www.sharonduggan.co.uk
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SONGWRITING WORKSHOP
(runs at Cranleigh Arts Centre)
Sharon and Eleanore Duggan run a songwriting workshop not to be missed by aspiring songwriters.
This workshop will help you to learn:
· How songs are structured
· How to develop melody and lyrics
· Developing instrumentation, harmony and dynamics
· Performance and Production
· Songwriting mistakes
We will then endeavour to compose a song and produce it. We will also consider the importance of modern production techniques and the importance of performance, as well as discussing the components of a good song eg. structure, dynamics, hooks, melody, instrumentation, harmony etc.
Please bring along any instruments that you play so that they can be incorporated as necessary into the song that you compose. We will then perform the song at the end of the workshop.
Length of workshop:
10am - 4.30pm (1 day)
Open to:
Aspiring songwriters
Fee:
£30 for the day.
(runs at Cranleigh Arts Centre)
Sharon and Eleanore Duggan run a songwriting workshop not to be missed by aspiring songwriters.
This workshop will help you to learn:
· How songs are structured
· How to develop melody and lyrics
· Developing instrumentation, harmony and dynamics
· Performance and Production
· Songwriting mistakes
We will then endeavour to compose a song and produce it. We will also consider the importance of modern production techniques and the importance of performance, as well as discussing the components of a good song eg. structure, dynamics, hooks, melody, instrumentation, harmony etc.
Please bring along any instruments that you play so that they can be incorporated as necessary into the song that you compose. We will then perform the song at the end of the workshop.
Length of workshop:
10am - 4.30pm (1 day)
Open to:
Aspiring songwriters
Fee:
£30 for the day.
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What does good vocal training include?
Looking for a good singing teacher can be daunting. It's probably the equivalent of me trying to find a good plumber, when I know absolutely nothing about plumbing!
However, there are some obvious pointers that you can look for:
a/ firstly, avoid anybody who is happy to train children's voices. You wouldn't send your children to the gym to develop their muscles on the weight machines because common sense would tell you that this was a bad idea. As developing a voice involves developing muscles too, this is best left until a child has reached adolescence. Any good teacher won't touch a voice under the age of fourteen years.
b/ secondly, it is very bad practice to over-develop the chest voice (the voice is made up of two parts - the head voice and the chest voice). Overdeveloping the lower part of the voice can cause permanent damage and is in any case unnecessary if the voice has been trained properly (the reason often given for over-developing the chest voice is if students want to sing rock etc - which of course they do using a microphone.) Think about the opera singers at Covent Garden or English National Opera who every night of the week sing unmicrophoned in theatres with about a two thousand person seating capacity - and you begin to realise the difference in the quality of the training. It doesn't matter what style of music you are singing, if your voice has been trained properly, you'll be able to project your voice well (depending on your individual size of voice).
A good teacher will aim to develop the voice in an even and balanced way right across the entire range, so that the vocal instrument becomes stronger and more resonant right across the range, rather than concentrating just on bits of it - again you would know that it was not a good idea to go to the gym and just exercise your legs - it's the same with the voice - you need to develop all of it.
c/ personally of course I am of the view that good singing teachers should have had a formal classical training - you will never find a classically trained teacher over-developing the chest voice. This doesn't mean that you will end up as a classical singer if you are taught by a classically trained teacher, but it is much less likely to mean that you will get vocal damage as a consequence of bad training.
d/ if you're asked to "belt" out notes or force your voice to remain in the chest voice when it feels more comfortable for it to go into the head register, then you will again know that this isn't good. You should basically never
put your voice anywhere that feels uncomfortable - go with your gut feeling.
However, there are some obvious pointers that you can look for:
a/ firstly, avoid anybody who is happy to train children's voices. You wouldn't send your children to the gym to develop their muscles on the weight machines because common sense would tell you that this was a bad idea. As developing a voice involves developing muscles too, this is best left until a child has reached adolescence. Any good teacher won't touch a voice under the age of fourteen years.
b/ secondly, it is very bad practice to over-develop the chest voice (the voice is made up of two parts - the head voice and the chest voice). Overdeveloping the lower part of the voice can cause permanent damage and is in any case unnecessary if the voice has been trained properly (the reason often given for over-developing the chest voice is if students want to sing rock etc - which of course they do using a microphone.) Think about the opera singers at Covent Garden or English National Opera who every night of the week sing unmicrophoned in theatres with about a two thousand person seating capacity - and you begin to realise the difference in the quality of the training. It doesn't matter what style of music you are singing, if your voice has been trained properly, you'll be able to project your voice well (depending on your individual size of voice).
A good teacher will aim to develop the voice in an even and balanced way right across the entire range, so that the vocal instrument becomes stronger and more resonant right across the range, rather than concentrating just on bits of it - again you would know that it was not a good idea to go to the gym and just exercise your legs - it's the same with the voice - you need to develop all of it.
c/ personally of course I am of the view that good singing teachers should have had a formal classical training - you will never find a classically trained teacher over-developing the chest voice. This doesn't mean that you will end up as a classical singer if you are taught by a classically trained teacher, but it is much less likely to mean that you will get vocal damage as a consequence of bad training.
d/ if you're asked to "belt" out notes or force your voice to remain in the chest voice when it feels more comfortable for it to go into the head register, then you will again know that this isn't good. You should basically never
put your voice anywhere that feels uncomfortable - go with your gut feeling.