All change!

Interesting comments from Minnie Driver this week on her ability to take on an accent or dialect.

Ms Driver is famous for being able to switch accents or assume a dialect successfully, and believes that her singing background has helped. "It's a trick. It's music. I play music a lot. I play a couple of instruments. I think accents come from the same part of your brain. A lot of this is about commitment, You just commit to it, and you pay attention."

Ironically, I believe that changing voice quality is like changing accents. When you first decide to change voice quality or expand your palette of vocal colours (having not done it before), each new colour sounds and feels odd. you work with a coach to embed the new information, and to make sure that your version is accurate and healthy, and then you start to commit to it, to make it sound and feel your own.

The same applies to changing musical style. First comes the inclination to change, usually from having heard something that you would like to be able to do. Then you find (or are shown) the techniques to be able to make those changes, and finally you commit to making those musical decisions, to believing yourself in that particular musical genre. And you pay attention while you are doing it until it becomes "second nature".

I have posted an article on seven ways to change your singing style without changing your sound on the Vocal Process website.

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on style, memorising and musical genres.