Ep 96 | What It Means to Be a Professional Singer | Jana Anderson and Lisa Keith Bernard

In today’s episode,Tara chats once again with her cousin Lisa Gebhard and is put in the hot seat to answer common questions about singing! Enjoy this episode part 2 as a follow up to their first time in February 2021. Here are some of the questions and topics we deal with: Why do some singers sound so different as their voice ages? Why does the pitch change or the tone and timbre of the sound? Why does it sound as if singers slide into notes or are flat?   What makes the uniqueness of a singer’s style? What makes for a healthy and natural sound in a voice? What are some basic things that happen in a voice lesson? What things do I focus on when I teach a lesson? How do I start with a student? (The monotone singing episode is Episode 7)   Why can’t we sing on an inhale? We sing on exhalation but it seems impossible to sustain pitch when you are taking in air! Please reach out to me for teaching. My remote lessons are available online here: https://tarabrueske.com/music-lessons   My vocal monthly subscription is called The Singer’s Feedback Zone: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/21     This episode is the final episode of this podcast for now but you can binge all 104 other episodes!   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen.

In today’s episode,Tara shares some of her favorite helpful apps and products that will help you be a healthy and confident singer!   Some of my favorite products, apps, singing helps: The Singing Straw   You can use it for warmups or cool downs. Here is a link to get 10% off: https://bit.ly/SingingStrawTara Use code tarab10 Vocal Eze Throat spray that has honey, echinacea, ginger, and more. Manuka Honey drops and sticks that help keep your throat more moist and stop hacking coughing. You can get 15% off here: http://vocaleze.refr.cc/tarabrueske Gua Sha A quart stone that is shaped to help massage your face and neck, or use it for acupuncture. Here is a link on Amazon to purchase one: https://www.amazon.com/Gua-Sha-Facial-Tool-Acupuncture/dp/B08TRGNP9F/ref=asc_df_B08TRGNP9F/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=508231731992&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14798465847751075361&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019552&hvtargid=pla-1287142188407&th=1     Voice Memos app Or you can get another non IOS app like Recorder Plus. Look for a voice app in your phone app store.   Practice App—Modacity (It is a paid app) It can keep track of your days when you practice, the actual time or amount of practicing,  has a recorder, metronome and more. Look for it in your phone’s app store.   Purchasing sheet music/chord charts online Sheet Music Plus https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/ Music Notes https://www.musicnotes.com/ Musescore https://musescore.org/en Hal Leonard Publishing https://www.halleonard.com/ JW Pepper https://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/welcome.jsp Amazon Going to the library to utilize or find new songs The Reader’s Digest Books   Duolingo Great app for learning any language. Free version to paid version. But you can hear native speakers and learn grammar too! Also good for being able to sing and sound closer to the real language. Look for it in your phone’s app store.   Please reach out to me for teaching. My remote lessons are available online here: https://tarabrueske.com/music-lessons   My vocal monthly subscription is called The Singer’s Feedback Zone: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/21   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me. Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician 

In today’s episode,Tara chats about an alternate way of educating yourself to become a professional musician that doesn’t include the college route of a music degree. Tara herself, having a Music degree and yet being in the music biz for over 30 years, gives the listener her take on why college might not be the best way in today’s world of music performing.   The costs of a college degree is super high compared to what you might make as a musician seeking your own gigs or teaching studio. It can take time to build your own business as a performer and that means not a salaried income coming in. The pursuit of a college degree is time consuming. You can’t put extra time into learning about many things of the music biz, from networking to producing your own music and shows. The music industry has many changing features, including technology and social media that may not be covered in college. You may not be able to pursue different genres of music where you would study that specific history and get training in folk, jazz, country, etc You might want to do something more out of the box like opening your own music studio or publishing and selling music and you won’t get much help through a college degree. Marketing yourself, learning how to get albums out, creating a website,  learning how to book yourself and more are not usually learned at college. Time management for a music performing biz is hard to do with keeping up with studies, paying for that education and then actually trying to create a music career. College can have a political agenda instead of having an educational foundation. They are often more interested in promoting a political ideology instead of focusing on what your major is.   What you can do: Partake of free podcasts, free challenges and bootcamps on social media and getting fans to an email list, read books on the different subjects. Seek out mentors in the music biz—coaches who help you in biz, coaches who help you learn your instrument, coaches who teach you how to be a great performer. Purchases online courses for marketing, writing, songwriting, booking gigs, auditioning, podcasting, how to do social media, and how to find other music producing income, and more.   If you want further help, please reach out to me for a Zoom meeting through Premier Performer VIP. Link here: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/22 You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me. Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician 

In today’s episode,Tara chats about the challenges and strengths of being a singer/performer who is introverted. She chats from her own experience of being an introvert, as well as from working with other introverts. These might be things introverts struggle with: Performance anxiety Networking and self/promotion Trying to balance alone time and social engagements Collaborating with musicians in group situations and not having their voice heard Dealing with the expectations of a performance from the audience to be overly charismatic Pacing yourself at a performance   Being introverted can also include these strengths: Having a heightened sense of our inner world can help us carry amazing emotions into our performance Having self reflection easily available where you can analyze your performance and take it to the next level May have a preference for intimate performances to connect deeply with people Loving and utilizing solace for times of creating   The Introvert Advantage book is a great resource to understand what it means to be introverted.   Check out The Singer’s Feedback Zone here: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/21   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician  

In today’s episode,Tara gives you steps  that can help you teach a voice lesson. Practical tips to help you know what to do in a weekly lesson with a voice student.     Get to know how your student is doing that day. Have the student do some simple stretching or massage parts of their body. (Using a Gua Sha is great for this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074SL6JNN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Start with warmups that are lower or in mid-range. Use SOVT’s for early warmups in the lesson. Don’t use exercises that go too quickly or are on the ends of their range—high or low. Watch/observe what is going on in their physical body—face, head, shoulders, breath, neck, hips, knees, etc Pick one thing in the warmup that they do well and then focus on something that they need help with that you have noticed. Pick a song and then have the student sing the whole song or only just a verse and chorus. Listen and watch for that portion of the song for areas of technique they do well and can improve upon. Example: resonance, breath support, pitch issues, tension in their body, lack of flexibility and more 10. If you can’t find a solution for something, it’s okay to tell the student you will come back to it in another lesson. Then go do research. 11. Throughout the lesson, ask them the things they are physically sensing and noticing so that they can know on their own what you see or hear. 12. Be aware of if your student learns aurally, visually or is a kinesthetic learner.     You can grab your free template for teaching a voice lesson  at the Singing Hub: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/4   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician  

In today’s episode,Tara talks to music fitness coach Angela McCuiston, the founder of Music Strong LLC, a business that specializes in personal fitness training for musicians! We explore her own personal journey of a music related injury and her healing as well as how she helps musicians get healthy in their body and stay healthy!     Angela developed an injury from playing the flute (which was her instrument of study) She had strain and imbalance of certain muscles and needed to find a way to get her body healthy again without just quitting her instrument.   “You don’t throw out a soccer player when they pull a hamstring… or tell them to quit their sport…you just rehab them.”   Angela didn’t find enough resources to help her heal properly so she looked into becoming a personal trainer.    “Up to 90% of musicians will either experience pain related playing or will have injuries.”   During a convention of flutists in Florida, people started asking Angela for help and someone asked if she would do a workshop and she did and started traveling around to universities to give them.   “Rest is NOT rehab.”   Angela sees a lot of shoulder, low back pain as well as weak core muscles. When people come to her, she starts with a movement assessment—upper and lower body— to help personalize what each individual needs.   One thing Angela uses is NeuroKinetic Therapy: This uses manual muscle testing to address the cause of pain It’s a corrective movement system that addresses dysfunctional movement patterns stored in the brain.    Musicares—a division of the Grammy’s that helps musicians.   You can get ahold of Angela here: https://musicstrong.com/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicstrongfitness/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicstrong/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MusicStrongFitnessTraining     You can grab more free helps at the Singing Hub: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/4   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician  

In today’s episode,Tara talks gives some very practical exercises for your warmups that will help with engaging and maintaining breath. She focuses on specific exercises to help with breath pressure and the speed of the airflow! Vocal warmups to help you get and maintain great breath: Put your back in a sitting position against the wall and take some nose breaths. Slow arpeggio of a lip buzz and pay attention to your body while sitting against the wall. Use a vowel that’s easy for you and then use one note and gradually crescendo—get louder. Then do the opposite—decrescendo and get quieter using one note. Use staccato and legato back to back. Using a ha 1-1-1-1-1-2-3-4-5-5-5-5-5-4-3-2-1.   Then use an “ah” doing a half scale up and down. Using melisma—doing it quickly: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Start with a pause on 1 and then at the top on 8 and then back on the last note. Sing legato. Use vvv (a fricative) and slide 1-5-1. Pay attention to the breath pressure that you are sending.   Use warmups to pay attention to what is going on with many parts of your singing from your breath to your mouth to your tongue to your jaw and more…   You can get The Singing Straw here: https://singingstraw.com/discount/tarab10?ref=tarab10 Use code for 10 % discount: tarab10   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM Stitcher, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician  

In today’s episode,Tara talks gives some very solid and practical tips to help you memorize songs for your shows, whether a few songs or many!    You can get the singing straw here: https://singingstraw.com/discount/tarab10?ref=tarab10 Use code for discount: tarab10   The article on people’s capability to memorize: https://www.lpm.org/news/2018-01-25/how-many-songs-can-our-brains-actually-remember#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%3A%20no.,at%20the%20University%20of%20Louisville.   “Your brain has an almost unlimited capacity for memory. It can actually store about 2.5 petabytes of memory…which is a million gigabytes!” “If your brain was a smartphone on which you downloaded TV shows, it could record 300 years of continuous TV before running out of space.” Dr. Emily Mason (University of Louisville)     Some practical tips to memorize songs: Finding a story in the song. Look at specific images—are their descriptions of things in the lyrics? Does anything repeat itself? Looking for those things that repeat but have subtle changes of words. Analyze the form of the song. Look at the lyrics in front of you as you listen to the song. Speaking the lyrics out loud. Starting with looking at songs and finding the ones which have the most lyrics in a song—start with the hardest one. From Lenora Green-Turner (classical artist) said that she writes out the text or doodles pictures. She also puts translations side by side (where there are other languages) to see what feelings she needs to put in the song. Look for rhymes in the words. For the music part, record yourself singing and compare to original melody recording. On the lyric sheets, writing in the note name or draw dots in the direction of the notes. Repetition. Listen everywhere to the song so it gets ingrained in your head. Create a plan. Set deadlines backwards so you know when you need to have EVERYTHING memorized.   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM Stitcher, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician

In today’s episode,Tara talks about the difficulties of doing followups and ways to make them easier to do so that you actually book the gig!     You can get the singing straw here: https://singingstraw.com/discount/tarab10?ref=tarab10 Use code for discount: tarab10   “When people do a follow up one time and they don’t hear back from somebody, they assume they are already being rejected. They assume it’s a ‘no’.” Mistakes often made: Not contacting enough times  Doing it too often Not thinking about that you need to “build the relationship”   Tips to help the followup process: Keep a record of when you make contact Try different ways of contacting someone Research the place or event to find common ground Do the follow up every 3-4 weeks “Follow up till you get a firm yes or a firm no” Be respectful in your way of contacting them Offer a question to them that gets them engaged back with you “The biggest thing in doing followups is to be consistent and persevering.” For more booking helps: https://tarab.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/10   You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM Stitcher, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do wherever you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician  

In today’s episode, Tara interviews two long time professional singers and gets the low down on the ups and downs of being a professional singer!   Both Lisa and Jana grew up in musical families and had singers they looked up to like Linda Ronstadt, Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, Donny and Marie Osmond and more!   They met each other through the Rupert’s Orchestra in town in Minneapolis. With mutual respect between both of them, they went on to work with other amazing professionals like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as well as Fleetwood Mac, Don Henley, Prince and more!     (In response to nerves before a show.) “It’s never easy. I don’t get nervous but I’m very awake and excited! “ Lisa Keith Bernard “I get very excited and very very nervous for the first couple of songs…I’m letting myself relax a little bit and by the second or third song I see the audience—there’s something about seeing the audience and cracking a joke that relaxes me and I feel more at home on stage.” Jana Anderson “There’s an anticipation that I feel on show day…I think it gets easier the more people that you are with because others can fill in the gaps.” Tara B “We have the blessing of being close friends…our faith binds us first….and music and family and friends second.” Jana Anderson     As pro singers, we have all faced at one time or another of someone asking us if we have “real jobs”. There is so much we have to do to educate others as professional musicians.   “As musicians, we definitely have to wear many hats!” Lisa Keith Bernard   Lisa Keith Bernard: https://www.facebook.com/LisaKeithMusic https://www.facebook.com/spencerandlisa   Better Than You song: https://youtu.be/gYPwiW4huNc   Jana Anderson: https://www.janaandersonmusic.com/ I Honestly Love You Tribute show: https://www.facebook.com/ONJAMHITS River Tribute show: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057579875823   Crooners: https://croonersloungemn.com/ Chanhassen Dinner Theater: https://chanhassendt.com/concertseries/ Chart House Live: https://www.charthouserestaurant.com/?view=calendar&month=11-2023 The Freight House: https://www.thefreighthouse.com/events       You can get the singing straw here: https://singingstraw.com/discount/tarab10?ref=tarab10 Use code for discount: tarab10     You can listen on Amazon Audible music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeart radio, PlayerFM Stitcher, Spotify and more. If you are willing to rate and review this podcast, please do where you listen. Or share it to social media and tag me.  Instagram: @tarabrueskemusic    Facebook: @tarabmusician