Singing Is Fun!
Or is it not?
If you didn’t love singing you would not be reading this. But the fact that your reading this also indicates that you think you could sing better. Maybe you dream of being a professional singer or maybe you just want to be able to sing happy birthday without being self conscious.
No matter what your goals, there is no doubt in my mind that everyone can improve they’re singing. Not next year or next month. No, you can improve your singing today!
Learn how to sing better
A Word of Caution
- If at any point when you are singing you feel pain. Stop!
- Take a break. Have a drink of water.
- Then start back carefully. If you feel pain again, stop for the day.
- If this continues for a few days find a qualified voice teacher to see if they can help.
- If you feel pain then something is wrong.
Breathing and Singing
Breathing is the single most important thing in singing. Think about when you sing or talk. Does any sound come out if you don’t blow some air out? No, there is no way to make a sound if there is no air passing through the larynx.
Both singing and talking require air the vocal cords to vibrate. This vibration is created primarily by air flow. Air is the fuel that drives singing. So it is important that when we sing we make sure that there is a proper airflow. The good thing is that there is an unlimited supply of fuel for our singing. However, even though we have an unlimited supply of air; we still need to practice breath control so we can sing long phrases.
Posture and Singing
The second most important ability in the art of singing is a flexible, erect posture. Many times when a singer becomes aware of their posture they overcompensate. They become as stiff as statues, this is as bad as slouching because It causes unnecessary tension. Try to find a balance between slouching and imitating a statue. Be aware of your posture, be able to move when you need to.
Vowels and Singing
Vowels are what you actually sing. Yes, you sing as well consonants. But the vowels are the part of the words that make a performance good or bad. If you sing vowels properly not only will listeners be able to understand you better, you will find it easier to sing. Proper vowel shape allows you to sing high notes with ease, helps with breath, and makes your voice powerful.
Pitch and Singing
We’ve all heard someone singing that made us cringe, normally because they had a poor sense of pitch. It’s normally only when someone has terrible pitch issues that we really think about pitch. However, only a very few of us can claim to have perfect pitch. The rest of us are mere mortals. Now you may not have many pitch issues, but everyone can benefit by practicing scales. You can practice scales easily by only playing the white keys on a piano. Try to learn to sing both descending and ascending scales this is the best way to improve you sense of pitch. When you can do this start trying to add skips (leave notes out of the scale). This is called ear training and is vitally important to being able to stay on pitch when singing.
Keep at It
Learning to sing takes time. The best thing you can do is to sing a lot. Always try to apply the things you have learned. And always make sure to pay attention to the feedback your body is giving you.
