Music Lesson

Introduction

In this section, female voices are welcome to join if it's comfortable. This is more for the male voice, though. And I'm joined by the wonderful Jaz on vocals.

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Vocal Exercise

Sliding Exercise

• We're gonna be doing the same thing:
  A nice easy slide from the 1 to the 5, which is the same interval as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

• Don't forget to slide like a mini siren.

• The pattern is: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, but we're just gonna go with M.

• And again, we're joined by the wonderful Denise on piano.

Instructions

• Take it away: Your turn.
• Ready and going out. Wait for Jaz.
• Jaz first, and your turn: Three, Four!
• On E and E: Your turn, Three, Four, whatever sound you like.
• Jaz, so you're go. Ready for the next one? Great!

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Transitioning Between Sounds

So we're going to leave that one there for a second.

Jaz, can you just show me that one without the piano? So: Three and... Okay, that's fine. No, no, no, it's fine, there's no "oops."

Sometimes we have that little transition point between a thick fold sound and a thin fold sound, which we'll talk about later.

• Some people think of chest voice and head voice.
• You might think of that head voice, that thin fold sound, as falsetto.

But you can go to that lighter sound; whatever feels good for you. You've got a choice of V or V.

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Thin Fold Quality

So Jaz, why don't you try that one all in thin fold quality so we just hear what that sounds like? Ready? Three... and... great!

• So there, we're not even having to navigate that transition.
• You're just going to choose a different sound for it, just see how it feels.

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Call and Response

Let's pick it up from there. We'll take it away with Jaz again and then we'll do call and response.

• Ready? Two, three, and... good!
• Your turn: Three, Four.
• And your turn: Ready and good.
• Try this one: And... an.
• Your turn: Three, Four. Well done.

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Exploration and Comfort

What I want you to think about is to do whatever comes easily to you.

At this stage, you're just exploring, finding out how your voice works, and what it can do. So whatever comes naturally is fine.

It's just based on that little mini siren at the beginning and then finding your way through. As you get more confident and learn how to use your voice in different ways, you'll have a lot more options.

Air Control

However, one thing to be aware of is when you're doing your V sound:

• Do not let too much air spill through.
• It should not be a V; it's just a very easy V.
• Some of these sounds will come more naturally than others.
• If you find that's hard and you want to try a different sound, that's fine.

Also, for that Z sound:

• Again, you don't want too much air spill, so it's not like a Z, because that would make it really hard work.

At this stage, just go wherever your voice feels comfortable.

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Conclusion

We're just exploring what our voice does, learning how to warm up in different ways.

This exercise mixes the siren that we've practiced earlier with specific pitches. It's just to improve your ear, enhance your pitch accuracy, and explore your voice.

It should always feel easy, effortless, and comfortable.