Tips and Tricks
Tip 1: Posture
Posture is very important to your singing ability. If you have bad posture you will sound bad and you will strain and therefore ruin your voice. Choirs always have great posture and have a great sound in result.
These are the steps to perfect posture:
- Feet slightly apart
- Knees slightly bent
- Spine aligned
- Abdomen flat
- Chest forward
- Shoulders down and back
- Face forward (musical theatre is the exception to this step)
It is a common misconception that sitting is bad for your voice. The truth is that it doesn't necessarily ruin your voice if you sit down as long as you have good posture. individuals in wheelchairs can sing as good as anyone else.
Tip 2: Do not cry
This tip is for musical theater singers or actors. If you are on stage or on set, no matter what you can not cry. Imagine taking the most priceless instrument in your hands and then dunking it in a bucket of water. That is what you are doing to your voice when you cry. Don't do it.
Many stage performers will make it look like they are crying through their expression and gestures, but not actually cry. Do this instead.
Tip 4: Practice
Your voice is like a muscle. The more you work it out, the stronger it gets. Remember to practice singing often. But practicing too much can be dangerous. It's like straining your muscles. Remember this: only sing the songs you can handle and only sing the notes you can hit.
Tip 5: Only 1 Teacher
When looking for a singing teacher, it is okay to be picky. Some might not fit your needs. But swichting teachers often is even worse than choosing a teacher who doesn't work perfectly with your voice. All teachers will teach differently. You will be starting over every time.
Trick 1: Warm Ups
Before you get singing, remember to warm up. You can do this by singing the Do Re Mi scale starting with different notes and going higher as you go along. "Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do."
Another warm up that is great for your voice is doing raspberries with your lips. You press your lips together and blow, then you hum at the same time. Go up and down like a siren.
Trick 2: Use Your Abs
Too many singers do not know this: you have to sing from your gut and not your throat. This will make your throat less tired and make you more loud and powerful. You abs should be tired after singing a hard song.
Trick 3: Open Your Mouth
Have you ever seen opera singers sing? Did you notice that their mouths are open super long? This is because the vibrations from their voice bounce off the top of their mouth and leave their mouth much louder when they do this.
This also helps with their pronunciation.
Trick 4: Vibrato
Vibrato is alternating quickly and subtly between two pitches or notes that are very close together. To develop it, try switching between notes slowly and then speed it up more and more. Listen to professionals vibrato as well.
Untrained singers will use vibrato too much and too dramatically. Vibrato is best when subtle. Vibrato also takes a lot of practice to get right and despite what some singing teachers might say, it is not necessary in becoming a good singer.