Keep the tongue in a relaxed position. Feel the back of your lower front teeth. The tip of the tongue should remain here. Try touching the tip of the tongue to the lower gum ridge, located at the bottom of those teeth. Wherever it feels more comfortable is where you should concentrate on keeping the tongue. The back of the tongue will rest begind the tip in an arch. The shape of the arch will change for different vowels, but the tip will move quickly only for the production of consonants, but should return quickly to the place of rest.
A relaxed larynx is ideal. When you're singing, gently place a hand on your larynx. As air enters the lungs, the larynx moves down a bit. As you begin singing, the larynx should not move upwards. The larynx tends to move up as you sing higher notes. This is not the correct position. As you move higher, without straining, try to keep the larynx relaxed. Higher pitches require more space, and an elevated larynx shortens the resonator tract, making higheer notes more difficult. The larynx should never be forced down.
Legato singing: The key to legato singing is maintaining breath flow and not allowing anything to close off or change. Beginning singers often allow airflow to cease for a brief moment and change the shape of their resonators by dropping the soft palate in between notes. Consider a cello player. When he places his bow on his cello, he doesn't pick it up and start over again for each note. He keeps moving, maintaining the position of his bow, never allowing it to lift for legato playing.
Jaw placement: There is a tendency for many singers to push the jaw forwards, especially for higher pitches. This elevates the larynx, which contradicts what the singer is trying to accomplish (this is one way the mirror is beneficial). Pushing the jaw down or locking it in one position causes tension. Try this-- put both hands hon your jaw bones in front of your ears. This is your temporal mandibular joint, or TMJ. This is the joint where your jaw connects to your skull. Allow your jaw to drop, not allowing it to push forward. Now drop your jaw down as far as you can. At one point, you will feel a strong action at the TMJ. This is the point where your jaw has been forced down too far, creating tension. When you are singing, you don't want to get to this point. Maintaining such a position for a period of time will cause a large amount of tension at the laryngeal level. You should feel as though the jaw is hanging loosely, feeling space in between your back teeth.
Don't bring the lips forward to sing. There are some out there that advocate puckered lips, often in choirs. This creates tension and tightens the back of the throat, creating less space for resonance.
Smiling while singing is often asked for by directors of young choirs. Forced smiling is another source of tension, and creates a sharp, pinched sound. A gentle smile or a pleasant look, however, helps lift the soft palate, creating more space. This is a desirable effect.
Holding the head in a position of tension causes the shape of your insturment to change. Air flowing though the vocal tract becomes pinched. Therefore, do note hold the head in tension forward or back.
Vibrato is a natural occurrence. Vibrato is how the vocal folds relax slightly. Trying to eliminate vibrato places strain on the vocal folds. Straight-tone singing is also a source of intonation problems. Unfortunately, an alarming majority of choral directors advocate straight-tone singing due to being misinformed on how the voice works and the purpose of vibrato. There is the slow and abnormally wide vibrato, called oscillation. This often occurs in choral singers because they don't sing often enough or get the physical eercise needed to maintain the muscles needed for singing. The muscles of inspiration, expiration, posture, and the vocal folds are weak. Practice and physical exercise is the key to alleviating this problem. Telling them to "take out" the vibrato is not. This will merely cause frustration for the singer. How can the singer possibly continue to enjoy his hobby when he is told to do something that physically hurts instead of being given a real solution to the problem?
Don't be in a hurry to classify your voice. You have to learn how to sing correctly before the type of voice you have can be determiined. Some voices are obvious early on in study, others are not. In a rush to classify a voice right away, one can be sent studying the wrong music and straining the voice. Early in studying, it may even be unclear whether you are dealing with a soprano or mezzo voice, a tenor or a baritone. This is not uncommon, and it is nothing to worry about. Just concentrate on learning how to sing correctly, and the voice will expose itself.
Finding a teacher: Choosing a voice teacher is the most important decision you will ever make in regard to singing. A teacher can help you immensely in finding your voice, or he can harm you, even causeing permanent vocal damage. You can't even consider getting by without one. It is critical that you learn everything you can about a prospective teacher. Ask him if you may sit in on a lesson. Any teacher worth his salt will allow you, with his student's permission. Any teacher who declines should be avoided if he expects you to blindly trust your voice to him, when you know notheing about his teaching technique. You may ask other students about their experiences with the teacher, but "take everything with a grain of salt". There are various reasons why a student would gi ve you positive or negative information about a teacher, and there are two sides to every story. Use your intelligence. Don't study with a teacher just because he has a fabulous voice either. Sometimes the best singers make the worst teachers. Ther are vocalists out there that are just naturally talented, and learning how to sing so beautifully came far easier to them than their peers. They may not have had to work so hard. There were problems that they never encountered, so they haven't the foggiest idea how to fix them when they encounter them in their students.
Don't expect immediate change. Just because there isn't immediate improvement after your first lesson doesn't mean you don't have a great teacher. Your teacher also has to learn about your voice, figure out how you learn, in what way you process information best. It can take a long time, be patient. Remember, you need to do all the work. Your teacher is there to give you the information. It's your responsibility to learn by working hard. However, if you feel you're moving backwards, or if you feel more tension or pain than before when you sing, there may be a problem. Don't waste your time with a teacher who is harming your voice. Watch for signs of vocal fatigue: pain or hoarseness.
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