Your message

Actors have a uniquely important role in theater. While many elements come together to bring a script to life, it is actors who literally embody the text and give it voice in order to communicate its specific message to audiences.

Therefore, when you build your skills as an actor, you are better able to serve as the medium through which a playwright's message is communicated.

The way you live your life communicates a message as well. Just like theater, that message can have a powerful influence. The message of your life may inspire or denigrate, encourage or manipulate.

Consider for a moment what message you would like your life to send. What greater good are you hoping to serve? What quality would you like to see more of in the world as a result of your presence?

Now, can your life and your art send the same message? To the more immediate point, can your life message come through in the work you are presenting this semester?

Those may be difficult questions to answer but I suspect that if you can perform with these greater concerns in mind, you will not be so worried about vocal technique, you will bring more authentic intent to your performance, and you will find greater connection between your message as a singer and your message for the world.

After all, if Shakespeare is right and "All the world's a stage," the work we do in theater may just be an extended opportunity to hone our message for the everyday performance that exists beyond the footlights.

Keep practicing your message (in theater and in life). The world needs to hear it.

Putting "placement" in its place

[EDIT: A more thorough version of this post was published in the Journal of Singing in September/October 2018.]

One element of my teaching that is constantly changing and evolving is my choice of words. Knowing that the way I give directions or explain pedagogical concepts can either help or hinder learning, I have to be especially careful when using “loaded” words that often have vastly different meanings to different people. This includes words like “support,” “open throat,” and “head voice.” But, for me, the king of all loaded words is “placement.”

The book Master Singers: Advice from the Stage (which I reviewed here) highlights the disparity of views on placement in its interviews with prominent opera singers about vocal technique. In the book, Thomas Hampson unequivocally states, “I do not use the word placement,” whereas Alan Held says, “Placement is the most important aspect of my singing.” Kathleen Kim says, “I don’t try to place the sound. I just try to feel the sensation, which for me is more space in the back of my throat.” Eric Owens counters by saying, “...I never feel that this space is in the back. If anything, I’ll feel like the space is through the top of my head, in addition to the forward placement.” Owens also says, “I feel resonance and placement, mostly, in the front/mask area,” while Jonas Kaufmann flatly states, “I do not feel the voice in the mask.”

To help elucidate the issue, I look to Scott McCoy’s Singing and Voice Science chapter in the NATS-sponsored So You Want to Sing books. McCoy makes a distinction between forced resonance and free resonance. Forced resonance in singing refers to our "private" resonance, meaning the vibrations we feel in certain areas of the body, like the chest, the head, and in the mask (generally defined as the cheekbone area of the face). These vibrations impact the way we perceive our sound and, in my estimation, provide a reference point of sensation that can be used to make our sound more consistent. But those internal vibrations do not result in sound that our audience hears.

On the other hand, free resonance is what occurs when sound travels through the open spaces of our vocal tract. Some of these sound waves reflect back on our vocal folds and boost certain frequencies of tone. This sound does reach outside listeners and is what gives each of us our unique vocal quality.

I believe that when most people talk about “placing” the voice, they are referring to the internal vibrations they feel through forced resonance. I encourage all of you to identify and explore these vibrations by placing a hand on your chest or throat or cheekbones while vocalizing. Then remove your hand and see if you can still feel those vibrations using only your internal awareness (proprioception).

Once you can acknowledge all the areas where you feel vibrations, you are able to choose which of those areas will receive the focus of your attention while singing. In this sense, the only thing you are “placing” is your attention, not your sound. By mentally highlighting an area where you have already identified you feel some sort of vibration or sensation, your “placement” is a result of a freely produced sound rather than your initial intention in singing.

Is all of this merely semantics? As long as it brings results, does it matter if you are feeling, focusing, or placing your sound? Perhaps not. But just as the words “attack” and “cut off” imply a degree of activity that “onset” and “release” do not, I find that when many singers try to place their sound it often involves additional activity that manifests itself through scrunched noses, furrowed brows, and overly-engaged tongues.

What are your thoughts on vocal placement? How has your singing been this week?

Now go practice.

My happy "place" (at least one of them)

Body lies

I recently had a long series of email conversations with the authors of a book about “Body Mapping” called What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body. As the book describes, a body map is “your mental representation of your body’s size, structure, location, and function.” Therefore, Body Mapping is “the process of refining, correcting, and embodying individual body maps.”

Singing elicits sensations. These sensations can give us false notions about what is actually happening in the body when we sing (an idea explored by author Kenneth Bozeman in Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy). For example, when I sing, I often feel sensations in my head that make me feel like sound is ringing throughout my open skull. The problem is that my brain is (supposedly) in that space and sound can’t resonate in a space that is filled with brains (or any other matter, for that matter).

I asked What Every Singer Needs to Know… co-author Kurt-Alexander Zeller about some of the misconceptions, or “mis-mappings,” he encounters the most in his interactions with singers. He said,

"I think the broad areas of respiration and resonance are where the largest number of mis-mappings cluster. Every year I still am astonished by the number of amazing fantasies about breathing I hear from new students. Many of them truly don’t even know where their lungs are—somebody once told them to “breathe low” and now they think their lungs are in their intestines. Or they think that ribs are stationary or immovable. Or that the diaphragm is a vertical structure. And they will do their darnedest to move as if that faulty body map were reality.   

Don't head out on the trail without a good map!

Another common mis-mapping that drives me crazy is the idea that the muscles of facial expression on the outside of the skull are directly connected to laryngeal or pharyngeal muscles—of which the old 'lifting your eyebrows will keep the pitch from sagging' myth is one notorious manifestation. These are almost stereotypical singer myths—but one does encounter them fairly often."

Plain and simple, our bodies sometimes lie to us. It happens fairly often since most of the working parts for singing are inside of us and not that easy to see or feel.

That’s what makes Body Mapping so important. When we have a false idea of how the body works, we try to make it work that way. When we have an accurate understanding of function, our bodies tend to work more efficiently.

And since, as singers, our bodies are our instruments, this tends to lead to more effective, more expressive singing.

Have you had to confront “mis-mappings” of your body and voice? Did anything change when you had a better understanding of actual function?

How has your singing been this week?

Now go practice.

Sight reading

A few weeks ago I posted this video on the MTP facebook page with testimonials from current Broadway singers about the importance of sight reading and musicianship skills.

Music is odd in that we have the ability to learn it by ear. That's probably how most of us learned most of the music we know, just by hearing it so many times that it started to stick. While that can be a good way to learn things at times, it can also be slower and more inefficient than being able to read the score itself.

Imagine trying to learn a monologue just by having someone read it to you repeatedly. How much longer it would take you to learn and memorize that monologue if you didn't have the ability to simply read the words on the page?

It's essentially the same with music. Not only can sight reading skills help you learn music faster and more thoroughly, you will be certain to learn the notes and rhythms the composer intended and not someone else's variation from those notes.

These thoughts came up in an article I recently read in Classical Singer magazine by Peter Thoresen called "Thriving (Not Just Surviving) in Music Theory." In the article, he interviews one of my former professors from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Mary Ann Hart. Besides being an outstanding instructor and a wonderful human being, Hart's performance career includes several definitive recordings of classical song and lieder AND singing one of the voices in the original Beauty and the Beast animated movie.

When that job came up, Hart was living in NYC and working as a singer. She recalls,

"The Disney thing—that came through my church job...half Broadway [singers], half legit singers...The Broadway people that came in were pretty good readers, and anything they didn't get the first time through, they had perfectly the next day. So the ability to learn on your own—really fast—was crucial for that gig." 

Later in the article she makes another point about the importance of good sight-reading skills:

"It just makes everything so much easier," she says, "and coaching is great, but coaching is another expense—and when you're starting out, everything adds up. So the more you can do for yourself, the better off you are."

I had another professor in grad school who said, "When you get a new piece of music to learn, if your first move is to run to a piano or—even worse—to go find a recording of the piece, SHAME ON YOU! You should ALWAYS sit down and try to figure it out yourself first. Only go to those other tools when you have gone as far as you can with your own skills."

Once you get through your music theory classes, if you aren't forced to continue with the skill, it will eventually fade away (like most skills). Of the many, many skills we are asking you to build and develop during your time here, don't forget about sight reading. Consider taking 2-5 minutes at the beginning or the end of your practice session to read some melodies. There are lots of free sight singing guides on the internet. Print some out and give them a shot.

How has your singing been the last couple of weeks? Now that we're on the other side of fall break, give an honest evaluation of your practicing. Have you been doing enough? Do you need to come up with a new practice schedule for the second half of the semester?

Now go practice (your sight reading).

Vision vs. Action

For as long as I can remember, I assumed the process for setting and accomplishing goals was pretty straight forward:

1. Develop a vision of what you want.
2. Set up an action plan for getting the thing you want.
3. Get to work on that plan.

That always seemed pretty logical.

And yet, I recently read something in a new book by Melissa Mills that has me reevaluating this process. In a chapter written by choral conductor Doreen Rao, she says, "Vision comes from action, not vice versa." She goes on to quote Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who wrote, "Roads are made by walking."

These ideas seem to be completely contradictory to my belief in "have a vision and then put it into action." How can you act if you don't have a vision? Wouldn't you just be floundering around aimlessly unless you had a clear goal or path forward?

But when I really stopped to think about it, I could see how this philosophy has been at work in my own life.

While my childhood career aspiration was to be a first baseman and left-handed relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs (a goal I never reached, sadly), once my passion for singing began to emerge, my career goals vacillated from Broadway star to high school choir director to college voice professor (two out of three ain't bad). When I went to college I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life; I just knew that it had to involve music. So I started doing the things that seemed like they would allow that to happen. I didn't always have a set vision of where I wanted to "end up," but I kept working to improve my skills, pursued the opportunities that came my way, and was willing to see where things would lead.

I just had to put myself into action to see what vision would emerge.

Looking back, it's funny to see how some of the opportunities that were seemingly unrelated to my current work allowed me to develop skills that I now use on a daily basis—skills I would not have been able to hone if I had been too focused on one specific career goal to entertain those opportunities in the first place.

So, while it is not at all a bad thing to have explicit and specific goals of what you'd like to do with your life, you have to be careful not to fall into a tunnel-visioned approach that could close you off to the opportunities that could lead to your true calling (assuming there is such a thing as one "true" calling, but I'll leave that discussion for another day!).

How has your singing been this week? How can you set yourself into action while still leaving yourself open to opportunities that come up along the way?

Now go practice.

"Not all those who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Titze's vocal warmups

There are some names in the voice world that you should just know. Ingo Titze is one of those names.

A Distinguished Professor at the University of Iowa (where he spends each fall semester), Dr. Titze is also the Executive Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, which is part of the University of Utah.

One of the world’s leading voice scientists, he has published more than 400 articles on voice and has written several books. And he is an alum of the University of Utah, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Dr. Titze essentially invented the field of Vocology, which he defines as “the science and practice of voice habilitation.” We are familiar with rehabilitation as the process of rebuilding strength after an injury. In that sense, I like to think of voice habilitation as regularly practicing healthy voice use so that we hopefully don’t ever need rehabilitation.

Besides being one of the great minds in voice science, Dr. Titze is also well known among singers for a couple of widely-shared resources.

The first resource is his tutorial video on straw phonation. Since, to my knowledge, he is the person who first started promoting the benefits of straw phonation, it is worth hearing him describe in his own words the impact it has on the voice and how to execute his preferred straw phonation exercises.

The second resource is the list of his top five vocal warmups for singers. Originally published as an article in the Journal of Singing in 2001, it is featured in blogs and websites all over the internet (like here and here) so I figured putting it out there once more wouldn't hurt!

As singers, it is important for us to vary our vocal routines to keep our voices agile and responsive. That means we should always be on the lookout for new and innovative exercises, especially when they have the backing of those in the voice science community.

So watch the video if you haven’t seen it before and read through the article. We’ll be experimenting with these exercises this week in lessons and in class. Maybe some of them will make their way into your top five!

How has your singing been going this week?

Now go practice.

Eyes on the horizon

EDIT: A revised version of this post was printed in the NATS Inter Nos Newsletter in the 2018 - Fall Issue. Visit the Inter Nos website to access the issue.

Usually when I’m out in my kayak I find aquatic-themed song snippets pop into my head. “The River” by Garth Brooks comes up a lot. So does “Come Sail Away” by Styx.

One day this summer, though, I starting singing a one-line excerpt from IN THE HEIGHTS: “…with my eyes on the horizon.” Naturally, as I sang I found myself lifting my focus up from the water and gazing further into the distance toward the shore.

I gradually came to recognize parallels between kayaking across a lake and the process of setting goals for a new semester.

First, get into a rhythm. Steady progress in a kayak occurs when each stroke of the paddle is smooth and efficient. Establishing a regular rhythm, devoid of erratic motions, will consistently propel the boat forward. But if I get distracted and lose my focus, my paddling gets sloppy, and I stop making progress.

Look up frequently to see what is in the not-too-distant future. Once I have set a routine and a rhythm, I have to remind myself to look up and see what’s ahead. Maybe there is a log or an outcropping of rocks coming up that I’ll need to maneuver around. If I catch these obstacles when they are still a ways off, I can make subtle adjustments to get around them. If I don’t look up often enough, I sometimes have to take evasive action to avoid an obstacle that I otherwise could have avoided.

Every so often, look toward the shoreline to make sure you’re headed in the right overall direction. It doesn’t take much to get off track. When my head is down and all I'm focusing on is the water immediately in front of me, I don't always notice if I start heading somewhere other than where I intended. Again, the sooner I catch this change of course, the easier it is to make slight adjustments to get pointed in the right direction again.

Periodically, look back and appreciate how far you’ve come. A few times I’ve been paddling hard for what felt like a long time only to look up and find the far shoreline seemingly just as far away as it was when I had started out. It was only when I looked back over my shoulder to where I launched the kayak that I realized just how much distance I had actually covered. I had been too focused on the far-off destination to realize that I was, in fact, making significant progress.

Enjoy the ride. Even though kayaking is recreation, it can be a lot of work. Inevitably, some days are more enjoyable than others. Regardless, every time I get out on the water I’m struck by how lucky I am to be there, in nature, doing something I love.

Now that we are starting a new semester, what are your vocal goals for your daily routine? What are your short-term goals for the not-too-distant future? What are your long-term goals?

And how can you remind yourself to check in periodically to appreciate your progress and to make sure you are still enjoying the process?

Let’s have a great year.

Now go practice.

Sing your story

I recently finished the most recent book of the “So You Want to Sing” series sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) called So You Want to Sing Gospel: A Guide for Performers by Trineice Robinson-Martin.

Throughout the book—alongside information regarding vocal technique, stylistic considerations, and breaking down the subgenres that fall under the broad category of “gospel”—Dr. Robinson-Martin emphasizes the notion that gospel singing should ultimately be approached as a ministry rather than a performance. As such, authenticity in expression is paramount. She writes:

“When picking songs, it is important to acknowledge and sing your own story. You should start with the topics you can best articulate so that when singing a song, you can sing your own words from a personal place rather than the words of someone else. Stop and take time to understand the message of the song. Some singers will default to simply imitating verbatim what the singer on a recording does with the song, hoping to evoke the same response from the listener. As a result, his or her performance is merely an imitation of stylistic expression and serves primarily as entertainment rather than true ministry. Everyone has a story, and each person’s story is unique and worthy of telling.” [p.163]

Of course, oftentimes in lessons we choose songs because of the specific technical elements involved so they can be used as vehicles for vocal growth. And sometimes we choose songs with characters whose personal journeys are quite different from our own.

But the idea of developing your own authentically personal performance within the provided text, notes, and rhythms is a crucial part of our process as music theatre singers.

The last blog was concerned with honoring your own sound and singing with the voice you have. The next step is honoring your own story and unapologetically bringing that part of who you are to your performances. Again, in one or two or five years, you will have a greater wealth of personal experiences from which to draw as singing actors. But you’re not there yet, so draw from who you are now. You are not some barely-no-longer-teenager neophytes waiting to arrive in the real world so you can have real experiences. You are all adults with significant backgrounds, experiences, joys, tragedies, triumphs, and failures that have formed who you are. That is what you bring to your art.

Be a person. Honor your own story and listen intently and empathetically to the stories of others. Then sing about it.

Thank you for a wonderful school year; I’m so proud of the work you all have done. Enjoy telling your stories in juries and your class finals.

Now go practice. And have a wonderful summer.

Sing as you can

When I was growing up, at any given time there was a stack of books—7 or 8 high—next to my dad’s reading chair. Rather than finishing one book and moving on to a new one, he would have a constant rotation and each night would read the book that interested him the most at the time. 

I have inherited that same trait. Right now my stack includes two books on singing, two magazines, a novel, a book about the 2004 Cubs, and two books on spirituality. 

I’m always fascinated by books on religion and spirituality and the philosophies they espouse, not only for the guidance they bring to my own life but as a window into what guides others in their lives. I’ve collected a lot of these books over time and on our shelves at home you can find the Tao Te Ching next to the Koran next to the Book of Mormon next to The Gospel According to The Simpsons, all of which have provided insights in their own way. 

Another reason I like to read books about spirituality is for all of the applications I find between spiritual practice and the act and art of singing. One of the quotes I came across earlier this semester that has stuck with me was from the author and Roman Catholic priest Dom John Chapman, OSB, who once wrote, “Pray as you can. Don’t pray as you can’t.” To me, that seems to imply that we should not blindly accept someone else’s spiritual practice just because it is theirs. Rather, we should each find what works best for us. 

Paraphrasing this quote, I considered, “Sing as you can. Don’t sing as you can’t.” What seems obvious on a first reading is not so easy in application. 

Despite our best efforts, so often our vocal studies stray from discovering and cultivating our own unique voices and instead devolve into developing an expected sound or the sound of someone else whose voice we admire. While it is important to work to improve our vocal capabilities, accepting our unique voices is as important as accepting who we are. 

Much as I love spending an afternoon listening to Wagner opera (or a whole day, which it sometimes takes), my phone isn’t exactly ringing off the hook with offers to sing the Ring cycle. It would be just as ridiculous for me to try to become a Wagnerian tenor as it would for me to try to be 6’5”. It's just not who I am. 

I bring this up now because often in preparations for performances (like juries and class finals), I see students growing increasingly frustrated that their voices are not everything they want them to be. I wish the opposite would occur. Performance is exactly the time when you should be embracing your vocal capabilities and using those capabilities to tell stories to the best of your current abilities. Sure, in another year or two or five, you will have greater capabilities and can tell those same stories in different ways. But you’re not there now so there’s no sense bemoaning what you can’t do at this point.

So this can be one last element to add to your practice in this last month before finals. Sing as you can, because you all can. But don’t waste mental or emotional energy trying to sing as you can’t. 

Embrace who you are.

Now go practice. 

Friendly audience

Hope you enjoyed spring break. I did. Now back to work!

Throughout the school year, this blog has served as a reminder to check in with the goals you have set to see how you’ve been meeting them. Now that we’re essentially six weeks away from the end of the semester, you may consider either adjusting your original goals or adding some additional short-term goals to keep you moving in the right direction over the homestretch. 

One obvious goal is to be well prepared for your jury or your class singing final. “Well prepared” means you are comfortably memorized, you have a thorough backstory for your characters, and you understand the emotional arc of each story you are telling. 

For memorization and character work, try giving yourself deadlines. Divide your songs into short sections you can thoroughly prepare instead of just working an entire song from start to finish. Write out the text and really make sense of the story as it appears on paper. Then go back to the music and apply your thoughts to the story the composer is telling through music.

Practice performing. Singing a song all the way through without forgetting anything is the first stage of memorization. But it’s not really internalized until you can do the same thing with distractions—and what is more distracting than performing a song in front of people?

Ask a friend or two to listen to you sing some of your repertoire (even without piano accompaniment). See if you can do the song all the way through and stay committed to the story. If it feels really awkward to sing for your friends, that probably means it’s doing the job of providing you a sufficient distraction. Sing it a second time for your friends right away before you get comfortable. Then sing it a third time and pick one or two things to do differently. If you’re not ready to sing for your friends yet, try singing to your mother over Skype, or someone else who will be a safe audience. 

Once you have performed in safe situations, you can slowly add “higher stakes” performances (like masterclasses) to see how your body reacts under those circumstances. Jumping right from the practice room to a jury or class final might be too far to go in one step. Put these songs in front of a friendly audience first. 

Being authentic and sticking to your plan in scary situations is one of the most important skills we are learning here. And it takes practice. So go find a friendly audience to sing for and then be part of someone else’s friendly audience. 

Now go practice. 

Inhalation

Breathing exercises are an important part of our vocal practice but are often neglected in our haste to get to repertoire. Taking just a few minutes to focus on breathing promotes efficiency of the respiratory system and also helps establish mental focus for our practice sessions.

Here is a simple pattern I have been using in my ATP Singing Classes:

1. Sit well (with a lengthened spine and a sense of looseness at the head and neck joint) and close your eyes.

2. Observe your breathing without trying to change or impact anything. Notice how the air feels as you inhale and notice where you feel your body expanding.

3. After a few breath cycles, shift your focus and begin intentionally lengthening each inhalation and exhalation. Slow down the entire breathing process.

4. After doing this for a few breath cycles, add a few seconds of pause after you have completed the inhalation but before you begin to exhale. Maintain a sense of openness in the throat (you are not “holding” the air, just suspending it). Notice again where you feel the expansion in your body, especially during the suspension part of the exercise.

While you do this, try to keep your entire focus on breathing. If other thoughts come into your head just allow them to fade away as you exhale. And continue to encourage looseness in your head and neck.

This week I read about a recent study that had some interesting implications:

http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-fear-breathing-5699/

Essentially, researchers discovered that when test subjects would inhale through the nose, there was an increase in brain activity in the amygdala and hippocampus that resulted in enhanced emotional judgment and improved memory recall. This brain activity did not occur during exhalation or when breathing through the mouth.

Besides all the other benefits we receive from focused breathing, it’s easy to imagine how improved emotional judgment and memory might also improve our work as singing actors. Try inhaling through the nose during your practice sessions or performances this week and see if you notice a difference.

How has your singing been? What would you like to accomplish in this last stretch before spring break?

Now go practice.

Reflux

In the last blog, I briefly mentioned GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and LPRD (laryngopharyngeal reflux disease), or—in more colloquial terms—reflux. These are common ailments that many singers have to contend with at one point or another.

Essentially, reflux occurs when stomach acid travels up the esophagus, around the epiglottis, and seeps into the trachea, reaching the larynx and vocal folds. This usually happens when we are lying down, especially when we are sleeping at night. It can cause redness and swelling that makes singing more difficult. Often the voice can feel weak, high notes require more effort, and tone may be rougher or breathier than usual.

Most people associate reflux with heartburn. However, many singers do not experience the expected heartburn symptoms, causing them to think that their vocal troubles must be from something else. Often it is only diagnosed, as many of you learned this past fall, through vocal fold stroboscopy (i.e., when someone from a voice clinic views your vocal folds with a small camera).

It is common for ENT’s to prescribe medications to help deal with reflux. However, there are also diet and lifestyle changes that singers should consider making part of their regular routines, as much as possible.

Don’t eat right before bed (ideally, don’t eat 3-4 hours before going to bed). Stomach acid is produced during digestion. If there is no food in your stomach to digest, acid will not be produced.

Don’t exercise right after eating. Ideally, this means avoiding coffee (which is acidic) right before dance class. Consider saving that caffeinated beverage for later.

Know which foods are reflux triggers and moderate them. Caffeine, chocolate, mint, carbonated beverages, alcohol, tomato-based foods, spicy foods, and fried foods are all believed to contribute to reflux.

It may also be a good idea to moderate or eliminate these foods and drinks as the day progresses and you get closer to bed time.

Of course, as with all things, you have to know your own body (while understanding that it will continue to change over your lifetime). Singers don't necessarily have to, for instance, immediately stop eating all tomato-based foods. But, knowing that they can be reflux triggers, start to monitor when you are eating them and how much of them you are eating.

As a vocal athlete, your entire body is your instrument. Understanding reflux and how to avoid it is another way we can keep our voices in top condition.

How has your singing been going this week?

Now go practice.

Liquid energy

Caffeine: the world's drug of choice.

Seriously. According to Dr. Solomon Snyder, director of the neurosciences department at Johns Hopkins University, caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance on earth. It's so popular, in fact, some people use "cups of coffee" as a way to measure a year in the life. (*groan*)

It's no secret why caffeine is so popular: It makes us feel better, gives us a jolt of energy, and helps us stay focused and awake for all that we have to do. College campuses seem to have a particular predilection for caffeine since their populations are chronically overtired from a lack of sleep. In the Department of Theatre this is partly because of your own lifestyle choices and partly because we keep you up late for rehearsals and make you get up early for dance classes (sorry!).

As I've discussed in this blog before, caffeine in all its forms (coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, and even chocolate) acts as a diuretic and can dehydrate the body and vocal folds. It is crucial that the body stay well hydrated in order for the vocal folds to function optimally.

But I've learned some new information in reading a recently published book called Manual of Singing Voice Rehabilitation: A Practical Approach to Vocal Health and Wellness by Leda Scearce, who is a speech-language pathologist and singing voice specialist at the Duke Voice Care Center.

Scearce writes that caffeine may be getting a bad rap when it comes to how it impacts vocal health. According to recent studies, the dehydrating effect of caffeine kicks in at around 250 mg. For reference, a tall, 12-oz. coffee from Starbucks has around 235 mg of caffeine. A 12-oz. cola has about 45 mg and 12 oz. of tea has roughly 37 mg. (Don't worry, chocolate is significantly lower than that...depending on how much you eat!) She also writes that people who consume caffeine regularly and at these moderate amounts can develop a tolerance to its dehydrating effect.

You should consult the trusty internet to know what the caffeine levels are in the beverages you regularly consume. Take note that espresso shots have more caffeine than brewed coffee and the caffeine levels in energy drinks can vary widely.

For singers who regularly consume caffeine, Scearce does not necessarily advocate eliminating it entirely from your diet. Rather, she recommends singers keep their levels less than 250 mg. in combination with increasing their water intake throughout the day for general health as well as to offset the dehydrating effects.

However, she also counsels that caffeine can be a trigger for reflux. Singers who experience GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) or LPRD (laryngopharyngeal reflux disease) need to further monitor or limit the amount of caffeine they are consuming (especially coffee, which can be more acidic than other forms of caffeine).

And, of course, as with all foods, drinks, and drugs, they impact us all differently. Some of us who are more sensitive to caffeine may need to make different choices than those who are less sensitive to caffeine. Know your body, what it can handle, and what it can't.

How has your practice been going this week? How are you doing on the goals you set in the last blog?

Now go practice.

Goals

The start of a new year is a good time to set resolutions for a more positive future. Similarly, the start of a new semester is a good time to revisit goals for vocal practice and improvement.

Before you set goals, it’s a good idea to look back and acknowledge your areas of strength and the areas where you have made noticeable improvement. Then you can compare that to the areas you need to continue solidifying.

Goals can be related to building technique, developing artistry, honing musicianship skills, learning and memorizing music, maintaining a consistent practice regimen, or all of the above.

Remember as well that this blog was designed to provide motivation and bi-weekly check points. Each time a blog assignment is due you can look back to see if you have been taking the steps necessary to meet your goals, assess how those steps have been working, and see if adjustments need to be made.

My main goals are:

1. Be more true to my established practice times (last semester got so busy that I often used that time for other things).
2. Continue working exercises designed to release the constrictor muscles of my neck, tongue, and throat.
3. Set memorization deadlines for repertoire I am learning for the fall

So, halfway through the 2016/2017 school year, what progress are you proud of? What are your top goals moving forward?

Now go practice.