Happy Holidays!
It may be a few days after Christmas, but it’s still the holiday season.
You may remember Brianna from my first student feature, she’s a voice student of mine. Here we are singing a duet of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. We had about 2 weeks to crank it out, and it was a lot of fun! Hope you all enjoy and have a happy holiday 🙂
Happy holidays, everybody!
Tonight (Christmas eve), I’ll be posting all my amazing students playing some holiday favorites. The first one is a two for one deal, Levi and Shiloh! They’re brother and sister, and some of the smartest, talented, and kindest kids I know. I’ve been teaching them for about 4 months, and they’ve learned so much in that short amount of time. I hope you enjoy what they’ve prepared for you 🙂
Levi decided he wanted to play a duet with me, and we chose Deck the Halls. Levi is 10 years old and an advanced beginner.
Shiloh played Jolly Old St. Nicholas. She’s 5 years old, and a beginner.
Hello and Happy Halloween!
This week for my Sunday Student Feature, I present to you my classical piano student, William (Will)! He’s a very intelligent, eager, headstrong and talented 13-year-old. He’s been taking piano with me for about 6 months. He’s one of the few students I have that genuinely love Classical music. He’s very eager to learn as much as he can about it. He had already taught himself quite a bit before we met and he’s also great at playing by ear. What we mostly work on in our lessons are technique and reading music. Will has also expressed an interest in composing, which I am very excited to work on more with him as time goes on. This young man is a very hard worker and has an insane amount of potential. As I say about all my students, it’s truly a privilege to be a part of his musical journey, and I hope it takes him far 🙂
William chose to play an excerpt from the First Movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. He only had the piece for a couple of weeks prior to filming this video. Being a student in all AP classes and balancing piano lessons, is not an easy task. But Will rose to the occasion, and I am very proud of him and the progress he’s made!
– Bri
Hey there!
Welcome to the first “Sunday Student Feature”!  I’m going to feature a student every week showcasing a different piece or song that they’ve been working on in their lessons.
This week we have Brianna L.! Brianna is a voice student of mine, who I’ve been teaching for over a year now through TakeLessons. She’s one of the kindest, driven, and talented people I’ve met. Being a fellow Midwesterner, we’ve been able to get along fine 😉
Here’s a quick blurb from Brianna herself: “My name is Brianna Labrier, I’m 21 years old and I’m from St. Louis Missouri. I love to sing and would love to make a career out of it. My favorite singers are Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys, I’ve always looked up to both of them. I love taking lessons with Brianna S because she not only helps me improve my voice but she also helps me push out of my comfort zone, which gives me the confidence to go on auditions and sing in front of people more often.”
Here’s Brianna with “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5
P.S. She basically taught herself the chords/piano for this song all in about a week and a half while I was out after wisdom teeth surgery. Pretty impressive 🙂
Hey hey, everybody!
I know it’s been a good 2 weeks since I last posted something, but so much has happened since then! I’ve gotten a few gig offers not only for singing but for playing percussion as well. I’ve gotten 3 new piano and drum students, and I’ve met with some great musicians to collaborate with! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks 🙂
I teach 2 live voice classes online on Thursdays via TakeLessons: Hit the High Notes Like A Pro and Tips & Tricks to Sing Better Instantly. While teaching one of these classes. I received a question from a student. They asked what they could do to sound more like Justin Beiber and Austin Mahone. I had to stop them there. Besides my personal opinion on the singers, I do not encourage any student of mine to sound like another singer. I get this question all too often from voice students young and old. “I want to sound like *insert famous singer name here*” I always say that unless you’re going up for a Vegas impersonator gig, I can’t do that, and neither should you. What I pride myself in doing is finding each individual student’s voice. Their own, beautiful, and unique voice.
It is one thing to be influenced my another artist, but it is quite another to completely emulate them. For example, The Weeknd, his voice and sound are heavily influenced by Michael Jackson. However, when you hear his songs or hear him singing, you know it’s The Weeknd. It’s still unique enough to be his own sound. Every artist is influenced by somebody else, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, all of those artists have their own sound and own voice. If anything, try to take/practice the techniques these amazing artists use (vocal runs, breathing techniques, belting, falsetto, all that good stuff). Some of my favorite female vocalists that influence me are Aretha Franklin, Gladis Knight, and Whitney Houston….and Adele 🙂 I love their voices, and their style, and they are all very different singers. I don’t try to sound exactly like them when I cover one of their songs, though. I practice some of the technique they use, study their stage presence and performance, etc. But I do it to improve my own voice and performance, not to sound more like them.
When I’m looking to cover a song, I take in the lyrics, melody, harmonies, just everything. From that, and this what I tell my students to do every time, I take how it makes me feel, and convey that when I sing and play the song. When you perform, you’re telling a story. You want the audience, no matter if it’s an open mic, a youtube video…you want the audience to see and hear how you’re feeling. You want them to understand your story and your voice. If you’re covering a song, especially a well-known song, you’ll really want to make the song your own. If the audience has heard the song tons of time, they can tune you out if it sounds just like every other person who’s sung it. You gotta make it your own! Sing your song! But sing it your way.
Do you, basically. If you’re not being your own unique self when you sing or perform, you’re doing yourself and your audience a disservice.
I did a quick cover of Mother Aretha’s (Aretha Franklin) “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” the other night. I posted in on favebook first, and just recently put it up on YouTube. Check it out!
– Bri
P.S. To sign up for those voice classes and other music classes/lessons I teach, click the links above 🙂
