Last week I received a message from a singer I have been coaching: Hi Katja, I just wanted to let you know that my last rehearsal went much better. “Being a diva in my own garden” helped me a lot. In our session, we had been working on how to deal with nerves and staying centered. This singer is soon going to perform as a solist with a big choir
One of the artists whose work keeps inspiring me over and over again is Imogen Heap. Have you seen the documentary Everything In-Between: The Story of Ellipse yet? It’s the story behind the scenes of the making of her Grammy Award winning album. The documentary gives wonderful insight about the creative process. It is a very personal story of one woman and her music, about the process of songwriting and album-making with all
A while back I gave two workshops for the singing students of the Jazz & Pop department at ArtEZ Conservatory. The workshop was an introduction to the techniques in CVT (Complete Vocal Technique). I gave a presentation about the philosophy behind CVT, an overview of the techniques, and worked with a couple of singers individually in a masterclass. I enjoyed working with the students a lot! They were eager to try out
Effective practice has got all to do with setting clear goals, and focusing on quality instead of quantity. Here are six tips that will help you make your practice sessions more effective! 1. FOCUS Set a clear focus for your practice session. Know what you want to work on, and don’t try to work on too many things at the same time. This means knowing what the ‘problem areas’ in
Why does it seem to be easier for us to say what we don’t like about our voice, than saying what we do like about it? And why does it seem easier for most of us to accept negative feedback or criticism, than to genuinely take in positive feedback? A while back, I decided to ask all the singers I work with what they especially like, or think is beautiful, about
