Tune-up Music Studio

I am so excited to be holding an end of year spring recital featuring several Tune-up music studio students🌺

Join us for an enchanting evening at Annette Studios this Friday at 7:30! You won’t want to miss it✨

Link in bio for tickets🎟️

Congratulations to my student Apsara for receiving two gold and one silver certificate at the Newmarket Voice Festival!🎉

She sang beautifully in the foreign language art song category, bipoc composer art song category, as well as a musical theater piece for ‘songs from the screen’🍿

Apsara has been working very hard on these grade 8 RCM level pieces and will soon prepare a program for the OMFA provincials🎼

Way to go Apsara!

And that's a wrap on an ultra-successful Holiday Recital at Hope United Church🎄💚 It was such a pleasure to combine forces with my friends and have a joint studio recital, featuring some very talented pianists, singers and guitarists. What a treat!

I was working on tongue articulation👅 and minimizing jaw movement with one of my voice students👄😲

And we started making up fun metaphors and visuals to help with our vocal exercises🎤

Sometimes articulating notes with your jaw is absolutely necessary, but if you need to move your jaw for every single syllable, are you working too hard?

Try engaging your tongue to pronounce the words and give your jaw a break‼️ Ventriloquists don't move their jaw at all, so bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point 🤐

Less up and down Pac-Man movement with your mouth, but maybe visualize a reverse pac-man opening in your throat?

👩‍💻Sneak-peak into an online voice lesson I was teaching the other day🩷

Featuring different ways to "lift your soft palate"🥱

Why do we want to do this while singing?

Lifting your soft palate can help create a more "lofty" sound🔊

This is ideal for singers who...

👉Are learning to sing in their head-voice and want a lighter sound.

👉May have some tuning issues and want to sing with more height.

👉Feel like they are hitting a wall or a break in their range.

🎶So what are some ways to lift your soft palate? (the pink part marked on the second diagram)

👉Try snorting like a pig 🐖 this exercise automatically lifts your palate and helps you access your nasal cavity.

👉Practice faking a yawn 🥱 and stretch your mouth open as wide as possible.

👉Inhale a few times in a row with a surprised face 😮 do you feel cold air at the back of your throat? That's where your soft palate is.

🫁Comment if you've learned any other methods that work for you🎼

Congratulations to students Emma and Colter for their recent successful RCM level 1 piano exam results🎹👏

Have you always wanted to try an RCM exam? Send a DM to learn how you can get started and achieve first class honours🎼

What do you tell yourself before you walk on stage?🤔

Try saying: I am 🌠EXCITED🌠 three times in your head or out loud before performing

This will transition your state of being from a 😓THREAT mindset toward an 💫OPPORTUNITY mindset

Convincing yourself that you are excited to perform will also counteract your cortisol levels ➡️ which means less stress on stage

Being nervous for a concert is never a bad thing 👏 it simply means you care about how well you perform

You can use your adrenaline to advantage💪

For now on, when someone asks you how you feel before a show, refrain from saying: I feel 🥵nervous🥵 and start saying: I feel 🏆excited🏆

NERVES🔜LIFE FORCE

A performance 💫pops💫 more when you have a dramatic intention💃

Here are some ways to figure out your song's dramatic goal:

💜What do you want to achieve by the end of the song or what do you want from the person you are singing to?

💜What is your state of being?

💜What happened to you before the song started and what inspired you to start singing?

Acting is an essential part of a performance💫💫💫

🎭Some things to consider🎭

👉When performing a song that has a specific character:

👉Consider what you are doing in the scene and why (what is your intention)

👉What was your character doing in the scene preceding your song

👉What are you trying to fulfill by singing these words

👉Where are you and what do you see around you

📸Comment below where this picture was taken

🕯BURNOUT is easy to avoid with the right tools and habits🕯

🕯An important thing to remember is that GUILT does not motivate us to work harder in the long run. It actually slows down our progress and makes it more challenging to get back on track, especially when we use a lot of negative self-talk.

🕯I find I struggle the most with limiting how much I check my email/other messages. SUPER tempting to open several times throughout the day.

🕯Comment your score /7️⃣ for how many of these you accomplish each day🕯