What is it about running a choir that keeps me engaged and interested?

You'll a lot of disagreement amongst singers, pedagogues and scientific types throughout history about breathing techniques and the use of tummy muscles in singing. In this post I'm going to look at the first phase of things - the in-breath. How you get your breath has a pretty important knock-on effect on the sound that will come back out shortly afterwards. At Vocalese, I frequently bang on about using "zippy" muscles, and "nice deep breath" - well, for many of you, these t

So this blog post is my first ever video blog! I can see me getting to like this new technology... Anyway, Adiemus is just about done. I was going to use a synthesizer for the recorder part, and I thought..."no, Richard", as that is the name I use for myself when having one-to-ones..."no, Richard, you have a lovely sounding treble recorder..use a real instrument for a change!". So I did. Here's maybe the first of a few videos inviting you into my man-cave for a little behind-

So I've just set the new website live! Vocalese is officially an entity! So, here we go. Sing because you love it, because it makes you feel good and because it is good for you. It revitalises you and for some, it can slow down and may even reverse some of the signs of ageing! Look up the work of Dr. Robert T. Sataloff and you'll see that there is medical evidence to back up that ridiculous claim. Thing is, singers are vocal athletes. Singing is to the voice and mind what a g