Afterall, life is serious enough as it is don’t you think.

This is my mission at Musical Kite String, inspiring musicians and for those that love to sing!

The mid-year concert is all about my students having an opportunity to have some fun and express themselves in a supportive environment. Gaining invaluable performing experience. 

The performances were held at the Rosina Auditorium at Abottsford Convent in Collingwood, performances ran in 2 sets (4 students each) with a short break in between where a raffle was held handing out prizes such as iTunes vouchers, $65 Hair Dressing voucher, Hoyts Movie Tix, fresh Coffee Beans and a bottle of wine for the over 18s.

Thank you Emani Hair, Charlotte's Corner Cafe, Di & Ron for your donations and support towards the event, your contributions made it all the better an evening for our audience and performers.

I also want to thank the talented group of individuals whom I love working with every week, I am very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people and very proud of their individual achievements.  

THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC

I believe that learning music isn't always about getting 'famous' 
or necessarily that you are going to 'do' something with it.

As quoted by Ellen Judson
"Some people believe that music education is a privilege 
but I think it is essential to being a human being."

I wanted to share with you all some great research that has been done on the effects learning music can have on us. Check out the links below for which contain invaluable information about how music can empower us, assist us academically and in our own personal emotional lives. Its bridges socioeconomic backgrounds between people and unites them.

For more information check out these links for more indepth detail.

Music Empowers Foundation
http://musicempowersfoundation.com/the-importance-of-music.html

We are all musical beings, everything we do is in rhythm. Our heart beats, we breath in and out, we walk and much more. To deny music is to deny ourselves.

Sarah Morrison 

On Saturday 15 December, Musical Kite String (MKS) hosted the first End of Year Performance for my singing students, providing them an opportunity to gain experience in performance in front of a supportive and encouraging audience. 

The students invited family and friends to the event and performed three songs chosen from their repertoire. The evening commenced with a group performance Anthony, Geoff, Ovidiu and Sarah took to the stage to perform 'Somebody You Used to Know' ~ Goyte. A perfect warm-up to the evening and allowing any technical issues to be ironed out by the first solo performance. 

For any performer to have the crowd participate and engage with you when you are singing makes the whole experience so much FUN! So to ensure our not only our vocalists had a great experience we wanted to include the crowd and to entice participation Sarah organised prizes to give away to the best crowd participant. Supported by local businesses Sketches Cafe Bar Restaurant donated a $25 voucher, Emani Hair Salon donated a Cut and Blow Wave, MKS donated a $20 Wish Gift Card and a Bottle of Wine was donated by Di Deeming and Ron Clifft who are both close friends and musical advisers to Sarah Morrison.

Now, onto the solo performances!

Anthony a MKS student since February 2012 who had never sung in front of his family before did an absolutely fantastic performance engaging the crowd and even taking to the floor with a few dance moves surprising us all with his enthusiasm and confidence. 

Geoff who has been with MKS for approximately 6 months had some performing experience already as an acoustic guitarist but wants to focus more on his vocals and has done a great job. Geoff gave a wonderful performance entertaining the crowd including a bit of harmonica in the Aussie Classic Hit 'Under the Milky Way'. We also had the pleasure of having Geoff play his acoustic guitar for the finale playing One by U2 - Mary J Blige.

Last but not least we had the charismatic Ovidiu one of my newest students out on stage performing some great boppie numbers by the Gorillaz and Dancing Fool by Frank Zappa, ending the night on a high note Ovidiu got the crowd up a bopping around and ensuring smiles all round!

Each student did an awesome performance and all have their own unique style. I look forward to holding further concerts in the future to help enhance what they have learned and provide all my students valuable performing opportunities.

In case you have been wondering where I've been, we are very happy to announce our new location in Box Hill South just 5 minutes from our old location.

We now have a purpose filled room for our singing students and we will be holding our very 1st, End of Year Performance this December 17 - which may I add I am very excited about.

MKS Students will also be performing at the St Bridget's Primary School, Balwyn North - Food and Fun Fair on the 24 November!

Also with Christmas around the corner why not give someone a Gift Voucher for singing lessons. Contact me on 0449 795 574 or 03 9888 7672 for more details.

Hi and Happy Thursday Everyone!

I would love to share another track sung my me. Would love to hear what you think, I believe I am getting better at using the equipment I have, albeit amateur and very basic, am learning how to maximise what I have. And it is a lot of fun!

The track is 'If I Ain't Got You' originally sung by the gorgeous Alicia Keys. And The photo above is of my very handsome and eccentric husband, Stephen I this song is for you ;-).

Hope you are all having a wonderful evening.

Sarah Morrison

Before working on your breathing/vocal exercises and/or singing, you should relax with exercises that affect the whole body as tension in the body will affect your breath work, quality and tone of voice. Here are some quick exercises you can do before you commence singing to help release tension in your body and help you sing better.

Progressive Relaxation Exercise

This can be done sitting, standing or for maximum effect lying on the floor.

Now bit by bit, slowly begin to tense/clench your whole body, from the bottom up. Squeeze everything as tight as you can and hold for a fairly quick count of 10 and slowly release taking note of how you feel as you let go of the tension.  Commence in the following order.  

1.     Toes
2.     Calves, thighs, bottom
3.     Back and shoulders
4.     Arms and hands
5.     Neck
6.     Face

Now, just let go and relax completely.

Check for Tension in the Lower Abdomen

Placing your hands just below your belly button feel if you have any tension. Now just let this relax, even letting it become a little “paunchy” and take a deep breath. Notice the difference in the way you feel. If you are still feeling a little tense take a moment or two just to let go and relax, don't hold your stomach in, just let it go.

Once you feel relaxed sip in the air you would use for singing a phrase of a song. Notice how quietly and deeply the air moves into the lungs. This is what a good singing breath feels like: low, deep and quiet.

Now, Relax and Breathe

Before commencing your warm-ups or singing practice at least 10 “quiet breaths.”  Really pay attention to how the quiet singing breath feels. Continue practicing the quiet breath on a daily basis until its habit. Don’t feel obligated to inhale a large quantity of air when you’re practicing silent breathing. Sip the air down to fill up your lungs from the bottom up.

It cannot be over-emphasised that tension in the body will effect your singing. Therefore before any practice or performance take time to breath deeply and relax each muscle in your body, so that you can get the most out of your singing and more importantly ENJOY it so much more!

Feel free to leave any questions and/or comments regarding this blog. I hope it has been helpful.

Have a great day!
Sarah Morrison

The total person sings not just the vocal chords.  ~Esther Broner

Set the stage for your singing by laying a solid foundation to sing upon! How you ask?

• Relaxed Concentration;
• Breath Control & Support; and
• Visualisation.

Sounds simple right! It is once you've mastered it.

What is 'Relaxed Concentration'?

Relaxed concentration is when we are fully emerged in what we are doing at a given time without an external/internal interference. Like a child playing in the sand pretending they are building a huge castle and all a long they are singing away without a care in the world, they don't care who is listening or watching. They are completely in the moment. When we are in this state of relaxed concentration our learning ability is heightened because we are enjoying it more. 

I quote Jeffery Allen - Secrets of Singing, "It is impossible to overstate the importance of relaxation to the singer. Relaxation is the key to producing one of the fundamental elements of a great voice: The "floating" tone. When a tone 'floats', it seems to defy gravity; it has an otherworldly, ethereal quality."

This can be achieved by a simple relaxation exercise (see blog on relaxation).

What is Breath Control & Support?

There must be a precise balance between the air pressure from below (moved up by the lower breath support muscles) and the resistance to that air-flow by the diaphragm and the lower ribs. If your support system is too weak, it worn't send enough air to the cords, leaving you with a weak, shaky tone. If you're not able to control your breath, too much air may hit the cords, causing them to tighten too much. This is common among singers and leads to a forced sound.

What is visualisation?

Singing is largely in your mind. What you think is how you sing!

One of the most common beliefs held by beginning singers is that the voice is completely formed in the throat, at the site of the vocal cords. This is far from the total picture. There are actually many elements that combine to form your 'voice' as YOU are the instrument. When you sing you don't just open your mouth and sing, you sing with your whole body, your instrument.

We can project our voices, tones and emotions through visualisation. The pathway that breath follows from the vocal cords is extremely important as the breath system naturally carries tone to the resonant bones and cavities in and above the mouth.  Incorrect visualisation or thought can disturb the normal flow of vibration and produce an incorrect tone.

Try this... 

Think about singing through your nose and sing, 
                                           "I'm singing through my nose". 
Does this sound nasally?

Think about singing through your mouth and sing,
                                          "I'm singing through my mouth". 
Does this sound clearer?

This is an extreme example, however relevant.

These 3 steps will set the stage for your singing! If you take the time to develop your foundation you will find hours of enjoyment and increased confidence to take that stage. 

If you have any questions or comments you'd like to share please post them below I'd love to hear your feedback. Please check back in soon for more blogs expanding on each of these areas for your practice.

Have a great day.

Sarah Morrison

"What brings success? Vision, initiative and perseverance. Let the desire to sing command your energies. Let your singing educate and discipline your muscles.
~ Giovanni Battista Lamperti

A good starting point towards developing your diaphragm and abdominal muscles is by doing breath exercises. Why? Because if these muscles are strong and controlled, they'll be able to squeeze a small portion of air out of the lungs, providing plenty of air to sing any phrase.

A small amount of air under pressure from the lower breathing muscles and controlled by the diaphragm and lower ribs goes a long way towards smoothing out and strengthening the voice enabling you to hit those high notes with ease.

This exercise will help show you instantly where breath support comes from. It will take out all the guess work of trying to understand What is Breath Support! And you will need to use it to assist your singing you have to be able to feel it right!

Try this...

Take a medium sized comfortable breath through your mouth down into the diaphragm, filling your lungs from the bottom up. Do NOT let your shoulders or chest rise when you take a breath. Feel the stretch happening in the lower abdomen. Note your lower back and ribs expanding as you inhale while keeping your chest relaxed. Begin to immediately exhale. While you exhale make a 'ssss' noise by placing your tongue behind your upper front teeth and squeeze air through a tiny opening between your pursed lips.

Emit the 'ssss' sound fairly intensely, if you are making this noise correctly it will sound what you'd imagine a loud air leak in a tyre would. Continue making this 'ssss' sound as long as you possibly can. Squeeze out the last drop of air. As you are doing this notice which muscles which muscles are working to press the air up to the cords. What you are feeling is the compression of the support muscles around your lower abdomen at work. If you are doing this correctly you will feel it in and around the belt level just below your navel.

This is the sensation that you want and need to feel support when you are singing. It won't be as intense a feeling as it is in this exercise as for when it is singing however this will exercise will make you aware of what muscles tuse and how to.

I hope you found this blog helpful.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask.

Have a great day.

Sarah Morrison 

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick blog to ask for your advice.  I am applying for singing positions through StarNow.com and require an audio track to go along with my application. Using the equipment I have available at such short notice (ie Garage Band and internal computer mic's) I have quickly recorded the song 'At Last' originally sung by Etta James.  

Please let me know what you think so I can decide whether or not to use it. 

Thanks for all your help.

Have a great day,

Sarah Morrison
xo