TakeLessons Blog

Archives

Archive for the ‘Singing’ Category

American Idol, Season 12: Not What it Used to Be

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

American Idol Season 12It’s no secret American Idol has seen better days. Ratings have slipped to an all-time low, with viewership numbers seeming to decrease each week. The question remains though: Who’s to blame?

Many critics have cited the ongoing battle between judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey as one of the reasons. With anti-Nicki Facebook pages inspired by fuming Idol fans and ongoing Twitter battles underway, it’s clear that she’s a matter of discontent for many viewers.

Ever since the American Idol Season 12 premiere January 16th, Minaj has refused to give up the act.  During the audition rounds, the feud between Carey and Minaj took over entertainment news.  The media had a field day with the bickering divas, and viewers were turning in to watch the drama unfold between the two.

(more…)

Share Your Stories, Photos, and Videos!

Monday, April 8th, 2013

student spotlightWhether you’ve been playing music for one month or several years, recognizing and celebrating milestones along the way is important!

Our students inspire us every day – so we want to hear your stories, and share them with the TakeLessons community! Did you perform at a recital, talent show, or open mic night? Did you ace an audition, or get accepted into a prestigious music program or school? Maybe you mastered a difficult song quicker than you expected.

Whatever your story is, let us know and you might be featured on our Facebook page! Every Friday, beginning April 12th, we’ll select one student to shine the spotlight on.

(more…)

Nail Your Audition for X Factor and More

Monday, April 8th, 2013

Do you think you have what it takes to be America’s next big singing sensation? With shows like The Voice, The X Factor and American Idol holding their open castings, you might be thinking about grabbing that microphone and sharing your talent with the world. As you prepare for your audition day, take some tips from expert TakeLessons certified vocal instructors to make sure that you really shine on camera! (more…)

How to Set (and Reach) Your Singing Goals

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

singing goalsWe all know that setting goals is an important part of music lessons. And as a singer, you’re working with a very delicate instrument (your voice!) – so you’ll want to set reasonable singing goals and work with a private teacher to monitor your progress. Read on as Buena Park, CA voice teacher Andrew C. describes the process…

 

 

 

 

We all have goals we want to achieve with our voice. Maybe you want to hit all the right notes in your song arsenal the next time you go to your local karaoke bar. Or maybe you have a very important singing competition coming up and need to focus on singing in tune. It could be you are the lead in a musical and need help with not losing your breath on stage while singing, acting, and dancing. Whatever the goal comes to be, we all have one thing in common… we want to achieve the correct technique to accomplish our goals. There are numerous ways to do this the right way, as well as the wrong way. For the sake of success though, I’m going to focus strictly on the right ways to do this.

(more…)

Ear Training Exercises for Singers – Part 2

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

music transcriptionLast week, we learned about a very important part of ear training – matching pitch! If you missed the first part of Cameron F.‘s article last week, check it out here. Now, read on to find out about another great exercise…

 

We all know how important it is to train our ear now. Next I would like to go over some more advanced techniques, but nothing that you can’t handle! This idea is called “melodic dictation” in any music theory class, but for simplicity’s sake we will call it transcription.

(more…)