Studio Upbeat supports harmony singers in their pursuit of vocal and musical skills through three innovative core offerings. You may find that our philosophy and methods for how we provide each may be a little different from what you might expect, so we hope that you will investigate them in depth to determine if Studio Upbeat is the right fit to assist you in your journey.
Learning Tracks
Wherever you order barbershop learning tracks, you should expect them to be in tune, on pitch, accurate, in sync, and sung with energy. They should demonstrate good singing technique and employ standard barbershop practices in all four parts. Fortunately, there are now many learning track creators that do a good job with all these elements and the quality of barbershop learning tracks overall has greatly improved in recent years.
As a result, I strongly recommend a shift in the way most groups USE learning tracks. In the past, the practice has been that you would learn notes and words from the learning tracks but then they would be quickly discarded, and then the group’s own recordings of their rehearsals would be the standard for at home listening and practice. Once one change is made such as moving a breath or changing a chord or interp, the tendency is for that change to render the learning tracks obsolete.
Please consider the fact that you are getting far more than a demonstration of correct notes and words from quality learning tracks. The voice produces what the ear has heard with repetition. Because of my Suzuki teacher training background, and decades of personal experiences and observations, I’m especially convinced that whatever our singers are hearing and singing along with on a repetitive basis determines how they will sing. Ultimately this means that until a group sings a song better than the learning tracks, the learning tracks should not be rendered obsolete. When a group sings the song with BETTER tuning, sync, energy, accuracy, and singing technique, THEN perhaps make changes. But it’s not worth losing all those elements just to make a minor interp change. Even after the notes and words are learned, a singer can learn so much more from a good singing example. Don’t miss out on that! Get quality learning tracks, and use them for a LONG time!
WHERE I CAN HELP is to create tracks for you that go right to the vision of the end product. Ballads have ballad interp and uptunes are contest stage ready. It is necessary to understand an arrangement from a music perspective (including chords and chord progressions) to create a plan with the end in mind. When only the melody and/or lyrics are considered, the interp is not as effective as it is when you analyze the arrangement from a music perspective. Many quartets and chorus directors do have the ability to analyze a barbershop arrangement to that level and will provide me with the exact interp they want. However, many do not. I can create an interp plan for you if the music analysis is difficult for you. While I don’t know your specific singers, I can create an easily achievable plan for every skill level.
The main takeaway: Get good learning tracks…and use them for a very long time.
SingingMats
SingingMats are designed to solve many problems related to the physical aspects of singing. They help to relieve singing with tension due to the bounce back feature that assists in maintaining a flexible alignment. “Posture” implies a fixed way of standing. However, “alignment” is active and the SingingMat requires active balancing by requiring constant tiny movements.
Tip: It is best to stand on the mat without shoes. Shoes are clunky and defeat some of the purposes for using the SingingMat. You may notice tension building in the lower legs if you wear shoes with the mat as your balance will not be as flexible.
Online Group Piano Classes
Our piano classes for harmony singers are less about learning piano per se and more about acquiring excellent inner music skills to become better at harmony singing.
The inner music skills are different from the outer music skills such as singing technique and notation (reading written notes). “Aural skills,” “ear training,” or “inner hearing” are other ways to describe the skills of the inner musician. These skills are easy to overlook in music teaching and learning because they are more complicated to evaluate.
The skills of the inner musician are very important in harmony singing! They enable the singer to identify discrepancies between intended and actual notes, they develop the ability to sing exact correct notes instead of “approximate” notes, and they differentiate between having a “beautiful” voice and an “accurate” voice. In short, a singer’s pitch and tuning ability depends on their inner music skills. The better the inner musician, the better the harmony singer.
Piano playing effectively trains the inner musician in three dimensions: aural, visual, and tactile. Aural because you are controlling the sound in real time. Tactile because it requires physical touch and movement to create the sound. Visual because you can see the distance between intervals and chords and relate that to a sound that the brain learns to remember.
We have two levels of piano classes for harmony singers, each with four participants per one hour class. Level 1 is for everyone from beginners to intermediate level. Level 2 is for people who complete Level 1 and for people with substantial previous training in music. The focus of Level 2 will be to work through a more advanced piano method book and become proficient at all major scales and chord progressions. Another goal for Level 2 is to learn our method of group piano classes for harmony singers so you may teach your own online or in person classes and help others develop their inner music skills.
Learning Tracks
Wherever you order barbershop learning tracks, you should expect them to be in tune, on pitch, accurate, in sync, and sung with energy. They should demonstrate good singing technique and employ standard barbershop practices in all four parts. Fortunately, there are now many learning track creators that do a good job with all these elements and the quality of barbershop learning tracks overall has greatly improved in recent years.
As a result, I strongly recommend a shift in the way most groups USE learning tracks. In the past, the practice has been that you would learn notes and words from the learning tracks but then they would be quickly discarded, and then the group’s own recordings of their rehearsals would be the standard for at home listening and practice. Once one change is made such as moving a breath or changing a chord or interp, the tendency is for that change to render the learning tracks obsolete.
Please consider the fact that you are getting far more than a demonstration of correct notes and words from quality learning tracks. The voice produces what the ear has heard with repetition. Because of my Suzuki teacher training background, and decades of personal experiences and observations, I’m especially convinced that whatever our singers are hearing and singing along with on a repetitive basis determines how they will sing. Ultimately this means that until a group sings a song better than the learning tracks, the learning tracks should not be rendered obsolete. When a group sings the song with BETTER tuning, sync, energy, accuracy, and singing technique, THEN perhaps make changes. But it’s not worth losing all those elements just to make a minor interp change. Even after the notes and words are learned, a singer can learn so much more from a good singing example. Don’t miss out on that! Get quality learning tracks, and use them for a LONG time!
WHERE I CAN HELP is to create tracks for you that go right to the vision of the end product. Ballads have ballad interp and uptunes are contest stage ready. It is necessary to understand an arrangement from a music perspective (including chords and chord progressions) to create a plan with the end in mind. When only the melody and/or lyrics are considered, the interp is not as effective as it is when you analyze the arrangement from a music perspective. Many quartets and chorus directors do have the ability to analyze a barbershop arrangement to that level and will provide me with the exact interp they want. However, many do not. I can create an interp plan for you if the music analysis is difficult for you. While I don’t know your specific singers, I can create an easily achievable plan for every skill level.
The main takeaway: Get good learning tracks…and use them for a very long time.
SingingMats
SingingMats are designed to solve many problems related to the physical aspects of singing. They help to relieve singing with tension due to the bounce back feature that assists in maintaining a flexible alignment. “Posture” implies a fixed way of standing. However, “alignment” is active and the SingingMat requires active balancing by requiring constant tiny movements.
Tip: It is best to stand on the mat without shoes. Shoes are clunky and defeat some of the purposes for using the SingingMat. You may notice tension building in the lower legs if you wear shoes with the mat as your balance will not be as flexible.
Online Group Piano Classes
Our piano classes for harmony singers are less about learning piano per se and more about acquiring excellent inner music skills to become better at harmony singing.
The inner music skills are different from the outer music skills such as singing technique and notation (reading written notes). “Aural skills,” “ear training,” or “inner hearing” are other ways to describe the skills of the inner musician. These skills are easy to overlook in music teaching and learning because they are more complicated to evaluate.
The skills of the inner musician are very important in harmony singing! They enable the singer to identify discrepancies between intended and actual notes, they develop the ability to sing exact correct notes instead of “approximate” notes, and they differentiate between having a “beautiful” voice and an “accurate” voice. In short, a singer’s pitch and tuning ability depends on their inner music skills. The better the inner musician, the better the harmony singer.
Piano playing effectively trains the inner musician in three dimensions: aural, visual, and tactile. Aural because you are controlling the sound in real time. Tactile because it requires physical touch and movement to create the sound. Visual because you can see the distance between intervals and chords and relate that to a sound that the brain learns to remember.
We have two levels of piano classes for harmony singers, each with four participants per one hour class. Level 1 is for everyone from beginners to intermediate level. Level 2 is for people who complete Level 1 and for people with substantial previous training in music. The focus of Level 2 will be to work through a more advanced piano method book and become proficient at all major scales and chord progressions. Another goal for Level 2 is to learn our method of group piano classes for harmony singers so you may teach your own online or in person classes and help others develop their inner music skills.