Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Handy Throat Remedies for Singers

I've just come out of a nasty bout with the flu. It put me out of action for two days in a row. Can you imagine that? I had to cancel all my classes for TWO days! Unheard of. Never thought this could happen to me (not with all the stuff I know about keeping the flu at bay). But anyway, I did beat the flu in the end, without a single dose of medication. In this blog post I just want to list a couple of handy flu and throat remedies that I use myself.

Fresh ground ginger always does the trick. When you've got a soar throat, take fresh ginger the size of your thumbnail, peal it, and then crush it. Throw it into a cup, ad a teaspoon of honey, a teabag (and milk if you want), hot water and drink up! Here's another great remedy that works every time. 1000 mg of effervescent Vitamin C. Drop one of those into a glass of water and drink up. When you're undergoing a flu attack like I recently did, I'd pop three of those down my gullet during the course of the day. And hey, it works! Hope this helps, you guys.

Thanks for dropping by, as always!


Tony Joett

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Working With Shirley Bassey Songs to Improve Your Voice

I remember when I was growing up -- I must have been eleven or twelve -- I used to listen, and singalong to a lot of Shirley Bassey songs. If I'm honest, she inspired me to sing. What I didn't know was that after all these years, I would be using her songs to help train my students. It works every time. I had a session yesterday where we worked with Shirley Bassey's song Something, and OMG it was amazing! The woman has a powerful voice... the perfect demo for voice training. Today, I gathered a few more songs from her back catalog and got the lyrics printed out and laminated (like I always do). I can see a lot of Shirley Bassey songs included in my training now -- from just a couple to over half a dozen. Wonderful! One of the songs I selected today is Shirley Bassey's This is My Life. Have a listen to it on YouTube. And while you're there, do check out some of the other songs she has on video.

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937 in Cardiff, Wales), is a Welsh singer who found fame in the late 1950s and has continued a successful career since then worldwide. She is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979), and is a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Her life and career, from Birth to 1959, 1960 to 1979, 1980 to 1999, 2000 to date, Personal life, Awards and achievements, Discography, Bibliography can be found on Wikipedia here.


Thanks for dropping by!


joett