious couple of months and not only did she get rid of the knots that I thought were going to be permanent facets of my body because of how awful they felt and how persistent they were, but I kid you not, I stopped having stress-related sugar cravings and I slept better than I had in weeks last night.  And then when I went to sing, it felt like someone sprayed some WD-40 in my jaw, my neck feels great, my vibrato was faster, and riffing was smoother than ever! This is crazy!

Also, Christine showed me that an injury I had due to an accident I had as a kid (18 yrs ago!) that I hadn't really considered relevant anymore is actually something I still need to rehabilitate a little.  She found it without my even mentioning it… and I really can't believe how much tension I'd been holding in that spot that I was unaware of until she released it for me.

AND…the detail that really matters most…. more than 24 hours later I still feel awesome.

Again, I don't plug things… it's very rare… but I'm telling you if you're in NYC  this is worth the money and it's something that will improve your quality of life.  I plan to make this a part of my life now because I saw how beneficial it can be to my system.  And then after you go in person, take advantage of the fact that Lifelight is putting out a self-care series on YouTube very soon.  You can see what it's supposed to feel like when she does it for you and then you can do at-home maintenance, too.  Treat yourself.  Ask for a massage for Christmas.  Do what you gotta do.  Just try it.

Read about massages specifically for vocalists here.

CHICKS WHO MIX: HOW TO ROCK LIKE THE HARDCORE GIRL GIRLS

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80'S BWAY, I LOVE YOU

Listen to these girls!!!! They're pioneers of the Mixie Chick Movement!

THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE

If you've ever taken a lesson with me (or been my therapist) you know that I talk in metaphors... a lot.  For everything I try to explain, for some reason I feel the need to come up with a correlating analogy. Maybe it's because I like working with kids but I assume that for every idea I have, I need to have a corresponding children's book to drive my point home.  So I would like to present to you the simplest way of thinking about why being squeaky on your top notes is the way to go.

Think of your Vocal Tract as a Garden Hose:

Think of Sound as the Water:

Think of your Audience as the Flowers:      

Today you have to water the flowers but the hose doesn't reach and there is no spray nozzle:

If you're not allowed to touch this....:

What Can You Do? 

Mission Accomplished.  Your flowers have been watered and your audience has sufficiently been deafened. 

Now, you increased your efficiency because you were able to reach a further target, but you did not increase power.  How is that? 

You decreased space.  By putting your thumb over the hose, you decreased the amount of space the water had to get out, therefore increasing speed and intensity (frequency) of the water.  If we need to water our flowers (let our audience hear us) on a daily basis but we don't want to muscle it, how can WE decrease space?  Luckily for us, we have many "thumbs" that comprise our vocal tract and determine how much space we allow our sound to move through!  We can raise our tongues, we can spread our lips, we can lower our soft palates, and we have the ability to raise our larynges (so fancy!) as we please!  As long as we're not doing this, right? 
















As long as we're maintaining retracted false vocal folds (not squeezing or pushing), with the right combo of thumbs we can easily reach our audiences without dialing up the power through a performance.  We are increasing our own efficiency by increasing the frequency at which our sound is moving out of our bodies, and the "service you are providing" to your audience is comparable but much easier on you.Why kill ourselves trying to make the hose reach when we can put our thumbs over it?   The flowers will never know :)

TAKE A LESSON FROM THE EXPERT OF SNEAKY SQUEAKAGE, 12 YR OLD LUKE!

This week we talked about "headvoice" and "chestvoice" and the doors that mixing opens up when singing songs that cover a wide range of notes... This is a follow-up post, so if you haven't seen it already, check this post out:  BEING SNEAKY ABOUT THE SQUEAKY: DO WE REALLY NEED LABELS?

Introducing... Luke! This is the student whose lessons inspired the phrase, "Be Sneaky About the Squeaky" over a year ago! The first time he ever came to me, he was just a little boy (He grew like... 10 feet this year.) and used to have to be sneaky about the squeaky just to extend his range in general for his old favorite songs like "I Won't Grow Up," "There is a Santa Claus," and "Electricity." Now he's almost a teenager so we can't work on his little boy songs anymore... BUT he's also got a couple more years before he starts going for leading man roles! So now the squeaky that we have to be sneaky about is just accessing his old little kid voice (even though it doesn't come naturally to him anymore) so that he can reach some higher notes in his adult songs just like the rest of us! I mean, could there be a better of example of somebody who could be worrying about whether he's in headvoice or chestvoice? He's got it down to a science.

Listen and see if YOU can find all the different voices he's purposely choosing at any given moment. There are 4 of them! If you weren't listening for them, would you guess he's switching in and out of his little kid voice and his newer grownup voice?   It sounds pretty seamless to me! This song could potentially have been a Peter- Brady-does-Bruno-Mars but Luke was open to weaving in and out of a couple of different voices and does it like a BOSS!  So take a lesson from 12 yr old Luke.
Also, he gets major extra credit for the vibrato placement a la pop music and not musical theater... AND for all of the glottal onsets! Evidence that this guy only PRETENDS not to pay attention to what I'm saying :)