A Guide to…
‘HACK YOUR VOICE’
By CeCe Sammy Lightfoot
This Lesson is for VOCAL ATHLETES (or aspiring athletes!)
Case study featuring pop band “HERE AT LAST”
WHY did I choose this exercise for them?
My Advice for Vocal Athletes
Top Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwcIC9rkWSA
This Lesson is for VOCAL ATHLETES (or aspiring athletes!)
Like an athlete, a top-class singer is trying to get the best out of their body. This requires discipline, focus and training. If you want to take your voice to its highest level of performance, this lesson is for you.
Athletes abide by a sleeping pattern, healthy eating schedules, and intense training. More so than ever, singers, musicians, song-writers and lyricists, need this type of discipline if they want to distinguish themselves from the masses of people who aspire but will never be able to carve out a professional career in music.
In this lesson, we cover the most important requirements when on tour and for live performance gigs. These are exercises and tips that will help anyone trying to develop their vocal performance.
Vocal Warm up exercises
Vocal Technique
Vocal Performance for live gigs
Case study featuring pop band “HERE AT LAST”
HERE AT LAST are a fabulously talented up and coming boy band on the cusp of lighting up the UK’s music scene. They already have a great following and are very accomplished singers, with a terrific natural tone and excellent control. With many live gigs coming up, their voices will come under considerable strain, and they are naturally concerned to ensure that they are able to maintain the strength and quality of their performance day after day and night after night. My session with them will be interesting for those who want to understand the vocal exercises that professional singers need to undertake in order to protect and hone their voices. These exercises are also of broader application and will be useful for anyone who wants to train and protect their voice, whatever the genre of music.
My Vocal Assessment of the boy band “Here At Last” is that they are very close and like learning together as a group. This means that I will need to use vocal exercises that work for all of them, help bring them together as a team and help all of them to see improvements at once.
I showed them a vocal exercise from a technique called “Speech Level Singing” devised by an experienced coach called Seth Riggs. The aim of these exercises is to highlight consonants on silly simple words such as Goo, Gee, Nah, which can be learnt below in Hack 1.
My Vocal Assessment of the boy band “Here At Last” is that they are very close and like learning together as a group. This means that I will need to use vocal exercises that work for all of them, help bring them together as a team and help all of them to see improvements at once.
I showed them a vocal exercise from a technique called “Speech Level Singing” devised by an experienced coach called Seth Riggs. The aim of these exercises is to highlight consonants on silly simple words such as Goo, Gee, Nah, which can be learnt below in Hack 1.
WHY did I choose this exercise for them?
As I said, this fitted for them as a group.
There are many different types of vocal warm up exercises and techniques that are also good, for example Estill Vocal Training, Complete Vocal Technique as well as Alexander Technique ,which are all techniques that I have studied.
Many people only learn one or two techniques and ignore other methods. However, my philosophy through years of being in the Music, TV and Film business with different genres and different personalities, is that I must do a VOCAL assessment. I can then work out what techniques to use.
Songwriters, lyricists and musicians have often told me that they feel doing these exercises is akin to meditation. The exercises take them to a familiar place where they can focus without worry on the simple basics of their voice, allowing them to prepare for performance without getting overly nervous. They can go back to the same processes that work for them time after time.
The Alexander Technique is a vocal technique mainly for actors that reminds people that your voice is part of your body so you must align your voice with your body. I used a little bit of this technique when I decided to have the band jog on the spot whilst they did the exercises at the same time.
There are many well-known people who have to rush from one meeting or performance to another as well as travelling from city to city and country to country. If stamina is not built in their bodies and mind, they may have problems on certain days where they lose their voices. I made the band control their voices whilst placing their bodies under stress to help build stamina and consistency.
Always remember, your voice goes through “seasons of singing” and our voice is continually evolving which is why all of the techniques are important. Different things may be required at different times in our lives.
What works for someone else, will not work necessarily work for you, which is why a vocal assessment is always useful.
My Advice for Vocal Athletes
The journey and development of a pop singer is something which is not discussed or explored enough. It is usually something that the singer is left to learn by themselves through trial and error.
If more time was taken to explore the fundamentals of the development of a pop singer, perhaps we as artists and we as an industry would have more longevity, trust and staying power.
There are basic principles involved in the successful professional development of an artist in the world of music and entertainment:
1. The mindset of an artist
2. The fame game vs the hard work
3. Artist identity and brand
1. The mindset of an artist
The mindset of an artist is of extreme importance. This may seem like an obvious statement, but it really is crucial to your development and success. Nothing and no one really prepares a performing artist for the mental and emotional turmoil they will actually undergo. You need to be mentally strong and resilient.
How often have you heard an artist talk about the fear of failure, the fear of rejection or even the fear of success. My guess is never or hardly ever. This is because most people like myself go through the process all alone and worry that if they talk about some of these things, then it somehow diminishes them as people. But the truth remains, you are not alone as we have all been through this at some point.
Every artist no matter what we say, at some point has faced a common emotion: FEAR and the need for APPROVAL.
The need and desire for approval is something that exists in all of us. We need to continually remind ourselves that our sense of worth and security CANNOT lie in the approval of others.
We do what we do because we are passionate about blessing others with the gift we have been blessed with.
Rejection along the way is inevitable and the sooner we realise that this is part of the journey, the easier it is to cope and move on. This way, when we receive applause we can celebrate it. And when we receive silence, we remain passionate about and committed to our calling.
2. The fame game vs the hard work
The mindset of an artist is of extreme importance. This may seem like an obvious statement, but it really is crucial to your development and success. Nothing and no one really prepares a performing artist for the mental and emotional turmoil they will actually undergo. You need to be mentally strong and resilient.
How often have you heard an artist talk about the fear of failure, the fear of rejection or even the fear of success. My guess is never or hardly ever. This is because most people like myself go through the process all alone and worry that if they talk about some of these things, then it somehow diminishes them as people. But the truth remains, you are not alone as we have all been through this at some point.
Every artist no matter what we say, at some point has faced a common emotion: FEAR and the need for APPROVAL.
The need and desire for approval is something that exists in all of us. We need to continually remind ourselves that our sense of worth and security CANNOT lie in the approval of others.
We do what we do because we are passionate about blessing others with the gift we have been blessed with.
Rejection along the way is inevitable and the sooner we realise that this is part of the journey, the easier it is to cope and move on. This way, when we receive applause we can celebrate it. And when we receive silence, we remain passionate about and committed to our calling.
3. Artist identity and brand
The mindset of an artist is of extreme importance. This may seem like an obvious statement, but it really is crucial to your development and success. Nothing and no one really prepares a performing artist for the mental and emotional turmoil they will actually undergo. You need to be mentally strong and resilient.
How often have you heard an artist talk about the fear of failure, the fear of rejection or even the fear of success. My guess is never or hardly ever. This is because most people like myself go through the process all alone and worry that if they talk about some of these things, then it somehow diminishes them as people. But the truth remains, you are not alone as we have all been through this at some point.
Every artist no matter what we say, at some point has faced a common emotion: FEAR and the need for APPROVAL.
The need and desire for approval is something that exists in all of us. We need to continually remind ourselves that our sense of worth and security CANNOT lie in the approval of others.
We do what we do because we are passionate about blessing others with the gift we have been blessed with.
Rejection along the way is inevitable and the sooner we realise that this is part of the journey, the easier it is to cope and move on. This way, when we receive applause we can celebrate it. And when we receive silence, we remain passionate about and committed to our calling.
Top Tips
Hack 1: Vocal Technique Exercises (listen to audio)
Hack 2: Face your fears
Hack 3: Learn from your mistakes
Hack 4: Don’t walk around the stage aimlessly. Always have a reason for what you’re doing. A still performance is just as powerful as a high energetic display
Hack 5: Think of yourself as a storyteller
Hack 6: See yourself as a brand and learn how to explain your brand to investor
Remember, in Hack 1, I provide 5 audio vocal warm up exercises for this masterclass that you can use any time. Click here and join in as you hear my voice and the piano scales.
Warm Up ONE (Listen to audio)
Warming up your voice and preparing your mind-set is vital.
Start as low as you can and go as high as you’re able to do without hurting your voice.
Here we go, say “Goo”
Say “Gee”
Say “Nay”
Say “Nah”
Brilliant, so let’s start with the exercises nowA hard “G” and an “oo” on the end
As you get higher, drop the jaw on the “oo” and relax
Hit each note
Don’t be afraid you get high and keep breathing and relax your shoulders
Warm Up TWO (Listen to audio)
So now, we are going to do the same thing but on the vowel of E. And I don’t want you to smile and say GEE, instead, I want you to drop your jaw again like you did in Warm Up 1
Bear in mind, when we’re singing a song, I would often say to someone to smile to ensure their singing is in tune. But please remember these vocal exercises is not to sing a song. It is meant to warm up your voice in all areas of your bone structure.
SO on the low note, please smile BUT just before you start to feel a change or a break on the higher notes, start to drop your jaw and don’t try to sing louder.
Each note is different and you feel different. So think and speak
Hard “Gee” and the “e”
Say it after me again “gee”
Relax, drop the jaw on the “e” of the Gee and keep the hard “G” on the “Gee”
Warm up THREE (Listen to audio)
Now we are going to think about the “A” sound and I want you to think of a little kid who cries and cries “Nay” and they never lose their voice.
You are going to do the same thing as you are warming up your voice.
The same applies for us as singers and actors, we are in control of our voices.
So say “Nay”
Here we go.
Warm Up FOUR (Listen to audio)
Now you should definitely be feeling warmed up
So let’s continue but we will now slow down the exercises and we will use the different vowels.
The key is the “oo” and “ee” is dropping the jaw and “ay” nay” is dropping the jaw.
Say “goo”, “gee” and the “nay”
Keep adjusting and change according to the vocal
Please note that even coaches like myself make mistakes when we are warming up. It is not only you. So don’t stop just do it again because the mistakes will guide you and tell you when to change the exercises or repeat the exercises
Warm up FIVE (Listen to audio)
For the final exercise, I want you to drop your jaw as we aim to reach the highest note of that exercise and then scroll down the scale.
Concentrate on every note
GOO ……
Enjoy THE LOW NOTES
Last One
These vocal exercises start very low and it goes very high so please remember to only sing and practise in the areas of your voice that works and feels safe and sound. Develop your “singing speech” and your notes
Bonus Exercise: (Listen to audio)
Now we are going to leave the vocal warm up exercises and move into more of what I call the Vocal Technique
We are now going to take the consonants off and sing precisely with just the vowel
Say E
Say Ooh
Sing e to ooh – know how loud your loud should go