As a voice instructor, I record every lesson so that my students can listen to what they're doing correctly, and hear what needs work.  I encourage them to record their practices at home from time to time to get the unbiased feedback of a recording as well.  Intonation tendencies, vowel enunciation and consonant usage all become much easier to evaluate when all one has to do is listen back.

The stage often gives insight into our greatest strengths, and it is truly gratifying to walk off, listen to your performance from a day ago, and hear that it sounded just as good (or better!) from what you remembered.  Likewise, the areas that need work can be found, and worked out in practice so that when you do head back to the stage, you're even better prepared than before.

There are tons of recording devices out there which work wonderfully well in clubs, cafe's and at home.  Some of the most notable ones would be made by Zoom and Edirol, but the market is getting wider with lower cost units.  Most can also be expanded if you have your own mic's.

No matter how you go about it though, recording your performances will help you grow quickly.  When two separate recordings of the same song sound drastically different, identify what changed from gig to gig.  Were the monitors really out of whack?  Bad dinner?  Drummer too loud or too soft?  Finding out the elements that give you your best performances and quantifying them gives you the control to create the best stage environment you can, or realize that you're working with what you've got and to trust your inner ear.  This is all a part of developing the consistency which generates great performances every time.

Best Wishes, thanks for reading!

Jeff Rolka....

....a musician, songwriter, and vocalist in the San Francisco Bay Area.  He teaches voice lessons privately downtown in SOMA, and can regularly be heard at clubs in the city.  You can also hear him online at www.jeffrolka.com www.myspace.com/jeffrolka or via his EPK at www.sonicbids.com/jeffrolka.  He is available for lessons, in studio consultations, vocal recording, and, of course, performances.

Generally, the best way to get at this is to remove the words initially, and check out the cadence and flow that your melody has.  Is it short and choppy or does it have a more connected feeling to it?  If you can't decide, perhaps give some thought to how you want to present it to your audience.  Once you've ascertained that, pick a vowel of your choosing, it could be the long ee sound or oh if you want something more open, and sing through your melody without any words, using only the syllables.  Make your phrases connected in between breaths, and look for natural cadence points where you can take your breath.  Basically, have a look under the hood, and see what is making your melody tick.

Often times, when vocalists have problems making phrases, or where the range of a song is becoming difficult, taking a close look at the melody can have a dramatic impact.  Allowing the vocalist to get a good breath before a challenging section, or connecting through two shorter phrases can have a great emotional impact when the words are returned to the music.  The end goal here is to highly communicate the emotional content of the song, whatever that may be.  Solidifying your approach to the melody not only increases the consistency of your performance, but it allows you the freedom to more fully engage with what you're singing.

I'll try to get a podcast of this concept together in the next week or so.  I recently moved the recording studio, so I have to get things all squared away before I can record again, but all in good time.

Thanks for reading!!

Jeff Rolka

But thousands of vocal teachers can't be wrong, and they're not, but what needs ...

We left off our discussion of studio mics with some high end examples. I'd like to now mention a few mics I've used in the past that are really affordable, but still offer some impressive results.

For starters, the AT 3000 series microphones continue to surprise me. These mics are designed for the home studio, and priced accordingly. For the money, they are really impressive. Take for example the AT 3035. I've used this mic for close and pulled back recording applications and marveled at the transparency of the sound. Put up against the ...

The first thing to remember is there are two fundamentally different styles of mic's we're discussing. Condenser and Dynamic mics. The ...

Singing is not just for the stage, and in this area, I'll wax philosophical on microphones for vocal work, techniques to use to get particular sounds in the studio, and various other ways to tweak out on gear and your ears!

I'm always happy to hear back, or answer questions as applicable, feel free to sign up, or send an email!

Jeff Rolka

My name is Jeff Rolka, and I'm a musician, songwriter, and instructor of voice in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I've studied voice since I was in college, and been teaching for over ten years.  It's my pleasure to bring my expertise to you, and help vocalists of all abilities realize their goals in using their voice.

On my page here, you'll find helpful tips, audio examples, and musings about the voice as an expressive tool.  I hope that you find them helpful, and if you do, feel free to let me know!

As I'm just getting started in this new domain of online information sharing, I'm keeping this short and sweet.  Come back soon, I'll post the first of several exercises to check out this week!

Enjoy!

Jeff Rolka