17/10/2020
Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
YOUR SPECIAL TSA SUBSCRIPTION GIFT
INTRODUCTION
By JOETT – Voice Coach & Author
WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA -- Talent Showcase Africa (TSA) is a pan-African artist development project under the umbrella of Nam Radio, seeking to discover, nurture, develop and launch fresh new talent on the African continent.
The purpose of Nam Radio is to reduce inequalities for emerging artists within the entertainment industry, and to increase opportunities on mainstream platforms by providing a platform that is less judgmental to make their recognition easy and valuable.
So do make sure you submit your music to Nam Radio for radio airplay, and remember to download and share the Nam Radio app with your fans, friends and everybody you know.
Accompanying this eBook is a very special voice training gift for singers in audio MP3 format. If you’re reading this eBook and you don’t have the accompanying audio MP3 training products, please go to the TSA website
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
to SUBSCRIBE to our list, and we will immediately deliver the complete package—that is to say, this eBook & its audio products—to your inbox.
Subscription form is located bottom of page, at: TalentShowcaseAfrica.com THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING TO OUR MAILING LIST!
Nominate Your Song for Djooky Music Awards
Nam Radio has signed an exclusive pan-African partnership with global song contest Djooky Music Awards (DMAs). The competition was launched on 31st July by Djooky, a US-based online music platform, and artists from all over the world are encouraged to apply.
This partnership seeks to support artists represented on Nam Radio’s artist development community outreach project TSA, as well as emerging African talent from across Africa and the Diaspora.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
Correct Breathing Technique Explained
Correct breathing is vital for good singing. Imagine the note as a kite, resting on a stream of air – if there’s no air it can’t fly. In that same way, correct breathing supports your singing and enables you to hit any note you want, as loudly or as softly as you want, without hurting your voice.
When we do not have enough air coming out to carry the note, it will waver and fall. Even worse, without a good breathing technique, we may start to put pressure on our throats, which can cause great damage to the voice. But when you breathe correctly everything you sing feels and sounds so much easier.
Stand in front of a mirror and take a deep breath. Watch what happens to your body.
Does your chest expand? Do your shoulders rise? Does your stomach go in? If so, you are among a huge number of people who are overriding their automatic breathing response, and have learned to breathe incorrectly. We begin to do this for a number of reasons – holding our tummies in to look slimmer, poor posture or anxiety for instance.
Correct breathing technique is called diaphragmatic or stomach breathing.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
We automatically breathe this way when we are born. When we sleep we still breathe this way.
The sort of breathing most people have learned to do would involve expanding the rib cage so that the lungs are forced to expand outwards only. Diaphragmatic breathing uses the diaphragm muscle (a strong dome shaped muscle located under the ribs and above the stomach) and involves expanding the lungs downwards as well, moving the diaphragm muscle downwards. See picture above.
When we breathe in, we push the muscle down, and the tummy moves forward. When we breathe out, the diaphragm muscle moves back to resting position and the tummy moves back in. There is little or no upper chest movement.
Diaphragmatic breathing is used in yoga, and is often recommended as a therapy for anxiety disorders and hyperventilation.
When we say “take a deep breath”, it is intended to calm us down by ingesting oxygen, so correct breathing not only aids your actual singing technique, it will also enhance your performance by helping you to relax.
Breathing Exercises
Here are some exercises to help you form the habit of correct breathing.
It may feel strange at first, as we have to undo bad habits, but with enough practice, diaphragmatic breathing can become your standard way of breathing. After all, it takes only 28 days to form a new habit.
Practice these exercises lying down at first, as it is easier to feel your stomach rising, and be sure you are doing it right! As you get more confident, you can do them standing up. Just remember to stand up slowly as you may feel light headed from all the oxygen rushing through your system!
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers Starting to breathe from the diaphragm
Place one hand on your tummy and the other on your chest, then breathe in slowly and deeply.
Imagine your stomach as a bag filling with air. Try to fill the bag from the bottom first.
Don’t take in more air than is comfortable – it’s not the amount of air you inhale that is important, but the rate at which you let it out.
You should feel your stomach rising as you inhale and dropping as you exhale. You should feel little or no movement from your chest. You may also feel your sides and back expanding. That’s good.
When you breathe out, try to let the air out from the bottom first too, rather like you would squeeze a tube of toothpaste from the bottom to leave nothing unused and wasted.
Practice the breathing like this until you feel comfortable with the process of diaphragmatic breathing, and then you can move on to the exercises and begin to control how the air comes out.
Exercise 1
Take a comfortable breath in, hold for a moment, and then begin to let the air out gently with a Tssss sound, rather like air escaping from a tyre or balloon.
Let out all the air you have. Don’t leave any unused.
Repeat the exercise several times, experimenting with different velocities - louder, softer etc. Then you will get used to controlling the diaphragm muscle, and so controlling the air coming out.
Don’t worry about how long you exhale for; the important thing is to keep the sound as even as possible. If you hear yourself getting louder, stop pushing so hard. If the sound of the air coming out begins to stutter, then
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
you are not letting out enough air, so step it up a little. It’s rather like how a car engine stalls when we don’t apply enough gas pedals.
Exercise 2
The diaphragm muscle controls the dynamics of the voice – that is how loud or how soft we sing. If we try to create volume with the throat instead, we will do damage to our vocal cords.
The next exercise will help you to practice controlling your volume with your diaphragm.
Remember to take a good breath in, and then let out the air with a Sshhh sound.
Begin softly and push with your stomach to increase the volume, then relax it for the sound to become quiet again. You should feel your diaphragm muscle contracting with each push.
Repeat the exercise several times.
Don’t be tempted to move your chin up with each push – let your diaphragm muscle do all the work.
Exercise 3
Now we’re going to do the same exercise, but much slower.
Don’t worry if this seems very difficult at first. It will get easier with practice. Repeat the exercise several times.
Exercise 4
The final exercise involves the same contractions as Exercise 3, we’re just going to put a sound behind them (like V as in mm). Don’t try to sing a note, just make the sound.
This should be easier than the previous exercise, as you won’t be letting out as much air as you did with the Sshhh sound.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
As well as working the diaphragm muscle, the exercise has the added bonus of throwing the voice forward towards the lips and teeth, rather than back into the head and throat... but that’s a matter of placement, which deserves a lesson all of its own.
Repeat these exercises every day for a month, and you will feel the difference it makes to your singing.
SO, Let’s Get Started
Lifted from me Learn to Sing with Joett Vocal Training CD, which I released in 2013, I am giving you a bunch of exercises in audio MP3 format and this information booklet will guide you through doing the exercises correctly.
Start by listening to the introduction. You must then listen to my tip on posture and then proceed with the breathing exercise tape. Follow
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
these three steps sequentially, each time you begin training, as it will serve as a constant reminder.
Breathing
Please listen to the instructions on tape each time you train. Let this serve as a constant reminder on HOW to breathe to sing; and ALWAYS do your breathing exercises BEFORE you begin the scales. And make it a silent breath intake! I know the mic makes the breathing demo sound loud, but you be silent. Please. Otherwise you’ll be drawing cold air into your throat, which will interfere with your vocal folds.
VOCAL EXERCISES
These scales are in single direction. ONLY start in a key that is comfortable for you, and discontinue where you cannot go any farther; or where your voice tends to disconnect; or where you sense the buildup of air pressure and strain in your voice. You should not allow discomfort to happen when performing these exercises. Never strain your voice. Never force your voice. Never SHOUT. Watch the videos on my page just to get a better understanding of how you ought to go about doing these exercises.
Here’s the link: http://facebook.com/joettstudio/video
Arpeggio Scales
Whilst maintaining an edge in your sound production—the brassier the better—perform the arpeggio exercise with a hum (Mm) to the prerecorded piano track.
In subsequent runs, you can also do lip rolls (otherwise known as the lip bubble). You’ll find demonstration videos on how to do the humming and the lip rolls on my page: http://facebook.com/joettstudio/video
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers Chromatic Scales
Again, there are numerous ways of using the same piano scales to help rebalance the voice. So, whilst maintaining an edge in your sound production and breathing correctly for each run, do the following.
a) Mee (as in the word me)
b) Lip Rolls
c) Nay Nay (with an edgy narrow vowel type sound in your voice)
Descending Scales
This time you’re going to hum, but add an H to the hum (Hmm). And you
should also do the Lip Rolls to the same descending scales.
How to Maintain a Healthy Throat
One of the most frequently asked questions my students would throw at me is... "how do I look after my throat?" Well, I'm going to begin by telling
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
you what you SHOULDN'T do, and then I'll fill you in on HOW to preserve your voice and what supplements to take to maintain a healthy throat.
DON'T smoke.
DON'T take recreational drugs.
DON'T booze excessively.
It practically destroys the voice (Want proof to all of the above? Look at Whitney Houston towards the end of her life!).
DON’'T drink ice cold drinks.
The cold will interfere with the vocal chords.
DON'T scream and shout when you're out on the town partying.
You'll have lost your voice the next day and if you don't know how to fix the problem (as I will show you next), you'll likely have a croaky voice lingering on for longer than you'd want.
And here's a message to those of you who go to the beach and open spaces to practice singing by yelling your lungs out. DON'T do it! This is the fastest way to ruin your voice completely.
Now let's take a look at what you CAN do to preserve your voice.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
VITAMIN C (1000mg) – I'll begin with a quick remedy tip for putting a stop to flu symptoms, including giving relief to a tired sore throat from overuse.
Simply pop a 1000 milligram vitamin C effervescent tablet into a glass of water, allow it to dissolve and drink up. If you're in a really bad way, pop up to 3000 milligrams over the course of the day. I regularly take vitamin C once a day. Especially when I'm using my voice a lot (teaching), and when I have concerts lined up. Vitamin C protects me. Always!
VITAMINS & MINERALS
Let's take a look at the whole-body nutritional approach for a minute.
Essentially you need to keep your immune system working optimally. And the surest way to do that is to ensure that you're taking multivitamins and minerals to stay healthy. There are plenty of nutritional supplements available around the world. And so find something that is within your financial reach. They can be quite costly.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
DRINK WATER – Keeping the vocal folds moist through good hydration is very important for good vocal health. We can provide moisture to the vocal folds by simply drinking water. It is highly recommended that you drink at least 2 liters of water a day. And when you're singing, it's advisable to have a bottle of water handy.
So in a nutshell, there you have it, what-to-do and what-not-to-do to maintain a healthy throat.
If you have ever wondered what other affordable options there are out there for you to get to learning to sing with the supervision of a professional voice coach (to at least help you find your feet at the beginning of your journey), then you will find that my Learn to Sing via Correspondence Course to be one of the most liberating experiences for aspiring singers, available on the internet today.
Read the full article on my correspondence course here!
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
Vocals Quick Fix Package
If anything, working as a vocal coach over the years has helped me to better understand the human voice. Whenever I’m dealing with voice issues that my students are going through and trying to solve their problems—as everybody is different—I almost always pick up yet another solution to seemingly insurmountable difficulties and challenges singing throws at you.
And so I created the Vocals Quick Fix Package and we made it available for purchase on the Nam Radio Live platform here.
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Talent Showcase Africa FREE eBook for Singers
I hope this Talent Showcase Africa eBook and audio products have helped, and that this will be the beginning of a bright future for you as a singer.
Wishing you all the success in the world, Sincerely,
JOETT – Voice Coach & Author Website: www.talentshowcaseafrica.com Email: [email protected]
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(TSA) is a new pan-African platform that seeks to discover, nurture, develop and launch fresh new talent on the African continent
