How to Practice a Song

          It may sound foolish to consider that there are specific RIGHT ways or WRONG ways to work on or practice a song, whether you’re in your voice lesson, in your car, or on a stage.  However, as with many things, there are any number of ways to “approach” practicing a song BUT to CONSISTENTLY, EFFECTIVELY, and THOROUGHLY work on a song, there really is a “Formula for Success”, and here it is:

•            GET A PRISTINE COPY OF THE SONG’S SHEET MUSIC for marking up.  You can use the music to make notes and jot down arrangement directions on your copy; as you progress through this entire exercise, you can add notes on tempo, dynamics (see the blog posts on the Music Dictionary for definitions of tempo and its variations, as well as the various aspects of Dynamic markings), places where you want to add specific emotional emphasis, places where you need to make adjustments in pronunciation or articulation of a vowel sound…you should write everything you need to know about this piece of music, and everything you will need to know about it in the FUTURE, if you ever need to re-visit it.

•            PRINT OUT A DOUBLE-SPACED COPY OF THE SONG’S LYRICS

•            READ THE SONG LYRICS ALOUD, SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY, taking your time to notice exactly where every: Note (Type and Length); Rest (again, making note of their exact length to coordinate with other aspects of the song); Time Signature and Tempo marking changes; “Dynamics” changes; Rhythmic and/or Tempo alterations as notated; and where each and every breath needs to be taken.

•            MARK YOUR BREATHS - The performer should READ ALOUD all the lyrics to the song.  At EVERY point when the voice “lifts” IN ANY WAY AT ALL, the performer marks a check mark or a comma there in the lyrics.  EVERY SINGLE COMMA OR CHECK MARK means you take a BREATH in that spot.  Obviously, MOST of your breaths will have to be relatively SHORT but this is also a perfect opportunity to mark the lyrics appropriately for SHORT breaths, as well as LONG ones.  It is even smart to mark down in the margins exactly HOW LONG the breaths can be.  This may seem a ridiculous and time-wasting exercise to you but if you are serious about singing, there is, literally, NOTHING more important than breathing, and this particular “exercise” allows you to maximize every potential breath “opening” to give you more control over your breathing, your tone, your pitch, your emotional import, your articulation, your phrasing, and your overall performance.  This is a QUINTESSENTIAL activity!

•            FIND THE VERY BEST KEY FOR YOU - This means that unless you are doing a Musical Show, which is already published and purchased to be performed in one specific musical key, work with your voice teacher and/or accompanist to ascertain which musical key is best for you specifically.  The key needs to sound the best for YOU (not be too high or too low at any point; be able to be sung with power or with finesse, depending on whatever is needed; and still be appropriate for you, which means that, USUALLY, the female would not sing a song in too low or dark a key that might “sound” interesting but be potentially “confusing” to an audience, such as a seriously low/deep, sultry rendition of “The Sound of Music”).  Finding your BEST musical key can truly revolutionize the way a song “feels” to a singer, and certainly, the way it sounds to an audience.  The RIGHT key will “fit” best; all the “pieces” fall into place and the song will simply “work”, not to mention the fact that the singer will be much more confident and competent in his or her performance of the song, as well.

•            WORK THROUGH THE SONG, AT LEAST, ONE SMALL SECTION AT A TIME - Your voice teacher may choose to “sing through” the entire song once or twice just to get a general “feel” for the song but it is ALWAYS best, once you begin to work in earnest, to break the song down into small bite-sized groups of measures, not longer than EIGHT TO TWELVE BARS.  Your voice teacher may choose not to even work on the sections “in order”, as he or she may wish to group the sections by type, such as all the sections in the singer’s lower range or work specifically on sections of the end of the song, even a note or two at a time.  Many times on the end of a song, notes need to be held for extended periods of time.  You need to strategize with your voice teacher to develop helpful techniques and methodologies for successfully “attacking” or otherwise approaching the final note, as well as possibly temporarily altering the vowel of the word to improve the singer’s tone quality and control over the course of the extended passage.  Opening the note with a “friendlier” vowel can go a LONG way toward facilitating the successful prosecution of a note or passage, such as with the word “love”.  Instead of singing the “uh” or short “u” vowel sound, try opening with the more controlled “Oh” vowel (but NOT the diphthong, “Oh-OO”).  In this example, the singer would begin singing, essentially, “Loaves”.  However, just before the consonant “v” sound, you add the “uh” sound, so that the audience still HEARS “love”.  This is a wonderful “singer’s trick” that gives the singer much more control, actually greater articulation value, and ultimately, provides the audience with a better performance because intonation is far superior, as well as tone color and performer confidence.

•            PUT IT ALL TOGETHER - Once you have successfully honed all the individual sections of each song, it’s time to put the song back into its original, whole form, and add personalized, thoughtful emotion, dynamics, movement, and expression.

•            CUSTOM SONG SHEET - As a voice teacher, I provide my students with individual Song Sheets.  Please write to me for copies, if you’re interested.  My Sheets allow you to notate, of course, the song title; the original and customized musical key; all arrangement notes; the Metronome Tempo; Performance Dates, etc.  Copy of the Song Sheet and the singer’s particular arrangement, in the correct key, should be submitted together to the accompanist for any audition and/or performance.  The Song Sheet should contain all relevant song details so that any accompanist will be able to pick up the arrangement and play it flawlessly, the first time.

I hope this was a helpful post for each of you.  Thanks so much for reading!  Please send me your questions, comments, and/or any suggestions you have for future blog post topics.  If you have any questions about me or my lessons, check out my website at www.SingitForward.net.  Again, thanks for checking in here!  Sing it forward!