Ever wonder why hydration is crucial for both your health and singing ability? Or why choir participation among teens is trending downward? Tune in as we, your hosts, along with Dr. Cathering Hall, and vocal coach and YouTube sensation Tara Simon, get to the root of these issues. We'll puncture the myth of modern hydration habits and how they affect not only our daily health but our vocal prowess as well. We also promise to shed light on a revolutionary healing approach from and former incarcerated doctor in Iran that emphasizes our bodies' basic need for water, more than anything else.
Do you think the culture of choir still resonates with the younger generations? Mietta, along with Greg, Dorian, and Coleman, will explore this week's CRQ and share our unique insights. Tara Simon, the vocal virtuoso, joins us once again to share her experiences, insights, tip, and tecniques. As we navigate these waters, we will also discuss the gospel choir scene in colleges and the spiritual undertones within it.
In our final segment, we will hear about the importance of vocal exercises and pitch training for beginners from Tara Simon herself. She will walk us through some fascinating exercises like Z-Zaw Z that she uses with her new students. We'll discover the importance of lip trills, and the different teaching approaches for male and female vocals. If you have a passion for singing, this episode has invaluable insights that you wouldn't want to miss. So, join us, let's quench our thirst for knowledge, let's sing, and let's dive deep into the harmony of life, together.
Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the choir room, season 1, episode 26 of
the Choir Room Podcast.
Welcome to the choir room.
I'm Greg Tomas, your host, andI'll soon be joined by my
co-host, dorian Johnson.
Welcome to the choir room, beit a Stanso Pharrar and who we
(00:22):
like to call the 4th Wheel,coleman Smart.
This podcast exists to promoteand encourage to long-time
traditions in our society thatseem to be dwindling away, and
that is choir and corporatesinging.
We hope to revive the excitementand joy experienced with
singing in a choir, as well asinform and educate the listener
on all things singing and allthings choir related.
(00:44):
So if you love singing and youlove choir, we encourage you to
subscribe to this podcast.
Anywhere you get your podcastdownloads, you can also
subscribe by sending the wordsubscribe in the subject field
of an email to the choir room atmetro music dash arts dot com,
and when you subscribe, be sureto give us a five star review,
as your review helps us keepthis podcast alive and share it
(01:07):
with a friend.
And now you can also engagewith us on the choir room
podcast Facebook page.
Our guest contributor today isvocal coach and YouTube
sensation Tara Simon of TaraSimon Studios.
Have you ever stopped to thinkabout how important water is to
your diet and to your overallhealth, and how it affects your
(01:27):
singing ability.
Well, our dear friend CatherineHall is back with us again with
the importance of hydration andsome other tips that will help
bring longevity to your singing.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Jesus often spoke about water.
He was speaking to people wholived in the desert climate and
of course there was a vitalimportance of water when he said
I am the water of life.
Just as you can't live withoutphysical water, without me, the
spiritual water, the spirit, youmay as well be dead.
Our bodies are 75% water andour brains are actually 85%
(02:04):
water.
We are essentially water peopleand we are chronically
dehydrated.
The water is not just there asa passive solute that allows the
various compounds to circulatewater.
It has very important functionsof its own, since every single
cell in our bodies needs waterto function.
(02:25):
The body has very active andsophisticated systems to ensure
that every cell of every organand muscle and vessel receives
the water it needs, along withthe nutrients it carries.
And if we are not taking enoughwater in, then these systems
begin to prioritize and triage.
Water is reduced to areas ofless importance in favor of the
(02:49):
most important organs, like thebrain.
We are born with a clearunderstanding of our need for
water.
Babies actually cry becausesometimes they need a liquid or
water.
In my field there is someevidence that the morning
sickness of a woman who ispregnant it may indicate
dehydration of the mother andbaby.
(03:11):
Unfortunately, modern lifequickly starts to make us ignore
our bodies.
Many cries for water and thestrong thirst sensation we had
as children slowly fades, weactually suppress it.
Not now.
It's too inconvenient if youwill Too heavy to carry and then
I'll need a bathroom.
I just can't drink that water.
(03:32):
You all have been there, I'msure.
Finally, we're left with justone final ultimatum from the
water department a dry mouth.
If we get to that point, itactually means we have ignored
all else, and things are reallyvery serious.
Certain necessary processes arealready being slowed.
(03:54):
If this happened just once, wecould quickly recover.
This is the pattern almostevery day of our lives, and we
wonder why we begin to havechronic pains and problems.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You may mention of a doctor in Iran and that he used
water as a treatment.
Can you tell us a little bit?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
about that.
There was a doctor in Iran whowas put in jail and they didn't
have a lot of medical care inthe jail, in the prison.
And so all the prisoners wentto the doctor and said I'm
really, really sick, I'm reallysick, can you do something for
me?
And he had nothing, nomedications, nothing.
(04:38):
So what he did is he startedusing water as medication.
How so?
So if someone had an ulcer,they may not drink during
mealtimes, but they would drinkafter mealtimes.
Okay, if someone had a kidneyproblem, he would have them sip
water all through the day andall through the night, but never
(04:59):
more than a cup at a time.
And what he found was thatpeople were actually getting
better.
And in fact, he was brought tothe authorities in the prison
and they said you've been doinggood work, we're going to let
you go.
And he said actually, I'm inthe middle of a study.
Do you mind if I stay foranother month, because I'm
(05:22):
healing people and I'm actuallywanting to see how far I can go
with the healing?
And so they allowed him to stayand he got out of there and,
with his traditional medicaltraining, he turned and wrote a
book called You're Not Sick,you're Thirsty.
Wow, that's interesting, andthat has been a very, very
(05:42):
important book with my patientsand me through the years.
I know that dehydration can bevery, very serious because we
don't even know we're dehydrated, as I just said, and
dehydration is associated withmany indicators, including
things like rheumatoid arthritis, even back pain, heart pain,
(06:06):
headaches, colitis and, ofcourse, constipation.
These are actual signals, andthe medications we receive for
these pains just dull the signal.
They don't fix the problem.
I use the analogy with mypatients a lot that you're
driving along in your beautifulcar and you see the signal light
, a little light go on in thedashboard, and so you get a
(06:30):
little hammer and you hit it andit goes out and you think, oh
great, everything's fine.
What you need to do is stop,look under the hood and see
what's really going on, andthat's what I like to do for
different conditions.
Why is a patient not feelingwell?
What is happening under thesurface?
(06:51):
The root cause of the problemis what I look at.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I think that's much like all of life.
We can spend too much timelooking at the symptoms and
never dealing with the cause ofthe symptom, the root issue.
And obviously dehydration canhave a negative impact on our
entire body, and that obviouslyincludes impacting our ability
to sing, or even speak, for thatmatter.
So hydration is critical.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I could tell you many stories of patients who have
heated what I've told them andhad enough water which is half
your body weight in ounces a dayspread throughout the day on a
consistent basis.
And even sometimes I will tellthem to put a little bit of sea
salt in there, which has about87 to 89 minerals, and it
(07:43):
actually helps open up the celland get the water into the cell
so the cell can do its thing.
When the cell is working andevery cell works like a
manufacturing plant it heats upand so water is part of what
that cell needs.
And sometimes, if the water isnot mineralized enough, it
(08:06):
actually just stays on theoutside of the cell and it
doesn't go in and so it almostsquishes the cell and makes you
dehydrated.
If you go to the Caribbean,you'll see that their water has
salt in it.
Whenever you buy water it'smostly has just a tad of it.
Now I'm not saying to use tablesalt, because that raises blood
(08:30):
pressure, but just a tad.
A little bit of salt in a literof water maybe a half an eighth
of a teaspoon in a liter ofwater every day will help really
get that water into the cell.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So then, what should the average choir room person or
the average singer be doing toremedy this deprivation of water
to the cells?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So what do we do about it?
Where does this go?
When I'm talking to the peoplewho are listening right now, the
choir room.
We've all been in a rehearsalwhere you're coughing or your
throat is dry or, worse, whereyou have to sing a solo and
you're not quite ready becauseyou've been eating salted fries
(09:19):
or whatever the night before,the day before, and you're quite
dehydrated on top of it.
So drinking water on a regularbasis actually smooths over the
vocal cords and actually givesyou a much more of a fighting
chance.
Sometimes the body actuallywants to lubricate the vocal
(09:41):
cords with mucus, so because itneeds some sort of liquid to
work properly, and that's thebody's response to try to fix
the problem which causes mucusin the throat, which is as a
singer.
We all know that that is notwhat you want.
So, basically, water again halfyour body weight announces
(10:03):
throughout the day, and not justgetting home from work and
thinking, okay, I'll drink aliter of water.
Now it has to be all throughthe day and over time you will
get used to drinking that muchwater.
Your body will, instead ofrunning to the bathroom all the
time, you will actually get usedto being hydrated and that
(10:26):
frequency of going to thebathroom will decrease.
So again, the Lord has builtthe body in a certain way and we
need it.
Again he made it really clear.
He talked about water, thewater of life, and again because
the people were in the desertand so he was trying to drive
(10:51):
home the whole idea of water oflife.
But I know he also would saydrinking water for our bodies is
how it was made, meant to be.
So I encourage you, as singersand just as people, to really
(11:11):
elongate your health by drinkingthe most water you can.
And if you want to live aproductive life and sing long
into your 70s and possibly 80s,then there we go Drink water,
Drink water.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Dorian has our hymn of the week.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Thank you so much, greg.
Over the last several hymns ofthe week we've been looking at
our appropriate and rightresponse to all that God has
done for us in Christ, and someof those past hymns of the week
have called on us to love God,to love Christ more.
We've looked at trust as well,and this week's hymn of the week
(11:52):
adds obedience to trust.
This week's hymn of the week isTrust and Obey.
In his 1906 book the Story ofthe Gospel Hymns, ira Sankey,
who was an American gospelsinger and composer who
partnered with DL Moody onrevival campaigns in the United
States and in Britain, wrotethis about the origin of this
(12:13):
hymn.
He says Mr Moody was conductinga series of meetings in
Brockston, massachusetts,presumably in 1886, this is
written, and I had the pleasureof singing for him there.
One night a young man rose in atestimony meeting and said I'm
not quite sure, but I'm going totrust and I'm going to obey.
(12:33):
I just jotted that sentencedown and sent it with the little
story to the Reverend JohnSamus, a Presbyterian minister.
He wrote the hymn and the tunewas born.
The hymn was published in 1887and has Proverbs 1620, which
says Whoever gives thought tothe word will discover good and
(12:54):
blessed is he who trusts in theLord.
Chorus goes this way Trust andobey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus but totrust and obey.
And each verse then points tothe Christians need to align our
lives with the word of God andby allowing more and more of our
(13:16):
lives to be transformed by thepower of the Holy Spirit.
First, on five, two and threesays by this we know that we
love the children of God.
When we love God and obey hiscommandments.
For this is the love of God,that we keep his commandments
and his commandments are notburdensome.
Verse one says when we walkwith the Lord in the light of
(13:39):
his word, what a glory he shedson our way.
While we do his goodwill, heabides with us still and with
all who will trust and obey.
In Exodus 19, five, we read Now,therefore, if you will indeed
obey my voice and keep mycovenant, you shall be my
treasured possession among allthe peoples, for all the earth
(14:02):
is mine.
Second verse says Not a burdenwe bear, not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richlyrepay.
Not a grief or a loss, not afrown or cross, but is blessed
if we trust and obey Romans 12,one and two.
(14:22):
Paul, and writing to the Romanbeliever, says I appeal to you
therefore, brothers, by themercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind that, bytesting, you may discern what is
(14:44):
the will of God, what is goodand acceptable and perfect.
The third verse says this butwe never can prove the delights
of his love until all, on thealtar, we lay for the favor he
shows, for the joy he boosts.
Those are for them who willtrust and obey.
(15:05):
And then we hear the words ofour Savior in Matthew 28,.
In the Great Commission, we readverses 19 and 20,.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name ofthe Father and of the Son of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them toobserve all that I have
commanded you.
And behold, I am with youalways, to the end of the age.
(15:26):
And the final verse not onlypoints us to glory, but also
calls us to live lifesurrendered to the Lord.
It says Then, in fellowship,sweet, we will sit at his feet
or walk by his side in the way.
What he says we will do.
Where he sends we will go,never fear, only trust and obey.
(15:48):
And how much we need to hearthat word, that refrained today
to trust and obey our Savior.
In such uncertain times it canfeel as if the world is spinning
out of control and in truechaos.
But we know that he ultimatelyis in control of all things and
(16:13):
as we live out our Christianlives, as we seek to glorify him
, we can do no better but totrust and obey our faithful God.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Thanks, dorian.
A classic hymn presented inthat classic Dorian fashion, as
we do each week.
Crq is an acronym for choirroom questions and Mieta always
gets those and submits them tous and we discuss them a little
bit, and today is no differentMieta with our CRQ.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Thanks, greg.
Well, here we are tonight withour CRQ.
Now, this CRQ is more of astatement than a question, and
so this will require a littleclassroom participation, if you
will.
And so here goes.
A lot of people from ourgeneration grew up in church, in
church choir, and for those whoactually went to college, we
(17:09):
ended up joining choir, collegechoir, college choirs, I'm sorry
and music programs.
This generation, however,doesn't seem to be interested in
that as much.
Now, that's interesting.
That is interesting.
I did both church choir and Idid school choir as well.
(17:32):
And I must admit before I allowthe gentlemen to chime in I
must admit, when I went to highschool in particular, I had no
interest in doing choir.
In high school.
I did enough church choir sothat was enough for me, it was
more than enough for me, andthat took all week of every
(17:53):
month.
So going to school and singingin school choir was really not
my thing.
But I will say I am the betterfor it, because I was sitting in
a study hall class, which meantI wasn't doing anything really,
it was just a study hall periodand the concert choir teacher
at that time I don't know howshe found out, but she somehow
(18:16):
was in the attendance office andsaw my name and some paperwork
and my last name in particularpiqued her interest Because my
last name was Stancil.
Now there were some otherStancils that had gone to that
particular high school therewere a few of them.
That's what I'm getting there Afew of them had gone there and
(18:37):
she realized there was anotherone in the building.
I was the last generation.
No, I'm sorry, she was gone bythe time my daughter went there,
but I was the last generationthat was interested, I should
say, in singing.
She found me.
She came to the classroom thatI was in and pulled me out of
(18:57):
the classroom and said you don'tbelong in here, you belong with
me.
I ended up for the next fouryears of high school a part of
the choir and that's where I metGreg.
In fact, on a more personallevel, met Gregory Thomas.
I enjoyed it.
I am aware I also sang for theWilliam Patterson Gospel Choir
(19:20):
for a while and there were a lotof young people.
That was a part of that andthat was their life the whole
time that they were in college.
We traveled and had some greattimes experiencing college
choirs from all over the country, but I am recognizing now that
(19:41):
you don't hear about that asmuch anymore.
Coleman may have a betterperspective on the college
choirs and young people being apart of that, more so than I
would.
But I have to agree with thisstatement in particular you do
not find.
Unfortunately, you do not find,and it was such great community
(20:03):
in doing that.
Being a part of that, it reallyenriched your lives more than
you could have ever imagined.
So prayerfully.
Hopefully, through a mediumsuch as this, this podcast will
get people back to engaging inthat again, because it is so,
especially in our colleges.
With all of the things that arehappening around us, that's a
(20:28):
safe place Most times.
That's a safe place for ouryoung people to go and to share
and to pray and to worship,because that does happen,
believe it or not, in thosecollege choirs.
That does happen.
So prayerfully, through thismedium, as I said, that will
change and people will start toget back to that.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
What say you.
Well, I'll go first, since youmade mention of me a second ago,
because I do have some recentexperience with this.
I might have a uniqueexperience because of the world
I was living in in college.
It was a Christian liberal artsuniversity and so there are
(21:13):
thriving choirs there.
I understand that that's notnecessarily the norm everywhere,
but the musical tradition thereis so strong and they've
maintained their identity.
All the different groups havemaintained their identity.
But, taking a step back from mycollegiate experience, I want to
(21:35):
challenge this statement andactually say I think the
interest is still there.
It just looks different in 2023than it did before.
A lot of younger people be thatmillennials, gen Z, whatever
you're considering young some ofthem are still glad to be
(22:00):
involved in more traditionallooking choirs, but a lot
nowadays we're seeing a lot ofmodern worship groups and
churches utilizing a worshipchoir in their services.
Again, it doesn't quite havethe same sound or structure that
it always did, but the aspectof having a choir, a group of
(22:25):
people on stage leading peopleinto the presence of the Lord
and everything, is still verymuch alive.
I know for the last 15, 20years we saw a decline of it,
but now we are seeing a rapidincrease again, and there again
there are places where churchesor ministries or colleges or
(22:47):
whatever have maintained theidentity of more of a
traditional choir.
But what I'm making note of isorganizations that we would say
are extremely modern, the mostcutting edge worship groups,
that kind of thing.
I put air quotes around thatbecause sometimes we consider
(23:08):
worship music a genre.
That's another conversation fora different day.
But in the most cutting edgeworship music, the choir is
there in almost everythingyou're finding nowadays.
We've had these conversationson the podcast before, but if
you want to look at groups likeMaverick City and Elevation and
(23:30):
Bethel and Gateway Church andUpper Room and People and Songs
and that kind of thing I couldjust keep going on and on those
are all very group heavy on thevocals nowadays.
Belonging Co.
They just put out a new albumthat's heavy on choir.
(23:52):
So it's out there.
It might just look a littledifferent than some of us grew
up with, and I think that's okay.
I love to be able to stillreach back and do some of the
things that we know and love,but we also have to know that
for an institution to survive,it has to adapt over time, and
(24:14):
so, yes, it's possible tomaintain the DNA and some of the
things that we love and alsomove forward as well.
So that's what I think we'reseeing a lot of right now.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So I will jump in and I will say that when I read
this statement it wasinteresting, because one of the
things I think we're seeing insociety and some of it is even
coming into the church is moreof a desire for people to set
(24:47):
their own parameters in some way.
And so, as we think about justthe rise of the individual more
so than the group, we'vedefinitely seen that that has
been something that hasincreased over the last, I would
(25:09):
say, generation.
You definitely see that more inthis generation than in past
generations, and I would sayeven to what Coleman shared.
I mean, those groups are muchsort of.
They're smaller groups with aspecific sound, and so the idea
(25:30):
of choir is that you are goingto a group and this is typically
gonna be a pretty large sizegroup, and you're gonna have
your, say, musical tastechallenged.
Oftentimes You're gonna havethings.
You're gonna sing songs thatyou don't necessarily like to
sound of or wonder where thesound came from, and you're
(25:50):
gonna sing some that are kind ofin the wheelhouse.
But I do think that there issomething to be said Just about
something that we're seeinggoing on in society as well.
I often will hearken back to thefact that folks are still
streaming church and that is howthey see church.
(26:13):
They don't see church assomething where you actually go
and interact with other people,and so I think in some ways
we're kind of seeing that aswell and develop even more so in
this generation.
So I have a different take onit than Coleman, which isn't
unusual, but I definitely canunderstand that, the context
(26:37):
that he's talking about and howit looks different.
But I also think that there'san element there where we see
some of what we see going on inthe wider society.
I mean, think about the factthat a lot of young people now
find it more enjoyable to playsports on video games than to go
outside and actually playsports.
I mean, you see that in otherareas as well, and so it's just
(27:00):
something that we have to beaware of and it's something that
we just have to seek to counterif we are to keep the not only
the idea but the actual, thereality of the choir intact in
our churches.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I think I say this in every podcast.
When we speak about choir,we're generally speaking from a
church choir perspective andbecause that's where we are.
That's where we've come from,but I want to remind the
listening audience that thereare college choirs, universities
(27:38):
and even community choirs.
They've all been affected tosome extent by the events of the
past three years or so Now.
Personally, I didn't do choirin college either.
I did it in high school andthose were some of my best years
.
But, as Miyaeta stated, or madereference to community, I
remembered the college choircoming into our community and
(28:02):
would frequent churches fromtime to time as well.
It was often an opportunity forthe colleges and universities to
reach out to the community andtry to gain interest in their
schools from students in thatcommunity, and some of these
choirs were even touring choirsfrom different states.
Now, sometimes this was aboutawareness for the school or
(28:23):
publicity, and other times itwas fundraising, and sometimes
it was both.
Now, music being the universallanguage that it is, it was a
great appeal to get people intothe music programs, and then, of
course, you can't just go toschool for music.
You had to take all of theother courses as well.
So it wasn't an awarenesscampaign, a fundraising campaign
, and a lot of the gospel choirsthat did go out were not always
(28:46):
comprised of Christian singersand musicians all students, but
not necessarily Christians.
So I want to be clear aboutthat.
Now some will argue that thiswas the school's opportunity to
expose students to Christianityand ultimately make converts.
I don't believe that that wasthe school's purpose, but I'll
leave that where that is and letyou think about that yourself
(29:10):
Now.
Suffice it to say we probablyaren't seen as many students
engaged in choir today.
There is an increased interestin music technology and
therefore a lot more singing anda lot more playing.
Now we can get into thesemantics of what you consider
playing and what you considermusic, programming or sequencing
two different things.
(29:30):
So I would agree that thisgeneration probably doesn't have
as much interest in choir asgenerations before, but I think
the interest in music overallwill be a little higher than
it's ever been with the adventof this technology.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
You know, greg, I will say this, I'll tag on and
then I'll be done with it,talking about the administration
and those people that were incharge of those choirs.
Interesting enough, when I wasa part of the college choir in
particular, it was interestingbecause the person who was in
(30:06):
charge of that choir we talkabout the spirituality of the
person who was in charge of thatchoir oddly enough they were
the minister of music at thechurch.
They didn't even go to thecollege at all.
I don't even know how he gotthe job.
I don't know how he got the job, but he got the job and I was
(30:30):
glad that he had the job, quitefrankly, because it just kind of
carried over from even ourchurches.
It helped us in that.
Now I don't know what thatlooks like down.
Do you still have that sametype of presence in gospel
choirs, in particular in ourcolleges?
But this particular leader, hewas a man of God, right.
(30:55):
And so he functioned in hischurch.
He was very faithful in hischurch, so he understood what
was needed in terms of thespirituality part of it.
He understood what was neededif we were going to convey this
message, this gospel message,through song.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So that was a plus for us, but I am aware that that
is not the case in everysituation and so, yeah, I'm
aware of that and a lot of timesthese schools or colleges would
contract these musicians orchoir directors so that they
didn't have to deal with havingone, that choir director, on
(31:31):
staff and then two having todeal with the backlash that
comes with having a minister ora reverend leading a gospel
choir in a non-Christianinstitution.
Now, I know Dorian and Colemanhave more to say and we would,
on a normal occasion, continuein this conversation, but we're
gonna discipline ourselvestonight because we have guests.
(31:53):
She's been waiting in the wingsalong with our live audience
and we are so grateful to havemy dear friend with us again.
Vocal coach Tara Simon.
Welcome to the choir room.
Let's hear it for her.
Tara, thanks for joining usagain.
How you doing.
Speaker 7 (32:11):
I'm good.
How are you?
It's good to see you.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Well, you've had a pretty cool and busy summer.
Speaker 7 (32:16):
I did have a pretty cool summer, best summer ever,
to be honest.
Take me back.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, I'm gonna point our listening audience to
episode 15, when you were withus last, and so, for our
listening audience, if you wannaknow more about Tara and hear
her heart, you can hear it therein episode 15.
Yes, and this episode we'regonna get a little more
technical and get into yourmethodology and your best
practices for coaching, and someof our listening audience has
(32:42):
already sent in their questions,and so we'll get into that and
then have you whip them in theshape a little bit later.
Now, these are somewhat rapidfire questions.
I asked Catherine Hall the samequestions earlier and so
there's no right or wrong answer.
We just wanna know what thecoach thinks and why.
Here we go For the coach pastaor chicken, chicken Running or
(33:04):
weightlifting.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Weightlifting.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Summer or winter?
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Summer.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Soup or salad.
Salad.
Coffee or milk Coffee, but Idon't really drink either.
Okay Juice or soda Juice.
Don't drink either.
Last question Sparkling wateror flat water Sparkling Cool.
So number four you chose coffeeover milk, but you really don't
drink either of them.
I don't drink either, but I'llsay coffee.
(33:32):
So the follow-up question iswhy?
Speaker 7 (33:35):
I'm wired as it is and you don't want to see me on
coffee.
It looks like heartpalpitations.
You know I don't need it.
I just don't need it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So it's not a health thing, it's just because you're
wired.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
And it doesn't have.
It doesn't affect your voice atall.
Well, I will say this I dodrink tea.
Speaker 7 (33:53):
Angel, yes, in the comments I will say this If I
there's a funny thing thathappens to me, because I'm so
wired that when I drink coffeethere's this like sweet spot
after probably like an hourafter drinking coffee, where, if
I want to do really fast riffsand runs, that is the moment.
Like everything, angel's, likewhat?
Yeah, everything is quicker,like my hummingbird's wings.
(34:14):
I'm like, yeah, like it justgoes really really fast.
So anytime I might want topractice like speed riffs and
runs, because my vibrato isquicker too, because
everything's quicker, I willdrink a little coffee, actually.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay, yeah, interesting, all right, all
right.
Speaker 7 (34:29):
So the juice or soda you say I'm a water girl, like I
, just wasn't raised like that.
We didn't get juice or soda.
We got, like you know, aheathenistic accoutrement that
we apparently my mom got herfood from an organic truck that
came once a month, so we, likewe had it rough as kids, you
know.
But on the flip side it was good, because I we just don't.
(34:51):
I don't have that in my housenow.
We have orange juice for Jaden.
It's fresh squeezed and that'sit.
And he's, he likes that andthat's.
That's all he knows.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay.
So if you're a water girl, youlike sparkly.
Are you drinking sparkly now?
Speaker 7 (35:02):
I don't drink it Like it's.
It's like if I'm out to dinneror if I'm enjoying something.
Sparkling water with lemon orlime is like my go to, but flat
water is what I drink and as asinger you're not trying to
think burp mid song, so I dodrink flat boring water.
I'll just up with like lemon orsomething, but this is just
(35:23):
straight up flat water right nowand I try to get through a lot
for today.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Gotcha.
Well, you answered the nextquestion already and that was a
follow up.
Why?
And it's pretty clear that thebubbles will make you burp and
there's really no way to controlthat mid song.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
No, there's not and that's not good.
And and also there's um there'ssome people where it can even
incite acid reflux or likeindigestion or heartburn, even,
um, when drinking sparklingwater.
Because sometimes, depending onthe kind you buy, they they say
natural flavoring but it's notnatural at all and the the
chemicals in it um can do anumber on your digestion and
(36:00):
digestion Digestive track.
So, yeah, gotta have the booty.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
So real quick how many students have you seen
today?
Speaker 7 (36:09):
You know, I do my best not to coach as much
anymore, Like I have coachesthat I've trained, that are like
me, with a different face, thatdo that.
However, today, um, I have somecelebrity clients and they I
try to put them all back to backin one day.
So I've done them all today.
So I've, I've I've had like alot of coaching time and it's,
(36:29):
it's huge, it's.
It's usually for me I like tojust be in that mode, that like
coaching mode.
So this is nice that it'stonight and just do, do, do, do,
do, like get it done becauseit's a total.
What I, what else I do, is atotally different mode, like
content creation, managementsystems, operations, all those
crazy business owner things.
That has nothing to do withvocal coaching.
(36:50):
Most of my time, um, it's, it'sa different brain switch.
So, I like to just do one, onebrain thing at a time and then
move on to the next.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, it's the behind the scene stuff.
Otherwise the business justdoesn't flow.
Somebody's going to do it, yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
The lessons are like the home plate part of it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
There's a whole other round of bases to keep it going
, so yeah, Good, well, let's getto some of the other questions
that were sent in.
The first question here is whattype of vocal exercise would
you recommend for the beginnervocalist?
Speaker 7 (37:25):
So good.
Well, first of all, I will saythis I'm doing a free three day
workshop this week.
Actually it's kind of divinetiming, but, um, wednesday,
Thursday, friday of this week,I'm doing a free one hour
workshop each day, justdedicated to pitch and helping
people learn how to sing onpitch.
So it's 12 PM to 1 PM Easternstandard time.
(37:46):
Um, I will, I don't know.
I'll send Greg, I'll text you alink that you can like then put
in the chat or something.
All you guys need to do is clickon the link to register.
Like I said, it's completelyfree, there's no strings
attached.
I don't rule like that.
So, if you just, I did a pollat one point and I was like, hey
, like people of mysubscribership, what's the
(38:09):
biggest vocal pain point thatyou have?
And a lot of people saiddifferent things but, like the
general average consensus waspitch and not and these are
singing people, like people thatloved saying and these people
said, well, I just it's not thatI necessarily can't sing on
pitch, I just texted you.
But I don't always know, like,if I'm in the center of the
(38:31):
pitch, because there aregradients of being, even on
pitch right, it's like there'sacceptable, there's right in the
center, like locked and loaded,and then there's like
acceptable right beneath it, andthen there's just sharp and
flat, you know, and then there'srules, so there's there's
gradients, like sunset, of color, you know, of pitch, and so
that's something that I'mpassionate about because, you
know, to me, pitch is one of thethree main vocal components of
(38:55):
actual singability.
So, like, what defines someonewho can sing?
To me, pitch is one rightRhythm, being able to sing on
key and on the tempo of amelodic line.
There there's like the twobasic rudimentary foundations of
being able to sing.
And the third and this this canbe debated, but the first two
(39:17):
you cannot.
I'll fight you on it.
The third to me is vibrato,because that separates someone
who sounds like they can singversus someone who speaks things
like happy birthday to youversus happy birthday to you.
It's like a totally differentball game, and that's because of
vibrato being the third one.
So all that to say, if you'resomeone who struggles with pitch
(39:40):
, I'll save that for theworkshop and I'll give you
something else here for thepeople who are on here and not
there and I.
One of my discovery vocalexercises I do with a student
who's new is an exercise calledZ-Zaw Z, and I like it for a
couple of different reasons.
It goes through a fifth ofrange.
So we are, we go through like aone to five, back down to a one
(40:03):
, and you go from a closed mouthout to an open mouth out and
back down to the close again.
So it goes Z-Zaw Z, and then wemodulate up, we discover where
they fall apart, going upwards,and then we modulate back down
and we discover where they fallapart, going back down and again
the reason I like it is for acouple of reasons.
(40:25):
One it's yes, you're skippingrange, so you're testing their
ear to see if they can skipinstead of step.
But two, you're going from aclosed mouth out to an open.
So I'm checking visually andsonically for temporal
mandibular jaw dysfunction, tmj,because if you're dropping and
you're doing this Zaw, or ifthere's a click, or if there's
(40:45):
like a wince of pain, then I'mgoing to say, okay, we need to
address that first, because thatcan not be necessarily fixed by
vocal lessons, but we can useit actually as a tool to say,
hey, that click that you'refeeling need to go past that,
like that's your safe spot.
No, like you're dropping allthe way or enough.
So I'm testing for that and I'malso I'm testing for their
(41:07):
range to see how far they can godown, as well as their pitch
accuracy from going from thatone to five to the one.
So I love Zee Zaw.
Zee, it's actually in quite afew free tutorials that I have
on my YouTube channel.
So if you go to Terra SimonStudios and you and you look up
like Terra Simon YouTubetutorial for beginners, you're
going to see like a wholeplaylist of videos there with
(41:29):
exercises in each video, and ZeeZaw Zee is definitely in there,
as well as a few more.
I also love lip trails I thinkthere was a question about lip
trails, actually, so but Zee ZawZee is like one of my go-to
discoveries, and we use it likein every first lesson.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
So the Zee Zaw Zee exercise for that beginner
vocalist, when they are unableto make the break transition
smoothly, whether that's head tochest or what have you, when
they're unable to make the break, once they reach that point, do
you start bringing them backdown a few keys or do you start
to focus in zeroing in on thatbreaking point and giving them
(42:05):
different exercises to focus onthat transition?
Speaker 7 (42:08):
Yeah, so there's two scenarios on the way up right.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Someone's either.
Speaker 7 (42:13):
well, I'll give you my scenario.
I'm a natural belter and Ilearned to mix later in life
because I didn't have a teacherwho could teach me in a way that
I can understand, hence why I'ma coach now.
It's a little annoying, but youend up becoming what you didn't
get.
So when I go up, I will pushthe belts until the cows come
home, because I'm notcomfortable mixing.
I had to learn that later,right, right.
(42:33):
I'm going to go home becausethey've heard me saying.
They're like oh yeah, butyou're either going to push that
belt and then you're going tototally crash and burn I'm going
to take you to failure oryou're a natural mixer, which
means you start to leave thechest register earlier than you
really need to, you go into mixand then all of a sudden you're
in head voice and you break upin the head voice.
(42:55):
You're going to break either way.
The question is do you end upmixing, breaking into head voice
, or do you end up mixingpushing the chest?
You're obviously break if youbreak into chest because it's
louder and more voluminous.
But we're going to know, okay,if they're breaking in their
head voice, they're a naturalmixer, which means we need to
train their belt because, mostlikely, if that's their comfort
zone, they're pumping thatmuscle of their voice and
(43:16):
leaving this one to atrophy,just like adversely.
If someone's singing in chestall the time, like me, and
they're not working on their mix, then that muscle is what's
going to be atrophy, and Ishould spend more time working
on that.
So it tells us so much.
When we discover the range and,yes, regardless of where and
how they break, we do go downand we take them to failure on
the way down too, because a lotof coaches focus on the upward
(43:40):
only and while we do focus a loton the upward because that's
what most people end up singingand they have the most problems
with the bottom is still veryimportant for this reason, for
this main reason If especially afemale's voice is not stretched
and extended on the low end,what happens when some of their
mean choir teachers give them asong like that name from Yolanda
(44:00):
Adams and they don't want tosing?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
it in the original key.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
Greg did that to me and they don't have any.
I'm having trouble.
I'm having trouble flashbacks.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
What happens if you don't have that?
Speaker 7 (44:16):
range and you cannot modulate lower because they
can't hit the lower notes in thesong.
They're stuck having to justmuddle and struggle through on
those top ends.
So you need a low end too, sothat you have a little bit of
breadth and a little bit ofwiggle room as to what key
you're actually going to sing itin yeah.
Your choir teacher is niceenough for you to change the key
.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I think I did change the key.
I at least moved it a half step, didn't I?
You did not, and I didn't have.
Speaker 7 (44:41):
I just sang that song in the original key and I burst
like five plushies.
I was too embarrassed to ask.
I was like I do not ask you tochange.
That was why I was young anddumb.
I was prideful.
I've learned from my wickedways, Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Well, it served you well, it served you well.
So, obviously that exercise canbe done for male or female boys
, absolutely, and if any of themwere training a male voice, we
would start lower by probably anoctave.
Speaker 7 (45:13):
I usually like my sweet spot.
Let's see, when I start withfemales, my sweet spot is F3.
And when I'm starting withmales, my sweet spot isI don't
know what to say in octave.
Actually, I'd say probably anA3.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Well, it's ironic because my low register is all
but disappeared.
Really, yeah.
I'm not even comfortablesinging a low F at this point.
I can do it, but then anythingbelow that is just.
And you used to, yeah, I usedto, but my high register,
ironically, is the same, in facta little higher Greg can go
into the last guy, so I don'tknow what that's about.
(45:53):
Really, and it's got.
I don't know, maybe it's thePepsi.
So anyway, let's go on to thenext question.
Are there any specificexercises that you would do with
female vocals, that youwouldn't do with male vocals?
Speaker 7 (46:07):
Ooh, that is a good question and I thought about
that.
And it's not that I would doany exercise for a male, that I
wouldn't do for a female, butthe approach and the goal would
be slightly different.
And I can give you an example.
So, men, they and okay, I'm notlike a yes, I know vocal
(46:29):
pedagogy, but in order forpeople to understand what I'm
talking about, I'm not a like afancy terminology girl, I'll say
it, but then I'll explain it.
And a lot of men, especiallyClassically trained men, they
say like things like flagelletteand falsetto and things I call
it head voice okay, you're notsinging in Chess Boys anywhere.
You're singing up here, that'swhere you feel it.
Just call it what it is.
But for for these people,anybody that wants me to say
(46:49):
that falsetto, if I'm training aguy and we're say doing let's
even say Zee, zaw, zee, since wewere on that topic my goal for
him and where my goal would befor him and how he hits that
goal as far as note phonationwhich is singing, by the way and
placement of that note would beDifferent and I would probably
(47:10):
go about it in a different way.
So men tend, I would say on anine out of ten ratio, to scoop
up to nose.
I don't know why it's a thing,but they like to ease their way
up into it.
So I have to pay more attentionin a male's voice to have them
hit the note from above, likelike up and over, rather than
(47:31):
underneath and up, and womendon't do that.
If anything, women overshoot it.
I think I've taught two womenin my entire life who scoop up
like men, and they were reallylow altos, so they had like the
same.
So I'm looking for a differentapproach, I'm looking for the
way they hit it, I'm looking fora richer tone and that they
(47:53):
don't thin out as quickly,because that falsetto and a man
does still have and we'retalking there are exceptions to
this because of tamper andtonality and stuff Vocal
classification, but in generalmen tend to have, even in head
voice, this deeper, richer kindof a thicker sound and quality
(48:13):
to that transition than women do.
Women really have to fight forthat and and so I'm focusing on
men maintaining that well then,instead of if it's a woman
building that into her voice.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yes, make sense.
Next question how helpful arelip trills?
Some vocalists and coaches goright to vocal exercises that
focus on the throat and skip liptrills.
How helpful and how importantare they?
Speaker 7 (48:41):
Okay.
Well, I think that there's amisnomer about trills, and I
call them vibratory exercisestongue and lip trills right,
because whenever you're making asound beyond a breath, you're
using the same larynx in thesame way that you would be if
you were singing a song or avowel exercise.
(49:02):
Okay, so there is no lesserthan if you're trilling.
There is an.
And also, though, because whenyou're trilling, it is a
vibratory exercise, and so youare like, if you're flimmy, if
you're congested, think of it islike Everything inside your
throat doing that.
It's gonna like vibrate thegunk off.
And I say they're one of myfavorites, they're my go-tos and
(49:26):
they're my vocal healthexercises when I'm sick.
For the reason I just explained, I also think they're a really
great training wheel exercisebecause your mouth is closed.
You really can't hurt yourselfdoing them.
So if you're someone who's newand you're on store as like, I
don't know if I'm practicingright or how to practice right,
lip trills and tongue trills aremy absolute go-to's.
(49:47):
For people like you, becauseyour mouth is closed, it's not
like you're not giving enoughspace.
It's not like you're going toohigh or too low or you're
cracking with a mouth and you'repushing too hard, you can't.
Your mouth is closed.
Only so much, you can, onlypush so hard before the trill
stops.
What I will say about them isthat I use them in my life
almost on a daily basis and Iuse them as my first go-to
(50:09):
exercise.
So yes, for range discovery andvocal capability discovery, in
first lessons we do Z-z-1st, butwe always teach trills and I
always do trills for myself atthe first of my exercise
sequence, because they're agreat warm-up, their vibratory
that get the blood flowing, thebest for me.
And then I slowly segue intoopen mouth exercises that
(50:32):
eventually get me into more likealmost Plyometric vocal
exercises that are moreexplosive, and then, you know,
force the chest or forcedifferent ends of my range, but
I usually always start with liptrills.
I love them.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
I think that they are great exercises, especially for
beginners.
Some of them have problems withconsistency.
Yes, during the trills theybreak up and they're not able to
to maintain the trill.
Yeah, what?
Speaker 6 (50:58):
do you?
Speaker 1 (50:58):
suggest to your students when they find it
difficult to maintain the trillDo they dip in lip balm?
Do they Dip?
Speaker 4 (51:07):
in water.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I mean yeah they do to keep the lips in condition
for an effective and a properlip trill.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Yeah right, well, actually I'm glad you said that,
because no to lip balm forwomen.
You cannot have lip gloss,lipstick, nothing on your lips.
Okay, it's just, it's gonna actlike glue and you're gonna be
stuck.
I, I was training someone thatwas just coming off set from
filming in LA two weeks ago andI was doing trying to do this
(51:35):
show turn.
She still had all that stuff onour lips and she was like I'm
like what that stuff off andthen you'll be fine, you know.
So nothing on your lips.
You do a quick lick, lick yourlips, wet your lips, and then
this is like kind of a failsafe.
If you're having a problemTrilling, there are a couple
reasons why.
One, you're giving too much airand it's stopping, it's kind of
(51:57):
like sputtering out.
And the other would be you'regiving out enough and you'll see
that effect where sounds comingout and your lips are
separating, but nothing happens.
There's that close of a whenit's exploding, goes really fast
and stops us too much.
That is too little.
And If it's not the breath, ifyour lips are just still not
(52:18):
trilling, take your two fingers,put them to your jawbone, raise
it up an inch, like this, sowe're kind of alleviating the
loose skin not to say that wehave loose skin, but like
there's weight there, you know.
So just one inch up and thentry not to smile because that's
also hard and then just trill.
So you kind of push yourfingers into like I wouldn't go
higher than where you can feelyour bottom teeth, that's too
(52:38):
high.
Just just to the bottom, whereyou feel your bottom teeth, and
and it should be a nice slow,relaxed trill and that will fix
the issue if you're havingproblems trilling.
Great information If you'relistening to this podcast, you
know that once a month here inthe choir room.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
We do invite a live virtual audience and we have
such an audience with us today.
I see a few hands raised andour first question is going to
come from David.
Question as church musicians.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I'm not actively in a position right now, but even as
a substitute, when I went in,if I was taking care of choir on
a Sunday morning for a warm-up,typically that could be quite
early in the day, and so I loveyour Zizazi exercise.
I would do something like that,but I would allow them to to
(53:30):
slide, just because in themorning our voices are so low To
begin with and and it's a verychallenging you know time of day
for soloist or a choir.
So let us know what yourthoughts are.
What's what would be best inthat situation?
I love that question.
Speaker 7 (53:55):
And something that I always loved when warming up
choirs myself, because I didhave the chance after leaving
TSC to do some worship leadingin choir, directing myself, and
I really love not just trainingthe voice and warming that up
but also warming up the ear whenwe're.
When we're talking about choir,we're trying to sing in one
voice, right.
So it's not just about our ownpersonal voices but it's about
the people around us too.
(54:15):
So I love a hum on a sustainand then you direct the, the
alto, the tenor is the bassist,the sopranos, to do like a
harmonic triad.
Or if there's four, then youcan do the bass and sopranos
matching, or maybe even do aseventh, be fancy and and have
them hung.
You can grow them, you can makethem go softer or slower, stop,
(54:41):
modulate up and do it again.
I love the hums.
You can have them do it on atrill.
If you wanted to move to thatarpeggiation doing ZZ-Z151, you
can even make that into a trillwithout the vowels and then go
back and do it on the vowels ifyou'd like.
But I love the slidey natureand the vibratory exercises that
you can modify any exercise to,especially for the ones in the
(55:03):
morning.
I just really am a fan.
Though when you see we'retalking originally about like a
person's voice in the context ofchoir, like a singer's voice
that's on here but when you talkabout like a choir in and of
itself, like as a whole, all ofthose voices being one, I
wouldn't waste any time thinkingof the individual's voice.
(55:24):
I would think about, when Iwarm up a choir, how to warm up
everyone's voice and their earsto hear and feel one another,
and that's why I would not go tolike one of my vocal exercises
that I would do in a lesson fora student.
I would go to that hum, I wouldgo to different dynamics, I
would popcorn note arpeggiationaround, because I want them to
(55:47):
warm up as a whole instead ofjust as a voice.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
Thanks, david, for your question.
Tara, thanks for joining usthis week here in the Choir Room
.
This week we'll continue withTara and our virtual audience
with some live demonstration.
Coleman is going to take us toour thought of the week.
Speaker 6 (56:03):
Yeah, it's great to be with you guys tonight.
Thank you so much, tara.
That was so much fun.
Enjoyed that, you know.
I want to share a thought withyou that kind of attacked me a
little bit when I first heard it, so I don't know how easily it
will sit with your spirit whenyou hear it at first.
Maybe it'll have to be one ofthose things that simmers with
(56:26):
you and then you'll get on boardlater if maybe you won't, but
we'll see.
It's about the concept ofcalling.
I don't know about you, but I'min a church culture and grew up
in a church culture that Ireally emphasize the concept of
calling, rightly.
So you know, what do we believe?
God is speaking or what do webelieve that he has spoken to us
(56:49):
about our lives and thedirection of our life, or
something that we need to dowith our life, vocationally or
not?
But let me break from that fora second.
Let's think about thesequestions.
Have you ever gotten so carriedaway with something that you
forgot the reason why youstarted it in the first place?
Or have you ever been soinspired to do something just to
(57:14):
lose the fire that you once hadfor it?
Or have you ever gotten sozealous about one aspect of your
passion or your job or otherthings that so that other things
that you're responsible for inyour life or job, they got
neglected unintentionally.
And I know I'm casting a reallywide net in these questions
(57:36):
because they all seem kind ofunrelated.
But it's about to make sense,because I feel like these
situations all take place somuch in the ministry world
across the board, whether you'rea vocational minister, a
volunteer or something inbetween.
So many people develop aromanticized vision of what
(57:58):
they're called to.
Some people get carried awaywith it, and I don't mean that
in casual terms, I mean itcarries them away from the path
that they're walking on.
It's like you feel called tosomething and suddenly that's
the only thing that you'rechasing.
And now this is again not anindictment on calling.
(58:18):
I believe in calling and Ibelieve in pursuing what you
believe God has called you toAbsolutely.
But have you ever thought abouthow Jesus didn't call his
disciples to ministry, he calledthem to himself.
Let me say that again.
Jesus called his disciples tohimself.
He said follow me.
And then he said and I willmake you.
(58:41):
But he said follow me, I willmake you.
After that so often we who stepinto roles of ministry and
ministry leadership and platformministry I am in the choir room
platform ministry we sometimesforget that it's not our calling
(59:02):
to chase the platform.
It isn't our calling to seekthe biggest stage that we can
sing on.
It isn't our calling to do somany of the things that we want
to do sometimes.
No, our calling is to Christ.
Sure, we are commissioned andwe are to serve the body of
Christ with our gifts and we areto obey when God speaks to us.
(59:23):
About coupling our lives withministry or any other thing Lots
of things can be ministry, butat the end of the day, we
sometimes end up seeking thecalling more than the caller,
the one who calls.
When we realize that we'recalled to Jesus first and not to
our work for Him, we realizethat those other things lack the
(59:45):
ability to sustain and inspireand refresh and restore and
reveal.
Stephanie Gretzinger, who is awell-known speaker and worship
leader.
She says it like this that somany of us want the water, but
Jesus is the water and the well.
We all want the living water,but he's the only place that we
(01:00:08):
can get it right.
Those things that I'm talkingabout.
They're not the reward.
Nearness to Jesus is the reward.
He has to be our completesatisfaction.
So many of us, as soon assomeone discovered that we could
sing, we were thrown into thechoir loft.
So many of us who have certaintalents, are thrown into
(01:00:29):
ministry roles before we're ableto realize that the crown put
on our heads is too heavy tohold up without the structure of
intimacy with Jesus built in tohold it gracefully.
To paraphrase StephanieGretzinger again, again, I'm not
saying that being launched intoministry at a young age is bad,
because it's not Because I was.
(01:00:50):
Many of you were.
But what is bad is, when we dothat without discipling people,
that there's more to it thanjust the platform, that there's
more to it than just the giftand the call that our platforms
require intimacy with he whofavored us enough to give us a
platform.
So what's the call to action?
(01:01:11):
What are we taking away fromthis?
What are we supposed to leavewith?
A renewed desire for intimacywith Jesus Christ.
Right, since I'm talking tochoir folks and singers, I'll
say it like this A reneweddesire for intimacy with the
giver and the sustainer of oursong.
So God bless you guys.
(01:01:33):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
And remember, if ever we put the messenger before the
message, we have failed topresent an unblemished gospel.
I'm Greg Thomas and I'll seeyou guys next time on the Choir
Room.
Welcome to the choir room, season 1, episode 26 of
the Choir Room Podcast.
Welcome to the choir room.
I'm Greg Tomas, your host, andI'll soon be joined by my
co-host, dorian Johnson.
Welcome to the choir room, beit a Stanso Pharrar and who we
(00:22):
like to call the 4th Wheel,coleman Smart.
This podcast exists to promoteand encourage to long-time
traditions in our society thatseem to be dwindling away, and
that is choir and corporatesinging.
We hope to revive the excitementand joy experienced with
singing in a choir, as well asinform and educate the listener
on all things singing and allthings choir related.
(00:44):
So if you love singing and youlove choir, we encourage you to
subscribe to this podcast.
Anywhere you get your podcastdownloads, you can also
subscribe by sending the wordsubscribe in the subject field
of an email to the choir room atmetro music dash arts dot com,
and when you subscribe, be sureto give us a five star review,
as your review helps us keepthis podcast alive and share it
(01:07):
with a friend.
And now you can also engagewith us on the choir room
podcast Facebook page.
Our guest contributor today isvocal coach and YouTube
sensation Tara Simon of TaraSimon Studios.
Have you ever stopped to thinkabout how important water is to
your diet and to your overallhealth, and how it affects your
(01:27):
singing ability.
Well, our dear friend CatherineHall is back with us again with
the importance of hydration andsome other tips that will help
bring longevity to your singing.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Jesus often spoke about water.
He was speaking to people wholived in the desert climate and
of course there was a vitalimportance of water when he said
I am the water of life.
Just as you can't live withoutphysical water, without me, the
spiritual water, the spirit, youmay as well be dead.
Our bodies are 75% water andour brains are actually 85%
(02:04):
water.
We are essentially water peopleand we are chronically
dehydrated.
The water is not just there asa passive solute that allows the
various compounds to circulatewater.
It has very important functionsof its own, since every single
cell in our bodies needs waterto function.
(02:25):
The body has very active andsophisticated systems to ensure
that every cell of every organand muscle and vessel receives
the water it needs, along withthe nutrients it carries.
And if we are not taking enoughwater in, then these systems
begin to prioritize and triage.
Water is reduced to areas ofless importance in favor of the
(02:49):
most important organs, like thebrain.
We are born with a clearunderstanding of our need for
water.
Babies actually cry becausesometimes they need a liquid or
water.
In my field there is someevidence that the morning
sickness of a woman who ispregnant it may indicate
dehydration of the mother andbaby.
(03:11):
Unfortunately, modern lifequickly starts to make us ignore
our bodies.
Many cries for water and thestrong thirst sensation we had
as children slowly fades, weactually suppress it.
Not now.
It's too inconvenient if youwill Too heavy to carry and then
I'll need a bathroom.
I just can't drink that water.
(03:32):
You all have been there, I'msure.
Finally, we're left with justone final ultimatum from the
water department a dry mouth.
If we get to that point, itactually means we have ignored
all else, and things are reallyvery serious.
Certain necessary processes arealready being slowed.
(03:54):
If this happened just once, wecould quickly recover.
This is the pattern almostevery day of our lives, and we
wonder why we begin to havechronic pains and problems.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You may mention of a doctor in Iran and that he used
water as a treatment.
Can you tell us a little bit?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
about that.
There was a doctor in Iran whowas put in jail and they didn't
have a lot of medical care inthe jail, in the prison.
And so all the prisoners wentto the doctor and said I'm
really, really sick, I'm reallysick, can you do something for
me?
And he had nothing, nomedications, nothing.
(04:38):
So what he did is he startedusing water as medication.
How so?
So if someone had an ulcer,they may not drink during
mealtimes, but they would drinkafter mealtimes.
Okay, if someone had a kidneyproblem, he would have them sip
water all through the day andall through the night, but never
(04:59):
more than a cup at a time.
And what he found was thatpeople were actually getting
better.
And in fact, he was brought tothe authorities in the prison
and they said you've been doinggood work, we're going to let
you go.
And he said actually, I'm inthe middle of a study.
Do you mind if I stay foranother month, because I'm
(05:22):
healing people and I'm actuallywanting to see how far I can go
with the healing?
And so they allowed him to stayand he got out of there and,
with his traditional medicaltraining, he turned and wrote a
book called You're Not Sick,you're Thirsty.
Wow, that's interesting, andthat has been a very, very
(05:42):
important book with my patientsand me through the years.
I know that dehydration can bevery, very serious because we
don't even know we're dehydrated, as I just said, and
dehydration is associated withmany indicators, including
things like rheumatoid arthritis, even back pain, heart pain,
(06:06):
headaches, colitis and, ofcourse, constipation.
These are actual signals, andthe medications we receive for
these pains just dull the signal.
They don't fix the problem.
I use the analogy with mypatients a lot that you're
driving along in your beautifulcar and you see the signal light
, a little light go on in thedashboard, and so you get a
(06:30):
little hammer and you hit it andit goes out and you think, oh
great, everything's fine.
What you need to do is stop,look under the hood and see
what's really going on, andthat's what I like to do for
different conditions.
Why is a patient not feelingwell?
What is happening under thesurface?
(06:51):
The root cause of the problemis what I look at.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I think that's much like all of life.
We can spend too much timelooking at the symptoms and
never dealing with the cause ofthe symptom, the root issue.
And obviously dehydration canhave a negative impact on our
entire body, and that obviouslyincludes impacting our ability
to sing, or even speak, for thatmatter.
So hydration is critical.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I could tell you many stories of patients who have
heated what I've told them andhad enough water which is half
your body weight in ounces a dayspread throughout the day on a
consistent basis.
And even sometimes I will tellthem to put a little bit of sea
salt in there, which has about87 to 89 minerals, and it
(07:43):
actually helps open up the celland get the water into the cell
so the cell can do its thing.
When the cell is working andevery cell works like a
manufacturing plant it heats upand so water is part of what
that cell needs.
And sometimes, if the water isnot mineralized enough, it
(08:06):
actually just stays on theoutside of the cell and it
doesn't go in and so it almostsquishes the cell and makes you
dehydrated.
If you go to the Caribbean,you'll see that their water has
salt in it.
Whenever you buy water it'smostly has just a tad of it.
Now I'm not saying to use tablesalt, because that raises blood
(08:30):
pressure, but just a tad.
A little bit of salt in a literof water maybe a half an eighth
of a teaspoon in a liter ofwater every day will help really
get that water into the cell.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So then, what should the average choir room person or
the average singer be doing toremedy this deprivation of water
to the cells?
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So what do we do about it?
Where does this go?
When I'm talking to the peoplewho are listening right now, the
choir room.
We've all been in a rehearsalwhere you're coughing or your
throat is dry or, worse, whereyou have to sing a solo and
you're not quite ready becauseyou've been eating salted fries
(09:19):
or whatever the night before,the day before, and you're quite
dehydrated on top of it.
So drinking water on a regularbasis actually smooths over the
vocal cords and actually givesyou a much more of a fighting
chance.
Sometimes the body actuallywants to lubricate the vocal
(09:41):
cords with mucus, so because itneeds some sort of liquid to
work properly, and that's thebody's response to try to fix
the problem which causes mucusin the throat, which is as a
singer.
We all know that that is notwhat you want.
So, basically, water again halfyour body weight announces
(10:03):
throughout the day, and not justgetting home from work and
thinking, okay, I'll drink aliter of water.
Now it has to be all throughthe day and over time you will
get used to drinking that muchwater.
Your body will, instead ofrunning to the bathroom all the
time, you will actually get usedto being hydrated and that
(10:26):
frequency of going to thebathroom will decrease.
So again, the Lord has builtthe body in a certain way and we
need it.
Again he made it really clear.
He talked about water, thewater of life, and again because
the people were in the desertand so he was trying to drive
(10:51):
home the whole idea of water oflife.
But I know he also would saydrinking water for our bodies is
how it was made, meant to be.
So I encourage you, as singersand just as people, to really
(11:11):
elongate your health by drinkingthe most water you can.
And if you want to live aproductive life and sing long
into your 70s and possibly 80s,then there we go Drink water,
Drink water.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Dorian has our hymn of the week.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Thank you so much, greg.
Over the last several hymns ofthe week we've been looking at
our appropriate and rightresponse to all that God has
done for us in Christ, and someof those past hymns of the week
have called on us to love God,to love Christ more.
We've looked at trust as well,and this week's hymn of the week
(11:52):
adds obedience to trust.
This week's hymn of the week isTrust and Obey.
In his 1906 book the Story ofthe Gospel Hymns, ira Sankey,
who was an American gospelsinger and composer who
partnered with DL Moody onrevival campaigns in the United
States and in Britain, wrotethis about the origin of this
(12:13):
hymn.
He says Mr Moody was conductinga series of meetings in
Brockston, massachusetts,presumably in 1886, this is
written, and I had the pleasureof singing for him there.
One night a young man rose in atestimony meeting and said I'm
not quite sure, but I'm going totrust and I'm going to obey.
(12:33):
I just jotted that sentencedown and sent it with the little
story to the Reverend JohnSamus, a Presbyterian minister.
He wrote the hymn and the tunewas born.
The hymn was published in 1887and has Proverbs 1620, which
says Whoever gives thought tothe word will discover good and
(12:54):
blessed is he who trusts in theLord.
Chorus goes this way Trust andobey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus but totrust and obey.
And each verse then points tothe Christians need to align our
lives with the word of God andby allowing more and more of our
(13:16):
lives to be transformed by thepower of the Holy Spirit.
First, on five, two and threesays by this we know that we
love the children of God.
When we love God and obey hiscommandments.
For this is the love of God,that we keep his commandments
and his commandments are notburdensome.
Verse one says when we walkwith the Lord in the light of
(13:39):
his word, what a glory he shedson our way.
While we do his goodwill, heabides with us still and with
all who will trust and obey.
In Exodus 19, five, we read Now,therefore, if you will indeed
obey my voice and keep mycovenant, you shall be my
treasured possession among allthe peoples, for all the earth
(14:02):
is mine.
Second verse says Not a burdenwe bear, not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richlyrepay.
Not a grief or a loss, not afrown or cross, but is blessed
if we trust and obey Romans 12,one and two.
(14:22):
Paul, and writing to the Romanbeliever, says I appeal to you
therefore, brothers, by themercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to thisworld, but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind that, bytesting, you may discern what is
(14:44):
the will of God, what is goodand acceptable and perfect.
The third verse says this butwe never can prove the delights
of his love until all, on thealtar, we lay for the favor he
shows, for the joy he boosts.
Those are for them who willtrust and obey.
(15:05):
And then we hear the words ofour Savior in Matthew 28,.
In the Great Commission, we readverses 19 and 20,.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name ofthe Father and of the Son of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them toobserve all that I have
commanded you.
And behold, I am with youalways, to the end of the age.
(15:26):
And the final verse not onlypoints us to glory, but also
calls us to live lifesurrendered to the Lord.
It says Then, in fellowship,sweet, we will sit at his feet
or walk by his side in the way.
What he says we will do.
Where he sends we will go,never fear, only trust and obey.
(15:48):
And how much we need to hearthat word, that refrained today
to trust and obey our Savior.
In such uncertain times it canfeel as if the world is spinning
out of control and in truechaos.
But we know that he ultimatelyis in control of all things and
(16:13):
as we live out our Christianlives, as we seek to glorify him
, we can do no better but totrust and obey our faithful God.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Thanks, dorian.
A classic hymn presented inthat classic Dorian fashion, as
we do each week.
Crq is an acronym for choirroom questions and Mieta always
gets those and submits them tous and we discuss them a little
bit, and today is no differentMieta with our CRQ.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Welcome to the choir room.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Thanks, greg.
Well, here we are tonight withour CRQ.
Now, this CRQ is more of astatement than a question, and
so this will require a littleclassroom participation, if you
will.
And so here goes.
A lot of people from ourgeneration grew up in church, in
church choir, and for those whoactually went to college, we
(17:09):
ended up joining choir, collegechoir, college choirs, I'm sorry
and music programs.
This generation, however,doesn't seem to be interested in
that as much.
Now, that's interesting.
That is interesting.
I did both church choir and Idid school choir as well.
(17:32):
And I must admit before I allowthe gentlemen to chime in I
must admit, when I went to highschool in particular, I had no
interest in doing choir.
In high school.
I did enough church choir sothat was enough for me, it was
more than enough for me, andthat took all week of every
(17:53):
month.
So going to school and singingin school choir was really not
my thing.
But I will say I am the betterfor it, because I was sitting in
a study hall class, which meantI wasn't doing anything really,
it was just a study hall periodand the concert choir teacher
at that time I don't know howshe found out, but she somehow
(18:16):
was in the attendance office andsaw my name and some paperwork
and my last name in particularpiqued her interest Because my
last name was Stancil.
Now there were some otherStancils that had gone to that
particular high school therewere a few of them.
That's what I'm getting there Afew of them had gone there and
(18:37):
she realized there was anotherone in the building.
I was the last generation.
No, I'm sorry, she was gone bythe time my daughter went there,
but I was the last generationthat was interested, I should
say, in singing.
She found me.
She came to the classroom thatI was in and pulled me out of
(18:57):
the classroom and said you don'tbelong in here, you belong with
me.
I ended up for the next fouryears of high school a part of
the choir and that's where I metGreg.
In fact, on a more personallevel, met Gregory Thomas.
I enjoyed it.
I am aware I also sang for theWilliam Patterson Gospel Choir
(19:20):
for a while and there were a lotof young people.
That was a part of that andthat was their life the whole
time that they were in college.
We traveled and had some greattimes experiencing college
choirs from all over the country, but I am recognizing now that
(19:41):
you don't hear about that asmuch anymore.
Coleman may have a betterperspective on the college
choirs and young people being apart of that, more so than I
would.
But I have to agree with thisstatement in particular you do
not find.
Unfortunately, you do not find,and it was such great community
(20:03):
in doing that.
Being a part of that, it reallyenriched your lives more than
you could have ever imagined.
So prayerfully.
Hopefully, through a mediumsuch as this, this podcast will
get people back to engaging inthat again, because it is so,
especially in our colleges.
With all of the things that arehappening around us, that's a
(20:28):
safe place Most times.
That's a safe place for ouryoung people to go and to share
and to pray and to worship,because that does happen,
believe it or not, in thosecollege choirs.
That does happen.
So prayerfully, through thismedium, as I said, that will
change and people will start toget back to that.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
What say you.
Well, I'll go first, since youmade mention of me a second ago,
because I do have some recentexperience with this.
I might have a uniqueexperience because of the world
I was living in in college.
It was a Christian liberal artsuniversity and so there are
(21:13):
thriving choirs there.
I understand that that's notnecessarily the norm everywhere,
but the musical tradition thereis so strong and they've
maintained their identity.
All the different groups havemaintained their identity.
But, taking a step back from mycollegiate experience, I want to
(21:35):
challenge this statement andactually say I think the
interest is still there.
It just looks different in 2023than it did before.
A lot of younger people be thatmillennials, gen Z, whatever
you're considering young some ofthem are still glad to be
(22:00):
involved in more traditionallooking choirs, but a lot
nowadays we're seeing a lot ofmodern worship groups and
churches utilizing a worshipchoir in their services.
Again, it doesn't quite havethe same sound or structure that
it always did, but the aspectof having a choir, a group of
(22:25):
people on stage leading peopleinto the presence of the Lord
and everything, is still verymuch alive.
I know for the last 15, 20years we saw a decline of it,
but now we are seeing a rapidincrease again, and there again
there are places where churchesor ministries or colleges or
(22:47):
whatever have maintained theidentity of more of a
traditional choir.
But what I'm making note of isorganizations that we would say
are extremely modern, the mostcutting edge worship groups,
that kind of thing.
I put air quotes around thatbecause sometimes we consider
(23:08):
worship music a genre.
That's another conversation fora different day.
But in the most cutting edgeworship music, the choir is
there in almost everythingyou're finding nowadays.
We've had these conversationson the podcast before, but if
you want to look at groups likeMaverick City and Elevation and
(23:30):
Bethel and Gateway Church andUpper Room and People and Songs
and that kind of thing I couldjust keep going on and on those
are all very group heavy on thevocals nowadays.
Belonging Co.
They just put out a new albumthat's heavy on choir.
(23:52):
So it's out there.
It might just look a littledifferent than some of us grew
up with, and I think that's okay.
I love to be able to stillreach back and do some of the
things that we know and love,but we also have to know that
for an institution to survive,it has to adapt over time, and
(24:14):
so, yes, it's possible tomaintain the DNA and some of the
things that we love and alsomove forward as well.
So that's what I think we'reseeing a lot of right now.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So I will jump in and I will say that when I read
this statement it wasinteresting, because one of the
things I think we're seeing insociety and some of it is even
coming into the church is moreof a desire for people to set
(24:47):
their own parameters in some way.
And so, as we think about justthe rise of the individual more
so than the group, we'vedefinitely seen that that has
been something that hasincreased over the last, I would
(25:09):
say, generation.
You definitely see that more inthis generation than in past
generations, and I would sayeven to what Coleman shared.
I mean, those groups are muchsort of.
They're smaller groups with aspecific sound, and so the idea
(25:30):
of choir is that you are goingto a group and this is typically
gonna be a pretty large sizegroup, and you're gonna have
your, say, musical tastechallenged.
Oftentimes You're gonna havethings.
You're gonna sing songs thatyou don't necessarily like to
sound of or wonder where thesound came from, and you're
(25:50):
gonna sing some that are kind ofin the wheelhouse.
But I do think that there issomething to be said Just about
something that we're seeinggoing on in society as well.
I often will hearken back to thefact that folks are still
streaming church and that is howthey see church.
(26:13):
They don't see church assomething where you actually go
and interact with other people,and so I think in some ways
we're kind of seeing that aswell and develop even more so in
this generation.
So I have a different take onit than Coleman, which isn't
unusual, but I definitely canunderstand that, the context
(26:37):
that he's talking about and howit looks different.
But I also think that there'san element there where we see
some of what we see going on inthe wider society.
I mean, think about the factthat a lot of young people now
find it more enjoyable to playsports on video games than to go
outside and actually playsports.
I mean, you see that in otherareas as well, and so it's just
(27:00):
something that we have to beaware of and it's something that
we just have to seek to counterif we are to keep the not only
the idea but the actual, thereality of the choir intact in
our churches.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I think I say this in every podcast.
When we speak about choir,we're generally speaking from a
church choir perspective andbecause that's where we are.
That's where we've come from,but I want to remind the
listening audience that thereare college choirs, universities
(27:38):
and even community choirs.
They've all been affected tosome extent by the events of the
past three years or so Now.
Personally, I didn't do choirin college either.
I did it in high school andthose were some of my best years
.
But, as Miyaeta stated, or madereference to community, I
remembered the college choircoming into our community and
(28:02):
would frequent churches fromtime to time as well.
It was often an opportunity forthe colleges and universities to
reach out to the community andtry to gain interest in their
schools from students in thatcommunity, and some of these
choirs were even touring choirsfrom different states.
Now, sometimes this was aboutawareness for the school or
(28:23):
publicity, and other times itwas fundraising, and sometimes
it was both.
Now, music being the universallanguage that it is, it was a
great appeal to get people intothe music programs, and then, of
course, you can't just go toschool for music.
You had to take all of theother courses as well.
So it wasn't an awarenesscampaign, a fundraising campaign
, and a lot of the gospel choirsthat did go out were not always
(28:46):
comprised of Christian singersand musicians all students, but
not necessarily Christians.
So I want to be clear aboutthat.
Now some will argue that thiswas the school's opportunity to
expose students to Christianityand ultimately make converts.
I don't believe that that wasthe school's purpose, but I'll
leave that where that is and letyou think about that yourself
(29:10):
Now.
Suffice it to say we probablyaren't seen as many students
engaged in choir today.
There is an increased interestin music technology and
therefore a lot more singing anda lot more playing.
Now we can get into thesemantics of what you consider
playing and what you considermusic, programming or sequencing
two different things.
(29:30):
So I would agree that thisgeneration probably doesn't have
as much interest in choir asgenerations before, but I think
the interest in music overallwill be a little higher than
it's ever been with the adventof this technology.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
You know, greg, I will say this, I'll tag on and
then I'll be done with it,talking about the administration
and those people that were incharge of those choirs.
Interesting enough, when I wasa part of the college choir in
particular, it was interestingbecause the person who was in
(30:06):
charge of that choir we talkabout the spirituality of the
person who was in charge of thatchoir oddly enough they were
the minister of music at thechurch.
They didn't even go to thecollege at all.
I don't even know how he gotthe job.
I don't know how he got the job, but he got the job and I was
(30:30):
glad that he had the job, quitefrankly, because it just kind of
carried over from even ourchurches.
It helped us in that.
Now I don't know what thatlooks like down.
Do you still have that sametype of presence in gospel
choirs, in particular in ourcolleges?
But this particular leader, hewas a man of God, right.
(30:55):
And so he functioned in hischurch.
He was very faithful in hischurch, so he understood what
was needed in terms of thespirituality part of it.
He understood what was neededif we were going to convey this
message, this gospel message,through song.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
So that was a plus for us, but I am aware that that
is not the case in everysituation and so, yeah, I'm
aware of that and a lot of timesthese schools or colleges would
contract these musicians orchoir directors so that they
didn't have to deal with havingone, that choir director, on
(31:31):
staff and then two having todeal with the backlash that
comes with having a minister ora reverend leading a gospel
choir in a non-Christianinstitution.
Now, I know Dorian and Colemanhave more to say and we would,
on a normal occasion, continuein this conversation, but we're
gonna discipline ourselvestonight because we have guests.
(31:53):
She's been waiting in the wingsalong with our live audience
and we are so grateful to havemy dear friend with us again.
Vocal coach Tara Simon.
Welcome to the choir room.
Let's hear it for her.
Tara, thanks for joining usagain.
How you doing.
Speaker 7 (32:11):
I'm good.
How are you?
It's good to see you.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Well, you've had a pretty cool and busy summer.
Speaker 7 (32:16):
I did have a pretty cool summer, best summer ever,
to be honest.
Take me back.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, I'm gonna point our listening audience to
episode 15, when you were withus last, and so, for our
listening audience, if you wannaknow more about Tara and hear
her heart, you can hear it therein episode 15.
Yes, and this episode we'regonna get a little more
technical and get into yourmethodology and your best
practices for coaching, and someof our listening audience has
(32:42):
already sent in their questions,and so we'll get into that and
then have you whip them in theshape a little bit later.
Now, these are somewhat rapidfire questions.
I asked Catherine Hall the samequestions earlier and so
there's no right or wrong answer.
We just wanna know what thecoach thinks and why.
Here we go For the coach pastaor chicken, chicken Running or
(33:04):
weightlifting.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Weightlifting.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Summer or winter?
Speaker 7 (33:09):
Summer.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Soup or salad.
Salad.
Coffee or milk Coffee, but Idon't really drink either.
Okay Juice or soda Juice.
Don't drink either.
Last question Sparkling wateror flat water Sparkling Cool.
So number four you chose coffeeover milk, but you really don't
drink either of them.
I don't drink either, but I'llsay coffee.
(33:32):
So the follow-up question iswhy?
Speaker 7 (33:35):
I'm wired as it is and you don't want to see me on
coffee.
It looks like heartpalpitations.
You know I don't need it.
I just don't need it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So it's not a health thing, it's just because you're
wired.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
And it doesn't have.
It doesn't affect your voice atall.
Well, I will say this I dodrink tea.
Speaker 7 (33:53):
Angel, yes, in the comments I will say this If I
there's a funny thing thathappens to me, because I'm so
wired that when I drink coffeethere's this like sweet spot
after probably like an hourafter drinking coffee, where, if
I want to do really fast riffsand runs, that is the moment.
Like everything, angel's, likewhat?
Yeah, everything is quicker,like my hummingbird's wings.
(34:14):
I'm like, yeah, like it justgoes really really fast.
So anytime I might want topractice like speed riffs and
runs, because my vibrato isquicker too, because
everything's quicker, I willdrink a little coffee, actually.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay, yeah, interesting, all right, all
right.
Speaker 7 (34:29):
So the juice or soda you say I'm a water girl, like I
, just wasn't raised like that.
We didn't get juice or soda.
We got, like you know, aheathenistic accoutrement that
we apparently my mom got herfood from an organic truck that
came once a month, so we, likewe had it rough as kids, you
know.
But on the flip side it was good, because I we just don't.
(34:51):
I don't have that in my housenow.
We have orange juice for Jaden.
It's fresh squeezed and that'sit.
And he's, he likes that andthat's.
That's all he knows.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay.
So if you're a water girl, youlike sparkly.
Are you drinking sparkly now?
Speaker 7 (35:02):
I don't drink it Like it's.
It's like if I'm out to dinneror if I'm enjoying something.
Sparkling water with lemon orlime is like my go to, but flat
water is what I drink and as asinger you're not trying to
think burp mid song, so I dodrink flat boring water.
I'll just up with like lemon orsomething, but this is just
(35:23):
straight up flat water right nowand I try to get through a lot
for today.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Gotcha.
Well, you answered the nextquestion already and that was a
follow up.
Why?
And it's pretty clear that thebubbles will make you burp and
there's really no way to controlthat mid song.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
No, there's not and that's not good.
And and also there's um there'ssome people where it can even
incite acid reflux or likeindigestion or heartburn, even,
um, when drinking sparklingwater.
Because sometimes, depending onthe kind you buy, they they say
natural flavoring but it's notnatural at all and the the
chemicals in it um can do anumber on your digestion and
(36:00):
digestion Digestive track.
So, yeah, gotta have the booty.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
So real quick how many students have you seen
today?
Speaker 7 (36:09):
You know, I do my best not to coach as much
anymore, Like I have coachesthat I've trained, that are like
me, with a different face, thatdo that.
However, today, um, I have somecelebrity clients and they I
try to put them all back to backin one day.
So I've done them all today.
So I've, I've I've had like alot of coaching time and it's,
(36:29):
it's huge, it's.
It's usually for me I like tojust be in that mode, that like
coaching mode.
So this is nice that it'stonight and just do, do, do, do,
do, like get it done becauseit's a total.
What I, what else I do, is atotally different mode, like
content creation, managementsystems, operations, all those
crazy business owner things.
That has nothing to do withvocal coaching.
(36:50):
Most of my time, um, it's, it'sa different brain switch.
So, I like to just do one, onebrain thing at a time and then
move on to the next.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, it's the behind the scene stuff.
Otherwise the business justdoesn't flow.
Somebody's going to do it, yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:05):
The lessons are like the home plate part of it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
There's a whole other round of bases to keep it going
, so yeah, Good, well, let's getto some of the other questions
that were sent in.
The first question here is whattype of vocal exercise would
you recommend for the beginnervocalist?
Speaker 7 (37:25):
So good.
Well, first of all, I will saythis I'm doing a free three day
workshop this week.
Actually it's kind of divinetiming, but, um, wednesday,
Thursday, friday of this week,I'm doing a free one hour
workshop each day, justdedicated to pitch and helping
people learn how to sing onpitch.
So it's 12 PM to 1 PM Easternstandard time.
(37:46):
Um, I will, I don't know.
I'll send Greg, I'll text you alink that you can like then put
in the chat or something.
All you guys need to do is clickon the link to register.
Like I said, it's completelyfree, there's no strings
attached.
I don't rule like that.
So, if you just, I did a pollat one point and I was like, hey
, like people of mysubscribership, what's the
(38:09):
biggest vocal pain point thatyou have?
And a lot of people saiddifferent things but, like the
general average consensus waspitch and not and these are
singing people, like people thatloved saying and these people
said, well, I just it's not thatI necessarily can't sing on
pitch, I just texted you.
But I don't always know, like,if I'm in the center of the
(38:31):
pitch, because there aregradients of being, even on
pitch right, it's like there'sacceptable, there's right in the
center, like locked and loaded,and then there's like
acceptable right beneath it, andthen there's just sharp and
flat, you know, and then there'srules, so there's there's
gradients, like sunset, of color, you know, of pitch, and so
that's something that I'mpassionate about because, you
know, to me, pitch is one of thethree main vocal components of
(38:55):
actual singability.
So, like, what defines someonewho can sing?
To me, pitch is one rightRhythm, being able to sing on
key and on the tempo of amelodic line.
There there's like the twobasic rudimentary foundations of
being able to sing.
And the third and this this canbe debated, but the first two
(39:17):
you cannot.
I'll fight you on it.
The third to me is vibrato,because that separates someone
who sounds like they can singversus someone who speaks things
like happy birthday to youversus happy birthday to you.
It's like a totally differentball game, and that's because of
vibrato being the third one.
So all that to say, if you'resomeone who struggles with pitch
(39:40):
, I'll save that for theworkshop and I'll give you
something else here for thepeople who are on here and not
there and I.
One of my discovery vocalexercises I do with a student
who's new is an exercise calledZ-Zaw Z, and I like it for a
couple of different reasons.
It goes through a fifth ofrange.
So we are, we go through like aone to five, back down to a one
(40:03):
, and you go from a closed mouthout to an open mouth out and
back down to the close again.
So it goes Z-Zaw Z, and then wemodulate up, we discover where
they fall apart, going upwards,and then we modulate back down
and we discover where they fallapart, going back down and again
the reason I like it is for acouple of reasons.
(40:25):
One it's yes, you're skippingrange, so you're testing their
ear to see if they can skipinstead of step.
But two, you're going from aclosed mouth out to an open.
So I'm checking visually andsonically for temporal
mandibular jaw dysfunction, tmj,because if you're dropping and
you're doing this Zaw, or ifthere's a click, or if there's
(40:45):
like a wince of pain, then I'mgoing to say, okay, we need to
address that first, because thatcan not be necessarily fixed by
vocal lessons, but we can useit actually as a tool to say,
hey, that click that you'refeeling need to go past that,
like that's your safe spot.
No, like you're dropping allthe way or enough.
So I'm testing for that and I'malso I'm testing for their
(41:07):
range to see how far they can godown, as well as their pitch
accuracy from going from thatone to five to the one.
So I love Zee Zaw.
Zee, it's actually in quite afew free tutorials that I have
on my YouTube channel.
So if you go to Terra SimonStudios and you and you look up
like Terra Simon YouTubetutorial for beginners, you're
going to see like a wholeplaylist of videos there with
(41:29):
exercises in each video, and ZeeZaw Zee is definitely in there,
as well as a few more.
I also love lip trails I thinkthere was a question about lip
trails, actually, so but Zee ZawZee is like one of my go-to
discoveries, and we use it likein every first lesson.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
So the Zee Zaw Zee exercise for that beginner
vocalist, when they are unableto make the break transition
smoothly, whether that's head tochest or what have you, when
they're unable to make the break, once they reach that point, do
you start bringing them backdown a few keys or do you start
to focus in zeroing in on thatbreaking point and giving them
(42:05):
different exercises to focus onthat transition?
Speaker 7 (42:08):
Yeah, so there's two scenarios on the way up right.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Someone's either.
Speaker 7 (42:13):
well, I'll give you my scenario.
I'm a natural belter and Ilearned to mix later in life
because I didn't have a teacherwho could teach me in a way that
I can understand, hence why I'ma coach now.
It's a little annoying, but youend up becoming what you didn't
get.
So when I go up, I will pushthe belts until the cows come
home, because I'm notcomfortable mixing.
I had to learn that later,right, right.
(42:33):
I'm going to go home becausethey've heard me saying.
They're like oh yeah, butyou're either going to push that
belt and then you're going tototally crash and burn I'm going
to take you to failure oryou're a natural mixer, which
means you start to leave thechest register earlier than you
really need to, you go into mixand then all of a sudden you're
in head voice and you break upin the head voice.
(42:55):
You're going to break either way.
The question is do you end upmixing, breaking into head voice
, or do you end up mixingpushing the chest?
You're obviously break if youbreak into chest because it's
louder and more voluminous.
But we're going to know, okay,if they're breaking in their
head voice, they're a naturalmixer, which means we need to
train their belt because, mostlikely, if that's their comfort
zone, they're pumping thatmuscle of their voice and
(43:16):
leaving this one to atrophy,just like adversely.
If someone's singing in chestall the time, like me, and
they're not working on their mix, then that muscle is what's
going to be atrophy, and Ishould spend more time working
on that.
So it tells us so much.
When we discover the range and,yes, regardless of where and
how they break, we do go downand we take them to failure on
the way down too, because a lotof coaches focus on the upward
(43:40):
only and while we do focus a loton the upward because that's
what most people end up singingand they have the most problems
with the bottom is still veryimportant for this reason, for
this main reason If especially afemale's voice is not stretched
and extended on the low end,what happens when some of their
mean choir teachers give them asong like that name from Yolanda
(44:00):
Adams and they don't want tosing?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
it in the original key.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
Greg did that to me and they don't have any.
I'm having trouble.
I'm having trouble flashbacks.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
What happens if you don't have that?
Speaker 7 (44:16):
range and you cannot modulate lower because they
can't hit the lower notes in thesong.
They're stuck having to justmuddle and struggle through on
those top ends.
So you need a low end too, sothat you have a little bit of
breadth and a little bit ofwiggle room as to what key
you're actually going to sing itin yeah.
Your choir teacher is niceenough for you to change the key
.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
I think I did change the key.
I at least moved it a half step, didn't I?
You did not, and I didn't have.
Speaker 7 (44:41):
I just sang that song in the original key and I burst
like five plushies.
I was too embarrassed to ask.
I was like I do not ask you tochange.
That was why I was young anddumb.
I was prideful.
I've learned from my wickedways, Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Well, it served you well, it served you well.
So, obviously that exercise canbe done for male or female boys
, absolutely, and if any of themwere training a male voice, we
would start lower by probably anoctave.
Speaker 7 (45:13):
I usually like my sweet spot.
Let's see, when I start withfemales, my sweet spot is F3.
And when I'm starting withmales, my sweet spot isI don't
know what to say in octave.
Actually, I'd say probably anA3.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Well, it's ironic because my low register is all
but disappeared.
Really, yeah.
I'm not even comfortablesinging a low F at this point.
I can do it, but then anythingbelow that is just.
And you used to, yeah, I usedto, but my high register,
ironically, is the same, in facta little higher Greg can go
into the last guy, so I don'tknow what that's about.
(45:53):
Really, and it's got.
I don't know, maybe it's thePepsi.
So anyway, let's go on to thenext question.
Are there any specificexercises that you would do with
female vocals, that youwouldn't do with male vocals?
Speaker 7 (46:07):
Ooh, that is a good question and I thought about
that.
And it's not that I would doany exercise for a male, that I
wouldn't do for a female, butthe approach and the goal would
be slightly different.
And I can give you an example.
So, men, they and okay, I'm notlike a yes, I know vocal
(46:29):
pedagogy, but in order forpeople to understand what I'm
talking about, I'm not a like afancy terminology girl, I'll say
it, but then I'll explain it.
And a lot of men, especiallyClassically trained men, they
say like things like flagelletteand falsetto and things I call
it head voice okay, you're notsinging in Chess Boys anywhere.
You're singing up here, that'swhere you feel it.
Just call it what it is.
But for for these people,anybody that wants me to say
(46:49):
that falsetto, if I'm training aguy and we're say doing let's
even say Zee, zaw, zee, since wewere on that topic my goal for
him and where my goal would befor him and how he hits that
goal as far as note phonationwhich is singing, by the way and
placement of that note would beDifferent and I would probably
(47:10):
go about it in a different way.
So men tend, I would say on anine out of ten ratio, to scoop
up to nose.
I don't know why it's a thing,but they like to ease their way
up into it.
So I have to pay more attentionin a male's voice to have them
hit the note from above, likelike up and over, rather than
(47:31):
underneath and up, and womendon't do that.
If anything, women overshoot it.
I think I've taught two womenin my entire life who scoop up
like men, and they were reallylow altos, so they had like the
same.
So I'm looking for a differentapproach, I'm looking for the
way they hit it, I'm looking fora richer tone and that they
(47:53):
don't thin out as quickly,because that falsetto and a man
does still have and we'retalking there are exceptions to
this because of tamper andtonality and stuff Vocal
classification, but in generalmen tend to have, even in head
voice, this deeper, richer kindof a thicker sound and quality
(48:13):
to that transition than women do.
Women really have to fight forthat and and so I'm focusing on
men maintaining that well then,instead of if it's a woman
building that into her voice.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Yes, make sense.
Next question how helpful arelip trills?
Some vocalists and coaches goright to vocal exercises that
focus on the throat and skip liptrills.
How helpful and how importantare they?
Speaker 7 (48:41):
Okay.
Well, I think that there's amisnomer about trills, and I
call them vibratory exercisestongue and lip trills right,
because whenever you're making asound beyond a breath, you're
using the same larynx in thesame way that you would be if
you were singing a song or avowel exercise.
(49:02):
Okay, so there is no lesserthan if you're trilling.
There is an.
And also, though, because whenyou're trilling, it is a
vibratory exercise, and so youare like, if you're flimmy, if
you're congested, think of it islike Everything inside your
throat doing that.
It's gonna like vibrate thegunk off.
And I say they're one of myfavorites, they're my go-tos and
(49:26):
they're my vocal healthexercises when I'm sick.
For the reason I just explained, I also think they're a really
great training wheel exercisebecause your mouth is closed.
You really can't hurt yourselfdoing them.
So if you're someone who's newand you're on store as like, I
don't know if I'm practicingright or how to practice right,
lip trills and tongue trills aremy absolute go-to's.
(49:47):
For people like you, becauseyour mouth is closed, it's not
like you're not giving enoughspace.
It's not like you're going toohigh or too low or you're
cracking with a mouth and you'repushing too hard, you can't.
Your mouth is closed.
Only so much, you can, onlypush so hard before the trill
stops.
What I will say about them isthat I use them in my life
almost on a daily basis and Iuse them as my first go-to
(50:09):
exercise.
So yes, for range discovery andvocal capability discovery, in
first lessons we do Z-z-1st, butwe always teach trills and I
always do trills for myself atthe first of my exercise
sequence, because they're agreat warm-up, their vibratory
that get the blood flowing, thebest for me.
And then I slowly segue intoopen mouth exercises that
(50:32):
eventually get me into more likealmost Plyometric vocal
exercises that are moreexplosive, and then, you know,
force the chest or forcedifferent ends of my range, but
I usually always start with liptrills.
I love them.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
I think that they are great exercises, especially for
beginners.
Some of them have problems withconsistency.
Yes, during the trills theybreak up and they're not able to
to maintain the trill.
Yeah, what?
Speaker 6 (50:58):
do you?
Speaker 1 (50:58):
suggest to your students when they find it
difficult to maintain the trillDo they dip in lip balm?
Do they Dip?
Speaker 4 (51:07):
in water.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
I mean yeah they do to keep the lips in condition
for an effective and a properlip trill.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Yeah right, well, actually I'm glad you said that,
because no to lip balm forwomen.
You cannot have lip gloss,lipstick, nothing on your lips.
Okay, it's just, it's gonna actlike glue and you're gonna be
stuck.
I, I was training someone thatwas just coming off set from
filming in LA two weeks ago andI was doing trying to do this
(51:35):
show turn.
She still had all that stuff onour lips and she was like I'm
like what that stuff off andthen you'll be fine, you know.
So nothing on your lips.
You do a quick lick, lick yourlips, wet your lips, and then
this is like kind of a failsafe.
If you're having a problemTrilling, there are a couple
reasons why.
One, you're giving too much airand it's stopping, it's kind of
(51:57):
like sputtering out.
And the other would be you'regiving out enough and you'll see
that effect where sounds comingout and your lips are
separating, but nothing happens.
There's that close of a whenit's exploding, goes really fast
and stops us too much.
That is too little.
And If it's not the breath, ifyour lips are just still not
(52:18):
trilling, take your two fingers,put them to your jawbone, raise
it up an inch, like this, sowe're kind of alleviating the
loose skin not to say that wehave loose skin, but like
there's weight there, you know.
So just one inch up and thentry not to smile because that's
also hard and then just trill.
So you kind of push yourfingers into like I wouldn't go
higher than where you can feelyour bottom teeth, that's too
(52:38):
high.
Just just to the bottom, whereyou feel your bottom teeth, and
and it should be a nice slow,relaxed trill and that will fix
the issue if you're havingproblems trilling.
Great information If you'relistening to this podcast, you
know that once a month here inthe choir room.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
We do invite a live virtual audience and we have
such an audience with us today.
I see a few hands raised andour first question is going to
come from David.
Question as church musicians.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I'm not actively in a position right now, but even as
a substitute, when I went in,if I was taking care of choir on
a Sunday morning for a warm-up,typically that could be quite
early in the day, and so I loveyour Zizazi exercise.
I would do something like that,but I would allow them to to
(53:30):
slide, just because in themorning our voices are so low To
begin with and and it's a verychallenging you know time of day
for soloist or a choir.
So let us know what yourthoughts are.
What's what would be best inthat situation?
I love that question.
Speaker 7 (53:55):
And something that I always loved when warming up
choirs myself, because I didhave the chance after leaving
TSC to do some worship leadingin choir, directing myself, and
I really love not just trainingthe voice and warming that up
but also warming up the ear whenwe're.
When we're talking about choir,we're trying to sing in one
voice, right.
So it's not just about our ownpersonal voices but it's about
the people around us too.
(54:15):
So I love a hum on a sustainand then you direct the, the
alto, the tenor is the bassist,the sopranos, to do like a
harmonic triad.
Or if there's four, then youcan do the bass and sopranos
matching, or maybe even do aseventh, be fancy and and have
them hung.
You can grow them, you can makethem go softer or slower, stop,
(54:41):
modulate up and do it again.
I love the hums.
You can have them do it on atrill.
If you wanted to move to thatarpeggiation doing ZZ-Z151, you
can even make that into a trillwithout the vowels and then go
back and do it on the vowels ifyou'd like.
But I love the slidey natureand the vibratory exercises that
you can modify any exercise to,especially for the ones in the
(55:03):
morning.
I just really am a fan.
Though when you see we'retalking originally about like a
person's voice in the context ofchoir, like a singer's voice
that's on here but when you talkabout like a choir in and of
itself, like as a whole, all ofthose voices being one, I
wouldn't waste any time thinkingof the individual's voice.
(55:24):
I would think about, when Iwarm up a choir, how to warm up
everyone's voice and their earsto hear and feel one another,
and that's why I would not go tolike one of my vocal exercises
that I would do in a lesson fora student.
I would go to that hum, I wouldgo to different dynamics, I
would popcorn note arpeggiationaround, because I want them to
(55:47):
warm up as a whole instead ofjust as a voice.
Speaker 1 (55:51):
Thanks, david, for your question.
Tara, thanks for joining usthis week here in the Choir Room
.
This week we'll continue withTara and our virtual audience
with some live demonstration.
Coleman is going to take us toour thought of the week.
Speaker 6 (56:03):
Yeah, it's great to be with you guys tonight.
Thank you so much, tara.
That was so much fun.
Enjoyed that, you know.
I want to share a thought withyou that kind of attacked me a
little bit when I first heard it, so I don't know how easily it
will sit with your spirit whenyou hear it at first.
Maybe it'll have to be one ofthose things that simmers with
(56:26):
you and then you'll get on boardlater if maybe you won't, but
we'll see.
It's about the concept ofcalling.
I don't know about you, but I'min a church culture and grew up
in a church culture that Ireally emphasize the concept of
calling, rightly.
So you know, what do we believe?
God is speaking or what do webelieve that he has spoken to us
(56:49):
about our lives and thedirection of our life, or
something that we need to dowith our life, vocationally or
not?
But let me break from that fora second.
Let's think about thesequestions.
Have you ever gotten so carriedaway with something that you
forgot the reason why youstarted it in the first place?
Or have you ever been soinspired to do something just to
(57:14):
lose the fire that you once hadfor it?
Or have you ever gotten sozealous about one aspect of your
passion or your job or otherthings that so that other things
that you're responsible for inyour life or job, they got
neglected unintentionally.
And I know I'm casting a reallywide net in these questions
(57:36):
because they all seem kind ofunrelated.
But it's about to make sense,because I feel like these
situations all take place somuch in the ministry world
across the board, whether you'rea vocational minister, a
volunteer or something inbetween.
So many people develop aromanticized vision of what
(57:58):
they're called to.
Some people get carried awaywith it, and I don't mean that
in casual terms, I mean itcarries them away from the path
that they're walking on.
It's like you feel called tosomething and suddenly that's
the only thing that you'rechasing.
And now this is again not anindictment on calling.
(58:18):
I believe in calling and Ibelieve in pursuing what you
believe God has called you toAbsolutely.
But have you ever thought abouthow Jesus didn't call his
disciples to ministry, he calledthem to himself.
Let me say that again.
Jesus called his disciples tohimself.
He said follow me.
And then he said and I willmake you.
(58:41):
But he said follow me, I willmake you.
After that so often we who stepinto roles of ministry and
ministry leadership and platformministry I am in the choir room
platform ministry we sometimesforget that it's not our calling
(59:02):
to chase the platform.
It isn't our calling to seekthe biggest stage that we can
sing on.
It isn't our calling to do somany of the things that we want
to do sometimes.
No, our calling is to Christ.
Sure, we are commissioned andwe are to serve the body of
Christ with our gifts and we areto obey when God speaks to us.
(59:23):
About coupling our lives withministry or any other thing Lots
of things can be ministry, butat the end of the day, we
sometimes end up seeking thecalling more than the caller,
the one who calls.
When we realize that we'recalled to Jesus first and not to
our work for Him, we realizethat those other things lack the
(59:45):
ability to sustain and inspireand refresh and restore and
reveal.
Stephanie Gretzinger, who is awell-known speaker and worship
leader.
She says it like this that somany of us want the water, but
Jesus is the water and the well.
We all want the living water,but he's the only place that we
(01:00:08):
can get it right.
Those things that I'm talkingabout.
They're not the reward.
Nearness to Jesus is the reward.
He has to be our completesatisfaction.
So many of us, as soon assomeone discovered that we could
sing, we were thrown into thechoir loft.
So many of us who have certaintalents, are thrown into
(01:00:29):
ministry roles before we're ableto realize that the crown put
on our heads is too heavy tohold up without the structure of
intimacy with Jesus built in tohold it gracefully.
To paraphrase StephanieGretzinger again, again, I'm not
saying that being launched intoministry at a young age is bad,
because it's not Because I was.
(01:00:50):
Many of you were.
But what is bad is, when we dothat without discipling people,
that there's more to it thanjust the platform, that there's
more to it than just the giftand the call that our platforms
require intimacy with he whofavored us enough to give us a
platform.
So what's the call to action?
(01:01:11):
What are we taking away fromthis?
What are we supposed to leavewith?
A renewed desire for intimacywith Jesus Christ.
Right, since I'm talking tochoir folks and singers, I'll
say it like this A reneweddesire for intimacy with the
giver and the sustainer of oursong.
So God bless you guys.
(01:01:33):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
And remember, if ever we put the messenger before the
message, we have failed topresent an unblemished gospel.
I'm Greg Thomas and I'll seeyou guys next time on the Choir
Room.
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