s

1. 1

Find a qualified voice teacher. Incorrect technique can damage your singing voice.
Investing in an experienced voice teacher is well worth the money. If your voice is weak,
this is usually caused by under-developed muscles or improper use of the resonators (the
pharynx, the mouth, and the nasal cavity). Muscles can be strengthened and with training
you can learn how to use your resonators to project a powerful voice. Be careful in your
choice of teacher -- there are some bad ones out there.

o If you are a tenor, consider finding a teacher who is also a tenor, as the technique
is somewhat different.
o If you cannot afford or do not want the dedication that comes with hiring a
professional voice teacher, consider joining a local choir or try a "learn at home"
vocal training program like Singing for the Stars or Singing Success to name a
few that are out there.
2. 2

Learn your vocal range. This is essential, as singing pieces written for the wrong range
may strain your voice. The tone of your voice is much more important than range. People
will love or hate your voice based on its sound character, not how many notes you can
hit. Never sacrifice tone for range. Your range can change over time and with maturity
and training.

3. 3

Correct your posture. Stand tall with one foot slightly in front of the other one, feet
shoulder width apart. This allows you to breathe easily and to allow maximum lung
capacity to allow better notes and phrases. Stand up straight, shoulders back and down,
floating over your torso. Make sure that your chest is high to give room for your lungs to
expand and contract. Relax your jaw, relax your face.

4. 4

Breathe properly. The voice is best described as a wind instrument, because breathing is
80% of singing and proper singing begins and ends with proper breathing. Do not breathe
up your chest - breathe in your stomach, so it will "expand" a little. While singing, your
stomach should go in.

5. 5

Get to know your singing tools so that you are more familiar with how everything is
supposed to feel and move.

1
 o Touch the top of your collar bone. About a half of an inch below your finger is the
top of your lungs.
o Find your nipple line. This is the place where your lungs expand the largest.
o Find your ribs. Your ribs move like bucket handles attached to your spine and
your sternum. When you breathe in, they move upward and make your chest
expand, when you breath out, they move downward and your chest decreases.
o Find the place right below your sternum where your rib cages meet. This is the
bottom of your lungs and the housing of your diaphragm. The reason your
stomach may pooch out when you breathe deeply is because your diaphragm is
pushing down on everything below your rib cage, not because your lungs are in
your stomach.
6. 6

Always warm up before you begin singing or doing practice exercises. You should
always warm your voice up in this pattern: middle range, low range, then high range, then
back to middle. You should spend at least 10 minutes on each range and do not stress
your voice if you're frustrated and cannot hit a note. Warm back down or up to your
comfortable range and then try again, carefully. Other things to practice:

o dynamics - Sing a comfortable pitch and start very softly, crescendo to loud then
decrescendo back to soft. Do this with many different vowels and pitches.
Dynamics are variations the intensity of your resonance. Even the simplest use of
dynamics will make your songs come alive, and the more you practice, the louder
and softer you'll be able to sing healthily. When reading music, from quietest to
loudest, dynamics marks are as follows: pp (pianissimo, very quiet), p (piano,
quiet), mp (mezzo piano, medium quiet), mf (mezzo forte, medium loud), f (forte,
loud), ff (fortissimo, very loud). When you start out you will probably only be
able to sing from mp to mf, but your range will increase with practice.
o agility - Try singing from do to sol to do really fast back and forth, trying to hit all
of the notes. Do this in increments of half steps on different syllables. This will
help your voice become more flexible.
7. 7

Pronounce your vowels correctly. Words are truly nothing but a constant succession of
vowels with consonants dropped in occasionally to create meaning. So practice all your
vowels at every pitch (high, low and in between). In English there are very few pure
vowels. Normally, we will encounter diphthongs which are two or more vowel sounds
elided together. In classical singing, the singer will sustain the note on the first vowel and
then say the second on the way to the final consonant. In country, singers like to slide
through the first vowel and elongate the second vowel on the sustained note. Where as: a
classical signer would sing "Am[aaaaaaai]zing Gr[aaaaaai]ce" and a country singer
would sing "Am[aiiiiiii]zing Gr[aiiiiii]ce". If you can, always sing the first vowel for as
long as you can before letting the second vowel in. Here are some pure vowels to practice
with: AH as in "father", EE as in "eat", IH as in "pin", EH as in "pet", OO as in "food",
UH as in "under", EU as in "could", OH as in "home". Try singing all of these vowels
while maintaining your core sound which is the resonance in the mask of the face. You

2
 can do this in many ways. Some examples of singing exercises that use vowels are just
singing "mee may maw mow moo" and fluctuating the voice as you go. This warms your
voice up and gives you practice with singing vowels.

8. 8

Practice scales. You need to do this often if you have pitch problems. Most coaches will
recommend 20-30 minutes a day when starting out. Practicing scales will also strengthen
the muscles used for singing and give you better control. To practice scales, identify your
range (tenor, baritone, soprano, alto, etc.) and know how to find the notes that cover your
range on a keyboard or piano. Then practice the major scale in every key moving up and
down using the vowel sounds. At some point you can start working in minor scales as
well. Solfege (Do,Re,Mi,...) is also an effective tool for improving pitch problems.

9. 9

Be reasonable with your self-expectations. Regardless of where you are coming from,
if you can devote 20 minutes or more a day to practicing scales and songs you can expect
measurable improvement within four weeks. Most pitch problems can be corrected within
3-4 months. Understand that your progress is linked to your ability to practice daily (as
with most training). If you only do 15 minutes a day, a few days a week, you could spend
a year or more. If you devote yourself you could completely transform your voice in three
months. Everyone is different.

10. 10

Cool down your voice after singing. Always do the lip roll exercise after singing.

edit Tips
 A good practice technique to find resonance is to sing while bent over the back of a chair.
Feel the mask of the face (the area around the nose, under the eyes and the top of the
teeth) vibrating. This is the body's microphone. Always try to place the tone in the mask
of the face.
 The best kind of nutrition for the voice is water. Water will do many wonderful things for
the voice and is also very essential to your body. If you are sick, pineapple juice may
clear the throat of phlegm but don't make a habit of anything besides water. Don't drink
milk or orange juice before singing. Your voice will sound "blocked" by something.
Sugar coats your throat. Imagine trying to stuff maple syrup in a flute to make it sound
better!
 There are two different registers of the voice, the head voice and the chest voice. In
popular music, singers rarely produce sound for the head voice since it is harder to sound
like you are speaking in your head voice. Popular singers do not like to venture much
from the speaking voice. The chest voice actually feels like it is coming from the chest.
You can feel the registers change if you sing up a scale from your lowest note to your
highest note. Your head voice is what you will be using primarily in classical singing.

3
 Even though there may be breaks between your registers, you can train and practice to
eliminate those breaks. An advanced singer can continually move from chest to head
voice and back again without any vocal disturbance.
 A big area of concern will be the break in your voice. Women and men both have that. It
is called the passagio ("passage" in Italian). This place is different for each singer and can
be trained to not break when sung through.
 Get in shape. You'll be able to breathe better if you are in good physical health.
 Avoid a nasal sound-sing from your diaphragm. If you think you have a nasal sound, try
breathing through your nose and your mouth at the same time.
 Avoid screaming when you are singing. To do this, raise the soft palate (as in drinking
through a straw or yawning) and place the tone in the mask of the face.
 Visualize a column of air rising from your diaphragm, through your chest, and up through
your facial mask. This technique will help your vocals be strong and present, and will
greatly enhance the ease of singing.
 It is helpful to imagine a gumball in your mouth. Think of a large round gumball or any
object that is round, like a bouncy ball. Thinking of this creates a space in the back of
your mouth, allowing a deeper, more mature-sounding voice.
 If you are nervous about singing by yourself, try first singing with a group of people.
 Drink lots of water to clear the mucus from your throat.
 Never, ever drink milk or eat dairy products right before you sing. It messes up your
voice.
 Sing from your heart. Don't let other discourage you, and convince you that you can't
sing. It's what you think that matters.

edit Warnings
 Being healthy will help you in all aspects of life and all aspects of singing. Do not smoke,
do not drink excessively, do not gorge yourself, do not do any kind of tobacco or nicotine
or any drugs, do not put things in your body that you do not want people to hear when
you sing!
 Dairy impairs your vocal quality, so don't eat/drink milk, yogurt, cheese, et cetera within
a few hours of rehearsing or performing.
 While drinking water is good for your voice and your body in general, drinking it right
before a performance will decrease your vocal quality as well, so drink a lot about 1-2
hours before and stop all food/liquid intake about 45 minutes before performing.
 When you are building the muscles used in singing, you will feel a little bit of movement
and the muscles will slightly tense and release. You never want to feel tension in your
throat. If your voice begins to hurt, stop singing for an hour, warm up, then try again but
more relaxed. Not only does this damage your vocal cords, your voice will sound
'stressed' and not pleasant.
 If you are trying to sing a low note and produce a raspy sound, you are damaging your
voice. Basically, your vocal cords are rubbing against each other. A node is like a callous
on your vocal cords, and it won't go away without surgery or prolonged vocal rest (more
than a year). Don't get one.

4
  A raised larynx is a leading problem for many aspiring singers. If you put your finger on
your Adam's apple and yawn, you will feel it move up and back down. The lower
position is where you need it to stay. Try to sing up a scale with your finger lightly
touching your Adam's apple; if it rises more than 1/2" then you have some problems. A
raised larynx will make it so your throat closes making high notes impossible, it will also
make it hard to produce resonance, vibrato, etc. It's something you need to work with a
qualified vocal coach to verify and correct. Try singing in front of a mirror to make sure
you do not develop any physical problems.
 Pre-existing tension in your jaw, shoulders, neck muscles and all surrounding areas can
hurt you. Make sure you are completely relaxed before you sing.
 A small minority of people are tone deaf. Ask someone who is not tone deaf to play or
sing a pitch for you and try to match it. If you can not tell if you are matching the pitch or
if you are too low or too high, you may be tone deaf. This is not a fate worse than death.
All you need to do is just to keep on practicing your muscles until they have been
regulated to sing on pitch. For example, try taking up an instrument (guitar and piano are
very good ones here), it'll help you learn to use your ear for pitch better.
 If your throat hurts,don't even try to sing,wait till it heals.

Articles for You to Write