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Releasing while engaging

Letting go while connecting

Optimal singing involves many complex adjustments and conditions. Like many skill sets, singing, when fully functional, feels effortless and extremely enjoyable. Getting into that “zone” of vocal freedom can be a lifetime quest for those who are not naturally coordinated for singing.

The muscles involved in using our singing voices are not visible. The muscles for the hands when playing the piano are. This makes the singing process even more challenging. The voice muscles respond only indirectly from the proper stimuli. We don’t hear ourselves in quite the same way as do others, and we use our instruments, our voices, for constant communication in our daily lives. Our personalities, experiences, psychological and social factors, and more impact our daily usage habits.

Clearly some people are more naturally coordinated for singing than others. Hence, the term “natural singer” we hear so much. Most people can learn optimal vocal function if they apply themselves over time. Singers can learn the dual coordinative dance required in most complex skills. They can learn to simultaneously “let go” and “connect.” They can learn to correctly coordinate the muscles of the voice in order to create freedom of vocal tone. They can learn to do this at the same time as releasing the muscles that impede this freedom.

This balance feels great, even easy, when discovered and implemented. It can be challenging, though, to find. It’s like hitting the sweet spot of a tennis ball to ace a serve. Imagine a tennis player who sets up for an amazing one. If he or she even slightly tenses the wrong muscles, then the otherwise smooth, seemingly effortless coordination fails. If the player tightens muscles that stiffen the arm instead of letting it flow freely, or fails to engage the muscles of the core that provide the power needed to deliver the serve, the serve can fail. The serve can fail for either reason: tensing the wrong muscles or not engaging the right ones.

When a vocal critic says, “just relax” that’s only half right. Or if someone says, “you need to sing out, or support more,” that’s also only part of the answer as well. It’s a “yin and yang” dance that must happen constantly and simultaneously. This repeats itself for every note sung, on every vowel, on every phrase of a song. The audience then experiences a consistent thing of beauty which appears effortless and seamless.

Coordinating letting go and connecting properly characterizes beautiful singing. It does not matter whether someone naturally has this coordination or gains it over years of study. The principles of good singing are universal and can be learned. For most of us, however, finding this “zone” of optimal vocal functioning, applying it, and maintaining it is a significant commitment over time. Even very fine natural singers who sing professionally take instruction to improve and maintain their skills.

For these reasons, it is critically important for a singer to take regular voice lessons with a competent and compatible professional. To sing optimally and naturally, singers must also perform applied consistent personal practice. When the singer practices and maintains these skills, the voice can function at a very high level for a lifetime.

A voice student learns how to “let go” of (yin) all unnecessary tensions that impede optimal function while properly using and coordinating (yang) the muscles that need to work to engage the voice in optimal function. Singers can be too tied in knots with tensions. These are not always easy to unwind. Others may be generally relaxed, but uncoordinated in their bodies, when the complex muscles needed to work in tandem are not engaged. Roughly speaking, there are the under-doers and the over-doers, and various combinations thereof. So it’s a process of balancing and rebalancing the “yin and yang” of singing.

I have taught voice professionally for over thirty years. I have noted across the board that these are the two main issues impeding voice students. When these are properly addressed, conditions for rapid improvement and even optimal vocal function can be created.

Upcoming, I will discuss the four things that my current teacher and colleague Dorothy Stone shared with me. We have control over these as singers and we need to engage and develop them: correct pitch, intensity of tone, vowel integrity, and proper balance of register adjustments on each note of the range. For the voice student to learn to sing at his or her natural best, these keys of fine singing must be addressed with a professional competent voice teacher.

In the meantime, when it doubt, “let go” and “engage with energy.” Use the yin and yang of singing. And as my late voice teacher, Dr. Thomas Houser, used to say: “Singing is energy in motion, stimulated by emotion.”

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Below are two group photos from the recital.

Related Blog Posts: Event: Studio Recital Spring 2019, Practical Tips for Beautiful Singing, Voice Matters: “Are there shortcuts to achieving my vocal potential?”

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A record number of students from Ballard Music Studio will perform in the Spring Studio Recital on Saturday, June 1st, 2019. Twenty-one students will participate.

The annual spring recital will take place in the lovely sanctuary chapel of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. It will begin at 1:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The church is located at 6050 N. Meridian Street.

Students from ages five to over seventy will participate. They will represent many musical genres. Singers will perform standards from the “Great American Songbook”, classical art songs, opera arias, and musical theatre pieces. Also, there will be pop songs and possibly a mariachi song.

This recital is the largest ever put on by Ballard Music Studio. In fact, Part I, featuring newer students, starts at 1:00 pm. Part II, featuring veteran Studio students, starts at 2:30 pm.

Recital Program (PDF Download)

Related Blog Posts: Practical Tips for Beautiful Singing, Voice Matters: “Are there shortcuts to achieving my vocal potential?”

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Ballard Music Studio singers included a soprano, two baritones, and a mezzo soprano (a former student). All sang at or near the best I’ve ever heard them, with two of them giving their Harmonie Opera debuts.

This was a duo-opera event, highlighting well-known arias from two of the most performed in the repertoire: Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.  These famous operas share characters but have different story lines and musical settings.

One member said this was the best Harmonie Opera performance in recent memory. I had a great time accompanying my students and singing an aria myself! Looking forward to next season!

Harmonie Opera Club performances take place at North United Methodist Church (Chapel) in Indianapolis. And, they are always free and open to the public.  Performances are once a month (September through April) on Saturdays (usually the third one) at 1:00 pm, lasting about one hour. More information can be found in the Harmonie Opera Club Facebook group.  Currently, about ten students from Ballard Music Studio are active performing members of Harmonie Opera.

Related Blog Posts: Event: Ballard Music Studio Students in Harmonie Opera Performance – 27 April 2019, Practical Tips for Beautiful Singing, Voice Matters: “Are there shortcuts to achieving my vocal potential?”

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The final performance of the 2018-2019 season will be presented on Saturday, April 27th at 1:00 pm at North United Methodist Church in the chapel.

Excerpts from two operas, The Barber of Seville by Rossini and The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, will be performed.

The public is invited, free of charge. The program will last about an hour. Light refreshments will be served afterwards.

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Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Her eye caught the voice anatomy chart behind the piano. So, I took it out and explained all about the vocal folds (function, location, etc.).

People usually don’t even notice that chart, but she was super interested in it. Then, she wanted to doodle on the piano a bit (a lot actually). And, when she found out I had a cat in the house and a daughter upstairs, she insisted on meeting them both, which she did.

She ended up singing happy birthday to Julia. Oliver hissed at her, but he always does that with new people.

At the end of the lesson, I asked her to sing the Do Re Mi scale again. She did, with no aid from the piano, and rendered it perfectly in C Major.

I’d say, all in all, it was a successful first voice lesson.

That new student was a delightful and eager FOUR year-old!

Solfege Peg People photo credit, Mindy King, LittlePicklepotamus on Etsy. Used with permission. Product link:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/122456534/solfege-peg-people-music-toys.

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We usually don’t spend too much time on the first question because they’re not really there for therapy, although it’s important to establish a good rapport and feel relaxed before singing (our voice is a very personal part of us). Sometimes people do just need to talk things out before starting to sing. Like good counselors, voice teachers need to be empathetic and effective listeners.

I get varying answers to the second question, but what my most productive and quickly progressing students share is how they applied the principles I’m about to discuss. The reasons for these principles are simple: as singers we want to maximize the results for the efforts we put forth. We want to enjoy our practice as much as possible, so that we will be more likely to repeat it and make it a daily part of our lives. Remember, it takes about 21 days to make something we do a habit.

So, what are the principles of mindful daily practice? Three of the basic principles are contained in the phrase, “mindful daily practice.” That is: 1) being in touch (mindful, focused, intentional); 2) daily (every day, regular, as opposed to sporadic, or only once or twice a week); and 3) practice (as opposed to just singing through music without taking it apart, analyzing and working on the details of what’s happening; the development of any performance skill requires technical drills and specific exercises designed for improving the skill)

Three Habits for Success as a Singer

In a nutshell, what will help voice students progress most efficiently and effectively are doing the following:

1. Practicing daily (skipping one day a week is okay, but practice should be consistent and regular)
2. Practicing mindfully (with focused attention and intention on the task, not mindlessly, or while multitasking)
3. Practicing technical skills (as opposed to just running through songs)

Practicing Daily

Daily routines can be powerful, especially when it’s something as life-giving and enjoyable as the act of singing, or in this case, practicing skills in singing.  Breathing for singing helps us feel better. Voice exercises help regulate our breath, activating our vocal cords help us prepare for the day both with our speaking and singing voice. I know of no better way to start the day than to vocalize — practice some vocal exercises to both warm up and develop vocal skill.  It’s invigorating both physically and in other ways.

Practicing Mindfully

As in meditation, we focus deliberately on the breath and on slowing down to observe what’s happening.  In singing, we are able to affect change best when we slow down and deliberately and objectively observe what’s happening with our voices. In all the areas that impact fine singing, we must focus. These include posture/breath, tone production as the breath vibrates the vocal cords, tone enhancement as the tone is amplified in the resonators, clear articulation of vowels and consonants for effective understanding, and applying expressive choices based on our understanding of the music and text for authentic interpretation.

Singers make much faster progress when they look at EXACTLY what is happening in each of these areas and focus 100% on the task at hand. In a multi-tasking world, this can be an opportunity for slowing down and doing quality work on a single task.  Vocalizing with intention and mindfulness daily can be a wonderful way to center one’s voice, mind, and body.

Practicing Technical Skills

Along with mindfulness, it’s important to “vocalize.” That is, to do specific vocal exercises daily. Not only just to warm up, but to develop the voice so it can handle all the musical demands that a song or aria require. I usually vocalize my students, especially beginning and developing singers, for at least half the time of the lesson before we start applying it to a song.  You can think of vocalizing like thoroughly studying and practicing your golf swing. Or, hitting balls on a driving range mindfully aware of what you’re doing and what needs to improve. This is done, of course, prior to playing a round of golf. Doing specific weight training exercises before entering a body building contest is another example.

As developing singers (until we reach our performance level goals), we spend MOST of our time developing our instrument so that when we do apply these skills to singing a piece of music, we are able to perform it at the highest level with all the technical and interpretive choices that a trained singer can make.  One of the signs of a great singer is that it appears effortless and sounds consistent in quality and delivery.  It’s a fallacy to think of singers as “just natural” (as someone who was just “born to sing like that” and “who doesn’t think about it or work on it”).  Natural sounding singers who perform at a high level are singers who have developed technique over years of practice.  The best athletes make it look easy, but it represents years of repetition of drills and skill practice, trial an error, and mindful daily practice.

One of the goals of exceptional singing is to make the difficult feel and sound easy. This can only happen when we do the simple things well first, build on that, practicing daily, mindfully, and with attention to technical and musical details!

Study Voice

And lastly, for optimal development, it is imperative that singers study voice (take regular voice lessons) with a highly skilled and knowledgeable voice teacher. Singers need a voice teacher/coach who is both effective and with whom they can connect well. This voice teacher should be one who guides them in building technical and musical skills, and to grow more confident and knowledgeable as singers. Mindful daily practice can be far more productive with professional guidance!

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Letting Go — Letting the Air Flow

My undergraduate voice teacher used to say this all the time: “When in doubt, blow it out!” What she meant was that when things don’t feel certain, the best way to release the tone is by letting the air freely flow out, and to not hold back or be too controlling when releasing tone.

Another one is “The higher you go the more you blow.” These really have to do with energy and support, but the catchy phrases are easy to remember and useful as a reminder that it takes more energy to sing high notes and it takes free flow of air in general to free up the natural sound.

I have both under-doers and over-doers in my studio, but the vast majority of the new students who come into my studio are “under-doers.” That is, they are not using ENOUGH energy to sing. Therefore, they are not activating the CORE sound that is the most natural and beautiful tone they can produce.

These catch phrases work well in helping them understand that it REQUIRES lots of deep support (diaphragmatic/abdominal support) in balance with breath control (how much air is released when singing). Many singers who are new to vocal study do not realize how much athletic energy it takes and how much whole body connection is required to access their full voices. This is a big part of what we do in initial lessons: work on getting them CONNECTED to their bodies for support and letting the air flow out more completely when they sing.

If you have trouble accessing the support needed for full voice singing, try the following exercises:

• Hiss out strongly and feel what it happening in your abdominal area; or,
• Roll your r’s if you can (on sound) and feel the abdominals working; or,
• Do lip trills and feel the abdominals working.

All three of these exercises require the abdominals to work AND air flow to be released (not held back). This is what should be felt when singing tone on vowels. I often have students to trills or hisses, notice the feeling of support low and air flow through the mouth, then immediately sing on a phrase, either a vocalize or a phrase of a song, and try to feel the same connection and flow.

So, remember, “when it doubt, blow it out!”

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Tenor and Guitar

In Recital

April 21 – Ball State University (Choral Hall, Music Instruction Bldg) 7:30 pm

April 29 – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Indianapolis) 7:30 pm

Jeffrey Ballard

Lyric Tenor

Jeffrey Ballard has appeared in operas, recitals, and as soloist with orchestras throughout much of the United States and in Italy. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has described him as “a rich tenor, with a delightful flair for comedy as well as for singing.” He has performed principal operatic roles with Chattanooga Opera, Eugene Opera of Oregon, Southeastern Savoyards of Atlanta, Rome Festival Opera, Operafestival di Roma, Southern Light Opera of Mississippi, Opera in the Ozarks of Arkansas, Crossroads Opera of Indiana, and most recently, Harmonie Opera of Indianapolis. He was twice selected nationally as Artist Fellow to the Bach Aria Festival of New York and was among twelve professors selected for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Intern Program held at Penn State University in 1997. As a frequent duo partner with guitarist Paul Reilly, Ballard has given numerous recitals nationally and regionally, including at Harvard University and Vanderbilt University.  He has had extensive training both as a singer and pianist and holds three degrees in vocal performance.  Ballard has studied with some of the finest voice teachers in the nation, including Mollie Rich, David Holley, former Met soprano Inge Manski-Lundeen, Karen Brunssen, and for many years with Dr. Thomas Houser, who was internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest teachers of singing.

Dr. Ballard has trained hundreds of singers over the past thirty years while serving on six music school faculties, including full-time positions as Director of Opera at Susquehanna University, Western Oregon University, and Ball State University. He now devotes his professional time primarily to Ballard Music Studio (which he founded in 2004), with studios in Muncie and Indianapolis. He trains singers of all levels and ages, with students ranging in age from seven to late seventies. He focuses on technique and the creative process, tailoring lessons to each student’s unique gifts and goals, while instilling the art of bel canto (beautiful singing). Many of Dr. Ballard’s students have won competitions and are performing professionally and avocationally in a wide array of genres across the country, as well as teaching at universities, secondary schools, and privately throughout the United States. More information about Dr. Ballard and his studio can be found at ballardmusicstudio.com. Jeff resides in Muncie with his teenage children, Julia and Max.

Paul Reilly

Classical Guitarist

Classic guitarist Paul Reilly is professor and director of the Ball State University, School of Music, Classic Guitar Ensemble since 1970. He received the Bachelor of Music degree from De Paul University in 1969 and the Master of Music degree from Ball State University in 1972. Both degrees are with a major in composition. During his undergraduate years he studied guitar privately with Richard Pick, a noted American Classic Guitarist and performed regularly in Chicago for the Chicago Guitar Society and appeared several times on WTTW, Chicago Public Television. Reilly has also spent two summers in Spain where he studied at the International Summer Music Academy with Gabriel Estarellas. He received, from the Academy, an Excellence in Performance Diploma and an Excellence in Study Diploma. He has also studied with Pepe Romero, Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Michael Lorimar and received from Romero a distinguished performer certificate. He has toured extensively in Taiwan, finishing his ninth tour this past October 2011 with five solo concerts, master classes and lectures. The China News described him as a “dynamic performer with a solid technique and excellent musical taste.” He was one of the founding members of the Indiana Society of the Guitar.

He has presented performances of Leo Brouwer’s Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra, and the Indiana premieres of Claude Bolling’s Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Trio and Picnic Suite for Flute, Guitar and Jazz Trio. He has also performed the Midwest Premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Soliloquy III for Guitar and Chamber Ensemble and in California he has done Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Napa Symphony. He also premiered Garland Anderson’s Sonata for Guitar and Anderson’s Five Studies for Guitar. He has also performed in New York City as soloist for the Composers Concordance and as a duo performer with Professor Maureen Miller, mezzo-soprano. As ”Duo Elegante” with Professor George Wolfe he has performed at Interlochen Summer Music Academy and at the Chautauqua Institute in New York and as a Duo partner with Assistant Professor Jeffrey Ballard he has performed at Harvard University as part of the Music at Noon for the Cambridge Music Society. Reilly has recently performed Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto in D Major with the Ball State University Orchestra. His solo performances include the cities of Chicago, Portland, Dallas, and Indianapolis. 

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