Hallelujah!

Last Saturday we ran our first How YOUR Voice WORKS choral day in Cambridge, sponsored by the prize-winning Cambridge Chord Company.

We're used to a good response to our courses and products - after all, our first training DVD sold out within six hours. But we weren't expecting to have to close the booking several days before because so many people wanted to join us!

We ended up with over 90 participants who had signed up from many different choral backgrounds - including barbershop, classical, gospel and show choirs.

We had stated on the publicity that this was a solid technique day, and that we wouldn't be singing lots of songs. However, we needed something that everyone might know, that would work very quickly, and that we could mould to various technical tasks.

About 10 days before the course, I decided to use the opening of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. It works a treat, can be additionally "arranged" for the TTBB or SSAA barbershop lineup, and is blisteringly fast to learn.

What I genuinely didn't realise was that the BBC and English National Opera have just got together to create a UK-wide project in November and December which "encourages people to find their voice and discover the joy of singing through the Hallelujah Chorus".

Nice to be able to say to the Beeb "been there, done that, and we'll be selling the t-shirts soon...

Incidentally, we had some amazing feedback from the day, with 95% of our respondants saying they had gained from the course, and 75% saying it had changed the way they voice their voice.

Result!

PS We're running How YOUR Voice WORKS in York on November 22, and we'll have two special guest presenters joining us with some voice measuring toys to play with. More details later!

The Vocal Process "opening your throat" techniques appear on the new sell-out Constriction and Release Training DVD

The brand new voice training DVD Nasality and the Soft Palate has just been released!

The Vocal Process website has 280+ pages, including a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.

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)