Improving your skills without a coach

Hey guys I haven’t posted in a while because I’m starting a new show Avenue Q: school edition and I’m a Bad Idea Bear! Its been a fun experience so far and this is the biggest role I’ve had so far so I want to make sure I do well. That was just a quick update on my life so far so I wanted to talk to you about improving your skills (Acting and singing) without a vocal or acting coach.

If you have the ability to get a voice or acting coach I advise you to get one (even if you can   only meet with them once a month). Some other people don’t really have that luxury (cough cough me cough) but I still try to improve. So here are some tips on improving vocals

1) During the school year join chorus and ask your chorus teacher to help you practice. (If you don’t have choir in your school never mind)

2) Use YouTube to learn about breathing technique (all of them are pretty good)

3) After getting your breathing technique down you have to make sure you sing everyday for at least an hour (20 minutes of warm ups [there are tons on YouTube] and 40 of actual singing)

4) For your actual singing choose two songs one that is easy for you and one that’s a little difficult (but don’t go too far out your range)

5) Film or record yourself sing the song that is easy and the song that is hard and critique yourself (if you have a chorus teacher ask them to listen to it and give you some of their input)

6) Don’t try to sound like the singer on the song because they are being auto tuned or tweaked in some way [don’t try to sing along with a live performance either speakers also tweak the voice in certain ways] (I suggest trying to find the instrumental of a song and sing along with that for your singing time)

7) Try to audition for as many musicals/ showcases as possible even if you know you won’t get cast/chosen its a performance opportunity!

Tips for acting:

1) Find 5 monologues [a modern day comedic, a modern day dramatic, a classical comedic, a classical dramatic, and a Shakespearean monologue]

2) Spend at least an hour a day and during that hour choose 2 different monologues to do

3) Read both monologues film you reading them.

4)Come up with a back story to your character [don’t look it up] and take some time to really   develop your character ask questions like: where did they come from? what are they feeling at this moment? how old are they? what is making them feel this way? What does this character look like?(no, he/she doesn’t have to look like you) 

5) After developing the back story for this person film yourself again doing those to monologues.

6) Watch your before and after videos and you’ll notice a big improvement but I suggest you still critique your after monologues. 

7) Try to audition for as many plays as possible even if you know you won’t get cast its a performance opportunity!

Hope it helped you guys and If you want any tips on other things please comment.

 

Dance Moms is giving me fever

So I just finished watching the new episode of Dance Moms and I’m about to rant like crazy. Before I go off yes I do know this sow is ridiculously edited to create drama that really isn’t there.

Let me start off with this Mackenzie and Asia debate that has been going on forever. Asia and Mackenzie are different types of dancers. Asia does sassy jazz and Mac does cutesy acro solos and there is nothing wrong with that. On that day Asia won does that mean that she’s the best dancer in the entire world… NO! Competitive dance shows how well you are dancing on that day and plus they both have 11+ years to improve.  One thing that everybody needs to realize is these are children NOT professional dancers they’re allowed to make mistakes and learn from them!

Now on to the real reason why this show is giving me fever! Chloe and Maddie are given the same solo which sounds like a simple experiment. Yes Christie was right when she sad it was catered to Maddie (It’s lyrical and lets face it that’s Maddie’s style of dance), but there was no need for the theatrics with Jill spying on Maddie at her privates. Maddie is a student she is allowed to have privates to work on her solo if her mom lies about it and you know she’s lying just leave it alone. Another thing I was wondering was is this the only entertainment they have at 1 o clock on a weekday? 

When I say the two solos I thought they were great I’m not a diehard Maddie or Chloe fan I support all the girls, but personally I thought Chloe did better technicality wise (she has a natural dancers body so in comparison she looks better), but Maddie had the emotion. In the end Chloe won, the judges thought she was better THAT DAY AT THAT COMPETITION! Then of course Abby is upset and has the nerve to say she’s surprised Chloe won!?!? Chloe is one of your students didn’t you train her so she could win and be successful? So she has the scores checked and OMG it just so happens that Chloe didn’t really win Maddie did then all is well in Abby and Melissa’s world.

What really hurt me was to see Chloe cry when any of the girls cry my heart breaks for them. She danced very well and was given a complete confidence boost only to get that taken away from her! There was really no need for Abby to confront the Judges, but I’m not even going to go there tonight. To me all the adults are 100x pettier than their children.

… This is why I wish Dance Moms Miami was back (They were crazy stage moms but they were never this petty)…