Steve Burks

One of the things that makes it hard to take up music as an adult is time limitations. Kids, work, relatives, personal business, etc. We think we don’t have time, but what we really mean is – we don’t have uninterrupted time.

The fact is, you don’t need large blocks of time to improve as a musician. Small ones will do, as long as they add up over time. So instead of focusing on the clock to measure your progress, focus on how many repetitions you perform, of an exercise, scale, passage, etc. I use tally marks on a piece of paper (very low-tech!).

For example, if I need to learn a scale, but I have a busy day with a lot of flitting here and there involved, I simply leave the sheet of paper and a pen next to my instrument. Whenever I play the scale correctly, I mark the paper. Some days I might only mark the sheet once, while other days I might get 20 marks in before having to step out. But it’s the same sheet of paper, and at the end of the week I can see what has accumulated.

The how-many approach is like saving a little money here and there. It seems like nothing, until you check your balance at the end of the year. The tally sheet holds your balance.

Steve Burks is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Currently, he’s a vocalist and keyboardist in the International House of Blues Foundation’s “Blues School House,” a live musical presentation for 5th through 12th graders that traces the history of blues music and its influence on other forms of contemporary music.

There are no shortcuts to sight reading. It's simply a high-level reading skill that takes practice. Image: Guitarist Dave Illig with cute music stand.

I receive many questions on sight reading. The implication is that it is a special skill with tricks. The reality is that sight reading is nothing but a high level of reading.

Guitar players are infamous for their lack of reading skills. Starting with sight reading is akin to wanting to go for your Doctorate before your Bachelor’s degree. Reading on the guitar encompasses the following skills:

• Note Recognition and Execution
• Note Location
• Fingering Solutions
• Rhythm Recognition and Execution
• Ability to follow the “Roadmap” – a series of written instructions that moves you from one section of a piece to another and indicates something of the interpretation of the piece.

Putting these together is reading. Putting these together without preparation – just as you would read a book or magazine – that’s sight reading!

Ed. Note: Read some great tips to help you get started with sight reading here. And read more on the topic of reading music and guitar players:

• With Practice, Reading Music Becomes Like Reading Words
• Reading Roman Numerals on Lead Sheets
• Note to Guitar Players: Learn the Notes on the Neck
• Guitar Tab Too Limited

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan.

Judy Rodman

Using your voice requires something you may not have considered: courage. Here is a list of questions to help you determine your level of courage. Are you brave enough to:

• Commit to the connection to your audience?

This means you would actually “look ‘em in the eye” so to speak — not just go through the motions or hold back in an insecure, guarded stance — but actually focus your communication like an icepick to move them emotionally.

• Allow a real part of yourself to become known?

To effectively connect, your audience needs to be able to tell that you are really with them. This requires that you truly give them a glimpse of at least part of who you are. There is a time to guard yourself… being onstage is not one of those times.

A consultation with a media expert or performance coach will help you determine what you will and will not expose about yourself to your audience. And a side note… you can keep part of you to yourself. The public does not own you or have access to you at all times. They just deserve an honest part of you while you perform, if you want to reach them.

• Let someone know you’re having trouble?

If you are having vocal strain, stage fright, difficulty connecting or numbing out in performance, trouble hitting notes or controlling your voice, substance abuse or eating issues, there is help. In this competitive music business world, there is a temptation to hide all weaknesses, and indeed in some quarters you should do so.

But you need to have safe places to get real, and friends/professionals to whom you can confide problems. Oh if only Elvis, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, et al, had known this, we would still have them with us. And many other singers and speakers would not have fallen silent.

Real singing and public speaking is not for the squeamish. But when you gather your courage, get problems fixed, commit, reveal and connect – it’s a blast, believe me… and bungee jumping can’t compare with that rush!

Judy Rodman is a singer, songwriter, producer and vocal instructor in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1980s, she topped the country music charts with the number one single “Until I Met You” and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Female Vocalist” award in 1985. Her recorded songs include LeAnn Rimes’s number-one hit “One Way Ticket (Because I Can)” (co-written with Keith Hinton). Judy has developed Power, Path & Performance
a vocal technique she teaches and sells.

Judy Rodman

Vocal embellishments, colloquially known as “vocal licks,” can enhance or detract from a vocal performance. When used correctly they:

• Make the sound of the singing more interesting
• Heighten emotional connection and response
• Make the voice feel better, not worse, by throwing off tension.

When used incorrectly they:

• Make the delivery of the song sound fake
• Flatten emotional connection and response
• Cause vocal strain just attempting them.

Here are some tips for doing them correctly:

• Learn to support and control your breath pressure! Not enough – or too much – breath pressure will sabotage any vocal lick, because it will not allow the tiny controlled movements of the diaphragm, which are necessary to power the vocal lick smoothly and accurately.
• Learn to use your hands, arms, other body parts to help accomplish licks.
• Learn how letting your tongue base, jaw hinge and soft palate relax enough so they can make the automatic, fine, quick movements necessary for creating the licks. Learn to “pull off” air pressure for certain licks much like the guitar “pull off” technique.
• Only do vocal licks where they – create interest/emotion in the language of your genre or - de-stress your cords.
• Get feedback from trusted source(s) about how your performance makes the listener feel.
• Learn the typical types of vocal licks, and where/when they are put in songs, of other master singers in the musical genre you are interested in singing so you can ‘speak the language.’
• Practice “scat singing,” a phrase that means just throwing some random vocal syllables around. Scat singing is typically performed over a song’s instrumental, tag or fade, but here’s Ella Fitzgerald scatting a whole song “One Note Samba”…

What has been your experience with vocal licks, embellishments, runs, flips, scats or whatever you call them?

Judy Rodman is a singer, songwriter, producer and vocal instructor in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1980s, she topped the country music charts with the number one single “Until I Met You” and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Female Vocalist” award in 1985. Her recorded songs include LeAnn Rimes’s number-one hit “One Way Ticket (Because I Can)” (co-written with Keith Hinton). Judy has developed Power, Path & Performance
a vocal technique she teaches and sells.

Judy Rodman

I want to thank my friend, singer-songwriter Robert Anderson, for something he said in a phone conversation that has led to this blog post. Robert is also a master of martial arts and one of my blog readers. He said that his method of digesting one of my posts is to apply a Bruce Lee principle of training is to…Go for mastering 1%, not 100%.

I thought about it and actually find this principle of simplicity to be a secret of effective vocal improvement. I would change the phrase a bit and call it…Go for mastering one thing, not 100.

There is so very much that goes into the workings of all our vocal instruments. Teaching voice has really opened my eyes to “stuff that can go wrong.” I feel like Sherlock Holmes especially at initial assessment lessons… I must sleuth out the sneaky weakest link culprits sabotaging the voice of my client. I also like to move people fast… increasing vocal ability as rapidly as possible. However… like a computer with too many programs open, the brain can only operate on so many levels without “freezing.”

There is, as my students know, an incredible synergy to Power, Path & Performance vocal training. Applying the method correctly to one vocal technique will help the improve others. I may give you more than one thing to think about at your lesson or in my CD courses, but as part of the training team you must ask yourself ‘what helped me the most?’ That thing is your – one thing!

My job for you is to discover your most important ‘one thing.’ Your job is to act with passion and persistence on re-training that one thing. That way we can get on with the next thing!

So what is your one thing to work on? Here are some possibilities:

• Not enough breath
• Lack of breath control
• Pitch problems
• Pushing your sound
• Tight throat, jaw, lips, shoulders, neck, upper spine
• Holding a mic wrong
• Hanging your arms heavy
• Too much or too little articulation
• Performance numbness
• Physical illness
• Tense, stiff body language
• Inefficient nutrition, sleep, or exercise
• Too much weight training of shoulders and neck
• Bad back, upper or lower
• Fear
• Trying too hard
• Perfectionism
• Drug and alcohol addictions
• Smoking
• Stage fright

Tell me your one thing, or add one, in the comments below..thanks!

Judy Rodman is a singer, songwriter, producer and vocal instructor in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1980s, she topped the country music charts with the number one single “Until I Met You” and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Female Vocalist” award in 1985. Her recorded songs include LeAnn Rimes’s number-one hit “One Way Ticket (Because I Can)” (co-written with Keith Hinton). Judy has developed Power, Path & Performance
a vocal technique she teaches and sells.

I help students pursue their own 'musical horizon.' As a goal is met, the student creates a new one, and we keep moving forward. Painting: Horizon by Lori Surdut Weinberg.

Teaching for me has proved to be an endlessly fascinating process. Though on the surface, the topics I teach are fixed, the way in which they are taught shifts constantly according to the individual student.

As we all know, everyone learns in their own unique way. It’s my obligation to find the best way for each individual. The goals are the goals of the student. They are not my goals for myself nor are they my goals for the student. Teachers who fail to recognize this are making a serious error.

I first need to understand where a student is in all the requisite areas such as technique, theory, reading, chords, scales, improvisational tools and skills, creativity, ear training and a host of other areas. Next comes the direction and goals if they are known.

Teaching is a holistic art and requires consideration of the whole person. It does not just provide surface knowledge for the individual.

When I teach, I play surprisingly little. Those teachers who feel the need to play constantly during a lesson are not teaching. They are showing. The problem with this approach is that the style of the teacher comes through way too much and robs the student of time that’s needed to develop.

The jazz guitar is a deep style but it doesn’t start that way. It starts with the first steps and then accumulates into an entire program.

Some of the elements of the jazz guitar study are: notes on the neck; finger control and coordination; strength and endurance; improvisational tools such as scales, arpeggios, intervals and sequences; chord organization and voicings; chord progressions; fingering principles; theory; harmonic, melodic, and scale analysis; repertoire, improvisation, and so on…[Ed. Note. For rock, folk, blues, and general playing, see Guitar Basics: Top 10 Things to Learn.]

When I get a grip on where the student is and where he or she wants to go, I develop a customized plan to reach their objectives. The goals can be as varied as virtuosity, full time musician or casual player. The only thing that matters is that we begin to move in the right direction. The rate of progress is typically connected to the amount of time spent on efficient and creative practice.

If you have a time problem, as virtually everyone does, don’t worry about it. We have so many things to work on, that the old model of “Practice Or Else” doesn’t even exist in my teaching methodology. [Ed. Note: Read 'Music Lessons as Life Lessons.']

As my “Private Music Teacher’s Guide” says: It’s the student’s job to show up and it’s the teacher’s job to make it worthwhile.

Many years ago, I wrote a book called “Music Pursuing the Horizon.” The title summarizes the fact that as we progress and achieve one goal, we reset our goal and keep moving forward!

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan.

Judy Rodman

I just read a post at the Lowry Agency blog by artist Sass Jordan titled “Developing Your Own Style.” It’s a good post; however, I have one issue with it. She mentions an artist who jokingly quips “I can’t sing in tune. It’s my style!” I beg to differ.

No matter what your style, you can and should sing in tune. If you have pitch problems your listener will be, to some degree, distracted by the dissonance. This doesn’t mean you have to hit every note purely with no slides up or down or bends. Much like a truly brilliant steel guitar player (Robby Turner, Sonny Garish come to mind)… your sliding has to have a “center” of pitch that feels like you know where home is!

Sass makes some great points about style, and I love that she ends with the fact that your should never think about competing with another singer when developing your style. However, neither should you accept your inadequacies as “style.” With vocal training, you can do things you never could otherwise.

In this present atmosphere of tuners and digital editing, you can no longer get by with out of tune singing. Sing with excellence.. .very time and every place. Then you’ll need no excuses. And by the way… lordy, Sass Jordan can SING!

Judy Rodman is a singer, songwriter, producer and vocal instructor in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1980s, she topped the country music charts with the number one single “Until I Met You” and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Female Vocalist” award in 1985. Her recorded songs include LeAnn Rimes’s number-one hit “One Way Ticket (Because I Can)” (co-written with Keith Hinton). Judy has developed Power, Path & Performance
a vocal technique she teaches and sells.

Anyone who has ever taken a music lesson knows the feeling of dread that comes from showing up at the lesson - unprepared. But what if it was ok to be unprepared? Painting: Guitarist by David Allen.

I recently heard an adult guitar student say something that many of us have likely said at one time: “I need to cancel my lesson, because I haven’t practiced.”

The thought of showing up at a music lesson unprepared causes a myriad of emotions in people – shame, embarrassment, anxiety….and outright fear.

Music teachers are so used to students cancelling lessons that many of them charge for the lesson whether the student shows up or not.

Where did we get this idea that a music lesson was an audition of sorts that we had to meticulously prepare for each week? That we were somehow ‘wasting’ the time of the teacher if we didn’t practice the material well – or at all – in a given week?

The fear of not having enough time to practice – and showing up at lessons totally unprepared – likely keeps enormous numbers of adults from formal study of a musical instrument. Between jobs, family, children, friends, civic commitments, house chores, hobbies, Facebook, surfing the internet! –  who has time to practice an instrument?

What if you were told you could sign up for music lessons, but didn’t have to practice?

I played the guitar as a pre-teen, teenager and young adult, and then put it down. Over the years, I took a few lessons here and there. Usually, I just stopped practicing, and ended the lessons.

For the last five years, I’ve studied with Chuck Anderson (our own Music After 50 blogger!). I sometimes marvel at how I’ve not only stuck with guitar lessons for five years as an adult, but have made leaps and bounds musically I would have previously thought were impossible. How did I do it? What is the secret to my ‘success’?

Brace yourself…..Chuck told me to come to the lessons whether I’d practiced or not!

I have used countless lessons to work on the material that was given to me the week before. That’s one solid hour of ‘practice’ with a teacher assisting as needed. When I was first learning scales, I would sometimes simply practice the scales – in the lesson. I used to say to Chuck this must be pretty boring for him, and he’d say, ‘No. I’m used to it. I do this with students all the time.’

I searched the web for conversations about this very topic, and found exactly what I suspected I’d find. In a conversation thread on violinist.com, students talk about postponing lessons because they haven’t practiced. Here are some excerpts:

“I would much rather be prepared for my lessons, out of respect to my teacher and for my own self esteem.”

“I can’t help questioning my habit of wanting to avoid wasting my teacher’s time and disappointing her for lack preparedness on my part, at the same time, I also firmly believe that it is not the most efficient way of utilizing my teacher’s time or my tuition if I didn’t practice enough before a lesson.”

One lone commenter says the following, but gets little support for his views:

Why do we need to be prepared for a lesson? Sometimes [the teacher] will need to help the students through rough spots. Times when you have been sick; [times] when you have been busy. Times when you hit a plateau and [can’t] get past a problem. It seems like these are the times when you need a lesson (and [an] understanding teacher) most. This is when a good teacher shines and helps you get back on a good path in playing.

My experience with my teacher is exactly as described above. On a practical level, Chuck gets paid whether I’ve practiced or not. It’s my decision to use my time wisely or unwisely. It is only because of this lack of external pressure to practice – that I’ve made so much progress musically.

Of course I’ve practiced – some weeks more than others and some years more than others. But unless I’m sick or out of town – I attend a lesson each and every week. The discipline required in my course of study? Showing up. It is having the permission – not to practice – that motivates me to attend the lessons! And, of course, attending the lessons is ultimately what motivates me to practice! As any good teacher knows, a student’s motivation to excel comes from within. And learning how to motivate students is the hallmark of a great teacher.

If you’re talking to prospective teachers, ask them about their approach to lessons and practice, and listen closely.

Speaking of practice, I wrote a short ebook called Ten-Minute Music Practice: How to Do It and Why It Works. It’s got practical advice that is tailored for beginners, as well as people who haven’t picked up an instrument or sung in many years. It’s also great for people who have been stuck at the same musical level for years. If any of these describe you, take a look here.

Judy Rodman

Some of my most eager vocal students paradoxically sabotage their progress by over-thinking their vocal training. This is a common saboteur in other kinds of training as well – musician, sports, acting, crafts, etc. As a vocal coach and producer, I find it particularly vexing because I know my client is getting frustrated “trying” so hard to get it. This is the way I help them get around this brain-tangle:

The key is the word “trying.” The voice has too many “parts” that activate it. If you try to apply too many new vocal technique changes manually-consciously, your voice will freeze as frustratingly as a computer with one too many apps working.

“But Judy,” a student may say, “you’re telling me so many things and I’m trying to remember to do them all – how can I do that?” Fair question, and a common one in my studio because I try to move people along fast.

Here are some points I will share that may help make this process of changing your vocal habits understandable and less frustrating… in other words: more “let” and less “try”:

• Vocal training is a process. You should be able to see some instant progress, but not expect to get it all and be able to remember it without spending some time integrating the training.
• The voice runs primarily on “auto.”  That means you will experience a bit of frustration because you will have to “think” in order to do something differently, but you must practice this new way enough that you no longer have to focus on “thinking it” and can just trust your new instincts. This is what vocal exercises, done with excellent form, should do for you. That’s why…
• Vocal exercises will probably be physically and mentally frustrating and energy intensive… in order to do them in a way that will strengthen and coordinate…not strain…your voice.
• When training your voice, stay present in the moment. Don’t live in the past, thinking about what your vocal coach just asked you to do, but instead trust that you will integrate the previously suggested change along with the new suggestion. Trust that if you get the previous thing wrong, your teacher will let you know, and will help you re-correct that one thing. Or, as I used to tell my son, don’t try to re-order the whole room instantly, just “pick up the sock closest to you.”
• The good news is that Power, Path & Performance
  is “synergistic.”Meaning integrating breath, open throat and communication techniques will ensure that if you get even one small area of vocal techique better, it will start to positively affect other areas. So relax. Let yourself learn, much like a baby learns to make vocal sounds.
• Bottom line: Don’t try. Instead, let. For instance:

1. Don’t try to make yourself stretch… instead, let your jaw, shoulders, upper back, face, etc., be relaxed, stretchy and flexible.
2. Don’t try desperately to project sound to your audience… instead, let your single-minded, focused intention to communicate with passion cause the body language necessary to resonate sound that causes rapt attention.
3. Don’t try to breathe. Learn how to let go of that which keeps you from good breath support and control, and you’ll have all the breath you need.
4. Don’t try to be a perfect singer or speaker. Let yourself learn, being kind and nurturing to yourself as you do so your voice can trust itself.

Does this make sense to you? What is frustrates you in vocal training you’ve done?

Judy Rodman is a singer, songwriter, producer and vocal instructor in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1980s, she topped the country music charts with the number one single “Until I Met You” and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Top New Female Vocalist” award in 1985. Her recorded songs include LeAnn Rimes’s number-one hit “One Way Ticket (Because I Can)” (co-written with Keith Hinton). Judy has developed Power, Path & Performance
a vocal technique she teaches and sells.

Don't make changes to your music based on someone's negative opinion. Make changes when they feel right to you. Painting: Road to Music by Ed Sandoval

One of the biggest problems that musicians face is holding on to their own musical identity and integrity. It’s often tempting to bail out on your own direction and capitulate to an agent, an audience, a label, or society in general.

Even with my experience in this business, I continue to be surprised by how a negative or even a neutral comment will often throw me out of balance. If someone says that my new CD “Freefall” is “nice,” it throws me. If someone doesn’t like my direction, my style, my songs or my sound, I feel emotionally like I should change what I do – what I am to please them.

The logical side of me knows that this is not true. But the logical side isn’t the only side that operates. In the arts, it’s probably not even the most important side.

I love Bill Evans’ comments on the November 6, 1978  Marian McPartland radio show. He said: “We must look at it as art. Otherwise, we’re going to get so confused because there are a million things you can do and so you just have to perfect your own art and hopefully, there’ll be room for it.”

Find the audience that likes what you like. You will never turn everyone in your direction. But you can find an audience!

My field is jazz, particularly the jazz guitar. But these comments are relevant to all sides of the musical world. For example, there’s the band that is confused about direction and worried about how much cover material they should do. Or maybe it should be all cover or maybe not - and on. The singer – songwriter who panics if everyone doesn’t love his or her material. Should I change the lyrics? Maybe they’re too deep or not deep enough. Maybe the chords aren’t complicated enough or maybe they’re too simple. Maybe my hooks aren’t memorable….

I think committed self-conviction is the only road map. Use your own instincts to make decisions. Stay single-minded. Keep open-minded. Always consider the possibility of change but not the necessity of change. Don’t use everyone’s negative opinion as a reason to change.

Change if you can justify and emotionally support change. If you don’t take that approach, you’ll be blown around by every opinion until you get to the point that you will not know who you are, what your music is for, and where you are going.

Visit Chuck Anderson’s website to join his mailing list and learn about upcoming concerts. Buy his CDs and educational materials. And of course, become a Facebook fan.