Vocal Tips

Have a decent singing voice?

Want to improve your singing?

Curious to know what voice lessons are all about?

 

One of my biggest passions in life is singing. For me, singing is more than a hobby, it’s serious business. In high school I had two years of classical vocal training and went on to accomplish one year of jazz vocal training in college as well as receive my minor in jazz vocal performance. Sweet!! I also have nine years of standard piano training under my belt and what started as a crash course in chord improvisation on the piano has developed for two years with constant opportunities to lead worship at church. Pretty cool how God can force you to extend your skills when He brings along some awesome and unexpected opportunities! You probably won’t ever find me on Broadway (for many reasons) but I am thrilled to have enough credentials under my belt to be able to give voice and piano training locally.

You can listen to a very poor recording of my singing/playing on my very amateurish musician’s Myspace page.

I have many friends and acquaintances, however, that simply don’t have the time to take formal lessons and I’m frequently asked to give singing tips or explain what voice lessons are exactly. I thought as a service to anyone who is interested in improving their own singing voice I could try to write down as much as I think can be communicated through writing.

**What are voice lessons and who should take them?

Voice lessons are meant to coach both inexperienced and experienced singers on many, many principles of singing to your fullest ability. The main point of voice lessons is to develop control over your singing voice rather than letting it control you. Someone with no vocal talent or rhythm is not a good candidate for voice lessons. Someone interested in ever performing in any capacity should consider voice lessons or at least a few lessons to get the basics down. Professional singers, musical stage performers, and music teachers are often required to have some amount of vocal training.

**What is my vocal range?

Probably higher than you think. That’s always my initial answer. Both women and men have a “comfort zone” and often think that’s their range. Sadly, the “comfort zone” is probably only about 1/3 or 1/2 of their real ability. Singers should realize that developing any skill requires pushing past a comfort zone, including singing. The majority of females are either an alto, medium soprano, or high soprano. And most of those are medium sopranos. Some women do have tenor voices which are lower than an alto but they’re few and far between. Men are either bass, baritone, or tenor and some high-tenor. Since I work predominantly with female singers, I will stick to giving advice about female vocal ranges. A skilled vocalist can help you identify your range by playing around some with warm-ups and slowly stretching your voice up and down past your comfort zone. Most women should assume they are medium sopranos and able to reach between a G below middle C to the high E without training. What many people don’t realize is that vocal quality is just as important as vocal reach. True altos have a deeper vocal quality than sopranos. A soprano may stick within the alto range and call herself an alto but doesn’t have the true “alto” sound. Jazz artist Diana Krall and Christian singer Kathy Triccoli have the alto quality. I am a medium soprano who loves to sing the alto part because it’s comfortable and I can harmonize, but I’m not an alto.

**How can I sing better?

Here are some very basic ways you can start to identify where your voice needs improvement and understand the benefits of better vocal control:

• Record yourself singing and listen to yourself without any loud music to cover up your voice. It’ll be scary, but you’ll find all the weaknesses!!
• As you sing in the car, suddenly turn down the music and keep singing so you can very clearly hear your own voice. Getting used to hearing the sound of your voice helps you to become more attuned to it and aware of what you struggle with. Anyone can sing great when they’re only half-hearing themselves.
• Listen to professional classical and jazz singers. Classical singing is very controlled and requires extreme training and ability. Jazz vocalists also have lots of control and the jazz style is more applicable to the everyday singer. When you have a goal to work towards, you will know what you need to change and work on. DO NOT let pop singers set your standard for you. Phantom of the Opera’s Sarah Brightman is an excellent classical example, jazz artist Jane Monheit, Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Holly Cole, and Loreena McKennit are a few of my favorites.
• DO NOT try to sound like someone else when you sing. It’s one thing to adapt someone else’s good and healthy singing skills, but trying to have their voice quality and sing just like them will cause you to strain and contort your voice. It’s not healthy. Don’t do it. Just sing along using your best voice.
• DO NOT STRAIN. Do not try to sing too loud over music that is already loud, do not try to strain high notes with your chest voice like many pop singers do, and do not sing for long periods if you don’t know how to do it in a healthy manner.
• One of the first principles I introduce to students is the difference between the head and chest voice. Your chest voice is used when you’re singing lower in your range and at some point your body automatically tries to transition from your chest voice to your head voice as you move up the scale. Learning where you transition and how to smoothly make the transition is very important for control. The head voice should be in charge of the majority of your range. Most people try to stretch their chest voice up too high and end up sounding nasal or forced. If a note is nasal or forced, that’s a good indication you should be using your head voice for it. Most people can naturally control their chest voice fairly well, it’s the head voice that is often what students work on the most.
• Breath control is extremely important to quality singing. If you have good breath control, your shoulders should not move up and down when you take a breath. Your breathing is not focused on the lungs area, breaths are taken in and go straight down to the lower diaphragm. To breath better, look in the mirror to make sure your shoulders don’t move as you take in breaths. Focus on inhaling deeply and sending the air straight down between the lower part of your ribs and behind the navel. Let your breath out slowly and as controlled as possible. Once you know where to put the air, sing long phrases that force you to use one breath for as long as you can possibly use it and then keep going. Breath control is about creating as much quality sound as possible on as little air as possible. It takes lots of time and patience to get this principle right.

Any other questions or comments? I’d be happy to answer