Latest Tips

Skin Care

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Know what kind of skin you have and choose a moisturizer accordingly.

Veggies and Salads

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Veggies & salads should make up half your plate at lunch and dinner.

Oxalis

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Oxalis is often incorrectly referred to as “Shamrock”. The fact that their leaves are similar is all they share. Oxalis pump nutrients into tiny storage tubers below the soil and often take a “rest” during the winter months.

New Moms...

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New mom: don't be afraid to ask for help & take some time for yourself.

Balsamic Reduction

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Kristina loves a balsamic reduction with something like chicken or pork.

Open House: Brass cabinet handles

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Open House? Brass cabinet handles are a selling feature. Keep them clean & polished.

Fresh Ingredients

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The number one cooking tip we've learned is the value of using fresh, in-season ingredients.

LG Green tip of the day

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A refrigerator that is too big wastes money and energy, and one that is too small could waste energy if it becomes overcrowded. Review your food storage needs and the size of your kitchen and choose the
best size for your needs

Feel Grounded

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It is important to feel "grounded" when singing, so stand tall and proud with both feet firmly planted.

Vocal Anatomy

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Learn vocal anatomy and understand how it works.

Losing Your Voice

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If you lose your voice after singing a song 5 times, you’re most likely singing incorrectly, either pushing too hard or not supporting with the ‘gut’, not using your resonance or having too much tension.

Loosen Your Neck

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Instead of jutting your chin out for the high notes (so bad!), and bugging out your eyes, throw your head around, loosening up the neck, and push deep into your legs.

Tension Builders

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If you are raising your shoulders and/or chest as you inhale, you are creating tension. Let the belly out instead – once you get this, it’s SO MUCH EASIER and keeps tension away from the vocal cords.

Heart Open

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Keep your “heart open” to your audience and when you practice. Not only does it look more inviting, it allows the lungs to work fully.

Smile With the Eyes

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Although you do want to drop your jaw as you sing, you want to also SMILE WITH THE EYES (not lift the eyebrows!). This will bring the sound more forward into the “buzzy” places of your face.

Tight and Whiney Voices

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If you have a voice that’s too tight and whiney, let the jaw drop and create more space in the mouth and throat.

Swalloed Voices

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If you have a voice that is too ‘swallowed’, (I call it the swallowed tongue sound), where the sound is lying in the back of your throat, you need to find the resonance in the front of the face.

Drunk Singning

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Sing with ‘drunk’ consonants.

Creating Magic in a Line

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Although we SING on the vowel, the sensitivity you give to your consonants will create the ‘magic’ in any given line.

Taste Your Words

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Your audience should be able to “taste” your words. Make them delicious, slurring certain consonants, or making others staccato-like, whatever your piece requires.

Deligence

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Be diligent with practice. Practice does not make perfect. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT !!

Be Aware

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When you make a glorious sound, be aware of what you did physically and mentally, put it in your muscle memory, and use the muscle memory again and again to get the same result.

Instincts

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Trust your instincts. If you have diligently practiced your technique, trust that what you have learned will be available to you when you are singing.

Lip Flapping

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Use the lip flapping or lip buzz to practice steady air flow.

Repitition

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Respiration, Phonation, Resonance and Articulation. In other words - breathe, make a sound, make it richer, and form it into words using consonants and vowel sounds! Easy! Avoid over-complicating this natural body process.

Have Fun

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Be playful and silly in your practicing and make funny sounds. Let yourself go outside the box.

Warm Up

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ALWAYS warm up before you use your BIG Voice. Would an Olympic athlete NOT warm up before going into the competition?

Breath Support

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Proper breath support starts from the “gut”, or the diaphragm. It is the “engine” of your voice”.

Hurts To Sing?

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If it hurts when you sing, you’re doing something wrong! And if hurts constantly, you need to see a specialist.

Relax!

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Relax your jaw, neck, lips and tongue when you sing – it affects both tone and pitch!

Technique

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Be kind to your instrument/yourself. If you’re frustrated with your progress don’t take it out on your voice by forcing a sound or singing harshly. Take some time and step back for a moment.

Ask!

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Ask questions in your voice lessons.

Find The Magic

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That is truly your authentic BIG VOICE. Never just sing a note. Every SINGLE second, every syllable has possibility of magic. Search for it, be open to what it is on any given moment, and let it be different every time. And in time, you BIG VOICE, the inner voice that has something to say to the world, will become very, very powerful.

Live in the Moment

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When you get onstage, in the studio or in an audition, forget about everything you’ve ever learned, connect with your gut, and trust that everything you’ve learned up until now – is enough at this moment. LIVE & FEEL every single moment. Go for the danger, especially if it’s gentle and soulful! You not only have the power to elevate the human spirit, it is your job as a communicator. Never abuse that power.

Find The Buzz

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Always find the maximum resonance in your face and chest in order to have your fullest sound. Learn to love that buzz! But then let it soften to find a gentler magic in the next note. Sing from your eyes!

Train like an Olympian

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Work on your voice like an Olympic Athlete. The act of repetition – CORRECT repetition – will put it into your bones, your muscles and your brain, so you no longer have to THINK as you sing. Let the new techniques become your new “muscle memory”.

Find the Innocence and the Danger

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Approach every note of every song or exercise with a new spirit and an innocent heart EVERY time you open your mouth. Look for that NEW thing to happen instead of settling for the usual. Go for the danger! Better to risk an imperfect note and have it full of excitement than to have an entire song be boring. And your Olympic Vocal Athlete work will allow you to have the freedom to ‘go for it’.

Venus Fly Trap

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Venus Fly Trap I suspect was the progenitor for the movie “Little Shop of Horrors”. These carnivorous plants however, remain rather small in stature but with large appetites for meat.

Makeup

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Quick smoky eyes can be created by lining upper and lower rims of your lids with black eye liner and then smudging with a Q-tip.

Wardrobe

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Give you wool coat a new look by adding a belt.

Eyebrows

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When plucking brows at home, use a white eyeliner pencil to draw the shape and then pluck where appropriate.

Hair

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Give your hair more volume by spraying a thickening spray on your roots and then setting your hair in hot rollers.

Skin Care

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Keep hands young looking by exfoliating and applying a creamy moisturizer.

Wardrobe

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Jackets that have an interesting cut or colour that pops will add a unique twist to your work attire.

Skin Care

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Moisturizers labeled noncomedogenic are less likely to clog pores.

Wardrobe Basics

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Pants should be hemmed to cover the top of your shoe.

Pear Shapes

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Pear shaped ladies should never wear skirts that are above the knee.

Pear Shapes

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Pear shaped women should wear flat fronted wide legged pants that skim the hips and drop straight down to the floor.

Self Esteem

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Some self esteem experts think wearing makeup, even just lipstick makes women feel beautiful and as a result more confident.

Makeup

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Changing your lip colour to a more dramatic shade can take your look from daytime to nighttime.