Singing Pebbles Vocal Studio

✨Join us for a magical evening with Night - a unique concert featuring an eclectic, nocturnal mix of music! From the beautiful classical depth of Brahms to the popular, soulful melodies of James Taylor, this program has something for everyone.

It's the perfect way to spend a fall evening thanks to our friends, WORDS and MUSIC!

Tickets at wordsmusic.org
Discount tickets available for Military/Senior/Student

🗓️ Date: Saturday, October 25th
⏰ Time: 4:00pm - 7:00pm
📍 Location: St. Francis Church, 9220 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA

Ooo! This looks cool!

Sir Karl Jenkins conducts 650-strong concert for peace in epic world premiere The huge-scale musical feat, which sees Sir Karl Jenkins premiere his ‘One World’, is 2023’s designated UNESCO Concert for Peace.

Ms. Auger is one of my favorites. Such a lovely person and exquisite singer!

Many years ago I heard Arleen Auger present a master class at Mannes College of Music in New York City. She was masterful at teaching the young students breath management and each singer sounded measurably better after working with her.

A Helpful Exercise for Equalized Breath Flow

Ms. Auger instructed each student to measure the amount of breath taken for each musical phrase, holding their hands in front of themselves and making space between their hands. This space between the hands represented the appropriate amount of breath taken for each phrase, making more space between the hands for a longer phrase and less space for a shorter phrase. Then, as the singer sang the phrase, they were instructed to slowly move the hands together.

What did this exercise reveal? It revealed that many singers used up most of their breath in the first few beats of the musical phrase, leaving them running out toward the end of the phrase. It would take a few repetitions for them to learn to take the appropriate amount of breath for the length of the phrase and to close the space between the hands slowly and evenly. Each singer learned two major elements of breath control: (1) to avoid over-breathing for shorter phrases, and (2) to void using too much breath in the first half of the musical phrase.

This exercise also had an added benefit: to avoid over-breathing and 'stacking up' too much breath pressure in the body while singing through an entire piece of music. Arleen Auger was kind and encouraging with each student and she never rushed the process just because it was a public master class.

Final Thought: This breath exercise made each student aware that they must take a bit more breath for longer phrases and avoid taking too much for shorter phrases. The vocal changes were major, leaving each singer without the 'push reflex'

Have a nice day. David

David Jones' Book, "A Modern Guide to Old World Singing" is available at www.amazon.com, www.amazon.de, www.thebookdepository.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, and the ebook at www.ebooks.com.

Yes!

Art Can Benefit Youth & Their Communities Read the framework

This looks so cool!

Thanks, Dr. Nelson, for posting this!

Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil https://choralarts.org/the-sacred-veil/

Thank you to Claudia Frieflander at The Liberated Voice!

All of us are naturally better at some things than others.

The things we are good at and the things that captivate us form a Venn diagram with imperfect overlap.

I demonstrated a natural aptitude for music at an early age, and an early passion for teaching. I had a comparatively poor aptitude for science. My high school boasted an academically competitive culture and a high acceptance rate to Ivy League colleges, so this was a source of deep shame for me. I somehow got through the required science classes with a passing grade, and resolved never to study science again.

But the more I learned about singing and vocal pedagogy, the stronger my desire became to understand the anatomy and biomechanics involved.

It was psychologically and emotionally extremely humbling to try to learn anatomy and study sports science in my late 30s. After feeling so humiliated by my experiences in high school, I was terrified that I would never get it. But I was so hungry for understanding that I kept at it.

And eventually wrote a book on anatomy and biomechanics.

All which is to say, that thing, that you think you can't do? Maybe you will learn to do it, and maybe you won't. But your success depends a lot less on natural aptitude than you might think.

Besides, even when something comes naturally to you, you're eventually going to bump up against the limits of "talent" and have to invest some energy and effort, if you want to keep improving.

Your success will depend upon how you respond to that humbling moment (which is only humbling because our culture is biased in favor of only doing those things that come naturally to you).

Oh, this is fun!

"What Happens When a Woman" by Alexandra Olsavsky A song for the strong women of our world who seek to empower themselves by asking important questions.Sheet Music/MP3 Download Available HERE: https://www.ar...

This is a critically important topic. Let's have a discussion....

Classical Music’s Racial Awakening – Was It All a Mirage? Jennifer Grim advocates for sustaining the recent efforts in classical music to include more artists of color in regular season programming.