Contact us
You can call Jon Bode: 0400 830 159, Rebecca Bode: 0400830849
Email: info@extraordinaryacts.com.au
Or pop your details into this form.
We would love to chat with you!
Our Studio- Singing lessons in Melbourne, Balwyn
Just down the road from the Balwyn cinema, it’s a 6 minute walk from the 109 tram. Although our professional background is in classical and musical theatre singing, we teach contemporary and jazz as well. Whilst they are all different kettles of fish - there are similarities in the foundations that can be used across all genres. Little tweaks upon a broad strong basic technique, ensures safe vocal production and makes everything sound just right! .
We use recording equipment for all vocal streams. Recording your voice and listening back can be very powerful tool. Every student is different. Some benefit from recording equipment more than others and we’ll always take that into consideration. Some people hate the sound of their own voice and some are OK with it. We think it's really important to hear yourself as you are and be comfortable with that and/or strive to make adjustments as necessary upon reflection. The equipment is always there if a student needs to make a quick demo too.
Technique
Singing Lessons Melbourne
We have had the absolute privilege of receiving some of the highest quality teachings from teachers and coaches all over the world. They don't always agree on how to get there, but there is definitely a shared view on the foundation and destination.
One way to truly learn something is to teach it to someone else. We have learned so much about singing from teaching our students. I know that the singing voice is an extension of the speaking voice. That's where we start with the speaking voice and extend this into the freest supported singing sound, which can then be ‘tuned’ to suit the musical style and emotional content.
Breathing. We start with a technique called ‘Smithing’. It apparently was invented by someone called Smith…go figure?
The first thing you have to get right is breath comes in, lungs expands. Breath goes out and lower abdominals engage and belly button heads towards the spine. Think in terms of bellows or a pump. Once that's working well (it should, because when we are relaxed, we actually breathe naturally like this) we can start by creating a little bit of resistance: ffff, shhhhh, ssssss…
Then we start on simple sliding scales and voiced consonants (those to which ‘pitch’ can be applied: jjjj, zzzzz, vvvvv, woooo, brrrrr…
Its a great singing warmup for beginners and advanced singers. The important thing to remember is that this exercise is impossible unless there is sufficient air falling in and coming out. It's a way of training you to use your air.
Vowels. The Italians taught us to sing with pure vowels. Eeeee, ehhhh, ahhh, ohhhh, ooo. That's it. Us Australians are guilty of dipthongs. A Dipthong is a sound formed by the combination of more than one vowel sound in a single syllable. Italians tend to stick to one vowel sound per syllable, in order to keep it pure. That way it is free, clean, uncomplicated and so pleasing to the ear. A lot of our technical focus is about going from one vowel to the next, with minimum effort and as much economy as possible. Any form of singer from pop to jazz and classical, will benefit from this.
Colour. We often say to my pop students that what singing lessons can do is give you options and a language. Whether or not you are aiming for a bright twangy sound or perhaps something with more sob quality, it's helpful to know what is happening technically. A lot of vocal colour is driven by the emotional content in the song. We believe that songs can teach you to sing. The emotions you use when you interpret text can show you vocal colours you never knew you had.
Encouragement & humour- if there was one magic pill that I could give to students to make them sing better, it's encouragement. The same is true for myself as a student. We remember walking into lessons feeling like crap and literally coming out seeing colours brighter and feeling on cloud 9.
Lastly (well for now anyway), there are a lot of people offering singing lessons in Melbourne. It's very important that you find the right person. The lesson should be fun. It's your time for you. If you aren't enjoying yourself, go somewhere else. It's important that you have a rapport with the person who is teaching you to sing.