to sing or not to sing

7/31/2019 To Sing or Not to Sing

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To Sing or Not to Sing

By: Krista Slaney



Copyright 2010

Wood Middle School Publishing



This book is dedicated to: Brianna Taylor- Tohope you become an awesome singer one day!

2010

Thank you to Ms. Dara Massoni for letting metake pictures of Period 4 choir class



Table of Contents

Chapter 1: How to sing better-Easy Page 1-4

Chapter 2: How to sing better-Hard Page 5-8

Chapter 3: Parts of the body used Page 9-12

Chapter 4: Different notes, Page 13-16instruments, and singers

Chapter 5: Tips Page 17-18

Chapter 6: Top 10’s Page 19-20



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Soprano

If you are a soprano, there are many ways to warm up. First up are breathing exercises. Beforeyou start to sing, take deep breaths, breath in andout slowly. Next take a long yawn to stretch outyour throat to sing better. Lastly, get up andstretch, because even though you don’t think ithelps, it does.

Another easy way to warm up are vocal warm ups. One easy vocal warm up is called theyell-yawn. What you do is you start to go into a

yawn, but in the middle of

it, start to yell whileyawning. Another vocal warm up is to sing smallsongs, such as “Row YourBoat.” If you want it a littlebit harder, you can get a

group of your friends tosing with you. Lastly, you can do an additive scale. An additive scale includes going, “Do, do re do, dore mi re do.” And so on. The additive scaleconsists of the notes and words do, re, mi, fa, so,la, ti, and do.



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Alto

For alto’s, you have to go a little bit lower.For an easy warm up for an alto, relax your throatand sing “oohh” for eight beats on one note. Youcan also do an additive scale, but you just go lowerthan a soprano. If you want it even easier, don’tpick a high note song to sing. Warm up’s for

voices are pretty much any song to sing, so for a warm up, just sing one of your favorite songs! If you want a low note song to sing, one song you

can choose is, “TellMe Something IDon’t Know” by Selena Gomez andthe Scene.

For breathing exercises, you pretty much do the same

thing. But as an alto,you have to relax your throat. First, breathe inthrough your nose, and out through your mouth.

You can also do a yawn-yell, but just relax yourthroat more. Are you getting my point on relaxing your throat? Good.



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My Warm up’s and Breathing Exercises

On this page, I will tell you a few of my vocal warm ups and breathing exercises. First up-songs. A few of my songs are: Eliza Jane, Jubilate,and the additive scale. Eliza Jane Lyrics: I got a gal

and you’ve got none, little ‘Liza Jane. I got a girlthat calls me hon, little ‘Liza Jane. Oh Eliza, little‘Liza Jane. Oh Eliza, little ‘Liza Jane. Jubílate:

Jubílate deo, jubilate de-eo, al-a-luajah. (x3) Additive scale: Do,do re do, do re mi re do, do re

mi fa mi re do, (and so on.) A few of my breathing

exercises I have are: the yawnsigh (which I have mentioned),and lot’s of deep breathing. Butthe fact is, I do each one

differently. You can try to do it these ways, or justdo it the same. As a soprano, for the yawn sigh Ihave to actually make myself yawn first before I gointo a yawn sigh. On the deep breathing, try tohave everything calm and quiet around to help yourelax and sing better.



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Chapter 2: How to Sing Better – Hard(Intro)

In this chapter, you will learn how to domore warm ups that are slightly harder. You willlearn how to sing more warm up’s and breathing exercises whether you are a soprano or an alto.

You will learn things such as skipping notes and words, or doing shorter breaths and longer singing.



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My Breathing and Warm ups

Some of my breathing exercises and warmup’s are up now. First, my songs and vocal warmup’s: The additive scale, and the small breath beats.

Additive scale: Do, do (clap) do, do (clap) mi,(clap) do…. And so on. My class also stomps,snaps, and whistles. Small breath beats: take in asmall amount of air like your sipping through a

straw for 1-4 beats. Thenbreathe out in small,separated beats by going,“sss-sss-sss-sss” for 20-25 beats about 3 times.

Some of my breathing exercises are:the deep breaths for 1-4beats, and letting it out

for 20-25 beats. If you do it very often, then your

stomach will eventually get bigger so you can holdmore air to sing with.



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Chapter 3: Parts of the body used

In this chapter, the parts of the body will beexplored and explained in detail. These parts of thebody that are involved in helping you sing include:the diaphragm, stomach muscles, the throat, thehead, and the vocal chords. We will also learn how to take care of each part of the singing body parts.



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The Diaphragm/ Stomach Muscles

The two parts inside of your stomach thathelp you sing are your diaphragm and yourstomach muscles. First up is the diaphragm. The

diaphragm is amuscle inside of yourstomach, right below your lungs whichhelp push all of theair out of your lungs.

When you start tosing, you have to take

a lot of air into your lungs. As your running out of air, you have to use your diaphragm to help pushout the rest of the air, like trying to get the rest of the toothpaste out of a tube. To protect thediaphragm, do not yell a lot and try to keep your

voice down, because it can ruin your voice and vocal chords.

Next are the stomach muscles. There’s a big muscle inside of your stomach that you use to helplift up your ribcage, and that help you to get aricher sound. As you imagine the stomach musclebelow your ribcage, it pretty much is a big Tootsie

Roll that wraps around another muscle that causeyour ribcage to be lifted, which causes your singing voice to be richer. To take care of this, pretty



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much just eat more healthy food to keep it inshape.



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The Throat/ Head

The next parts of the body that are used arethe throat and the head. First is the head. Whenyou sing, you sometimes have to use your head

voice to help you get the notes. Sometimesthough, you don’t want to use your head voicebecause sometimes you may have wrong notes andyou’ll sing them instead of your right notes, andthen you’ll want to sing out of your throat andstomach. To take care of your head voice, try notto yell (again), because then you’ll hurt your head.

The throat is really easy to sing from. In fact,

it’s what you will most use when you sing! Whenyou sing with your throat, youhave to be careful. If you sing too high or you’re in the

wrong voice part, like you’rean alto but supposed to be a

soprano, it will damage your vocal chords as well as yourthroat. You’re throat andnotes may get scratchy and

your notes will be wrong. To take care of yourthroat, don’t yell, make sure you’re in the right

voice part, and don’t strain your voice.



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Vocal Chords

Lastly are the vocal chords. These areinside your throat, inside a box-like structure inyour throat. Inside are the muscles that help yousing and talk, such as the vocal chords. These willhelp you to sing, but the same warning goes forthe vocal chords. If you are in the wrong voicepart section, it can ruin your vocal chords and canpermanently damage your vocal chords, unless youfigure it out soon where then you can fix your

voice, but it takes months, sometimes years to fixthem! To take care of your vocal chords, all youhave to do is not strain your throat, because thatleads to your vocal chords, and don’t be in the

wrong voice part like the throat!



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Chapter 4: Different notes, voice parts,and instruments

There are many different things you can do when you are singing. You can add instruments,and there are many different notes and voice partsyou can use.

Tenor and BassFirst are all the different parts, more

specifically, bass, tenor, alto, and soprano. Let’s gointo the basses. The basses are mostly from thebottom of the piano to the 2nd C. The basses cango higher, but when they sing, that’s about as high

as they can go. When they sing, you can hear arumble of their voices, and you can actually feel it!

The basses are best paired with the altos, sincethey are both the lowest of the boys and girls.

The tenors are 3rd C to the 4th C. The tenorscan also go lower and higher, but their rangeconsists between the two C’s. When the tenorssing, you can hear the different notes fromdifferent people. They are best paired withsoprano since they are both the highest of the girlsand boys.



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Soprano and Alto

The altos are from the 5th C to the 6th C. Thealtos are mostly accustomed to singing kind of low, so when you hear them sing, they willsometimes sound like the tenors. When the altosactually sing, you can hear the clash of notes easily since you don’t have a cover up. What I mean by

that is that the basses are so low you can’t evenhear if they have mistakes or not. The sopranossing so high that you can also not hear theirmistakes. As I had said, alto is best paired with thebasses.

The sopranos are the highest of all of the voice parts. They tend to be up from the 6th C tothe top of the piano. (All of the voice parts can goall around the piano, but tend to be in between allthe C’s.) The sopranos can sing pretty much any

note, since mostsopranos can usetheir talking voiceto go as low asthey can. Whenyou start to hearthe sopranos, your

ears will probably start to hurt since they go sohigh. As I have mentioned, they are best paired

with the tenors.



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Instruments

There are many different instruments thatcan be played when you’re singing. These include:the piano, woodwind instruments, and brassinstruments. When I say woodwinds and brass, I

mean instruments suchas: flutes (woodwind)

trumpet (brass) anddrums (rock band.) Youcan also go a-cappella,

which is singing with outpiano or instrumentaccompaniment. You can

also use differentsoundtracks and CD’s to

help you sing instead of having a live instrumentplay for you.

Notes

There are many different notes when yousing. Below are pictures of some of the notes, andhere’s what they are, and here are the definitions.

There is the whole note, which is held for 4 beats,the half note, held for 2 beats, and the quarternote, held for 1 beat. There is also the sixteenth



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note, which is held for 1 ½ beats. This means thatthere is a little dot by the quarter note and that

means when you go to the next note for only ahalf a note. There is also the note that looks liketwo quarter notes connected, and this is held fortwo ½ notes, which can also be pronounced tea-tea to help you. Lastly, there is the note that lookslike there are four quarter notes connected and you

use that note really fast, and it’s usually used toshow the notes are going downward in a quick way.



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Chapter 5: Tips

In these two pages, I will write personal tipsand tips from choir teachers and famous singers tohelp you.

- Do not strain your voice

- Make sure you’re the right voice part

- Do not yell a lot

- Study all of the notes

- Study words

- If you forget the words, fake it by saying,“Rhubarb, rhubarb, watermelon,

watermelon,” over and over again

- Lift up your stomach to sing better

- Practice, practice, practice!

- Develop a natural voice

- Don’t copy accents in your favorite songs

- Sing songs out of your “comfort zone”

- Be emotional

- Listen to criticism and ideas to get better

- Experiment with different genres and typesof music



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Tips (Continued)

- Stay positive

- Control your breathing

- Lift ribcage

- Make your diaphragm push against yourlungs to get more air



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Chapter 6: Top 10’s

(It’s only 2009 because it’s too early in 2010 to tell)

Top 10 Songs of 2009

10: Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo

9: You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift

8: Love Story by Taylor Swift

7: Down by Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne

6: Fireflies by Owl City

5: Right Round by Flo Rida featuring Ke$ha

4: Just Dance by Lady Gaga featuring Colby O’Donis

3: Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas

2: Poker Face by Lady Gaga

1: I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas



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Top 10 Singers of 2009

10: Drake9: Chris Brown

8: Miley Cyrus

7: Michael Jackson

6: Akon

5: Lady Gaga

4: Eminem

3: Taylor Swift

2: Beyonce

1: Lil Wayne



Author Biography

Krista Slaney always wants something to do with the outdoors, and things that are exciting, andlove to play outside. She will write only if she hasto, but she is substantially good at it when she getsstarted. Krista lives in Wilsonville, Oregon on herfarm with her 4 family members, and is obsessed

with the Jonas Brothers. (Ask her anything!) Herfavorite places to go are the beach and the forest,and loves sour stuff, reading, and scary movies!

to sing or not to sing

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