How long does it take to be a good singer...

How long is the proverbial piece of string?  Many people will tell you that they "Mastered" and instrument in a few years, while others, believe the Malcolm Gladwell hypothesis that it takes 10,000 hours to fully master an instrument.  10,000 hours?  That's really YEARS!!! 

Well, it will not turn around overnight, and you will not grasp a new instrument in weeks, or even months really.  But plugging away at the new skills that you've learned and practising the technical, will eventually pay off, with persistence.  Sometimes, you really need to fight through the bad days, to keep the flow going, but those bad days will get less and less, as your skills improve.  With any instrument, you can trundle along for a long time, apparently not moving forward, then one day... BAM, you're able to do something that had once eluded you, and you've no idea why!

When learning something new, don't try to compare yourself to the masters of the craft.  You'll only annoy yourself that you're not that good yet, after all it's been 3 months!!! I can assure you, that they didn't master their craft in 3 months, and many professional musicians, will spend hours every DAY perfecting their instrument.  That's not really practical for most, who are learning as a hobby, even those who aspire to be semi or fully professional would struggle to fit in the kind of hours that the touring musician can!

Singing is a unique craft to learn.  While most other musicians have the need to learn where to place fingering, breath control, scales on an instrument, singers need to learn how to be singers at the same time... A guitar already knows how to be a guitar, but how do you know, right away, how to use your voice?  Some have a natural grasp, which usually comes from a specific learning style, but it still makes learning to sing difficult.  Why?  Because learning to sing, isn't easy!

Remember to practise regularly, and to concentrate on your technical skills during scales, but when it comes to singing a song, enjoy it.  Let your mind go, and your body will follow! 

Gig of the year (so far)

Our wedding band had the most amazing gig recently!

What an amazing crowd, we managed to keep the dance floor busy all night long.

We do love a responsive crowd, and, a crowd that love a good wedding band.  It makes a great night for everyone involved!

Summer's in Bloom

So this week our wedding band start of the busy summer season!

Summer weddings are always so fantastic and the wedding band love playing in fresh bright venues across scotland!

Bring it on weather, lets have a blast!

Great Success (in our best Borat voice)

So we had our annual wedding band showcase last week.  And it was good!

So pleased to say that every bride that came along booked the wedding band for their event!

A good friend of mine suggested that the title "Scotland's Premiere Wedding Band" is well overused,  I think we might even claim that title exclusively in the near future.

The futures so bright, we gotta wear shades!

Post Gig Blues

So we hand an amazing showcase gig for our wedding band last week!

Its always a bit rubbish the day days following a gig. You end on a high, you come down, you get tired and, in my case this time, I got ill!

I often hear horror stories of bands pulling out of gigs at the last minute due to illness.  How would you feel if your wedding band did that to you?  And thats a big thing to ask your wedding band when you book them........ do you have deps!

Very important, and yes we do!

Google Adwords

We are very pleased to say that we are now advertising our wedding band  on google adwords!

So now when people search for wedding band  in google, our amazing band will come up every time!  So more and more of you will have access our amazing quality and service!

Onwards and upwards!

Summer Lovin'

So glad to see summer is finally here.  And our wedding band  is raring to go.

Its safe to say that your average wedding band is always at its most busy during the summer months.  However we have noticed that our wedding band  has a few wedding dates in the colder months.

It begs the question, is the summer worth paying for?

Wedding Band Showcase

Our fantastic wedding band  are having a show case on 31st May in Edinburgh!

This is a great chance for you to see the band in action, in an intimate environment.   Its our small wedding band that are playing, its a small venue after all, but it gives you the chance to see our core band in action.

Rear View is fast becoming one of the most sought after wedding bands in Scotland, with a wealth of amazing reviews under its belt.

Dont miss out!

What You See, What You Get?

Marketing our wedding band is something we have have to do every day almost.  The wedding entertainment market is very competitive as Scotland has a high demand for wedding bands adds to the amount of bands trying to get their slice of the pie!

When we market our wedding band, we pride ourselves on giving the most accurate impression we possibly can.  All of our videos have been done 100% live and our studio recordings are no different.  We have stayed away from studio magic and trickery in favour of being as honest as we can be.

Like any marketeer, we keep an eye the competition, seeing what other wedding bands do to attract customers.  What we have found really surprised us in a number of cases, more cases than we thought.  We have seen many of these bands show a music video in support of their abilities, but very few of them have been an accurate representation. Nine times out of ten, the performers are miming to a highly polished studio recording in their videos.  And this highly polished recording employs all of the modern technology it can to enhance the performance.

We have to ask ourselves, do we blame them?  Of course a wedding band wants to try and get as many gigs as they can.  But imagine your big day, you have seen the video and they sound exactly like the record.  The band set up and play your carefully selected first dance and its nothing like what you expected it to be.

Furthermore, we have seen another level of studio magic, so to speak.  As a successful vocal school, we have a large selection of professional quality back tracks.  And on investigation of some function bands we have found ourselves recognising the backing track in the band's demo.  So only the singer is being showcased, not the actual band!

So when you are looking at a band for your wedding make sure you are seeing what your actually getting.  If you see a group that comprise of a guitarist, a drummer, bass player and vocalist and their demo has lush brass parts, huge strings and fluent piano, you can be sure that this band cant give you that on the big night!

We take pride in our function band and believe its one of the best in Scotland. And when you check our website, what you see (and hear) is what you get!

How does smoking affect my singing?

This is a great question, I get asked frequently by singers if it's ok to smoke and sing!

Truth is, smoking is not the best for you in any way, shape or form.  There really is no way to beat about that bush, it's bad for you!  If you want to be a singer, it's just not going to help you advance your career, and may very well do just the opposite.

So what does it do?

Breathing: - First and foremost, smoking affects your breathing, and as we know, breath is the fuel for your voice.  The lungs contain little fibres, called Cilia, which help to move debris from the lungs.  When you smoke, these fibres are damaged, so they don't work, debris sits in your lungs and you have to work extra hard to cough it out, hence, smokers cough.




 

The Vocal Cords: - The vocal cords are what create the pitch, their resonance is what creates the notes as the air from your lungs passes through.  They are pale in colour and covered in a slight mucos, which helps them to vibrate.  In a healthy voice, this movement is effortless.  If you smoke, you can disrupt the blood flow in the vocal cords, and they can become inflamed, a-symmetric and dry. 

 

 

This is when you notice changes to your voice, you sound hoarse, or dry and no matter how much water you drink, it doesn't go away.  The swelling in the cords and the a-symmetry, (as seen in the diagram), mean that the cords cannot vibrate together freely, and do not come together cleanly, instead there may be airy gaps in the process, which can alter desired pitches, or may make a note sound like it has an overtone as two pitches can be created.

It's not about fear, but if you want to sing, best to drop the ciggies!

Breathe a healthy voice...

Did you know that your medication can have an effect on your voice?

Even over the counter medications can affect the way that the vocal chords work, drying them out, thinning the blood, or causing fluid retention.  All of these things will affect the way that your voice works.

Your vocal chords have a protective mucosal layer covering them, and drying them out can make speech difficult.  So it's important to make sure that you know how to look after your voice and keep it hydrated.  Well, that's easy, just drink water and be careful of diuretics like Tea and Coffee, which can dry you out!  But did you know that medication can have an effect.  Anticholinergics (or Asthma Medication to you and I), can dry out this mucosal layer, and so Asthmatic singers need to bear this in mind.  Of course, Asthma is a very serious illness, often overlooked for it's severity.  Students with Asthma should be mindful that the control of Asthma must come before singing, because singing isn't potentially life threatening.

However, the breathing exercises that we cover at our tuition for Singing in Edinburgh can help you to improve your respiratory health and therefore you're need for reliever inhalers.

*VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Medication should always be monitored by a doctor, we are not advocating self medication.

Wedding Bands or DJ's, what's the deal?

So we get asked why people should take a wedding band over a DJ quite a lot. Its a good question really, a DJ takes up very little space, can play anything within reason and its only one person to be catered for!

Lets think about a night out. So you go to a club and they have a DJ.  They play the latest chart toppers along with a few old classics.  They sometimes talk over the mic, flirt with the clientele and maybe tell a few jokes.  It's all pretty standard really! I think you can see where this is going?

A function band really gives a sense of occasion.  When you go to a club and there is a band playing, its different. It gives a sense of occasion and brings energy to the room. And its no different at a wedding.  Wedding bands in Scotland normally play a variety of music and a variety of styles.  Overall, it brings something special to the table.

As an Edinburgh wedding band, we have played all over Scotland and have attended many weddings indeed. A band always brings something special to the table. Not that we don't like DJs.... they are amazing too. But for something that little bit different, a little more grand and as special as your big day.... Try and get a good wedding band in place, it really makes a real difference.

And if you cant decide, give us a call... we do both!