Hitting those "big notes"

I have so many students who love singing songs with high power notes. Now these students I have can always sing these notes quite easily when they are doing their exercises but when it comes to doing it during a performance or even just singing the note during a song in their lesson they go wrong and let's face it, whenever someone sings a Whitney or Mariah song people always wait to see if they can sing that big note at the end and forget about the rest of the song!
One way to conqour these "big notes" is to not focus on the one note - if you do that you are compartmentalising it which will then cause your subconscious to watch out for it which makes you paranoid and unrelaxed which causes you to go wrong - if you think you wont get the note you wont! Instead try to work on the whole phrase around it, sometimes working on your placement just before the note can help. Also when you are performing try to actually visualise yourself getting it - if you can see yourself doing it and let go you almost certainly will get it!

Singing with colds/flu/general hoarseness.

It is that time of year when literally everybody appears to be ill with coughs and colds. I have alot of students who are unsure whether they are supposed to carry on singing or how to get the best out of their voices when they are ill. Here are a few tips and pointers:

1. Drink lots of water
2. Avoid drinking tea/coffee/cream/alcohol before singing - this dehydrates you.
3. Take vitamin C and eat lots of fruit and veg - this helps build your immune system to fight off bugs.
4. REST!
5. Try not to cough or clear your throat too much as this can damage your vocal folds.
6. Suck on lozenges - this will help with dry/sore throats.
7. Hot water steam inhallation - to help unblock sinuses and releive bronchitis. Breathe in steam produced from hot water, some people put their head over a bowl with a towel over their head. You can also put some drops of essential oils in, with essential oils you can clear up even quicker. Be careful when doing this - you don't want to get burnt!
8. Do NOT sing when your voice is hoarse unless absolutely necessary.
9. Do NOT sing when your throat feels sore.
10. As you start recovering start humming for a few minutes at a time around your mid range and gradually expand the range the more you recover. I your voice starts to become hoarse again, rest it for longer.

Vocademy Opening in Horsham!

I think it's amazing to see just how popular Vocademy has got in both East Grinstead and Worthing, so much so that we have decided to spread Vocademy's wings even further. Vocademy Horsham will be opened by myself in April. I'm already getting involved in schools and am working on ways to approach adults. It looks like Horsham may well be as successful as the other too!