MA (Mus), singer-songwriter Mari Aino Elina

​STYLES:
Contemporary Commercial Music (Pop, Rock & Musical Theatre)

AGES: 10+

EDUCATION:
MA in Popular Music Performance (Voice) & BA in Musical Theatre Performance.

​Mari is also trained in classical singing, music theory and the flute.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
​Coach at Aino Elina Music since 2015,
at DC Music lessons (Leith) since 2021 &
​at ​Edinburgh School of Music (Meadowbank) since 2022.
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Mari is a recording singer‑songwriter who performs regularly as a solo artist under the name Aino Elina, and as a Musical Director and member of two ensembles: the York‑based a cappella group Enkelit and the Edinburgh‑based Authentic Voice A Cappella Ensemble.​

For “How to Sing” -videos, Bite-sized shorts on vocal tips & tricks,
vocal exercises & solfege practice 

go to CCM Vocal Coach on YouTube

EXPERIENCE:

Mari has worked as a private vocal coach and free lancer singer-songwriter since 2015. ​Her coaching tools include primal sounds, and she is also familiar with the Complete Vocal Technique. Past vocal coaches include: Dane Chalfin and Kim Chandler. (Both former Presidents of British Voice Association.)

Mari has performed as a pop singer-songwriter, recording solo artist Aino Elina since 2017. Her singles have been played on the national radio, both in the UK and in Finland. Mari has 5 years of performance experience in Musical Theatre, and a long history of (over 20 years) performing both solo and with choirs and vocal groups around the world.

​​Mari started taking classical vocal lessons at the age of 16, continued to musical theatre, and then found her vocal home within pop music. She still loves musical theatre, and helps singers with their higher education auditions yearly. 

FROM BEL CANTO TO PRIMAL SOUND

​This is a story of my vocal journey – from classical to pop via musical theatre.
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First of all, some singers prefer not to use the terms “head voice” and “chest voice” since all voice is ultimately produced the same way – not from the head or chest – but by pushing air through the vocal cords and making them vibrate. However, I prefer using those terms rather than M1 and M2.

I have a classical soprano background, so I mainly used my head voice for a long time. That was my vocal identity. I’ve always been able to effortlessly sing fairly high, and my voice seems naturally firm, flexible, and pretty – but it didn’t really carry around speech level or below. Also, as a default setting, my larynx sat quite low and twang was almost forbidden – since that was what I had heard was the “right” way to sing. I had realised that this different vocal setting of chest voice existed, but I didn’t really understand it – plus it didn’t fit at all with the classical ideal of voice.

When I started my musical theatre performance studies in my early 20s, I came to the realisation that I couldn’t sing loudly (except on high notes) and I couldn’t even yell. I was introduced to belting and began to understand the differences between vocal settings.

From here began my long journey towards being able to actually sing in the chest voice register. I was introduced to Complete Vocal Technique, and my whole vocal world turned upside down. I felt like I could do nothing right anymore. The terms didn’t make sense to me (What is curbing? What does it look like?). I felt like my head voice was weakening as my chest voice grew louder and rawer. I lost my vocal identity – suddenly going from a strong singer to a weak one.

The journey was painful – change often is. And completely changing one’s singing habits is never easy. I had my eureka moments and was excited about this new gear, but I was also scared I would lose my own voice, my personal sound.

I saw some people around me develop problems from using the wrong belting technique, and it was frightening. Trying to sing with chest voice any higher than speech level would itch my throat, make me cough, and sometimes I felt like I was losing my voice afterwards. I actually did lose my voice completely for over a week a couple of times during those years. So of course I resisted the whole idea, even though I was also excited about this newfound sound. I resisted singing higher than speech level with chest voice because it didn’t feel right. Instead, I developed a habit of always flipping to head voice around e’-g’. It sounded good, but didn’t really work in musical theatre. I started thinking musicals were not for me – my voice wasn’t strong enough.
My vocal problems weren’t the only reason I left professional musical theatre, but they played a big part. I didn’t want to change my vocal identity to something that clearly didn’t suit me at all.

I still loved singing and performing, and wanted a career out of it. I’ve always written and listened to pop music – and when I say pop here, I mean any popular genre – so I decided to study further in the popular music field.
To be honest, I thought this would be my way to escape all this chest voice nonsense. (How wrong I was…)

I’m not sure what fate brought me to Leeds College of Music, but I auditioned for the MA in Popular Music Performance there and really felt it was the right place for me. Among other great vocal coaches, I was lucky to work with two of the top pop vocal coaches in the UK, Kim Chandler and Dane Chalfin (both former presidents of the British Voice Association).
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Both of these vocal coaches I worked with in Leeds during that year referred to primal sounds, and this method completely revolutionised my singing technique. After learning about them, I wanted to start spreading the word – and here I am, over 10 years later!

What are primal sounds?

Scroll down to Dane Chalfin explaining how he started to apply the method to pop singing.

To me, this was a completely new way of looking at singing – as something we already know how to do, but just need to tune into again.

If you can yell at a certain pitch, you can also belt it, since the technique is the same. Your body knows what to do when you need to yell at a person who’s in danger. Or if you’re in a noisy bar and need more volume in your voice – you might naturally add twang. You don’t need to think about relaxing or contracting certain muscles (that you can’t see or even feel easily).

It’s been so great to realise that, in a way, all use of voice is singing, and nothing is singing. It’s all just communication – singing being more precisely pitched communication. If you can speak, you can certainly sing with that exact same voice. It’s our own personal voice that is very valuable, and it doesn’t need to be shaped into any unnatural technical performance.

That was always a problem for me – we’re talking about tiny muscles that you can’t see. For me, it is easier to access the right technique through emotion. By asking myself “How would I say/cry/yell this?” or “How does a child use their body when they are angry?” I could find the vocal setting that felt good. Then I would investigate the feeling from the inside – and remember it. With time and patience, I’ve started to recognise the small muscle work and build the different settings into muscle memory. Now the position of the larynx, roof of the mouth, twang, resonance – and the whole body, of course – have slowly started to make real sense.

I also came to understand that to communicate emotions properly, you need to master different vocal colours. You wouldn’t communicate everything in life with a light, beautiful, controlled voice. So singing everything with it wouldn’t make sense either (or would be very boring at least). So yes, I changed my mind. Communicating emotions in an organic way gets the message through. For that, chest voice is an amazing tool. Soon after applying this technique in my practice, I could sing up to g’’ with it – an octave of improvement in range! Nowadays, on a good day, the sky’s the limit.

So if you have similar problems to me, I highly recommend studying primal sounds. Start by watching Dane Chalfin’s videos, for example.
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I could also write a whole chapter on natural breathing, but for now I just want to pass on the two best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard:

• “Remember to relax your tummy completely while breathing in.”
• “Don’t think about it.”

After years of exploring primal sounds and vocal settings,
I’d love to share what I’ve learned with you.

✨ Join me and start your own vocal journey today

​🎶 And don’t forget — great singing starts with great breathing, REALLY!