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Your Lips Matter For Singing Breathing

Today I got an email from one of my YouTube followers asking me to explain in more detail what I mean by the shape of your lips for the Slow Leaky Tire exercise.  Here is what she said:

“….thank you for your wonderful videos!”
“….unable to see clearly how the shape of your mouth is suppose to be when you do the leaky tire exercise. could you explain a little more in detail?”
“….really appreciate it…. thanks!”

So here is my quick answer.

It’s simply really.

Look at the picture of the woman in this post.

See how her lips are shaped? Like they are puckered up for a kiss, right?
I say it is like “fishy, kissy lips,” but then, who wants to kiss a fish?

Just think of your singing breathing during the Slow Leaky Tire exercise as”kissing” the air you breath while you slowly release it out of your mouth. Add the “sssssss” sound and keep the puckered lips round.

Another thing to remember is to keep your cheeks up the way they are naturally when you smile. These two things, the puckered lips and the smiling cheeks will allow you to succeed with the Slow Leaky Tire to improve your breathing for singing.

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Sing When You Don't Want To

Go From Sad To Happy…Fast!

Sometimes LIFE simply sucks.

That’s just the way it is.

No matter what you do or don’t do, sometimes you just feel off-balance, devoid of hope or strength to carry on.

Do you ever feel like that?

I sometimes do, but I don’t let it knock me down.  I might bend a little, I might shed a few tears, but then I realize that I won’t accomplish any of my goals by allowing myself to feel self-pity for very long.

In fact, if I give energy to self-pity, I have to take it away from self-confidence and that is not what any of us really want, is it?

So here are a few tips for making your life vibrant and filled with renewed hope each day, no matter what your circumstances. [continue reading…]

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Blog Makeover

I am encouraged by all of you who are visiting me here on my blog and want you to know that I will be doing a Blog Makeover in the next couple of months or so.

That is because you deserve to be able to navigate my site more easily.

I can help you more with your singing voices that way.

And your singing mindsets.

And your singing tongues. 😉

So, if you’d like to get updated as the makeover starts happening, just fill in your first name and email address on the right by the BIG GREEN ARROW! ➡

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Falsetto and Singing Registers

singing-registers-catPeople ask me a lot about singing registers:

  • How do I sing falsetto?  Or whistle range?
  • How do I prevent my voice from cracking when I go from low voice to high voice or visa versa?

P. Mario Marafioti once said, “The speaking voice is the real mold of the singing voice, in all its characteristics and dimensions; therefore, it must also be the factor for its different pitches.”

A famous European voice teacher from the nineteenth century named Lamperti said that “singing is speech a thousand times refined,” so I take his words and work them backwards. If we use singing to refine speech, we get the best of both worlds.

Both singing and speaking depend on how you use your tongue.

Singing Registers Pointers

[continue reading…]

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In Between Time Thinking

Quick post about making use of minutes here and there.

We all have 24 hours in a day.  That’s a no-brainer.

We all (well, at least most of us) want to improve our life in some way.  In our case, we want to improve our voices.  This is also a no-brainer.

We think we don’t have enough time in the day to do anything extra so we often feel stuck in the rut of our patterns.

So how do we get unstuck?

It’s not as hard as it seems. [continue reading…]

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Singing Tongue Lesson

Are you ready to power up your tongue?

Because you’ve been asking for it, I’ve been working on a series of digital singing lessons that are affordable, fun and easy to understand.

My series is called “YOUR TREMENDOUS SINGING VOICE” and I will be releasing various episodes as they are completed.  I know it seems odd, but the first one I am releasing is Episode 4: “YOUR TREMENDOUS SINGING TONGUE”.

That’s because of the requests I am getting for more and more help about how to use the tongue for singing.

You see, lots of people try to sing without knowing how to get the most power out of their tongue muscles.

In this lesson, I reveal why the tongue is so important for powerful singing and show you ways to strengthen your singing tongue, all in the wacky and fun teaching style for which you’ve known me.

I still maintain that laughing is the best exercise of all.

In fact, believe it or not, I have actually developed a singing voice exercise based on real laughter.

But, I’ll have to save that for another time.

Today, in this affordable singing tongue lesson, you will discover:

* Who your tongue partners are
* Why your tongue is either your best friend or your worst enemy
* How to power up your singing tongue muscle with action steps
* How to find time to practice
* How to use your lips to get it right
* And much more!

So, join me in powering up your singing tongue to power up your voice!

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Your Singing Tongue Part 3

People love their singing tongues!

Why do I say this?

Easy.  They keep asking for more help.  If they didn’t love their singing tongues, they wouldn’t do that.

It’s that simple.

Why does that matter to you?

Well, if you were not looking for something to help you improve your voice, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

So, I thought I’d tell you a couple of stories about 2 people who just finished previewing “Your Tremendous Singing Tongue”, my very affordable digital lesson to give you the exercises you need to tame your singing tongue for optimum singing power.

Before I made it available for sale, I beta tested it with 2 people and I thought you’d like to hear about how those 2 people responded because everyone’s singing tongue mindset is slightly different from anyone else.

Here is what happened:

  • Diane, Person #1, concentrated heavily as she watched the video lesson.  She tends to have a mouth and lips that retract a bit, as though she is trying to hold in what she really wants to express.  [continue reading…]
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A Long Singing Tongue

long-singing-tongue

I’m not sure what it is about a singing tongue that holds a certain fascination for people, myself included, but I am sure that knowing how to use your tongue for powerful singing is an absolute must.  And the “longer” you stretch your tongue muscle the more you will be able to release its POWER for singing!

Here’s the short version… [continue reading…]

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Inside Voice Outside Voice

inside voice outside voiceIs Your Inside Voice All In Your Head?

You hear it all the time.  It’s that inside voice that tells you you are no good or at least not good enough.

Other people have told you too, and guess what, you probably believed them.  In fact, the inside voice that tells you that you are not good enough probably started with someone – a trusted adult (parent/teacher/relative) or peer (friend/sibling/classmate) – telling you early in life that your voice was no good, at least not for singing.

The conclusion came without you even thinking about it:  “I am no good” or “my voice is no good.”  And the next judgment that hit you smack in the face became “I am a failure and there is no hope for me for ever singing like a “normal” person.”

I hear it all the time.  I hear it so often that I decided to write about it and here is why. [continue reading…]

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I have to admit it, I’m human.

Yup, and today that simply means that tech problems with software programs have been messing with my mind for a couple of weeks now.key to problem

Let me break this down for you.

Imagine running all these programs at once in an effort to give you and other people around the world the best of what I have to empower your voice and theirs. [continue reading…]

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singing book A MUST HAVE singing mindset eBook for singers, voice teachers, students, choir directors, cantors, actors and more!