Since we are all still somewhat stuck in our houses I decided to share another book with all my singing folks hoping to bring new fuel to your routines. This one is definitely a much ‘lighter’ reading compared to the one I previously posted about (‘This is a voice’) however it tackles more practical and specific areas of singing.
‘Advanced vocal techniques – middle voice, placement & styles’ was written by Dena Murray and Tita Hutchison. Dena has been working in the music industry for 30+ years, and her passion for teaching blossomed when she joined the Musician Institute in 1994. The establishment itself actually gained a lot of traction in the vocal department thanks to Dena herself who basically wrote the entire set of singing curricula and courses for the MI and devoted many years to teaching them to thousands of students.
In this book, she mainly focuses on voice registers: how they work, what they are and most importantly… how to train to eliminate gaps in between. Language and terminology are extremely accessible and everything is super well laid out on in chapters with pictures and awesome references. But what makes this book even more amazing is that it links theory with practice in a very straight-forward way: you read about a topic and you are provided with an exercise right away to try things out. Which means that yes, this book comes with a CD full of extremely helpful/interactive exercises!
In this book you’ll get a chance to also learn some very interesting facts and tips when it comes to different styles of music too, which I think is always great to know whether you wish to become a session singer, independent artist or karaoke pro. Even though it’s called ‘Advanced vocal techniques’, it does not go in deep existential topics about phonation or crazy anatomical chapters, so please do not let that intimidate you.
I am attaching a picture of the cover down here should anyone be interested in checking it out in libraries or purchasing on Amazon. And if you do end up getting it, let me know how you feel about it! 😀
