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New class, online of course, being offered on Tuesday evenings beginning October 6 (we will skip Election Day). Read all about it, and sign up before the last 3 spaces are taken…

Make the Song your Own

A voice class on Zoom.

8 weeks, Tuesday evenings 7-8:30pm (Eastern) starting October 6 (no class November 3).

$300.  8 folks maximum—only 3 spaces left!

Make your version of a song sound believable, as if you wrote it yourself.  You will learn to make the phrasing, dynamics, timing and other important factors in a magical, musical performance.  And of course, you will learn to expand your range, sing more clearly and beautifully and feel confident you are keeping your voice healthy.

Taught by Elizabeth Anker, who sings, plays piano, and writes arrangements for her choir.  Liz believes folks thrive when given permission to be their best musical selves.

Each class will include group warm ups during which the class will be muted.  Students will receive coaching on their songs (a cappella) many of the 8 weeks, and benefit from observing their classmates improve as well as experiencing their own solo time.  There will be exercises to do in and out of class.

In past classes, one person worked on one song the entire time (finding and choosing verses of John Henry); another wrote some of her own verses to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.  You may choose a few songs to work on, but the purpose of this class is to go deep with one or two songs.   All styles and songwriters are welcome!  

More information/contact the teacher at http://www.ElizabethAnker.com

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Free workshop at NEC this Friday, January 31 at 7:00-8:15pm

Pierce Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, 241 St Botolph Street, Boston.

“Vocal health through the ages: strategies for choristers, soloists, and singers of all stripes”

Take care of your (built-in) Stradivarius!

Learn strategies for taking care of your voice through concert weeks, avoiding/dealing with colds and allergies, and maintaining vocal health as you age.

An informative and interactive workshop. 

Free to all, no NEC affiliation necessary. 

Enter through 241 St. Botolph Street, sign in at desk and you will be directed to Pierce Hall.

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I used to think if I went over the piece again and again the Goddess of Music would smile down on me and fulfill my wish.  Then I realized I was memorizing the way I DIDN’T want it to sound or feel.

So, I learned how to practice AND get better, a lot of it from hearing others practice and observing my own habits. Come to a FREE workshop at the New England Conservatory this Wednesday, September 26, from 8-9:30pm in Pierce Hall, 241 St. Botolph Street.  I’ll share some of my best practices (couldn’t resist) and there will be handouts. Open and free to all, no NEC affiliation required.

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practicing-instruments

I recently attended a workshop on improvisation*, and one of the interesting topics was practicing.  Not just figuring out how to improvise over a jazz standard, although we did some of that as well.  Finding new ways into the music, ways to make it more creative and a lot more productive.  I was fascinated, because I had already been invited to offer an evening workshop at the New England Conservatory about the very subject.  I had a lot of ideas before and now I have even more. The free event, for adults of all persuasions (beginners are encouraged), is coming up soon.  Here’s the scoop:

Wednesday January 31, 8-9:30pm, Pierce Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, 241 St Botolph Street, Boston.  Free to all, no NEC affiliation necessary.  Appropriate for all styles.  Bring your questions or even a bit of a song you’d like to ask about…there will be handouts, so if you’re coming, shoot me an email so I know how many to prepare.  No one is required to sing, but there will be opportunities for the group to try exercises together.

*it was a weeklong workshop with two master performers/teachers, Rhiannon and Laurence Hobgood.  In Hawaii.  Poor me.  I did, however, suffer through Boston’s Big Chill before earning the right to get warm.   There was also an exciting false alert sent to my phone about incoming missiles.  Some people have all the fun.

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2017 f flyer jP Jubilee6 sm

It’s time to start again–classes, lessons, and the “Birthday of the World”.  Come sing, learn, and have fun in Boston and Cambridge.  Or travel to Cape Cod for the High Holidays where no one needs a ticket to take a seat…Am HaYam meets in Orleans and I’m cantor, conductor and pianist…

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Singing classes which double as performing groups–what’s not to love?  Two groups start this week, plus private lessons in Central Square and Jamaica Plain.

The Platinum Singers at USES meet after an excellent exercise class on Wednesdays…see below for complete list of classes (and can you spot us in the little photo?)

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Red and Green

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Leonard Bernstein quote on violence

I was happy to find this quote, because I’ve been thinking about it.  Come on Tuesday evening to the Boston Common and do a Circle Sing with us–it’s Make Music Day–Fete de la Musique since it started in France…

Lots of places to hear music, but here is the link to MAKING music with others.  participatory events  Website for the whole shebang Make Music Boston 2016

If you don’t know what a Circle Sing is, just come and try–nothing required, just listen and let us play together while making beautiful, new sounds.  We learned it from Bobby McFerrin, and we take turns leading.  How about that?  Parkman Bandstand, Boston Common, 6-7:30pm on Tuesday June 21, 2016.  All free. Come any old time, drop by after work…

 

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Laurel and Hardy moving a piano over a narrow footbridge in the Alps

Getting back to regular exercise after colliding with an upright piano  (don’t ask, and please do not try this at home*), I find myself torn between pushing and holding back.  Yeah, that old conundrum.  No pain, no gain and all that.  Well, at a certain point we all have to listen to our bodies and heed what they say or they yell louder (“That HURTS, you IDIOT–can you hear me now?”).

I’ve always been a get-back-on the-horse as quickly as possible kind of person, so I’ve been walking and stretching.  Today I tried an exercise class.  I couldn’t do everything, but at least I went.  I listened to my body intently as I moved, and feel pretty good now.  It took a few years (okay, decades) to get the hang of how to garden for a short time and then stand up and walk around or do something different with my body.  So now i have another  reminder.

And so it is with singing.  We push for the high notes, lift our shoulders, tighten our necks and jaws.  We have all sung without warming up, pushed through vocal fatigue and colds and done a thousand other little things.  My favorite is how we lean towards the audience as we sing to show we really care…

Bob Dylan singing at a mic, neck forward with harmonica attached to his neck
Photo: © Sony

I was singing a recital with my wise colleague Francie Fitch after a bout with bronchitis.  I was frustrated that I couldn’t get from 0-60mph as soon as I resumed singing.  She reminded me that in the 19th century novels, heroines often had a “long convalescence.” How lovely, to give oneself such a gentle recuperative period.  We don’t.  I know.  It’s even faster paced now than when I was a pup. I was anxious to be a good employee at every gig I landed, always showing up and singing full voice, never being a troublesome colleague.  When I had vocal problems, I ignored them and the results were not pretty.

We are told not to listen to ourselves when we sing.  I know how hard that is.  But we can listen to our bodies–in a loving and respectful way.  They tell us to take a sip of water, to rest the voice for a while, to take a nap or have a meal.  There is an art to living in a body, and an art to having your instrument in your body.  It takes patience.  And practice.

*okay,I was trying to prevent a small upright from tipping over.  I was moving said piano–as I have every week at the Harriet Tubman House for 6 years, mind you–to use it to teach my lovely class and the wheels froze (kind of like shopping carts, it felt like) and my helper gave that extra push…since I was holding the handle and I desperately wanted to right the piano, I held on too long.  It had lost its balance on occasion before, but had never fallen on its back.   The piano lived and only one note sticks–the low Eb that is the tonic for our Bach aria, by the way.  I have bruises all the way from elbow to tip of fingers. The full mechanisms are slow to get  back and to strengthen again.  But it could have been much worse.