6 Things to Remember for Singing the Blues

6 Things to Remember for Singing the Blues Suzy S. Love to sing the blues? There a few things to keep in mind as you sing in this genre find out in this guest post by St. Augustine, FL teacher  Heather L... The history of blues music is rich and bittersweet. The genre was originally born as an expression of those suffering as American slaves, mostly in whats called the deep South, That expression is heartbreaking by nature, but healing, too. The brilliance of the blues is that by singing about whats making you sad, you feel better. But singing the blues is not that simple. Its very easily overdone. Here are six things to remember when youre singing the blues. 1. Simple is better. Now, simple does not mean lazy, or not creative, or not energetic. Simple means acknowledging, and singing as such, the beauty of unornamented, unadorned notes. Sing simply, so that the beauty of the words comes through. Just because the blues is a 12-bar progression with no fancy form or room for virtuosity doesnt mean that the singer should think in terms of showing off the voice. Allow your art to come through organically. 2. Imitation is inferior to originality. Wed all love to sing like B.B. King or Etta James or Amy Winehouse. But those singers already exist. And while there are many successful tribute artists and cover bands, theres something so inspiring about a singer deciding to sing with his or her own voice and committing to that decision. Imitating another singer is impressive to a certain point, but its not sharing much about yourself. And thats what people really love to hear. 3. Only the basic phrasing is required. The only words that you should start with are those of the basic phrases. For instance, take the first part of The Thrill is Gone, most famously sung by B.B. King. The thrill is gone/the thrill is gone away/the thrill is gone/the thrill is gone away/You know  youve done me wrong/And youll be sorry someday Now, if you decide as the singer to insert baby after the word wrong or after someday, so  be it, but be sure to start simply in order to explore the song for yourself. 4. Repetition may be the key to improvisation. The blues is repetitive by nature. I often have my voice students repeat the basic phrasing with the chords playing underneath over and over until organic and spontaneous decisions are made: the word baby is sung, an important phrase is repeated at double tempo, or a run comes out of nowhere at the end of a phrase. Let it all come naturally. 5. Your raw, yet well-supported voice is perfect. Sing with all of the raw, unrefined vibrato and tone that you have. This is no time for pretty, polished sounds. But never forget to support your sound with a solid and conscious breath flow no matter what genre that youre singing. 6. Be authentic, but not sentimental. Everyone knows that the blues is about feelings. But the idea of singing with feeling has become so vague and overused that its essentially become meaningless. If a singer sings with the intention of feeling the music or something similar, then the whole thing will come off as trite and inauthentic. The key to showing genuine feeling as you sing is listening. Listen to the instrumental parts and the chords a hundred times. Ask yourself how it all makes YOU feel. Dont bother about how the song makes someone else feel. When all is said and done, the essence of the blues is the willingness to share. As long as you focus on revealing your true self and committing to singing with your unique voice, then youll find yourself a successful blues singer. Learn more in Heathers Ultimate Guide to Singing Styles and Genres! Heather L. teaches singing, piano, acting, and more in St. Augustine, FL, as well as through online lessons. She is  a graduate of the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and has performed with the New York and Royal Philharmonics, the New Jersey and Virginia Symphonies, the American Boy Choir, and the internationally renowned opera star Andrea Bocelli. Learn more about Heather here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by  Dutch Simba

Conic Section

Conic Section Conic Section is generally formed by the intersection of double cone and plane. It generally relates with ellipse, circle, hyperbola and parabola with different equations. Hyperbola and Parabola have two different equations depending upon its axis. General form of the conic section is represented by the following equation:- (Ax)^2 + (B x y) + (C y) ^2 + (Dx) + (E y) + F = 0 This concept can be more clarified by the examples. Two related examples are shown below for the understanding purpose of conic section. Example 1: An ice-cream cone is cut into a section. The eccentricity of this conic section is 1.5. What will be the conic section? Solution: Eccentricity is the measure of how much the conical section varies from being circular. The value of eccentricity helps to decide what type of curve the conic section is. Eccentricity shows how un-circular the curve is. Higher the eccentricity, lesser the curvature. In the given problem eccentricity is 1.5 therefore it is a hyperbola. Example 2: What is the length of the Latus rectum of an ellipse equal to? Solution: The latus rectum is a line that is parallel to the directrix and passes through the focus. The lengths of different conic sections are different. Like for parabola the length of latus rectum is 4 times the focal length. In the given problem the conic section is ellipse therefore the length of latus rectum is 2b^2/a, where a and b are half of major and minor diameter.

SAT Tutor is Your Best Bet for High Score

SAT Tutor is Your Best Bet for High Score Struggling with SAT prep? Tutor pace can help you. Our SAT tutor guides you through every step of your SAT prep. SAT tutor: Do you really need a SAT tutor? This will help you decide! SAT prep takes time and honest efforts from your end. Right things done on right time can give you great results. Still, you get lost, why? The reason is that you simply don’t know the right way to prepare. Tutor Pace’s SAT tutor is a great help in that case. ? Schedule: With our SAT tutor, you will follow a proper schedule for your preparation. With math, critical reading, and writing being the main sections, it is important for you to devote time to each one of these separately. The tutor will help you manage time among all the sections effectively. ? Focus: Our SAT tutor directs your focus toward your studies. SAT test requires constant preparation from your end for a long time. 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Video Robot Band Covers Motorhead

Video Robot Band Covers Motorhead Suzy S. What do you get when you combine 78 hydraulic fingers, a four-armed robotic drummer, mohawks and Motorheads Ace of Spades? This video below of a German-invented trio of musical robots has gone viral, and is pretty impressive! The band, Compressorhead, first performed at the 2008 Big Day Out, an annual music festival in Australia. This month, theyre back for the 2013 festival, kicking off January 18th in Sydney. Its hard to peel your eyes away from Stickboy, the four-armed drummer do you think he teaches drum lessons on the side? Readers, what do you think would you share a stage with a robot band? Better start practicing before that four-armed drummer beats you to the headlining act! You might also like Need a Break from Mozart? Try Some Heavy Metal! Videos We Love: Overly-Enthusiastic Drummer What You Can Learn From a Less-Than-Perfect Gig

Using Case Studies in the Classroom

Using Case Studies in the Classroom If you teach an advanced high school class, youre always looking for opportunities to help your students apply what they know and put theory into practice. Using case studies in the high school classroom can do just that. What are case studies? Commonly used in business schools, law schools and medical schools, case studies set up real-life problems and ask students to answer questions about those problems. They can be short or long and are often based on actual situations, but their objective is to give students information to discuss, dissect, and use to develop solutions to the problem at hand. Below are some suggestions from Huntington for how to use a case study in your classroom: Have students identify the main problem or problems in the case study, possible courses of action, and obstacles. Give students direction on how to think about and analyze a case based on your different course objectives. For example, you might have students think about how they would have approached a situation differently than those in the case study or weigh the pros and cons of different potential solutions to a situation. After dividing students into groups, assign members of each group different perspectives to take. Have groups present to one another after they have developed their analyses/positions. After all groups present to each other, have a group discussion about common viewpoints and arguments made by your students. Case studies are a great way to innovate in your classroom and prepare your students for college-level academics. Read more about case studies as discussed by Carnegie Mellon Universitys Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence Educational Innovation.

English Prepositions The Difference Between In and On

English Prepositions The Difference Between In and On As always, I learn the most about teaching English from my students. Last week a student from Brazil asked me for help with his prepositions in English. Prepositions are considered one of the most difficult aspects of learning English and many other languages, partially because it can appear that there are no clear rules for their use.My student pointed this out by asking why we say, that we read something on the internet, but in a book. At the time, I didnt have a good answer.English Prepositions In or On?After talking about this with some of our other LOI English teachers, we came to see the pattern. We read something in an object that can be physically opened, like a book or a newspaper. We read something on anything that cant be physically opened, such as the internet, a sign, or a particular page of a book i.e. I read it on page five.The conversation with my student went on to prepositions regarding places and time. Why do we say I live in Montana, but on 8th Street? Why do we meet at 5 pm but in 1996.There is a mostly logical way of remembering this. Basically, it depends on size or detail. For very definite places and times, we say at. For instance: Lets meet at 5 pm. or Let meet at the bar. For a little less definite times and places, we say on, this specifically applies to street names and days of the week. For instance: Lets meet on 8th Street. or Lets meet on Monday.And for much less specific places and times, such as states, countries, months and years, we use in. For instance: We met in California. or We met in 1998. Ok, thats all for now. I hope this helps you clear up some issues with English prepositions. If youd like to take an English lesson with us on prepositions, or any other subject, please contact us.If you enjoyed this post, please share it! Iman Very intersting and somehow rare explanation. Thanks very much.

Best Ways to Use Facebook as a College Student

Best Ways to Use Facebook as a College Student pexels.com Facebook Groups Facebook is all about being social, making connections, and networking. So why not have a meeting of the minds with people interested in the same things as you? There are millions of Facebook groups out there that can be tailored to exactly what you might be interested in. You can connect with people in your area, with people from your school, with those interested in the same extracurricular activities, and more! You can stay up to date with the latest trends in that field or area with conveniently placed threads from the group popping up through your newsfeed. If that is too much for you, you can change your notification settings or how the information from the group pops up in your everyday timeline. You can set it so that you only learn what is going on in the group if you decide to go directly to the group’s page. It is up to you. Whatever you are looking for, though to have a dialogue, to meet new people, to advertise yourself Facebook groups can be a great way to do it. Do you have events you want to advertise? Why not join groups that are filled with people that are interested in those kinds of events and share it with them? It could be just what they are looking for too. Not sure what classes to take? Why not join a student group of your peers who have been grappling with the same decisions for advice? You never know who or what you might stumble upon to help you move forward. pexels.com Business Pages If there is something you do or something you want to help advertise, it can be really beneficial to make a Facebook page for it! I am not talking about a page for memes or something, though it needs to be something that can really help your career (unless creating a page for memes can somehow help you). Do you have an organization that you want to help become more widely known? You can make it a business page, whether it is for a student organization you are a part of or a business that you work for or own. Creating a page does not cost money (unless you choose to pay for ads) and it creates a direct link between you and the audience you either have or want to have. You can help it to branch out and connect with the people who are interested and want to support your work as well as getting the word out about what exactly it is that you are doing. If you want to market yourself, you can create a professional business page for yourself that keeps people in the loop about what you are doing professionally. That way you can avoid feeling like you are bragging on your personal page and can help create a distance between your professional and social lives. Announcements Milestones You often have a great network of peers and friends at your disposal on Facebook. But is everyone aware of what you have been up to? Of course not! You cannot expect everyone in your Facebook network to know exactly what you are doing and what you plan to do. But without knowing that, how can they be involved or support you? Whether or not it feels like bragging, you can certainly let your friends on Facebook know when you have accomplished something or hit a milestone. Just got a job that you are really excited about? Post about it. Just got awarded a grant for a research project? Share the details of what you are working on. Super passionate about a cause? Do not be afraid to share who you are, what you are doing, and what you stand for loud and proud. Or, if you do not feel comfortable making a post, you can create a milestone event. That way even in the future, you can track and look back at all the great accomplishments you made and when.

Want to teach abroad Try teaching English online first.

Want to teach abroad Try teaching English online first. Eager to see the world and explore different countries, landscapes and cultures? A couple weeks of vacation a year might not quite cut it, then. If you’re planning on teaching abroad this year or next, though, here’s our advice: If you’ve got a few hours free in the early morning or on weekends, it’s well worth giving online English teaching a go first. Whether you’re working or studying, full or part-time, teaching English online is a great (and super flexible) way to work around the world, save for the move abroad, get some relevant experience for your teach abroad resume. Or, if you have some nagging doubts about this whole teaching English abroad thing, it’s the perfect chance to figure out whether it’s the right move for you in the first place! Read on to find out more: You can work your way around the world - without the hassle of getting a visa. The world is too big to stay in one place forever, right? You want to live the dream - travel the world, set your own hours and fund yourself along the way. The digital nomad lifestyle is gaining huge traction for a very good reason. Working on the road could be the solution you’ve been looking to make long-term travel attainable for you at long last. If you don’t want to commit to one job or living in one country for a prolonged period of time, then an online English teaching job could be the perfect remote gig for you. Usually, you need a working visa to teach English abroad. In lots of countries, being granted a visa involves lots of jumping through hoops and all sorts of tiresome paperwork, including a medical check. Teaching English online, however, takes visas and all that annoying red tape out of the equation. So long as you continue to pay taxes in your home country, you’re not technically working in the countries that you visit along your travels. All you need to teach English online is a decent internet connection, your laptop or computer and, more often than not, you can easily teach remotely with just a tourist visa. Best of all, the cost of living in places like Bali, Thailand, Argentina Mexico, Hungary and Portugal is a whole lot cheaper than, say, Toronto or Chicago. Meaning the money you can make teaching English online will stretch a whole lot further than it would at home. Watch this: A day in the life teaching English online Teaching English online doesn’t just help you bemore location independent, though… Teaching English online can also make enough money to cover your startup costs for your move abroad. Let’s be real here. Moving abroad to teach can be an expensive process. Homesickness and language barriers aside, there's a lot of logistics that go into dropping your life and moving halfway across the world. Let’s say you snag a teaching job abroad that helps with housing and airfare costs. Great! But there’s other stuff you’ll need to stump for before you hop on that plane, like getting TEFL certified. Not to mention everyday living expenses, like food, cell phone and entertainment, that can all mount up well before that first paycheck actually hits your bank account. At a minimum, you’ll need to bring enough cold, hard cash to get you through the first 4 - 6 weeks, along with a contingency fund in case of a rainy day. And if you need to cover your own rent and utilities, plus health insurance, you’ll really need to bump up those savings. Which can be a tough ask when you’re fresh out of college and broke. Or already renting in an expensive city. This means that if you’re looking to teach abroad sometime in the next few months to a year but you’re light on funds, then you might want to look at a flexible way to earn some extra money on the side. Enter teaching English online. Sign up to Teach Away today for access to the latest teaching jobs around the world. You can find out if you even like teaching English in the first place! This one’s pretty important. We know you’ve probably read a lot of overwhelmingly positive stories about how incredible and life-changing teaching abroad is (we have our fair share of these on the blog - here’s one for starters). But let’s face it - teaching, in general, isn’t for everyone and is certainly not a step to be taken lightly. Most English teaching job contracts overseas are at least a year and finding a job in the first place is a fairly big time (and financial) commitment. Getting TEFL certified is one way to ease the transition. But what if teaching kids just isn’t your thing and you find yourself in a classroom in some far-flung location, teaching English grammar 25 boisterous five-year-olds? You’ll have spent a whole of time, money and effort to get there in the first place. It’s difficult to back out at this point without: Leaving your students down Losing your visa status Heading back home with your tail between your legs (and a massive dent in your savings) Anyone who’s taught young learners understands the battles you have to fight to get kids to pay attention and consistently do their work. Adult learners, on the other hand, are usually a little more self-motivated and serious about the whole learning-a-new-language thing. To figure out which age group suits you best, you can test the waters a little with the numerous online English teaching jobs out there working with all age levels. You’ll have a killer resume for English teaching jobs abroad. Not all English teaching jobs abroad require you to have teaching experience - the minimum schools usually require is a bachelor’s degree, native English fluency and an ESL teaching certification. But there’s no getting away from the fact that having direct experience teaching English language learners will not only better equip you to help your new students. It’s also far and away the best way to stand out from the crowd as a superstar candidate for the best-paying teaching positions abroad. Love the idea of a job you can do from anywhere? Apply today to learn more about teaching English online with VIPKID, including upcoming jobs, requirements, work environment and more.