The Choir Room Podcast
This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling…The Choir and Corporate Singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experienced with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things singing, and all things choir related.
A weekly podcast featuring discussion and interviews with choir directors, choir members, and other guests representing church choirs, college and university choirs, community choirs, show and theatre choirs, composer of choir music, and other.
Segments include tips and instruction from skilled and professional disciplines within the choir community covering topics such as choir culture and community, choir directing, vocal training, ear training, sight reading, and more. A monthly virtual live audience episode allows the listener to engage with hosts and guests during instructional and Q&A segments via the live recording, chat, email, on various social media platforms.
A production of Metromusic & Arts, Inc.
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The Choir Room Podcast
A Conversation with a Choir Member turned Vocal Coach and Viral YouTube Sensation Tara Simon
Why aren't more Gospel choirs singing four-part harmony? Is it because many do not see the need for baritone voices? Is it due to a lack of training? If you've ever pondered these questions, this episode is for you! The team discusses why four-part harmony seems less common. Join the hosts as they explore the topic in this week's CRQ.
Our guest contributor, Tara Simon, is a renowned vocal coach, a YouTube sensation with over 1 million subscribers, and the proud owner of Tara Simon Studios. In this episode Tara and Greg mix it up for old times' sakes, and then unravel the significance of your voice in singing and worship, and the potential power it carries in transforming lives. In an inspiring narrative, Tara retraces her journey from a young child singing in her car seat, to becoming a successful vocal coach owning a thriving business. She shares unique insights about the nuances of singing, including the universal technique for singing through your accent in English songs and the importance of vowel disposition.
In this episode, Tara shares an uplifting story about one of her students who braved his discouragements and found his singing voice. We discuss the lie that one's voice doesn't matter and the courage required to make a joyful noise, no matter how imperfect it may be.
We also delve into the immense power of music in worship, its capacity to shape our memories, and its profound impact on our perception of God, ourselves, and the church. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the joy of singing, the beauty of harmonies, and the transformative power of music.
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Perpetuating and Promoting the Christian and Positive Idea Through the Medium of Music and Other Arts.
Welcome to the Quieter Room, season 1, episode 15 of the Quieter Room podcast. This podcast exists to promote and encourage two long-time traditions in our society that seem to be dwindling away, and that is choir and corporate singing. We hope to revive the excitement and joy experience with singing in a choir, as well as inform and educate the listener on all things choir related. This podcast is a production of Metro Music and Arts, whose purpose is to perpetuate and promote the Christian and positive idea through the medium of music and other arts. We encourage you to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can stay in the loop by sending subscribe to theQuieterRoom at MetroMusicDashArtscom. So be sure to share and tell a friend that you're in the Quieter Room.
Speaker 1:Whether you are part of your church choir, your school choir, college or university or your community choir, there's something here for you. I'm Greg Thomas, and I'll be joined by my co-host shortly, dorian Johnson, mieta Stansham-Farrar and who we like to call the fourth wheel, coleman Smart. Each week, we try to bring you some hot topics, great discussion and, of course, some practical applications by some of the most sought after vocal coaches around this country and abroad. And today is no different, as we have a personal friend of mine by the name of Tara Simon. With Tara Simon Studios, she has already amassed over one million followers on YouTube, nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram, and the accomplishments just go on and on.
Speaker 2:There has never been a voice like yours before, and there will never be another voice like yours when you're gone. Your voice is not only unique, your voice is needed.
Speaker 1:So make sure you stick around, because Tara will be joining us shortly and we'll take a trip down memory lane. We'll have some laughs and then we'll get into this discussion of singing and why your voice is needed. Dorian is going to take us into our hymn of the week.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much, greg. This week's hymn of the week is A Worship the King, and as we have been looking at these hymns that talk about our God being the king of all, just been reminded of the exhortations that we hear so often through the hymns that were written many, many years ago. This hymn was written in 1833 and is based on Psalm 104, which begins this way Psalm 104 says Bless the Lord, o my soul, o Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the water. He makes the clouds his chariot. He rides on the wings of the wind. He makes his messengers wins his ministers a flaming fire.
Speaker 3:And this hymn exhorts us, in the first verse, to worship the king, who is all glorious above, and it calls the Christian to gratefully sing his power and his love, for he is our shield, he's our defender, he is the very ancient of days. And so this hymn, while based on Psalm 104, pulls language from many different parts of Scripture describing the transcendence of our God, the power of our God. In the second verse, we're told to tell of his might and sing of his grace. Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space his chariots of wrath, the deep thunder, clouds form, and dark is the path on the wings of the storm. And as we are considering the greatness of God, the greatness of our king, it's interesting how many of these hymns that focus on the rule and the reign of God remind us of who we are. And we certainly see this in verse five of this hymn. It says frail, children of dust and feeble as frail. And it calls us to trust in the Lord who does not fail. It reminds us that his mercies are tender, his mercies are firm to the end and that, indeed, our God is our maker, defender, redeemer and friend.
Speaker 3:And once again this hymn ends. We're turned to the glorious hope, the song of heaven and deed. It says, oh, measureless might, ineffable or unestimatable or inexhaustible love, while angels, the light to him, you, above the humbler creation, though feeble, their lays, with true adoration, shall list to your praise. And so, as we are here and as we lift our songs of praise to God, we realize that our praise isn't perfected. It's being perfected. And yet the God of the universe calls us to join our voices and lift our voices to the one who is indeed the ancient of days, who is indeed our maker, our defender, our redeemer, our friend, only because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so take this exhortation today and consider the one who is the King, who is called the Christian, into right relationship with him through Christ, for he is certainly worthy of our worship.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the fire. Thanks, dorian. In typical fashion, that was rich content. Mi'eta takes us to our CRQ, and again, the CRQ is an acronym for choir room questions. Choir room questions are sent to us via email from our listeners, and if you've got any questions that you'd like us to address, feel free to send them to the quiet room at Metro Music Dash Arts dot com. Mi'eta.
Speaker 4:Thanks, greg. Here we are again with our CRQ. The CRQ for this evening, this session, is why Aren't there More Gospel Songs With Four Part Harmony? Why Aren't there More Gospel Songs With Four Part Harmony?
Speaker 1:I think I have a clip that I'll set up this segment oh let's hear the clip. Today we're going to talk about four part harmony. What yeah, let's get into it. What yeah, when I it was not prepared, when I saw the CRQ, I said there's got to be something out there that I can use to set this up. And so here we go, and it's so nice that she got to play it twice. Today we're going to talk about four part harmony.
Speaker 4:Oh, come on, come on, that's priceless. You got to hold on to that. You know it's funny about this. This question here kind of had me stumped a little bit, because I'm like Coleman said it earlier before we started taping. Is that a thing? Yeah?
Speaker 1:it's that a thing. Well, is four part harmony a thing? Or is gospel four part harmony a thing? Gospel four part harmony, that part yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't believe I've ever really been a part of much four part gospel music. I can't even recall a time where I had to do it. I really don't, and perhaps maybe you guys have some insight on this.
Speaker 1:Perhaps I don't know Well what say you, I do, but I'm going to defer to the other fine gentleman here.
Speaker 3:Well, I always thought it was because there's usually an electric bass playing with gospel choirs and you wouldn't be able to pick up the bass in most instances. Now I know, greg, when we work together, you did have four part harmony Right, and I thought that that was the reason that that there was always an electric bass that was taking up that part of the of the music, that frequency spectrum, and a bass would likely get lost in that. That's why I thought that was the case.
Speaker 4:The only choir that I know that will utilize that, that four part harmony, is Patrick Lundy. In the music of music, he does that. That's where he and they have a bass player. I'm almost do but there's all, there's every. Not every song does that happen? But a few of his compositions have had, you know that, bass in there. But the choirs that I know you know and have sang with and have heard, no, they didn't use it at all.
Speaker 1:You know my arrangement of the arrangement of it as well had a fourth part, and because we had baritones and I would spend time arranging parts specifically for them, and they were parts that were added to three-part harmony traditional gospel songs that didn't have a baritone part to them, so that these guys wouldn't strain themselves trying to hit these tenor notes, these first and second tenor notes. Now, these guys were well, there were male and female baritones, because I know some female baritones. Um yeah, Another part faster. I think. It takes us back, though, to the previous discussion we had about making choir attractive, and I think choir becomes attractive for different reasons, especially when you're talking about what we call black gospel choir. I think those guys who ordinarily wouldn't join a gospel choir, when they hear that there are four parts, they're more likely to find that attractive and lend their voices to that fourth part. Now, Coleman is wearing the Lee University t-shirt, so I think he should speak to this. I do have to.
Speaker 5:See it Well. I think you made a good point, greg, that I imagine this person is talking about black gospel because it is so stylistically. It's just a part of that style. I don't think of four parts when I think of black gospel. I don't hardly ever hear that. Now, when it comes to southern gospel, which is a whole, different style. There are four parts, or if it is choir anthems or something like that, or something like a sacred song that's different.
Speaker 5:So that's why I was thinking this person must be talking about black gospel. So I know how to differentiate that stylistically when I hear it. But I'm wondering why historically, we've landed at three parts in black gospel music. Maybe one of y'all can speak to that, because I don't know the answer to that historically speaking.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a very good observation. I don't know that anybody has studied if, when or how it ended up with three-part harmony. I do know that when you think about gospel music and its tradition, it's for the most part always been three-part harmony. When you think about the Thomas Dorsey's, the James Cleveland's, the Smallwood singers, you go into the Hawkins. Most of those songs in the church were three-part harmony, very crouch even. But then Andre was one of the rare ones who stepped out and did four-part harmony a lot of times, in fact more than most people realize. Sometimes he would have counterparts going on in there in his songs that were clearly four-part harmony and sometimes with those layers he'd have five parts going on. His song, my Tribute, or as we know it, to God Be the Glory, has four parts.
Speaker 1:So the average listener really needs to be listening for those parts, because I think there's a lot more four-part harmony than we realize Now. There's another factor that we need to allow to play into this, and that is that your traditional gospel musicians in the inner city, in the black church, were not your trained musicians. They were musicians who caught music and weren't necessarily taught music.
Speaker 4:I was getting ready to say that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So learning the intricacies of four-part harmony weren't always there. It wasn't something that was taught to them. Yet, Dorian, when you consider the fact that we sing a lot of hymns, those hymns were caught and not necessarily taught. And so when you look at a hymn book, those hymns are written in four-part harmony, but the gospel choir songs were not. So I don't know if it ever landed that way, Coleman, that we landed at three-part harmony. But I think one of the factors is that four-part harmony just wasn't a part of the culture in black gospel music.
Speaker 5:I just thought of something, and when you were talking about To God Be the Glory, it made me realize, okay, we're talking about two different types of song in the same genre. So we've got the upbeat kind of gospel, which I've never heard a fourth part in the upbeat, like hand clapping, foot stomping kind of thing. But I do hear a lot of four-part in those big grand ballad kind of songs like that, like To God Be the Glory, like Trust Me. I'm trying to think of others, but maybe that's where there's a difference as well. I don't know.
Speaker 4:I'm thinking out loud. So you mentioned Trust Me. Now, when you say Trust Me, are you talking about Richard Smallwood's Trust Me, he's classically trained. Right, he would be that writer.
Speaker 5:Ah we're getting somewhere Right. So in his training.
Speaker 4:He hears what I would not hear, and so he writes in that. He writes all of that in. So, yeah, I guess it's the ear of the composer. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:You know, here's a song by John P Key. That was four-part harmony and it's a very traditional gospel song. We've all sung it. There's a lily in the valley, Four-part harmony throughout that song. Now it's an acapella piece, but I think he took advantage of the fact that there was very little instrumentation in there and there for no bass guitar.
Speaker 1:So I guess if you're looking for more traditional gospel where there's more call and response, like this one and even contemporary gospel, you're probably looking for something more acapella when you're looking for four-part harmony, unless it's a Negro spiritual or an anthem or a hymn.
Speaker 5:Okay, so my gears are turning again about the history thing and I think we were really onto something. When you guys started talking about the training that some of these people received and that's why they've written in four-part, they got me thinking about other traditions that were primarily three-part, and a lot of those are folk-related. I was thinking here in the South like you're never going to hear some of Southern folk music or bluegrass or stuff like that with four parts. It's not a part of the style, but when you think about where it came from, the people and the style from which that was birthed wasn't an educated group of people. If a lot of our churches or whatever are not singing four parts because the people there are not, they haven't been to conservatory, they haven't been to school, maybe there's a connection there too the roots of the style. If it didn't come from a very learned tradition, then that explains a lot as well. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think that is a key point. Yeah, it's a key point.
Speaker 4:It is really really.
Speaker 1:Now, dorian, if you pick up a hymn book today, it's for any of us. There are four parts.
Speaker 3:There are four parts, but there are hardly ever some.
Speaker 5:Ever some. We never sang all four.
Speaker 4:We never sang that hymn book right here.
Speaker 3:And there are very few congregations that you will go to where you will hear four parts. There are a few around, but they are known to be good singing congregations Right.
Speaker 1:And that's not because everybody in the congregation went to school for music, but it's likely because they spent more time reiterating those songs week after week to the congregation. And a lot of times the choir was the teacher. The choir would have rehearsed those songs and learned them. They are singing them to the congregation and the congregation catches it, and so, again, some things were caught, some things were taught.
Speaker 4:So could we just be lazy? Huh, let's talk about that. Perhaps we'll be a little lazy.
Speaker 1:That's probably going to be the next question that comes in.
Speaker 4:Could we just be lazy in our, you know, not being as diligent as we need to be.
Speaker 1:And, on that note, I am so excited to have our guest contributor today. This is really sort of a mini reunion for us. She served in our choir some years ago in New York City and she has since gone on to become an online sensation YouTube, instagram and the like known around the country, known around the world. Would you welcome with me to the choir room Tara Simon?
Speaker 4:Hey, tara, so good to see you here, Greg.
Speaker 1:Tara, I remember when we met, you were auditioning for the choir and you were just coming off of a show, a Broadway show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just come off of fame, Fame exactly, and it's so funny because I don't know if I told you this then, but I'll share it now. Let me say this I'm just a little older than Tara, maybe a few weeks, a few months but when I was graduating from eighth grade, we did the entire soundtrack of the movie fame, wow, every song, and so I remember it like it was yesterday Now they probably didn't know that. Yeah, we did pretty much the entire soundtrack. Now I imagine that the music in the movie was pretty different from the music in the Broadway show.
Speaker 2:It's possible. I think they adapted it for Broadway. You were talking about the movie. I do think that they adapted it, although the characters, I think, are the same and a lot of the theme is the same. I think the main song is the same too. I know that I was Serena Katz, one of the leads in the show, and I know that think of Meryl Streep and I don't think even her other song, let's Play a Love Scene was in the movie, if I can remember. But I'm less familiar with the movie and more familiar with the Broadway score, obviously.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. I just remember having a lot of fun with that music. I think our audience needs to know who you are, because when you come back, you're going to be doing some live demonstration yeah, but before we get to that, let's talk about where it all started. Where did it start for you in your music journey?
Speaker 2:Well, if you ask my mother who does tend to embellish, we'll use that word she says that I was singing in my crib E-I-E-I-O before I could really talk or walk. I mean, it's my mom. I do distinctly for me, though remember a moment in my car seat when she was driving her beat-up old blue Toyota and we were going over a road with construction, and I don't know what I was singing it could have been E-I-E-I-O, but I do remember the bumps in the road creating my voice to go, like making my voice like that. And I remember distinctly my mom looking in her rearview mirror and she was like oh pretty Tara. And I remember, in my car seat, thinking and I do that without the bump, and that's literally how I learned that I taught myself how to sing with vibrato, Like I didn't have it originally, but I was like sing with the bumps, Sing with the bumps.
Speaker 2:And then I just it just happened. And so from there, I mean, my first time singing on a platform was in church. I sang in a little girl's quartet singing that's love of God. Yes, my mom made me wear a three layer dress that she made with a bow in my hair that continued on for an embarrassing amount of time. My mom would pay me to wear said attire to all performances. So I got paid, plus whatever she bribed me with, to curl my hair in ridiculous rocks that she made and it was super cute. But yeah, I mean I've been.
Speaker 2:I've been singing on a platform or on stage, which however you want to call it, since I was three and I remember at that moment, like that moment when I was three, singing that's love of God, looking up at the stained glass cross out at the back of the sanctuary, and I, I just knew then this is what I'm going to do the rest of my life, Like hands down unequivocally, and when you, when you write, when you're in school, like what do you want to be when you grow up? It always changes with kids and never want to change with me. It was always I'm going to be a singer, I'm going to sing.
Speaker 1:And a singer you are. Yeah, I am, and that is what you're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now we met in New York at the church and you were auditioning for that singing aggregation, the YPC, and I remember thinking, my goodness, this girl's got chops, yeah, yeah. And so I immediately started fishing for music, because I didn't have many soloists then. But I wanted to find the right song that would fit your voice and I think I could have given you EIEIO and you would have sang the stink out of that. But I wanted to find the right one that you could deliver well, that represented your voice well, but then also minister to that house. Now, do you remember what that song was? The first?
Speaker 2:one, oh, I remember unequivocally. It was that name, and actually you had me learn too. You had me learn that name, and then you also had me learn in the midst of it all, which I never did get to Right.
Speaker 1:For I don't know what. Both songs by Yolanda Adams.
Speaker 2:Both Yolanda Adams and I'm thinking does this man hate me? What? First of all, let me, let's just get real here. Okay, I'm white, it's clear, I was not. I was. I was like the minority. Okay, and I'm totally fine with that. But like, then you give me not only like like a gospel song, but you give me like Yolanda Adams song, and I'm like I don't have such bad imposter syndrome right now and this man literally hates me, like why is this doing this to me?
Speaker 2:But then I started learning it and I was, I started, I just it brought me to tears the first time. I said I and, by the way, you don't, you may not know this, but when I was was singing at Times Square, I was living in a nunnery. I was living at women's convent on 72nd, between 2nd and 3rd, and there was no. I shared a bathroom and a shower with the entire floor. I had a tiny room the size of a dining room table and in order to practice said humongous Yolanda Adams song, I had to go up to the rooftop of that nunnery to learn the stinking song.
Speaker 2:And I remember being on that rooftop at the nunnery, st Mary's residence, listening to that song with this, this recorder up into my ear so as not to try to make still a lot of noise. No-transcript tears just straightened on my face and I just felt that the whole does he hate me? Subsided and I was like, oh, he really believes in me, because this song is like a mantle that you're bearing. It goes forth Like it is, the words are just so annoying and I'm getting goosebumps right now just reliving the lyrics in my mind and I just prayed like God.
Speaker 2:I hope I have what it takes to deliver this the right way, because not only was it vocally impossible sounding when I was learning it, but to not get caught up in the emotion of how strongly I felt about the lyrics while bringing that onto the platform was also a fear of mine legitimately.
Speaker 1:Well, I wasn't aware of the living situation. I just know that when I heard you the first time in the office, there was something there. I knew that this was polished singing and that you were capable of delivering this song. At least, that was my prayer, and so I knew that you could take it and go home and do the homework and come back, and then I'd work with you. I'd work with you on the timing, we'd work together on the delivery and we'd go through all of that so that it wasn't what you had to do on the stage for fame, but that this was a different house, a different audience.
Speaker 1:Now, with talent being so plenteous in the New York City, the Times Square area in particular, singers and musicians everywhere. You might recall that there was an interview before I even heard you sing, because it was necessary for me to know where your head was and where your heart was.
Speaker 2:Where my heart was and I really, to be completely honest, I don't blame you guys at all, especially considering the geographical location of the church I mean, the church is in a Broadway theater I did feel like literally on trial. I was terrified, I was like I can't. I am so guilty here, like I literally just came off a Broadway show and I cannot like hide, deny that I'm I. You can see how animated I am as a person and so I just I could. I just prayed, like I hope I can convey my actual heart for worship and they can see past this animated, boisterous theater chick who, like it's written all over me, right, but truly, when I, I do take some of that animation with me to worship, but my, my heart is to direct people upwards and not have the influence on me. But I was really nervous that day, for sure.
Speaker 1:Now let's let's park right there for a minute, because this is crucial to where we want to go with our conversation. I think we can agree that there is a degree of performance in ministry whenever you're singing a song and it's not as if there's no ministry in performance. If the church is putting on a musical or a production, there's a degree of performance in that production, whether it's a drama or a concert, there can be ministry in performance as well. We can condemn Broadway, because it's Broadway. There are a lot of productions that are clean and just entertaining, and there are cast members that are born again believers, that are people of faith. How would Tara Simon encourage that singer who has to perform by day while simultaneously living a life that ministers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's actually. It's a really good question. I think it's truly a heart posture, of direction, like I mentioned before. You know, I wanted to point people upward and not, it's not a horizontal thing, it's a vertical thing. And once you realize that as a performer you have to shift the focus and be very conscientious of that while multitasking and making sure that you don't overcompensate so much that you're like I'm not performing and so therefore I will be boring. You know, worships can be that either.
Speaker 2:So I really like said about taking a piece of both with you and truly. I mean, when I was backstage, before every single performance I ever performed on Broadway, I would be in the wings and I would sing I love you, lord, and I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul rejoices, take joy, my King, and what you hear, may it be a sweet, sweet song. And I wasn't singing about Jesus, but my heart still was, you know. And they actually did a write up about me and a stranger that did a write up on the show said Tara Simon sings with, with an intentional spirit of something I don't I'm not sure it was a Swiss like translation, so it was a little funny, but they said something about the way I sang with a spirit and I.
Speaker 2:That is the biggest compliment to me, because I was like, wow, like you. You see beyond the lyrics and even the context of the character, and into my heart and and as a performer, that's what I want when I'm doing theater or when I'm performing as a worship leader because I have led worship at churches I I try to take the the multifacetedness of what performing on any platform entails, which is being aware of your body language, your facial expressions, being gracious to all parts of the audience and not just looking center, but if there are people on the right to the left, engaging them, to enter in as well. But the difference is it doesn't stop on that horizontal basis. You have to then arc it up to the vertical when you're singing about Jesus, because if they come to you after and say, wow, you sang that so well, you've done a terrible job, in my opinion anyway.
Speaker 1:I understand when it comes to the worship side of things that horizontal performance is unto the people, that vertical performance, if you will, is unto him Absolutely. Now let's talk about the fundamental differences between singing with a group in the production fame and, say, singing in the YPC choir. What would you say the significant difference was for you?
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's a that's a huge and loaded question. So in fame you, there is a lot of camaraderie. We put that show up in three weeks and and you're I mean, we did nine shows a week actually instead of eight, because we were sold out. I didn't negotiate any more money actually, and hindsight I was about to say a lot of work, a lot of work and feel like you are in this together, you know, with your team and your cast.
Speaker 2:It's not a very big cast, you know, so you really get to know everybody very intimately and you do feel the sense of like I've got your back, you've got mine, and I kind of think and that's nice.
Speaker 2:However, we all came from literally all around the world, different walks of life, different age sets and experience levels, and and so there was this still sense of like.
Speaker 2:I know, while we're in the show I've worked together but, like in life, I'm kind of on my own and the difference for me at least in church, especially in the youth choir, where you know there were young people my age was that you know I also did life with some of those people, like outside, and so when we would go to sing and usher in the Holy Spirit on that platform, there was this like unification and it felt that you know the choirs way that we did like you felt like like a three legged race kind of thing, like you're tied to that person next to you in in this weird spirit body that all of a sudden kind of forms as you start to sing the first number and and their on pitch note equals yours and their flat note equals yours and, like their heartbeat, equals something that you then add on top of or double, and it becomes this living, breathing thing that I've just. I've sung all over the world and in many different mediums, and I've never, ever, experienced anything like that than in a church choir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is certainly a different community, a different culture and a different feeling. Very special, and it is indeed special. Now we better start talking about the vocal coach that you are and the sensation that you've become in light of the fact that Times Square is the crossroads of the world and we together have sang with Italians and French and Russians and Puerto Ricans, and Americans, Italians, Spanish, all of them.
Speaker 1:We've heard all of the accents. As a vocal coach, how do you deal with the accents that are indigenous to those cultures when you're working with your students?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's honestly so easy as long as they're speaking English, because there's there is a vowel disposition that creates the best climate for singing that you want out of any tune, regardless of where they're from or how they speak in their native tongue. If they're singing a song in English, then there's a way that I want you to sing that's universal. It doesn't matter. Honestly, my American singers which I have a lot of American most of the time, I'm telling them as a blanket statement you want to sing like you have a British accent. Ours don't exist, unless I tell you, unless you're a country singer, and that's a whole different band I don't worry, we're accentuating the vowels, minimizing the consonants, and here's how.
Speaker 2:And if they don't get the intricate way, how I literally just end with just pretend like you have a British accent for a second. And then, if they do, then they're like oh, I get what you were trying to say. So that's a universal thing, actually, and it doesn't matter. Vocal technique wise, now style is a whole other story. But singing something helpfully and properly maximizing the space because I believe, and I teach my students, that any extreme note higher, low, must have more space and support the two S's of which all stand on. So how do I, as a coach, maximize all that space in your mouth? And that is the blanket statement, most easy, condensed, boilerplate way of saying so.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. So now everybody knows you're a vocal coach. Did you have that in mind when you were in New York?
Speaker 2:No, let's Listen. I, I, I like fought with the Lord on this for like years. I ran Okay.
Speaker 3:When.
Speaker 2:I was living in Greenville, south Carolina. I had a terracimancom website to book me for gigs like you know, graduate artist and book me. And people didn't use that contact form to email me to book me. They used it to ask if I taught lessons. There was a single paragraph in that whole website that alluded to me coaching at all.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it was, but it was like the Lord kept knocking on that door of my heart and it wasn't until one day not even a vocal student, but a piano student. His name is Peter Rose and his mother called me up and said I don't really know how we found you, but my son has Down syndrome. He is a prodigy. Everyone's telling him that he can't play because his fingers are small, but all I know is that he is amazing and he keeps being told no. Well, being a theater major, I can't stand when people tell someone no. It's like kind of a pet peeve of mine, and so I'm like bring him to me, bring him to my house. I'm not a keys player Like I play, but I played a right. You know, I'm not like you know this amazing virtual solo piano player. She brought him to me and that kid played like some crazy 17 page show pan piece and I looked at her and I was like, okay, so he's better than me.
Speaker 4:But I can tell you one thing he needs timing.
Speaker 2:He has timing issues and I will be tough on him and I will never tell him no because there's nothing this kid can't do. So Peter and I started taking lessons and I now, as a mom of a seven year old boy, know that I loved that kid like he was my son, and we had a little routine like what do you eat for breakfast? What makes you happy? And he'd sit and play. And as Peter started to play, god started to change my heart towards coaching. Because at this point in my vocal coaching journey, I was still gigging out a lot, I was still playing in bands, touring, but on during the day I had nothing to do and I'm a busy body and I wanted to monetize my time. So coaching seemed to be this answer that I really didn't want. And when Peter came into my life, god started to open up this crack in my heart of compassion for pouring into others instead of myself.
Speaker 2:Fast forward, because the story is long. Peter developed bone marrow leukemia and I at the time moved to Atlanta, but I was still coaching the students that I had in South Carolina, so it's a two hour drive and I did it every single week and Peter was losing his hair. He couldn't move. The chemo kept him from all sorts of things. He was in constant pain all over his body because it was just ravaging his bone marrow If you can imagine how painful that is. But every week that kid got into the car, laid in the car and came to his lesson. And there's not a single time that I tell this story where I don't almost cry, and today is going to be the day where they don't cry in Jesus name. But that kid showed me grit and he showed me tenacity and he showed me love like I've never seen, or for an art area or for an instrument, or even for me, because he didn't want to let me down too, and I just fell in love with coaching through Peter and I just saw that it was not, it was not a time suck, but it was a high calling To pour into and get to impact the lives of one on one, like on a one on one basis, a person.
Speaker 2:It was the thing that made me bored when I was performing in fame and I would yawn before the curtain rose and I'm like what is wrong with me? It was that that was missing. Like autographs and applause from massive audiences were nice, but the true heart of my purpose, ever since I was three and knew what I wanted to do, still pointed back to the cross. And I saw it on that stained glass in the back of my church and it was to be a musician area and to impact one on one, the lives of others. And I found that through Peter and when God changed my heart in coaching Peter, that's when the business exploded. It was almost like God was just waiting for me to stop resisting and say yes to what he really had for me. And then, when I said yes to it, it was like, oh okay, this is what fever looks like Great.
Speaker 1:I got it Now. Your singing has taken you before presidents and a list performers and artists like Brittany and Bieber, to name a few. You were also number five or six somewhere on the X factor.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:Now, I believe these words should ring a bell for you. Now, I believe we've only scratched the surface of what you're capable of. And my terrible accent. Now, who said that to you?
Speaker 2:Simon Cowell said that to me. Simon Cowell, yeah, it was my like the judges around of auditions. By the way, they make it look like it's the first audition you've ever had, but it was like Sure Okay.
Speaker 1:Look behind the scenes. Tip right there. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I did a whole video actually on my YouTube channel about, like, how it really was. If anyone's curious, you can go check it out.
Speaker 1:Because it was not make sure we plug all of that yeah.
Speaker 2:Nothing that you see on those shows, honestly, is really what it is and it's such a shame because people are just looking to escape at the end of their day and watch something entertaining. But they make judgments and decisions based on what they see and unless you're actually creating the content and the filming, the footage, you've no idea. You know all the manipulation goes on in it. But yes, he did say that to me. That was not edited.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Now let's talk about what's happening with Tara. Now you have Tara Simon Studios. You have your YouTube page, which has over one million subscribers Congratulations, yeah. And then you have your Instagram page, which is about 30,000, I think. And then you have the actual studio. You have those three things. How did that come about?
Speaker 2:Okay, so Tara Simon Studios really, truly started no-transcript Well, back in back in Greenville, South Carolina, really, and that was, oh my gosh, like oh. I'm not going to say how many years ago that was. It was a lot of years ago, Greg. I'm not going to do what you did to yourself.
Speaker 1:Well, it was at least seven years ago, it was over 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:It was over 10 years ago and after moving to Atlanta from Greenville, you know I had the studio there, and when I say studio I put it in quotes because I literally like I rented out a space in a church and that was only after my floors in my house were black from all the traffic. Like I am a I'm a start small, stay small as long as possible person because I don't like overhead. So I mean it's the, it's this, you know, it's the entrepreneur, and me from watching my parents in business all my life, True, and so I just I just kept going in Atlanta and I grew it there and eventually the church. I sang in a choir, actually in Mount Perrin church, and I rented out a space there. I rented out their, their I called it the frog room because it was a nursery with these really creepy fraud. I don't know what they were doing with the frogs and nursery, but I rented out that room and by the time I left there and got my own space, I had more people working for me at Tarasimha Studios within Mount Perrin than Mount Perrin did in their worship department, and that got a little weird for me, not for them. Really, I'm like this is wrong. I got to go. Like you know, I love the cheapness, but I got to get my own space and so Tarasimha Studios brick and mortar in Atlanta was born and we opened. I believe gosh, we opened that in 2013. I think or 2014. And that's still going on today. I have coaches there that work for me, that coach live lessons and lessons online all over the world, but the brick and mortar and the lesson thing was going on way before the YouTube thing. So I would say 95% of our business six years ago, maybe even five years ago, came from word of mouth and people driving by, and maybe 5% came from online, you know, ads or whatever.
Speaker 2:I started the YouTube channel, really like just coming up on five years ago, and I didn't even mean to. It was a complete accident. I was. I hired a videographer to run some content on Instagram, actually because I wanted to see if I could make these 59 second or less tips and tricks and get some like following going, because before then we had zero online presence, like nothing. Okay, and my videographer said hey, we've got like 20 minutes left, we're done early. Do you want to film something long format for YouTube and the theater person to me was like yes, we say yes, what? And he was like oh well, why don't you just react to someone singing? I'm like my literal answer in quotes was that's stupid. Who would watch that?
Speaker 4:And he was I'm not kidding and he was like I mean I don't know.
Speaker 2:He said I don't know. I mean he. Then he was like questioning. He's like I don't know. I mean it seems to be a thing right now and I'm like, all right, what video? And he like chose a video, a random video. We didn't have lighting for it, like we didn't have graph, we had nothing with like a camera, and we put it up and it got like a lot of views. And so again, theater major in me, you do something that works. You keep doing that thing. I was like, hey, we should do more of this. And basically what I found was me reacting to these people was literally me and voice lessons. I had been unknowingly training for this like all of my career, because all I'm doing is breaking down how people sing and showing people how they do that thing, and that's literally what I've been paid for and God is so funny in that way.
Speaker 2:You know, like I'm laughing driving home looking at these views skyrocket. I grew like 50 to 100,000 subscribers like in a month. There were months where if it was less than 50, I'd be like I'm losing traction. You know, it was so ridiculous.
Speaker 1:My life's getting dim, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm old hat, but it was a timing thing and it was a God thing, because at the time reactions were enormously popular and I was kind of mid to early in the party and it just, it just grew. In fact we're 990,000 right now. As we do this, I'll hit a million next month, most likely, god willing.
Speaker 2:Finally I say finally, but some people never hit that, or they wait decades, and it'll be five years for me and and it'll be a million subs.
Speaker 2:And most of that is thanks to reactions. And I have to say, like my most, my most rewarding reaction I ever did was the oceans reaction, because people have commented on that, saying I was in the verge of suicide and I don't know how I found this video, but I saw it and I don't even believe, like I'm an atheist, but like you've got me seriously questioning my, my core beliefs here, like or I, I I've been abused, or I'm in the middle of a divorce and I've lost hope. And this song and seeing you react to it because I gave my testimony at the end of it and knowing what you went through, I know that God literally put this video on my computer. Thank you for being brave enough to share it and do it. And so business now getting back to it, has literally flipped. If you ask me where our main source of business comes from, 95% is YouTube and maybe 5% it's like oh, I saw you driving by. Interesting, we've become so digitized.
Speaker 2:So digitized and I'm here for it. I love it. I think it's way more scalable.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, and you've scaled it, Even intentionally and unintentionally, it's, it's, it's scale, you know, so interesting that what we do and what we love to do and have always been doing, God kind of takes that. You know we, you know we, we see the B line and we're like God, just take me there. But. But the path is usually all of this, you know, it's like 40 years and a wilderness experience before we ultimately get there and you're thinking, like God, you could have just taken the B line. He's like no, because then you wouldn't have learned anything, you wouldn't have experienced anything, and then you would have taken the credit for everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or or you may not even said yes, Right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You may have said no, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Here in the choir room we're trying to encourage people and everyday singer who's just singing in the kitchen, singing in the bathroom, you know, they know. They know the scripture let everything that have breath praise the Lord. They know they know. Enter into his case with Thanksgiving, into his course of praise, you know they know. Sing unto the Lord a new song. They know these verses. But they don't. But, but sometimes in the back of their head they hear make a joyful noise if you have a great voice, or sing to the Lord if you've been trained. Yes, you know what I mean and I think sometimes in the back of their heads they hear that and so they only sing in the kitchen when nobody's there, or they only sing in the shower, yeah, so here in the choir room we're trying to encourage people to sing out loud and just go for it. Yeah, and what you don't have, we will hook you up with people who have it, who can teach you how to do it better, who can take you from the kitchen into the training room or into the studio, or you know, and then get you to that next level and encourage you to join a choir, whether that's in your church, your school, your college, your university, your community.
Speaker 1:But you do that. You prepare people primarily as solo singers. But soloists good soloists know how to sing in an aggregation of singers. So what would you say to the person who's singing in the kitchen all the time? They're singing in the bathroom all the time. They're singing in the car all the time? It's just them on the way to work, or it's just them coming from work. They're like thank God, I'm out of this place.
Speaker 4:Hey, see, you know.
Speaker 1:What would you say to that person? Tara Simon, the vocal coach, to the person who doesn't feel like they've got the A-list voice.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, that person that you're talking about makes up, I would say, like 90% of our student body. The difference between the person that is not a part of our student body and the person that is is that is the same person. One has just said yes to themselves and the other is still allowing themselves to be quiet. And I think the best way to say what I would say is to illustrate it through someone who bought one of my first eight-week online course called Sing Smart and Harder, and I ask everybody at the beginning of the video why did you buy the course? And don't just give me a one-word answer like really, why do you want to learn how to sing? Why are you here? And I ask it to be written. But one of the first guys that ever bought my course sent me a video and it was this old man who looked like he was Santa Claus, with a white beard and white hair and a big pot belly, and he had to be at least in his 60s and his cheeks were all red and his eyes were all red in this video and the first thing he said was Tara, this is my fifth attempt at making this video. He said. I think he said I am 60, I don't know, maybe we'll say 65, maybe it was 67, but I'm 65 years old and for the past 60 years I have felt like I don't have a voice, because when I was in kindergarten, my choir teacher told me to mouth the words because I didn't sound good. Well, and I've carried around this invisible tape over my mouth my whole entire life. And I heard you say on your channel that my voice mattered and that I deserved to be heard, and that singing was actually 90% mental and 10% talent. And when I heard those ratios I thought well, if you can learn something, if your voice is a muscle which it is then I can train that, just like I train a bicep. And I may not be a Grammy award-winning level, but I definitely can get better. And so he said I've only gotten through three of your modules, but I can say that I've already improved. And I'm crying tears of joy right now Because I feel like for the first time, I might be able to actually sing in front of somebody and be validated, just for the humanity that I have inside of me, that God's just given me.
Speaker 2:And so I really feel like it's an enemy thing when people feel that they don't matter and that their voice should be quieted.
Speaker 2:I do believe that that is a direct attack from the enemy even if they're not Christians and they don't know it on a birthright that God's given you to make noise and to be heard, because we've been given a voice and a mouth, and if we don't use it and voice our insides out, then the enemy wins.
Speaker 2:Like there is freedom on the other side of silence, whether that's telling a trauma story or singing or shouting or whatever, and if he can keep you quiet, he can keep you powerless. And so if you're like that guy watching this I know we live in a world of like Photoshop and Airbrush and everything's perfect, you know, but that's truly just like on X Factor there's editing and I don't know why, but it's the system and it's the matrix we live in, where, when we are shown two masses, we feel like we have to be polished and perfected. But the bottom line is that is a lie and if you believe that, then you're only doing yourself a disservice and living in silence, because you get one life. Whatever you believe, you only get one life and if you're wasting it in silence, then you're gonna be just like that guy who spent 60 years. Don't do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, as you talk about this guy and you relate it to the person who's standing in the kitchen, my mind goes back to the original film Fame. Now, unlike the film and unlike the Broadway show, not everybody is looking to be a famous artist, a famous singer, a famous actor. But there is a song in the original production and it's titled Body Electric.
Speaker 2:That was not in the show, but I do know the song you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a line in the song that I so remember and as you were speaking it came to my mind I celebrate the me yet to come.
Speaker 4:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:And so for that singer who doesn't feel like they have the make a joyful noise voice, let me encourage you to connect with people like Tara and some of the other coaches that we've had on the podcast and we'll continue to have and get out there, take the plunge and become part of something bigger than yourself. It's singing aggregation, whether that's a choir and ensemble or group, whether that's in your church, your school, your college, your community. I think you will find the rich benefits and the joy of singing and you, too, will be able to say I celebrate the me yet to come. Tara was so glad you were with us today and we were super excited because when you come back next month, you're gonna be doing some live application right here, live in the choir room, with our virtual audience, and so to our listeners. If you haven't already subscribed, you should do that so that you can be informed when that time comes. Tara, tell them whether they can find you.
Speaker 2:Well, just Google, tara, simon Studios, anywhere, I'm everywhere.
Speaker 1:She's anywhere and everywhere online.
Speaker 2:Thanks Tara, thanks Greg, bye guys.
Speaker 1:Coleman, take us out with the thought of the week.
Speaker 5:Well, thanks, greg. Did you guys know that music has association with memories? Have you ever seen one of those videos of people or someone with dementia or Alzheimer's who were able to recall music as if they didn't even have a memory issue in the first place? I've seen several lately of someone sitting in front of a piano and someone says, well, can you play this piece by Beethoven? And they're like, well, I don't know it. And they say, well, why don't you go ahead and try? And they said, okay, and then they start playing a beautiful sonata right there and then they stop and they're like I don't know this song, but it's clear that the music has stuck with them despite their memory issues and challenges.
Speaker 5:Music can help retain essential information despite memory loss. Music memory is stored in the hippocampus, which is a place in your brain which is centrally located. Therefore, music memories are less likely to be negatively impacted by age or disease. Music therapists often incorporate these techniques with individuals to improve memory retention or developmental learning goals, techniques like music mnemonics. Music may activate memories and remind us of places, events or people. A familiar tune may elicit certain emotions associated with those memories as well. Speaking of musical mnemonics, these are devices that are a natural way to memorize and recall information. As children, we learn various academic and social concepts through songs. Similarly, these memory strategies are highly effective for adults as well. In fact, our brains will automatically fill in the gaps when a song that we remember suddenly stop. Some examples of these musical mnemonics include, like the ABCs or the Books of the Bible song, or the cleanup song, if you remember that from your childhood.
Speaker 5:So what does all of this have to do? I'm sure you're starting to put the pieces together, but the music that we sing in our gathered worship settings has power, has power with people's memories. As much as we hate to admit it sometimes and I'm sorry to all of the preachers out there, but people tend to scientifically remember music more than they remember a sermon, which is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing at all, but just because of how our brains work, we remember things that are put to song. So we, as music and worship leaders, as choir singers and directors, we have a lot of power in our hands that we wield each time we gather.
Speaker 5:The word of God says over and over again to remember his word, for example, in Numbers 1540, psalm 103, 17 through 18, isaiah 48, 8 through 11, luke 22, 19, and 1st 2 Timothy 2, 8. And music helps us to do that. So we, as music and worship leaders, have this incredible opportunity and power, but we have to wield it responsibly and put songs in the mouths of our people that are not only theologically correct but help us to have a view of God that is healthy, a view of each other that is healthy, a view of the church that is healthy. So I task all of us with the challenge of going through our songs, maybe putting some extra thought into it, knowing that the songs that we sing have power beyond the present moment. They have power into tomorrow, the next day and potentially even to the end of our lifetimes. So let's think on that as well.
Speaker 1:And remember, if ever we put the messenger before the message, we have failed to present an unblemished gospel. I'm Greg Thomas. Join us again next week right here in the choir room.
