Vocal lessons

Realizing that vocals are my weak point, I started private lessons with Ben Senterfit. Of all the instructors in the area, Ben is the best I've found.

The first thing we started working on was belting, that I described in the last posting. What I have been doing was singing down in my chest and throat, basically choking off the sound. The goal is to get a brighter sound by opening my mouth wider and have the sound roll off the roof of my mouth. Smiling, raising my top teeth, were some cues. A good test, was turning my head when singing. If the sound died as I turned my head, I was singing from my chest or throat.

Another thing we discussed was breathing. The breathing support is still in the abdomen. The progression was to relax my belly (let the beer belly hang out). Then while blowing out, pull my belly in and up (the stud look). To get more power, I started by reaching down and the rise up while singing, using every muscle (to my toes) to support the singing.

As we progressed I was getting more power, now all I have to do is stay on key with all this power. Hopefully next week.