MORE Practical Ways to Practice Singing

Thanks for being interested in learning all kinds of easy, practical ways to work on your singing, EVEN when you’re out crazily running through all the busy-ness of your life.  It’s still possible, it’s actually still EASY to work on your craft, to rehabilitate, strengthen and improve your instrument.  Here are some MORE (see Blog Post 65 for the beginning suggestions) simple ways to make that happen:

•            SING IN THE SHOWER - Try your trills here; the best of all worlds.  It’s nice and humid; you’re relaxed; and there are, almost certainly, great acoustics with lots of ceramic tile around the room.  Of course, this is not the “ultimate” workout for your voice but it’s still AN opportunity and one you should take advantage of.  It is also very helpful to “smile for the cameras”, so to speak, into your bathroom mirror.  When you sing, it is VERY important to watch yourself at points to make certain you ARE relaxed; your chin is not “lifted”; your neck doesn’t look strained or taunt, and no blood vessels are popping out; and that you are not “mugging”.  Mugging is indicated by any kind of facial “movements” or “tics”.  This could be a strange way of holding your head on a high note, wrinkling up your forehead, squeezing together your eyebrows, or squinting…anything that distracts your audience from your performance and onto whatever the “tic” is.  Some performers can use these to their advantage but this is definitely the exception, not the rule.  Joe Cocker often appeared to be convulsing as he sang but it was all part of his act.  Julio Iglesias would tilt his head to one side while essentially caressing himself so that the resulting effect is quite sexual and sensual.  Most of the time, however, the audience is much more likely to see the behavior and think something is wrong.  Unfortunately, that will lead them to try to figure out WHAT is wrong, and not focus on your singing.   SO, check out your reflection in the mirror when you sing and STAY RELAXED!

•            TONGUE TWISTERS - You may think that only actual singing is good practice for your voice but Articulation is incredibly valuable AND working with Tongue Twisters can also boost your breath control.  You can check the blog posts from August 14, 2016 on Quick Tongue Twisters and/or August 22, 2016 - Tongue Twisters #2, for LOTS and LOTS of examples of Tongue Twisters.  Any of you who have taken lessons with me know that I LOVE to use Tongue Twisters to inject humor into your singing, as well as forcing you to concentrate so much on articulating the Tongue Twisters that you forget to stress about your vocal production.  Obviously, when you’re on your own, it may be difficult for you to do “impromptu” Tongue Twister Vocal Exercises BUT they REALLY are fun and VERY helpful.  I like “Chester Cheetah Chewed a Chunk of Cheap Cheddar Cheese.”  It’s a simple 5-tone scale up and back.  This same exercise is easy to do with many of the “Quick” Tongue Twisters.  Soon, I will be adding some YouTube links of more Tongue Twister Vocal Exercises.

•            HUMMING - Humming is another, truly ideal Vocal Exercise that is soothing and warming for your voice.  Humming is an incredibly “healthy” exercise for the voice because to produce it correctly, humming puts the Vocal Folds into the best position for resonation, and SHOULD allow them the best chance of remaining relaxed, loose, and unencumbered during vocal production.  Part of the real “key” to humming is to do it, as mentioned above, in a calm, comfortable, unrestrained, even serene way.  If there is ANY tension, pressure, or strain in your upper body, neck, mouth, jaw, ANYWHERE, STOPPPPP!  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a relaxed throat.  Done correctly, humming is SO relaxing, soothing, and comforting.  Humming can be an effective tool for HEALING the voice; this is how powerful an exercise humming can be.  Start out by humming rather low in your range, not EXCESSIVELY OR HARSHLY but gently and comfortably.  You can simply hum a single note, as if you were responding to the delicious aroma of homemade cookies wafting from your kitchen window.  Next, try humming two notes, ANY two notes, whether they are right next to each other or an octave apart but try to “connect” the two notes rather than producing them in the fashion of two “individual”, separate notes.  Continue humming any and all exercises, OR songs.  Pretty much everyone knows “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, “The Alphabet Song”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.  No, you don’t HAVE to hum these songs but I am trying to suggest some easy songs that you probably already know, and that you wouldn’t need a recording to follow along with.  You can do this ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.  I am a BIG Post-it Fan.  Write yourself a Post-it to remind you to hum a song every time you come to a Red Light.  You won’t have to sit there longer than a minute or two but even THAT short amount of time contributes positively toward helping your voice, and if you leave Post-it reminders in your car, by your toilet, and/or over your kitchen sink, so you can hum songs during multiple intervals during each day, your benefit will be multiplied as well.

•            SINGLE NOTE WARMING - The Vocal Vowels are: ah, eh, ee, aw (rounded), oo, being careful NOT to allow these vowel sounds to become “Diphthongs”.  A Diphthong is when one vowel sound is created but actually utilizing TWO different vowel sounds, such as “ay”, which would be made up of “eh” + “ee”.  “Oh” is really “aw” + “oo”.  Keeping this in mind, I like to add either a “n” or “g” sound before the vowel sound.  Therefore, you just choose one note and, singing one syllable after the other, sing “Nah, Neh, Nee, Naw, Noo or Gah, Geh, Gee, Gaw, Goo”.  Sustain the sound.      Make certain there is no tension in your upper body, neck, or mouth, and this will work well toward building your breath control, as well. 

•            LIPS, CHEEKS, AND TONGUE - Once again, I gotta remind you that there are a LOT of different elements that make up singing, and one of those components is the coordination and management of movements of your lips, cheeks, and tongue.  These need to be relaxed and yet controlled enough that you are able to easily and quickly move from one consonant sound to another, or even back and forth between several.  These exercises can be performed using a 5-tone scale up and back, a broken, arpeggiated scale, and similar to the “Single Note Warm-up” above on syllables utilizing consonant sounds including “buh, kuh, muh, duh, nuh, puh, fuh, juh, yuh, ruh, guh, luh, wuh, tuh, vuh, zuh, suh, bruh, druh, cluh, fruh, gruh, gluh, plus, sluh, stuh, struh, true, and any others you can think of, or, literally, thoroughly relaxing every muscle and “shaking out” all the muscles of your face..  To start with, you can do one entire exercise with a single consonant sound, such as “puh puh, puh, puh, puh”.  Next, trying switching between TWO sounds, such as “Buh, kuh, buh, kuh, buh”, and then THREE, FOUR, and FIVE.  This is, just like Tongue Twisters, a wonderful way to build breath control, articulation skills, and focus your attention on a stress-free production.

•            DIADOKOKINETICS - Whoa, that’s quite a mouthful, huh?  It’s also an amazing way to warm-up your mouth, lips, cheeks, and tongue.  You say the three syllables, “Puh, tuh, kuh” over and over, speeding up as you go.  The goal is to articulate the syllables crisply and cleanly, and as quickly as you can express them.  As always, there should be NO tension through your throat, mouth, chest, or anywhere in your upper body.  This is actually more difficult than you might think but as you learn to control and distribute your breath, it becomes easier and easier, while building your articulation and presentational skills, as well.

         So, as I promised, LOTS of different options for quick, easy, and even “fun” ways to work your voice each and every day, to stretch, strengthen, and invigorate your voice.  If you are really serious about improving your voice, about giving your voice every opportunity to become more elastic, have greater range, and possess a stronger spectrum of dynamic and character presentation, these exercises are really helpful.  Remember, you are learning to speak a new “language” but also remember that every time you do an exercise like the ones here, you are “chewing up” a bite of that “elephant”.  I wanted to include the following quote from world renowned voice teacher, Billy Purcell.  He says, “Sorry, man – singing in the shower is NOT practicing!  Oh, it’s fun, and sure, it’s better than NOT singing in the shower (maybe) but… practice?  No, I don’t think so, and neither should you.  Practice means being focused; practice is warming up your voice properly; practice is using a track or instrument to keep you in the “pocket”; practice is reviewing runs or riffs and making sure they are being sung accurately; practice is singing “correctly” to the high notes, even if it doesn’t feel like you’re ready to perform those in public yet.”

You might hear comments like this from a lot of people but I’m here to tell you that, OF COURSE, a full-blown versatile vocal exercise routine, standing in front of a mirror with plenty of room temperature or warmer water, for approximately 20 minutes per day is fabulous and ideal, I completely understand that in this day and age, it is also incredibly impractical for most “normal” days.  The exercises I’ve included here ARE helpful; they absolutely DO help your voice and performed consistently and for a significant enough amount of time, Mr. Purcell is incorrect; these exercises can considerably and incontrovertibly aid you in building a voice, which is persistently constant, powerful and vigorous, and encouragingly controllable.  This is the dream of every singer and you can make sure it becomes a reality as you apply yourself to work steadily and frequently; your results are guaranteed to be commendable, measurable, and positive.  Any voice teacher will be able to hear AND SHOW you exactly HOW and HOW MUCH you have grown and expanded the parameters of your vocal range, and how you have broadened the possibilities of the type and style of characters you are best able to perform vocally.  All these little things CAN and DO make a wonderful difference.  Yes, every time you have the opportunity, you should practice your singing in the MOST IDEAL format I profiled at the very top of the previous post.  This way you never again have to think you can’t practice your singing; YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN PRACTICE!  Now, hopefully, you have some practical ideas about how to do it.  Have fun!  ENJOY YOUR SINGING!  If you have any questions about my lessons or about me, check out my website at www.SingitForward.net.  I really want to hear from you; please send me any and all questions, comments, and suggestions for future blog post topics.  Have a great day!  Sing it Forward!