As I toil through seemingly endless exercises in preparation for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Advanced Harmony exam, I often find myself asking WHY?!!?!? Music theory students are famously disgruntled. The rules, the complexity, the mind-numbing repetition… No matter how much someone may say they like studying music theory, everyone has a breaking point. A three-hour theory exam is enough to turn any bright young musical mind to mush. AND YET, I remind myself how incredibly valuable this skill set is and has been to me so far.
Many beginner singing students with no previous musical experience come to me having learned to pick out a tune from a favourite song by ear. They are often in search of improving their voice and working towards getting on stage. Approximately zero of them ever come to the first lesson saying, “I want to learn about music theory.” Here’s why learning music theory is important.
For amateurs, music is required reading. Sheet music allows us to notate music in a way that a musician can pull from the page, even if she has never heard it before. The ability to read sheet music and even sight-sing is not just an expectation for the professional session singer or Broadway star. From church choirs to community musical theatre productions, singers are almost always given sheet music as the sole source material. Some generous directors might provide practice tracks, but in my experience they often don’t. A singer with ambitions beyond the shower or karaoke bar will eventually have to learn how to read music, which is the first part of any music theory studies.
If you rely on other musicians, you must speak their language. While many singers I work with can accompany themselves on an instrument, often we singers rely on outside accompaniment, i.e. someone playing the music while you sing along. If you are being accompanied by a musician—or dare I say a band of them—you will need to know how to speak to them about what you want musically, and also understand what they are saying to you. If you can’t answer the question, “What key do you sing this in?” then you need music theory. And by they way, singers have an unfair but not entirely unearned reputation among other musicians for not knowing anything about how music works. Be the change you want to see in the world.
It will get you out of the ditch. The reason why it’s easy to learn most pop songs by ear is because, well, they’re easy. But let’s say you landed a part singing in the chorus of your local musical theatre production and now the lines you have to sing sound a little weird. The notes sound atypical, the time signature changes back and forth. Even if you do have a version of the song you can listen to over and over again, it’s still tough to really anticipate those entrances. Never fear, music theory is here to help you count your way into the rhythms and wiggle your way into those accidentals (notes outside the key). When intuition fails, music theory is a logical system you can use to solve problems.
You can learn other instruments faster. Have you ever met one of those people who seems to be able to play every instrument she picks up? It’s because she’s not really starting from zero with each new axe. She knows music theory! Knowing the scales, the names of the notes, the construction of chords etc. will help you find your way around virtually any instrument a whole lot faster. Why do I need to learn an instrument, you ask? Because being able to accompany yourself gives you the freedom and flexibility to perform whenever you want, without having to schedule or pay anyone else, in the key that actually suits your voice.
Understanding music increases appreciation. I have always been the type of person who could be intensely elated or utterly gutted by a dramatic chord change. Now I am learning about the chords that do those things, and it honestly feels like a spiritual awakening. The♭III chord GIVES ME LIFE! The I-IV-iv progression is INTROSPECTIVE TEARS! These Neopolitan 6 chords add a little bit of OOH LA LA. The tierce de Picardie is a real eye-roller. There is so much life in these chords, and understanding the complexity of what the composer was doing really transforms the experience of listening to music. And a singer’s job is to FEEL THOSE CHORDS!!
These are five reasons why I think every singer should learn about music theory, but the big motivation I keep coming back to is songwriting. Deepening my understanding of harmony and harmonic progressions only makes me a better songwriter. I love using the new moves I’m learning about as I go.
Have you had your music theory today?
Most of us emerge from the holidays with a bad hangover and a strained voice. Here are some tips to improve the chances of your voice making it out alive this holiday season…and maybe the rest of your body, too.
Avoid shouting at parties. When our environment gets too loud, we tend to raise our speaking volume to the point of shouting just to talk to the person next to us. We often don’t even realize we’re doing it until we start to feel the strain. Speak softly at the front of your mouth, and articulate your words instead of pushing your voice. If your holiday party is too loud to talk, ask the host to turn down the music, or invite your conversation partner into a quieter space. If none of these feels appropriate, you should probably be on the dance floor anyway.
Get plenty of rest and fluids. Sleep in and drink tea! If you do sustain some vocal damage, nothing will fix it like a good night’s sleep. Enjoy your break!
Keep drinking to a minimum. Alcohol and caffeine are both associated with drying out the vocal folds, which can lead to strain and injury. I should also mention that dairy increases phlegm production, causing you to clear your throat more, which is basically as bad for your voice as coughing. Of course we’re all going to have fun, but a rye & ginger is probably a little easier on your throat than a rum & egg nog. I love hot toddies, myself.
Warm up! It may seems strange, but if you’re going to be doing a lot of talking for the evening, prepare with a little vocal warm-up. You can even do it in the car on your way to the party.
Breathe. It’s amazing how often we forget to breathe when we talk. When we are running out of breath to finish our sentences, our voices become strained. The voice needs that breath support to keep going, otherwise it has to push in an unhealthy way. Take a deep breath in the middle of a sentence. Make them wait. You’ll feel like Barack Obama.
Of course if you’re sick, you’ll need to recover. But hopefully this helps you get through the next few weeks!
It has arrived! The sniffling, sneezing, snuffling, snorting, and snoring! Cold & Flu season rears it’s ugly head every fall/winter, and it is particularly disastrous for singers. While most other people feel that they can work through a cold if they need to, singers cannot. A cough or sore throat can take down a singing voice, and if we can’t sing, we can’t work. Performances are cancelled. Ticket holders are disappointed. Rehearsals are compromised. Singers infect other singers and entire productions can collapse! So here are my tips—many of them straight from the doctor—on how to survive cold & flu season as a singer. Or perhaps just as the gross, bacteria-laden animal we call a human being.
Boost your immune system. Taking supplements like zinc and echinacea daily will help to strengthen your resistance to viruses. I drink a cup of echinacea tea or Throat Coat tea almost every day. Zinc lozenges are a great alternative to cough drops, which actually dry out your throat from the menthol.
Keep your hands clean. The cold virus can survive on a hard surface for 24 hours, the flu for 15 minutes. The virus invades our bodies when we touch infected surfaces and then touch orifices like our mouth and eyes, or other people. Wash your hands regularly, and keep hand sanitizer close by. In my studio I keep special anti-viral Kleenex that kills the cold virus in 15 minutes. Also try to wipe down your space with disinfectant wipes every so often.
Get your flu shot. In Ontario it’s free! Many pharmacies offer the shot, and of course you can get it at your doctor’s office. It’s just one more thing you can do to help yourself and others prevent the spread of the flu, which can be fatal to the very young and the very old.
Rest. Your body needs sleep to fight off the virus, and lots of it. The more sleep you get, the shorter your cold’s duration will be. The more you try to push through, the longer your illness will go on.
Drink plenty of fluids. Your body needs to stay hydrated in order to flush out the virus and keep your immune response strong. This is why you should not take over-the-counter cough medication or nasal sprays if you can avoid them, as most of them work by drying you out. This temporarily relieves your congestion, but longterm makes it harder for your body to heal and prolongs illness duration. Cold & flu medications are for the high-stakes “I-have-to-get-through-the-next-6-hours” situations, not for routine use during a cold, and certainly not for singing. High-dosage echinacea, water, tea, and fruit juice will give you the fluids and vitamin C that you need. Avoid caffeinated drinks, especially coffee, as they tend to dry out your respiratory system and vocal folds. Also avoid dairy as it increases mucus production and congestion.
Clean out your nose. Nasal irrigation devices are all the rage these days because they provide non-medicinal relief from nasal congestion using saline or salt water. You can buy a Neti pot at any health food or drug store. Personally I have a Navage because I find I need something a little stronger.
Clean out your throat. Gargling with salt-water or even anti-septic mouthwash like Listerine can help to clear out a clogged throat, but hands-down the most effective phlegm-burner is a few drops of straight-up oil of oregano. A nasty business, but very helpful for throat congestion and post-nasal drip. You may also want to try an oral anesthetic (read: “numbing”) throat spray if your sore throat is keeping you up at night. Slippery elm bark supplements also help heal sore or overworked throats.
Sleep with a humidifier on. The extra moisture will help to soothe a dry throat and lungs, but keep the setting low to avoid mould. Steam and eucalyptus oil can also help loosen mucus in the respiratory tract.
Don’t infect others. You are considered contagious within the first 3-5 days of showing cold symptoms. The cold & flu viruses are not only contracted from contact, but they are also airborne. If you are coughing viral droplets into the air, people can get it just by breathing near you. If you must venture out into the world, then please wear a mask, especially if you will be around other singers. Otherwise, stay home and rest!
Hope that helps! Do you have any favourite home remedies for cold & flu? Let me know what works for you!
The crescendo of abuse allegations against creators in our mainstream culture is reaching an all-time high. For years now, one question has kept popping up in our collective consciousness: can we separate the artist from the art? Of course what we really mean by this is, can we in good conscience continue to enjoy the works of people who have done unspeakable things?
As an artist, the idea of separating the artist from the art seems like a trick question. My art is an extension of myself. It is certainly sometimes an exaggeration, a composite, or an escape, but it always comes from me. My hope is that if I am wiling to be honest about myself in my art, in what I choose to write about, then perhaps my audience will connect with that around some universal truths. Perhaps there are some really ugly things that we feel that we are too ashamed to talk about, that can find their healing place in art. This, I believe, is the artist’s calling, but it’s a tall order to expose yourself like that.
Of course, not all artists operate this way. When it comes to creating, I feel like there are two types of artists: those who run towards their truth, and those who run from it. Amy Winehouse was a songwriter to sought to bare her soul in all its monstrosity in her music, and we couldn’t look away. The themes of addiction—to drugs, to her toxic relationship—were central to her music, her life, and, unfortunately, her demise.
On the other side of things, when I listen now to the stand-up comedy of Bill Cosby, I hear the squeaky-clean humour of someone who was trying to create a more innocent persona to hide or distract from the darkest parts of himself. He certainly fooled us for a long time, but perhaps he was also fooling himself. His crimes were singularly atrocious. However, do we not all create an idealized self-image to some extent? Do we not all run from our darkness, deny our faults, even a little bit? At the end of the day, these monsters are human, and there’s a little bit of them in all of us. For me, this lens makes listening to his stand-up a lot more disturbing, and a lot less funny. Not exactly my idea of an evening’s entertainment.
Of course, there are also those artists who expose their uglinesses with seemingly complete oblivion, like Robin Thicke in Blurred Lines.
So can you still enjoy the art of a monster? For me, I think it depends on how self-reflective and honest the artist has been about their demons in their art. But if the artist has been hiding something that is now in full view, I recommend putting their work into the context of their ugliness and see if you still like it. Would you still want to jam out to R. Kelly’s Ignition Remix if you knew he was addressing it to a 13-year-old girl? Because that is probably not far from the truth.