1) Message from Your Personal Singing Coach

2) NEW Website Section: About Me!

o Read more about me as a vocal coach, singer and writer, and find out how my students are doing at my music school!

3) FEATURED Website Section: Vocal Exercises!

o Vocal Exercises that target specific aspects of your voice and help you to develop your dream voice!

4) FEATURED Website Section: Vocal Warmups!

o Do not neglect your vocal warmups. Learn how to do them the right way.

5) RESOURCE Website Section: Singing Books!

o Check out some singing books that can make a great difference to your vocal training!

6) COMMUNICATE with Your Personal Singing Coach!

o Keep those comments and feedback coming in, and I might just set up a special page just for all of you.

1) Vocal Training Tip #8 – Vocal Smoothness: A Variation in the Vowel

2) Pitching Training Tip #6 – The Importance of Listening when Singing

3) Rhythm Training Tip #4 – Difference between 3 beat and 4 beat songs

Homepage URL:
http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com

Message from Your Personal Singing Coach:

“Welcome all fellow singers and singing students!

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for becoming the youngest winner of the F1 championships, and also to Felipe Massa for his excellent results and his good reputation!

It is never easy being a champion at these high levels of competition, and as a singer, we should also strive to achieve levels of determination and motivation similar to these champions!

Well, this 6th issue of Your Personal Singing Ezine will continue to provide singing tips fit for singing champions, with special focus on important aspects of our training, for example vocal exercises and warmups, as well as resources to help us train our voices better.

True to what I promised everyone in the last issue of this Ezine, I have published some information about who I am and where I am based. I have also put up some information about my students as well as what we do at our music school.

Hopefully, this writeup about myself will inspire more people to take up singing seriously and to pursue their dreams. Life is really short, so do not waste any more time! Just take reference from the famous NIKE motto, “Just Do It!”

I will of course be putting up more new topics each month, so do keep coming back to revisit the important topics and also to check for new ones on our website.

I am also looking into putting up more resources and links on our website, for example, music resources and books for auditions and also free software for music editing and recording. So do keep your eyes glued to my website for further updates!

P.S: Feel free to share Your Personal Singing Ezine with your friends, or better still, get them to come and subscribe to their very own Personal Singing Ezine! I will be glad to share my singing tips and pointers with them too!

If you wish to share with them the back-issues of our Ezine, feel free to do so too:
http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/Your_Personal_Singing_EZine-backissues.html

Also, if you feel that our website is really beneficial to you, please do let us know by dropping us an email through our Contact Us section on the website! Your comments will be greatly appreciated!”

Yours Sincerely,

Aaron Matthew Lim

Your Personal Singing Coach

NEW Website Section: About Me!

o Yes, I know, I took some time to finally tell everyone who I am and where I am based at. ;-p

Well, here in this section you will find information about me as a vocal coach, a singer, a writer, as well as a business owner too!

You will also be able to read more about my music school and my students in Singapore, and how we are trying to change the lives of more people around us, by inspiring them to love music and to sing more, and also to perform and express themselves better.

There are many talented people in this world, and I am sure I will meet even more talented artistes and singers in the future. What is most important is for these musical talents to find confidence in themselves and to persevere in their quest for great music.

This is why we need to support the people around us in their quest for their dreams, and to help them acquire more confidence and to achieve more than they thought they could ever achieve.

Do check out the various links in this section too, and explore the activities and events that I am organising together with my friends and students! Hopefully, that will inspire you to do the same in your own country too!

‘About Me’ URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/music-instructor.html

FEATURED Website Section: Vocal Exercises!

o This website section is certainly one of the MOST POPULAR and WELL-LOVED sections of Your Personal Singing Guide.Com!

Many people visit this section everyday to practice their voices and to get tips on how they should train their voices more effectively.

Of course, this section is only a guide, and should not be used as a replacement for actual voice training. Nothing beats an actual instructor helping you and listening to you to sing, so that your training is targeted and useful.

But, if you are looking to open your eyes and mind to the world of singing and voice training, check this section out!

Practice some of the vocal exercises described here and you will find that your knowledge about singing will certainly improve!

Vocal Exercises URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/vocal-exercises.html

FEATURED Website Section: Vocal Warmups!

o Another very popular and top-ranked section on my website is this one on Vocal Warmups!

This section provides you with great tips for doing vocal warmups, as well as many simple warmups you can do to get your voice ready for more intensive training activities like vocal exercises and singing performances too.

Some people think that they do not need to do warmups before singing. However, even as a professional vocal instructor, I still do my warmups everyday before I teach, in order to keep my voice healthy and supple, and able to last throughout the busy teaching schedules everyday!

Be diligent, and you will be rewarded with great improvements in your singing voice. ;-p

Vocal Warmups URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/vocal-warmup.html

RESOURCE Website Section: Singing Books!

o This website section is ranked within the Top 10 from among 32 million other websites that offer resources on singing books! Just google for ‘singing books’ and you will find us there.

Certainly, what I am offering you here is a more to-the-point guide to some of the great singing books available in the market today.

This saves you a lot of time and money that you may have wasted while searching for a good singing book or while buying the wrong books that do not really achieve the results you want.

I am also looking to improve on this section and provide more choices in terms of singing books, resources, sheet music and much more!

Do check back regularly to this section to see how it evolves over the coming months.

Singing Books URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/singing-books.html

COMMUNICATE with Your Personal Singing Coach!

o We have set up a Contact Us page on our website, for those of you who wish to ask me questions about singing, or would wish to let us know how great a job we are doing with our website.

We welcome all your comments, and hope to hear from you regularly regarding our website and how we can improve!

Do also let us know what you wish to see on our website, and we will try our best to make the improvements as quickly as we can!

In fact, many of you have already sent in your positive feedback, and I certainly look forward to receiving more from all you readers out there! If there is enough response, I will set up a page just for you, and put up everyone’s comments and feedback so that we can all share the love for music and singing!

Do take note that for the security word challenge, you will need to type the word in CAPITAL LETTERS exactly as it appears, or you will not be able to send us your comments and we would have missed out on valuable feedback from you!

Click on the link below to send us your comments and feedback!

Contact Us URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/contact-us.html

Vocal Training Tip #8 – Vocal Smoothness: A Variation in the Vowel

This issue’s vocal training tip is about how we can vary the vowel that we use to train our vocal smoothness, and this may give us different training results altogether.

You may ask me, why is it important for us to achieve a smoother set of vocals?

The reason is so that we are able to handle most of the notes within our vocal range easily and with little strain, and we avoid damaging our voices during our singing or when we are doing our vocal exercises!

Yes it is true that singers do strain their voices when they perform, but when we do our vocal exercises, we usually always train our voices to be smooth and flexible, so as to allow ourselves to be able to sing longer and also to handle various song repertoire with less difficulty.

If you have not read on anything about Vocal Smoothness and how to train it, check out the link below:

Vocal Smoothness URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/singing-exercises-1.html

Now, for those who are looking to vary the vowels we use when doing these exercises, we can try out an ‘Eeh’ vowel and see how it affects the way that we do our exercises for vocal smoothness.

Certain vowels tend to certain vocal placements or resonating positions, and an ‘Eeh’ vowel will usually tend to a higher vocal postion.

This will make it easier for those of us who have difficulty joining our lower range with our higher and lighter range, since this vowel makes it easier for us to sing higher pitches without that much strain.

Try replacing the ‘Ah’ vowel with the ‘Eeh’ vowel in the vocal smoothness exercises, and feel the difference as you do the exercises. If it works, do drop me an email and let me know, so that I know that I am making a difference in your singing training!

Contact Us URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/contact-us.html

Remember also to make sure that you are singing the right pitches, and to get a friend to listen to you if possible, so that he or she can guide you towards doing the exercises properly.

You should aim for a more effortless way of singing through to the high pitches, without too much strain in your throat, jaw, chin or chest. Over time, your voice will strengthen and you will be able to hit the notes in your vocal range with greater ease!

Ok, keep practising, and do email me if you have any questions regarding this topic!

Pitching Training Tip #6 – The Importance of Listening when Singing

I recently shared some pointers with some of my students regarding Listening When Singing, and I thought I’d share them with you too (since I do treat all of you just as though you are my vocal students too!)…

When we sing, it is not only important for us to make sure that we produce accurate pitches and hit the right notes. Yes, we have to be very familiar with what we are singing, and know exactly where our voice is resonating so as to be able to pitch accurately and quickly.

However, it is also equally important for us to be able to hear what we sing and to know whether we are singing accurately or not.

This is because sometimes when we sing, we may think we are hitting the right notes, but when we listen to ourselves, the truth hits us in the face!

Have you ever tried singing while you are plugged into your headphones from your mp3 player or Ipod? I’m sure you have..

But, have you ever tried listening to yourself singing while you are plugged in? If you have, you will find that you tend to go seriously off-pitch most of the time!!

This is because we are unable to hear ourselves sing whenever we are listening to our Ipods and singing at the same time. This causes us to be unable to correct our pitch while we are singing, and we tend to go off-pitch easily.

This simple example highlights the importance of listening to ourselves when we sing, so that we can keep ourselves singing in tune all the time.

For those of you who have problems keeping in pitch, do check out the following URL link on humming, to develop your sense of internal hearing:

Humming Exercise URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/humming.html

Now, some of my students tell me that they can hear that they are going off-pitch, and they certainly know that they are singing wrongly.

However, they are unable to do anything about it, because they do not know how they can adjust their pitch to hit the right notes!

Well, for this, you will need to be very clear about how you produce the various pitches that you have to sing, and what you have to do to adjust your voice higher or lower.

Check out the following URL on pitching exercises so that you will be able to improve on this point:

Pitching Exercises URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/pitching-exercises.html

Alright then, keep practising, and don’t forget to send me your feedback and comments regularly!

Rhythm Training Tip #4 – Difference between 3 beat and 4 beat songs

One of my co-instructors at my music school recently taught her students something about 3 beat and 4 beat songs, and I thought I’d just share this with you too, since it will help you grasp the difference between these 2 song rhythms.

We can imagine that for our usual 4 beat songs – for example, love ballads like “Sometimes When We Touch” or “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” – that we are taking a walk down our favourite street or park, and we are taking a steady walk, one step after another.

4-beat songs are usually more regular in beat, and it feels as though we are walking together with the singer while they are singing their song!

As for 3-beat songs, it would feel slightly different, more like a skip or a waltz, and we feel ourselves swept up and off our feet sometimes too. It would usually also take on a happier and more upbeat feel, compared to 4 beat ballads.

Some classic 3-beat songs include “Happy Birthday Song” and “Edelweiss”, and we would feel like doing a waltz while listening or singing these songs.

These are just some very simple and easy ways for us to feel the difference in tempo and rhythm for 4-beat and 3-beat songs.

If you wish to improve on our rhythm sense, you can certainly check out some useful rhythm training books at this section:

Rhythm Training Books URL:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/singing-books-1.html

You may also wish to read up more about these topics in the Back-Issues of Your Personal Singing Ezine:

http://www.your-personal-singing-guide.com/Your_Personal_Singing_EZine-backissues.html

1) Singing Software Guide
2) Updating Singing Resources
3) Singing Rhythm

Here ends Issue #6 of Your Personal Singing Ezine!

I hope that you will find the above tips useful in your singing practices, and feel free to email me at
Your_Personal_Singing_EZine@your-personal-singing-guide.com
or use the Contact Us page provided on our website if you have any feedback, requests or any questions about singing! I will be glad to reply and also to discuss singing tips with you!

Do also subscribe to the RSS feed provided on my website so as to be constantly updated about the new and exciting content that will appear on Your Personal Singing Guide website!

Also, if you find Your Personal Singing Guide and Ezine useful to you, please do spread the word and invite your friends to come visit our website and join you in your singing practices too!

Singing is always more fun in a community with more people!

Your Personal Singing Ezine will be back in another 6 weeks’ time, but be sure to check back at our website frequently and keep practising your singing!

Cheers!

Aaron Matthew Lim
Your Personal Singing Coach
Your Personal Singing Guide

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