Description:
Finding a choir to sing in is a great place to start if you are eager to get more performance experience under your belt. Singing with others helps to take some of the pressure and focus off you individually. Also having comradery with fellow singers can help you boost your confidence and comfort while performing in general.
Exercise 1: Breath Control and Sustain
Let's work on some fundamental skills that help us sing choral music better. The first important skill is having strong breath control. This will allow you to sing longer, more even phrases that are common in choral music. The best way to work on long breaths is to practice a proper inhalation, releasing the belly and back while breathing in and a long and even exhale. First try squeezing out all of your air. Then just let your belly and back expand to pull in air. There is no need to pull in air with your throat muscles
Exercise 2: Huh ee, Uh aye, Uh Oh, Uh Oh, oo (123, 234, 345, 4321)
The next important skill is our ability to blend well with others. This has mostly to do with our vowel shape. Let’s combine the feeling of exercise 1 and 2 together with a gentle Hah slowly morphing to Aye and then Oh on a 1,2,3,2,1 pattern. Each note is about 4 beats long!
Exercise 3: Scale and pitch work
Exercise 3: Scale and pitch work
There are other important concerts in singing choral music, but the final important skill I’m going to discuss for today is how important it is to use your ears while singing in a choir. Let's review our major scale with a bungee scale exercise
Awesome work! I’ll see you tomorrow where I’ll discuss singing in an Opera or Musical.
Audio:
Lessons:
- 1: Welcome
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2:
Song Choice
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3:
Releasing Physical Stress
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4:
Performance Anxiety
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5:
Expression in Song
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6:
Casual vs. Formal
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7:
Auditions
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8:
Choir
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9:
Opera & Musical Theater
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10:
Band & Contemporary
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11:
Recording, Social media and Posting
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12:
Practice
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13:
Dress Rehearsal
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14:
Performance Day
Instructor: Abram Poliakoff
Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.