Balancing Practice and Performance

ailano

I currently work as the resident acoustic guitarist/vocalist for a large well known British company.
I also duet with a pianist and join in with their Frankie Valli and the four seasons show!
My repertoire is around 350 songs and include pop and rock tunes formt he 50's till present day.

My range is F2 - G5 However sounds weak starting around F#4

I am finding it difficult to get the balance right between practicing in the day times and still being on top form for my performances on an evening.

I find just as Ken says that my voice in naturally ready to warm up right on cue around 7pm as that is the time I usually warm up and have done for the last year.

I feel some fatigue when I practice the course for the designated hour in the daytime and so have been only doing some of the exercises or doing them all softly as it feels un natural singing at that time.

The reason I got the course was to work on my belt and to open up/clarify my top register. The techniques are helping and I can feel and hear an improvement in my voice however when I try to practice the high stuff it does fatigue me.
I suppose just like a runner who has to run 3 miles a night might run that 3 miles slower if he ran 1 mile on the morning.


My question is, has anyone got any ideas for getting the most out of the course whilst also maintaining a proffessional and entertaining repertoire on an evening.

Thank you

Ryan

highmtn

Ryan,

The one hour per day minimum is going to be different for you, since you already are singing every day for a considerable amount of time. You need to give yourself some time to add this additional workout time to your regular job of singing as well. You will gradually be able to do this just fine, especially after you have made your way through most of the course and have begun to implement some of the techniques that are taught to cut back the air and preserve your voice.

In the meantime, you will need to pace yourself and only add to your workload at your singing job as you are able. You are right about the runner who adds an extra mile or two earlier in the day and then has to run a race.

Ken's methods should actually begin to add to your stamina, but that takes time to build up. For now, you should be doing most of the exercises lightly, so that you don't fatigue yourself, because you still have to perform just about every day. You'll have to figure out the best balance of how this will all work out for your particular case.

The longer you work Ken's program, the stronger your voice will become. Just be cautious, and err to undersing on the exercises rather than oversing, and allow your voice time to adapt and grow. As your strength, range, stamina, and tone begin to build, you will be able to handle workouts that will have your evening work feeling even more robust than ever. When you begin to notice that some workouts are very challenging, that is a good time to pull back a little bit and lighten up, just for the sake of staying away from the point of fatigue or oversinging.

If you can maintain a good balance, you will find the optimum strategy for both growth AND maintenance of your voice as you go through these phases of strengthening and training your voice.

If you can plan your workout to be just before you do your occupational singing, that may help to get the timing cycles more into sychronization so that it becomes a warmup for your gig as well as a workout for your growth.

All the Best.

Bob

ailano

Hi Bob,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I'll continue to take it easy and perhaps assign some more time to my main warm ups. I'll try and alter my voices body clock to wake up a little earlier and have a more gentle but thorough warmup that includes more of Ken's teaching.

I guess naturally the results are going to be slower with me as I do have other vocal commitments, I'll get round to uploading a video for a critique eventually!

Thanks for your time,

Ryan