Vocalist

TITLE AND URL
Vocalist http://www.vocalist.org.uk/

AUTHORITY
This site is a .org domain, which is appropriate, as the site is run as a not-for-profit service. Vocalist is run by [|Tracey Howard-Baker], a professional vocalist and vocal coach. Several other voice professionals contribute to the site. The site has won numreous awards, incuding being voted the [|So Musical! Top Site for 2004].

INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT
This site is meant to serve as a resource for vocalists and vocal teachers within any genre of vocal music, "whether you want to be a Rock God or Classical Diva." The site includes links all over the web from valued resources on such issues as vocal health, voice anatomy, vocal technique, repertoire, recordings, general music resources, and job opportunities. It also includes a "Fun & Freebies" section, which provides links to music games, Karaoke sites, and free things for vocalists. The site also provides a monthly newsletter about current issues in vocal music.

The Vocalist addressess the following [|National Standards for Music Education:] 1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. 4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. 5. Reading and notating music. 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

PURPOSE, VIEWPOINT
This website is meant to inform singers about various aspects of their instrument. It explains the basics of many facets of vocal performance, and provides links to many different alternative resources. The page is meant to be non-profit, but has many sponsors, most of whom are listed as resources somewhere on the website. The website provides a [|complete list] of their sponsors and affiliates. Since there are so many sponsors, they mostly end up cancelling each other out in terms of site bias.

REPUTATION
A Google Link: to search turns up about 100 results for sites which link to Vocalist, which include [|Google's directory of sites for singers], [|an Atlanta directory of voice teachers], and [|the BBC].

OVERALL EVALUATION
This is an excellent and diverse website for vocalists and vocal music educators. It is a great resource for things like vocal health and vocal anatomy which teachers may want to provide handouts for. One problem with the site is that the server seems to be finicky - I got several 404 errors while exploring the site, most of which would disappear simply by refreshing the page.

Rating: * * * 1/2

REVIEWED BY
Erin Grady 04/04/2007