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Pop Music Lesson Plans

Tips On Starting A Career In Music? Go to school for Music or Try to break in?

Hey Guys! I'm a 14 year old male and live in Danbury CT. I am extremely passionate about music!
I write songs daily, and I do a ton of singing, I am involved in my school's theater program, and I can definitely dance. Music is my inspiration, and I hope to work hard to break into the music business because I want to inspire others, and make some amazing music.I am very motivated and will do WHATEVER it takes. I plan on doing on doing electro-pop/dance music. I know some people in the music business, and I know people that are on the brink of fame. Also, I have a couple of recording studios around where I live. I also don't know if I want to go to school for music, or if I just want to focus all of my time and energy on music. Do you guys have any tips on persuing this career?

You have many fine music school in your area - but after taking voice and piano lessons ( and they had better be from degreed, experienced teachers, NOT the stoner at the local music store!) can you get INTO Hartt, UConn, WestConn, New Haven, or any of the other places around you? And then there are places like Five Towns on the Island - more geared to pop music. It is easy to look down your nose at places that you cannot get into! From your post, had you NOT given, your age, it is easy to infer your age; you have all the zeal and hubris of that age. So - "brink of fame", "break into the music business", "WHATEVER it take" - these are all completely empty phrases. If you were already any good at all, you would have management, and be working. If you think you can get good with EDUCATION - then work towards that. You do realize that you might think that YOU are "one in a million" - but in reality, you are 1 OF a million. I taught music in a district not far from you, before moving to NY - you have every opportunity near you - if you get GOOD ENOUGH to be accepted into those schools. Good luck.

Pop Music Lesson Plans

Pop Music Lesson Plans

How to translate a good classical singing voice into a good pop singing voice?

I have taken voice lessons for a year and participated in choirs, and from what others have told me, have an above average operatic voice. I have a pretty good soprano range and sing vibrato naturally, which seems to work particularly well with hymns and many broadway pieces. (Keep reading-I promise I'm not conceited.) However, when I try to sing Kelly Clarkson & other mainstream pop songs, it just sounds kind of blah-like I don't sound like one of the people who go on American Idol singing terribly, but it just doesn't sound like anything special. I'm planning to continue the classical vocal training, but I would really like to be able to confidently sing pop music well, too, as this is type of music performed in many mainstream venues. Any advice?

Of course you can sing Pop! There is a way to mix your voice with your chest voice a little, but yet is more complicated than belting itself...

So many teachers here might want to kill me for this, but my best advice on Pop singing, is to Belt. Now, there is no, SAFE way to belt (which basically means yelling on pitch, the most widely used technique on Pop singing), but there is a SAFER way to do it, and a way to prevent all those vocal problems it may do.

First of all, ALWAYS EXERCISE/WARM UP/VOCALIZE on your legit (classical) voice, NEVER belt during vocalization! This is what prevents ALL the bad consequences that PURE belting may cause. Okay, so you may be asking, if you want me to belt, how do I NOT vocalize?! Well, we ARE going to vocalize, since that is how we get good at belting, but only very little.. say, if you vocalize 30 minutes a day, 10-15 should be belting, everything else should be Legit.

Make sure you ALWAYS support! Never lose breath control! That is something that MANY pop singers do not have, yet they do not know it causes NO CHANGE in their voice (except it DOES take the annoying breathiness away).

BELTING:

During belting, singing higher means singing LOUDER. You must NEVER smile during singing (this applies to classical as well), your jaw must always just go down and back gently making an oval shape of the mouth. An open throat is a MUST during singing, including pop. Now, start around middle C, and go up in a five tone scale (then descend) with an "AHH": C D E F G F E D C. Take the scale a half step up as you finish the previous one. As you get around D/E5, add a little BITE, as if you were yelling "AHH" and "EHH" at the same time... the higher you go, the vowels will start making more of an "EHH" or "UHH" sound, they must in order to be belted. Now the tricky part, vocal coaches teach you to focus your voice (resonance) as: Chest voice, resonates in the mouth, middle voice, around the soft palate, head voice, a little higher IN your head, to feel as if your head was BUZZING with sound. Now, as we go higher (in Pop), we are going to let the voice resonate in the MOUTH, up in your FRONT TEETH. Imagine you are yelling at someone that is SO CLOSE to you they only need to move an inch for their face to come in contact with yours. YOU ARE YELLING AT THEM. Make sure the sound doesn't 'TWANG'd', like "NNYENG", because that IS truly putting for on your vocal chords. Your larynx WILL rise, but not to the point where it hurts, or goes all the way up in your throat that you choke! True belting does not hurt. Many singers belt (Mariah C. and Kelly for example) and they seem to go through their high notes easily, but they do NOT use BREATH AND SUPPORT, and THAT is what destroys (Mariah's voice for example) their voices! So make sure your Breath and Support is there! Belting is just like TALKING OUT LOUD.

Many teachers are against this technique, they do not understand Belting is completely safe ONLY IF YOU VOCALIZE IN THE CLASSICAL STYLE. Believe me, great pop singers like, say, Patti Labelle, and Chaka Khan, have belting since EVER and their voices are crispy clean!! Do not ever believe people that tell you "You must be born to belt" because it is simply not true. Any sound, and I tell you ANY sound may be done healthily. You only need to hear Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston to hear voices who belted so wrong they cannot sing ANY of their old songs EVEN if transposed down to a safer key. Listen to Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Elaine Paige and you have singers who belt (A Lot!) yet they VOCALIZE on legit.... Their voices are completely healthy.

If you need more help, just email me.

Have a great one, and good luck with belting!

GOD BLESS!!!

ADIOS!

Pop Music Lesson Plans
Aero-Pop Curriculum Dance Lesson Plan #1

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