Several reasons to take up vocals now. Articulation and diction in singing

Vocal lessons for beginners are aimed at developing hearing, rhythm and learning the basics musical notation. Only after this does the beginner begin practical exercises, namely breathing control, chanting, etc. In this article you will learn what distinctive feature and what should you generally expect in the first lessons if you are a beginner.

Many people who are planning to take up vocals often put off going to the studio citing some circumstances. Often this happens due to self-doubt and fear of taking the first step in an unknown direction. It is worth remembering that vocal lessons are educational process who turns a beginner into a professional.

Probably, if you are reading this article, then you are just planning to study vocals. I am convinced that you were overcome by thoughts such as: what will happen in the first lesson? I will look ridiculous and in general I will have to sing, but I’m shy. This is normal, but I hasten to reassure you - you won’t be singing for a long time. At least if you study with professionals who know how to work with beginners.

It is worth understanding that vocals for beginners are an area of ​​pedagogy that includes working with various aspects, both the removal of psychological barriers and the development of musicality and voice training. Vocal studio"singing lessons", located in Moscow, has assembled a wonderful teaching staff with extensive experience teaching vocals to both beginners and established vocalists.

How are the first vocal lessons going?

As we already know, when you come to the studio you don't have to sing. You may ask, what then will we do in singing lessons? Vocals are our natural instrument and, as you know, in order for the instrument to sound, it needs to be infused. Actually, this is what you will do closely and diligently with your teacher.

To begin with, you must complete a mandatory short theoretical course, which will allow you to have general idea about the process of singing, how the correct singing sound is produced, what muscles are involved, what sensations you should experience when singing. Vocal lessons for beginners also include work on hearing, solfeggio and rhythm.

After theory, of course you will move on to practice. Usually practical lessons begin with vocal breathing, since the process of singing itself begins with a sigh. Vocal breathing exercises are enjoyable and often fun. All you need is to breathe intensely and rhythmically, forcing your diaphragm to work actively. There are many exercises, including inhaling quickly and exhaling slowly, while the air flow should be evenly distributed throughout the exhalation.

Vocal breathing is the basics (as is commonly believed), but I wouldn’t spend too much time on it. After breathing exercises practice will begin, which will involve specific moos or lip trills with closed mouth The teacher will walk you through the notes in order to warm up your ligaments. It should be remembered that in general our vocal apparatus is a living organism and you must warm up the cords every time before chanting.

After you have warmed up the ligaments well, you will begin chanting. In the first lessons, these chants will be within one octave. Here the teacher will hear how your hearing is going. After this, you will begin to do specific exercises that will help you find your vocal position and direct the air flow into the resonators.

How soon will I be able to sing in class?

As you know, to learn to sing, you need to master singing in the mix and in the head register. It is the head voice that gives birth to both a beautiful, dense lower range and a “juicy” mixed voice, when the head voice and chest voice merge. This is usually the middle of your range. It is the head voice that is the key to vocal success, so the teachers of the "singing lessons" studio spend the most time finding your head voice and strengthening it. It is the upper resonators that will allow you to sing in a balanced manner throughout the entire range without screaming or falling into falsetto.

Until you acquire the technique of singing in the mixed and head registers, there is no point in singing. You will only consolidate mistakes and sing low; when you try to sing higher, you will either sing loudly, increasing the pressure on the ligaments, thereby switching to screaming, or even break into falsetto.

The conclusion can be drawn based on the above. Only after time and only after you acquire and strengthen the skill of singing in the head register, you will develop a mist and develop a strong, balanced chest voice. You will sing freely and connected throughout your entire range. Only after this can you proceed to perform the works. Only when your instrument is tuned in all parts of the range should you move on to singing, this will strengthen your skills and you can work on melismas and riffs, which will give your voice the highest professionalism.

Vocal lessons from Maria Struve: what is it, how does it work, what does it give?

Today I can answer unequivocally with 100% confidence - my vocal lessons, which are based on a working technology for staging and developing the singing voice, are by far the most effective option for vocal lessons and vocal training.

Why "technology"?

Technology is a clear sequence of specific steps, always leading to advance known result. For Maria Struve's vocal technology, this result is your voice, fully developed in its entire range, smooth and powerful. The sound is without dips and “ragged” notes, accurately hitting the notes, correct, natural breathing.

The side effects that we encounter are that the voice does not get tired even after 7 hours of classical vocals! Our teachers and students demonstrate this when they sing, give a 3-hour rehearsal in full voice and the concert almost without interruption, thereby shocking the experienced accompanists.

In the case of vocal training, vocal technology provides three of the most important element both for the vocal teacher and for the student.

This system, this technology of mine, is studied by everyone - both students and teachers - before starting classes. All my students are experts in Maria Struve's vocal technology and they know exactly what the vocals do to them. vocal lessons teacher and why. This is what allows teacher and student to work harmoniously as a team. This is what distinguishes my school from those schools where the vocal teacher tells the student “do this”, “do that”, and he often does not understand at all what is being done to him and what this should lead to.

How is the vocal lesson going?

All my vocal lessons and the vocal lessons of my teachers follow a standard scenario. The teacher guides students through a series of training exercises to develop their voice. During the exercises, the teacher monitors the sound production and progress of each student in the group or his student during individual lessons.

When the maximum result is achieved for this particular exercise, the teacher moves on to the next in the series of exercises. Individual assessment and correction of each student is periodically carried out. The exercises that make up the series contain both exercises for developing the voice, as well as exercises for developing breathing and coordinating body control.

The exercises are the same for everyone

All exercises that make up Maria Struve’s vocal technology are applied equally to all voice types and to any level of voice development. This system of exercises allows your voice to grow upward by a specific amount from any “step” you are on. This is the uniqueness of the technology. Only the intensity differs.

This approach demonstrates complete logic, since, for example, to develop the body you need to gym use a proven system of exercises and the sequence of their implementation. For different states of body development, you use more or less weight. This is natural and no one misunderstands.

It’s the same in vocals, since we develop very specific organs of the same body in order to sing. If any teacher tells you that you need different exercises For different types voice or for different stages of its development, for me this is an indicator that this teacher does not understand something in voice training and vocal teaching. And it's not his fault - it's his problem. Perhaps he was taught that way. Perhaps, during the development of his own methodology, he did not have enough knowledge, time and the number of “experimental” students to simplify his personal method to the level of technology.

If you are such a teacher and want guaranteed results- Come, I’ll help you figure it out. Believe me, you will breathe a sigh of relief and your results will increase enormously.

If you sing professionally or just dream of learning to sing, come and practice. I guarantee you that you will not achieve the same speed and sound quality as mine when studying at any other school. This has been verified.

Competitors

My vocal technology has no competitors today. No one, judging by my observations, has advanced further in the development of voice production techniques than me. Therefore, I am absolutely confident in myself. I am so confident in myself that I tell students:

“Having mastered Maria Struve’s vocal technology, you can study vocals with anyone. Just learn my vocal technology, master the basics of voice production and practice with anyone. Just make sure you do everything right."

When you master the basics of my vocal technology, you will make fewer mistakes with other teachers. In fact, you will do everything correctly, and the teacher will sit on a chair and play along with you. However, those who have tried and understood my vocal technology, even after studying with other teachers, still run to me.

And in most cases, we again repeat the work that has already been done: for whom the voice was clamped, for whom the tops were cut off, for whom we made a dip in the middle of the vocal range, for whom we made the voice “dumb” and “flat”, “pop”, suppressing the richness of overtones that we have so restored to man with difficulty.

Now, with the advent of Maria Struve’s vocal technology, everyone has a choice: study with those who are closer or cheaper or study with me, guaranteed to regain their real, natural, rich, beautiful voice, which flies and rings, which is not with anything confuse. Which brings joy not only to others, but also to its owner.

Which when it sounds, when you fall under its wave of aesthetic creation of the sound of a real living voice, you actually understand what they mean when they say “the soul sings.”

NOW THERE IS A CHOICE AND IT IS YOURS!

Yours
Maria Struve

Initial vocal lessons with students.

The initial period of classes with a student, and especially the first lesson, is a very crucial moment for the leader. The fate of further lessons often depends on how you manage to conduct the first lesson.

The first classes are not only educational. They deepen familiarity with the student: both with his voice and with his mental makeup. These lessons reveal individual mental and character traits: the student’s activity in the classroom, his receptivity to skills and activities, memory, ability to gather and maintain attention, volitional qualities of character, such as perseverance and self-confidence.

As a result of such a detailed acquaintance, an individual plan of work with the student is drawn up (along with the development of general, necessary voice formation skills, methodological ways to eliminate the negative features of voice formation are outlined, as well as an individual approach to the student’s personality).

Lessons for beginners should be short-term, if possible daily. The voice should be developed at the beginning in the central part of the range, starting from the most favorable-sounding vowels on the primary sounds, using moderate voice strength. To properly organize the work, it is necessary to examine the voice apparatus by a phoniatrist. A visit to a doctor and his assessment of the structure of the vocal apparatus can be useful in determining the type of voice that is characteristic of to this student. Diagnosis of voice type is one of important tasks the first period of work with the student.

Training sessions one should begin by organizing the preconditions for voice formation - by establishing correct position heads and bodies. To do this, you need to ensure that the singer’s posture is natural - so that he stands straight without tension, pushing his shoulders back, slightly raising his chest and arching his lower back. The head should not be tilted down or thrown back.

Vocal formation is immediately preceded by inhalation; it largely determines exhalation. If inhalation is carried out through movement (protrusion) of the abdominal wall while the chest is at rest, then exhalation will occur due to movements of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. The same is true when inhaling into the upper chest - exhalation in this case will be carried out mainly by the muscles of this area. Inhalation can be regulated consciously and therefore its organization must be given Special attention. After this, it is necessary to achieve a silent and fairly calm inhalation, characteristic of lower costal-abdominal breathing.

Next pedagogical task is to organize the desired sound attack. This is usually a soft attack. We must remember about an individual approach in choosing an attack, depending on the student’s voice formation. The main thing is to ensure that the attack is clear, so that the singer picks up the sound immediately, without “entries” and overtones, as if “from above.” Training such an attack can be helped by exercises onstaccato. Taking the sound “from above” is associated with the installation of the oropharynx in the half-yawn position.

At the beginning of training, correctly organized inhalation and attack of sound are moments of paramount importance, since they largely determine the character of the sound.

Together with the presentation of sound, they master the ability to sing, to draw out the sound at approximately equal sound intensity (mezzoforte). Thus, the elementary skills of uniform exhalation, respiratory support and the skill of cantilena singing based on it are instilled. For this purpose, primitive exercises are usedlegatoon several nearby sounds.

Already in the first lessons, it is necessary to sharpen the student’s auditory attention to changes in the timbre coloring of the singing sound. First, the student will identify the most general properties sound, such as rounded and unrounded sound, the place of its greatest resonance. Then auditory perception and assessments will become increasingly complex. The student will be able to determine whether the sound is sufficiently or excessively rounded, how it sounds - in a high or low position, whether it is bright, etc. Along with the appreciation of sound, a critical attitude towards it will also develop.

The ability to hear various features of a singing sound, approach them critically and recognize from these features how the vocal apparatus works is usually called vocal hearing.

Cultivating the ability to hear subtly and navigate the sound of a singer - cultivating a highly developed vocal ear - is the main link of the entire educational process.

And from the very beginning to create favorable conditions vocal skills, the student must first of all be taught to hear himself well, the peculiarities of his sound.

In the initial period, the main auditory criteria are formed, the foundation is laid for the assessment of vocal sound, on which not only vocal-technical, but also artistic education singer

A little girl holds a comb in her hands instead of a microphone and sings in front of the mirror, imagining herself as a pop diva - do you recognize yourself as a child in this funny singer? After all, you wanted to be at least a little like the stars? If you still want to, welcome to female vocal lessons, and then to the stage!

It doesn’t matter how old you are - 20 or 60, it’s never too late to learn to sing. Of course, work and family life take a lot of time and effort. But if you regularly devote at least a couple of hours a week to a new hobby, your efforts will be crowned with success and those around you will certainly appreciate the results.

Why should you choose vocals?

• Having learned to perform your favorite hits on professional level, you will definitely become a star in the company of friends. Not a single party with a feast, not a single trip to a karaoke club can do without you - after all, a woman who sings is always at the center of attention and it is very difficult to outshine her. In a word, singing is a godsend for those who seek to bring brightness, novelty into life and develop self-confidence.
• Even a novice singer with a certain level of training can please loved ones an unusual gift- a spectacular solo number. Imagine: it’s your loved one’s birthday, friends and relatives have gathered. And, unexpectedly - bright surprise- you go on stage and perform a tender, heartfelt song that gives everyone present goosebumps!
• You won't just learn how to sing correctly - vocal lessons will transform your voice, making it melodic, sonorous, and deep. And this is very important, because a pleasant voice is an integral part feminine attractiveness. Effect of stylish clothes and a well-groomed appearance can come to naught if the lady “sounds” ugly. Fortunately, every woman has the power to seduce with a charming timbre, but for this she needs to strengthen vocal cords with the help of special exercises, learn to breathe correctly.

“Developing” a voice is a delicate matter and requires individual approach, therefore, it is better to entrust it to professionals. A vocal teacher can easily select techniques that are suitable for a particular person. You are required to diligently attend classes and follow all recommendations.

How are vocal lessons conducted?

To begin, decide in what musical direction you will develop your skills. Various studios offer clients to master both classical and modern technology singing. For example, at Maria Deeva’s school, students can choose between academic and pop, as well as jazz and rock vocals.

First lesson in music studio- free, so you have nothing to lose. At the first half-hour lesson, get acquainted with the teacher and immediately start learning to sing - no long preparations or boring theory! The task of teachers is to help beginners overcome psychological barrier and show what they are capable of. As a result, the lessons are interesting and rich in content. Vocal intricacies are taught in a creative, lively and relaxed atmosphere. If you have children, you can also sign them up for classes - the studio teachers will find an approach to little fidgets and will open them for girls and boys amazing world music.

My name is Maria. I'm 28. Six months ago I realized that I was afraid to sing. And it was strange. After all, I sang to everyone school holidays, friendly gatherings and anniversaries of relatives.

First lesson

I'm afraid to sing

As a child, I sang at all school holidays, and later, when I grew up, at friendly gatherings and family feasts. I have hearing, a pleasant voice and unsmoked ligaments. I also remember the inexplicable state of bliss from singing in a choir, where forty fragile timbres were combined into one, strong and magical. I have always liked singing, because it is as natural for a person as sleeping or eating. And then suddenly - psychological pressures, fears and the feeling that some important part of you is broken, out of order. And one could spit, get drunk and forget. But I began to follow the rule: if you are afraid, go for fear! There you will encounter something important.

Fear made me think about vocal lessons. I turned on word of mouth and searched on social networks professional teachers. If I didn't like the singing of a potential teacher, even a super-duper-deserving one, my search continued.
Then I remembered about a friend who works at a music school for adults and called her.
“Dasha,” I say “Do you have a teacher who also has the abilities of a psychologist?”

It turned out that there was such a person. Moreover, I can go to my first free lesson and get to know the teacher. It would be stupid not to take advantage of the situation!

And so I came to school. While I'm waiting in the wings, I look with pleasure at the cozy interior of the school, sip tea with crackers - they always serve hot tea here. I meet 14-year-old Zabava, who is waiting for her violin lesson. Interesting, much smarter than many of her peers, she told how happy she was when she learned about the existence music school for adults. At her age, they are already finishing their music school.

While we are chatting with Zabava, I hear one of the students singing and screaming outside the door and I think that in 10 minutes I will be howling in the same way, scaring away the crows outside the window. And I'm overcome with awkwardness.

My time has come. I walk into a charming purple room (I would stay in one like this). Meeting teacher Anara Aripovna ComplexLastName:)). She immediately asks what I want and what goal I am pursuing. I honestly lay everything out, like this and that, I want to remove the clamps.

Let's start listening. We follow the standard chord ladder. Literally from the first seconds, I was surprised to discover that the embarrassment I had just experienced had almost disappeared. I think about Zabava, sitting on a comfortable sofa outside the classroom door and weaving a bauble for her friend’s birthday, that she hears my unproduced voice, but for some reason this does not frighten me (I am even pleased with her invisible presence).

The first thing I realized was that I Can sing! All that remains is to awaken these dormant forces.

Second - me Want sing! This process brings me inexplicable pleasure. And may I not become the new “grandmother of rock and roll”, like Janis Joplin or Patti Smith.

And the third thing that caught my attention was the teacher. When Anara Aripovna started hitting my back with her fists (it didn’t hurt, of course!), I realized: this woman knows what she’s doing. I am a journalist who worked on radio, and I know that the voice does not exist on its own, and the speech apparatus does not work separately from the whole body. Actors, journalists, and politicians spend a long time learning to breathe correctly, relax their muscles, and speak with their chest. If you are scared and tense, your voice will become flat, sound higher, unnatural and false. It is not the bundles that need to speak, but the guts. Anyone who has seen the film “The King's Speech” will understand what I mean. And he will understand why this mini-massage session during the vocal lesson made me so happy.

And when I also took the D sharp of the second octave without much difficulty, a green light appeared for me above the sign of the “Virtuosi” music school. (Actually, D sharp of the second octave is not high at all. But even in the choir I never dared to climb there).

Fifteen minutes was enough for me trial lesson to use your last money to buy a subscription for 8 classes. I will keep a diary about how I am taught to sing again. I will describe my feelings from lesson to lesson.

Lesson two

Turn off your head

“It’s an amazing picture,” says Anara Aripovna, “in Russia girls have masculine energy. They live not with their hearts, but with their heads.”

And it is true. I analyze too much instead of just doing and having fun. But you can’t sing with your head.

Well, you can't.

Well, that's not possible.

I have always been a prudent and obedient child. And my mother couldn’t be happier with the A’s in the diary and the fact that I did everything as I was told. Only occasionally did the self-control program fail. Then the teachers were perplexed how the best student could pour out a bucket of dirty water from a third floor window. But similar stories happened very rarely.

And so reverse side self-control - I can’t turn off my head during vocal lessons. I analyze how the “E” of the second octave sounds today and how it sounded in the last lesson. I analyze how my teacher reacts and think about what is expected of me. I even think about whether a performer needs to think while singing... What a horror! Brrr))

Once my friends and I were at a piano concert by Misha Luzin. And a girl sang with him. Pretty, with a high clear voice, everything seems cool, but something is wrong.

What's wrong, Marus? - Lisa asks me (a St. Petersburg nugget, author and rap artist '21 from Pushkin).

Let him feel sorry for himself, I say. - She thinks too much about whether the public will like her. And therefore he protects himself, does not give himself completely to feelings.

(Haha. I'm facing the same problem a couple of months later).

The more I think and control myself, the worse I sing. It amazes me every time.

Lesson three

Breathe

The first thing you hear in vocal lessons is the phrase “to sing well, you need to breathe correctly.” Doesn't it sound strange? How can you breathe incorrectly?

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that almost everything "wrong" in life is something I do unconsciously. How will I learn to sing if I don’t understand how sound is created? If I don’t know that the air inside me can not only saturate the cells with oxygen, but can also become a strong core, a support for the song that I will sing in a minute. Being aware of your breathing is really very important. But how many of us think about the things that happen in our body by themselves?

Fortunately, in different time and in different situations I had to be aware of breathing:

• when I was freediving (they explained to me that there is always more air in your lungs than you think, and if you know this, you can stay under water much longer);
• when diving into the sea with scuba gear (here, on the contrary, you must breathe continuously, in no case should you hold your breath)
• I’m not even talking about my recent experience of Vipassana meditation, where for the first few days you learn to only recognize the breath as something natural, constant, real. Only after this are you able to concentrate your attention on the material shell - the body.

Since the days of children's music school, I knew that the singer breathes not from the chest, but from the diaphragm. This muscle separates the abdominal cavity from the chest cavity, and our lungs “sit” on it. When we inhale, the diaphragm drops a couple of centimeters, and then the lungs expand. So, if you train your diaphragm, learn to keep it in good shape, then “the tone will be in you”, and you will sing beautifully :))

A funny cause-and-effect relationship: if the diaphragm begins to contract involuntarily (when we don’t specifically want it) - we begin to hiccup, if we consciously control our diaphragm - we sing beautifully.

Proper breathing provides maximum psychological relaxation. Then there is no room for many clamps.

Sometimes during vocal lessons I make a mistake - I take in a lot of air, even though I take it in with my stomach. And now I feel like a ball that has eaten too much heavy food. Oddly enough, if there is too much air, this is also bad - again, clamps may appear (too much effort is spent on keeping the air inside). If you breathe not with your diaphragm, but top part lungs, then this will be the so-called “clavicular breathing” - in this case the shoulders rise and the neck is blocked. By the way, women predominantly breathe with their chests, and men, with their stomachs, it just so happens physiologically.

Professional singers take years to learn to breathe! When I think about it, I get a little scared. But I have something inspiring in store:) Even if I was not born Luciano Pavarotti, I will still learn to sing well. And everyone can learn, despite different capabilities, voice devices and clamps. Everyone has breathing. It's time to just start realizing it...

Lesson four

Forget about the ceiling

At the next vocal lesson at Virtuosi, the teacher notices how my tightness is reflected in my body. Sometimes I tilt my head to the side a little before I hit a higher note. Sometimes I “draw” an imaginary staircase with my hand, but it still turns out to be below my capabilities.

“Masha, imagine that there is an endless sky above you, and not a layer of white plaster,” says Anara Aripovna. I undoubtedly believe her, but I continue to rest my head against my own psychological ceiling.

When did he appear? I can't say for sure. I built up a little bit, year after year, with each new disappointment.

For example, I remember how, in 8th grade, I couldn’t jump over the bar for the first time in a physical education lesson (scientifically, this is called a “running high jump”). I always jumped like a saiga, but that autumn something happened. And the 75-centimeter-high plank turned into the Great Wall of China. Why did this happen?

It seems that that summer I forced myself to stop loving. The first one is real and very strong love was strangled by the first pride. The protocol says: “Eldar L., being in the same detachment with me summer camp"S.", suggested to my best friend Lenke A. friendship for ten days.”

Ceilings, walls, planks - everything will have to be destroyed in order to start singing. The funniest thing is that I will destroy these barriers with the help of singing. For this there is Anara Aripovna, special exercises and my realization that “our roof is the blue sky”)))

Let me go and sing “with a smile” (this is one of the techniques for loosening centuries-old arches).