goodandevil

The Good | Learning New Tricks

If someone’s known me for any length of time, they know my stance on singing: I like to do it, but it doesn’t make me very good at it. No, not even with practice. My parents have simply been as fun-loving and supportive as they have good role models, so I grew up not just around quality music that predates me, but also around people who actually burst into song because they enjoyed it all so much.

That said, I’ve always wanted to be a good singer. Not professional-quality, though I’d love to get voice lesson. Not even Idol or cruise ship good. Just ‘ringer-at-karaoke’ good. That would work for me. Am I there? That remains to be seen - though I did just do a sporting job at some local karaoke - but certainly I’m farther along the road to that goal than I have been in the past. Mostly it’s come from singing along to good music that demands a lot from you (in my case, the Phantom of the Opera original cast recording), and some of the following tips I’ve collected.

1. Make a “Tsst!” sound, described as a leaky tire, using just your tongue against your teeth. It seems like an imitation of someone with a strong lisp, but it’s actually more about the teeth. If you’ve taken a deep breath before forcing it out though the space between your teeth, this is said to strengthen your diaphragm.
2. Similar to the advice of Frank Sinatra, see yourself as an instrument. Play it note by note, and don’t waver. That will come naturally later and you’ll fall into a style. Anything else right now when you’re first starting will be mimicry and throw you off from the meat of understanding what you’re doing.
3. Much as I’m sure you conduct your blogging affairs, visualize an audience to whom you’re singing. Make it big, and make them care. Then, make it good. I didn’t realize the effect this could have until I had to sing in front of a big group again.
4. Don’t force it out. See how powerful you can get while making it feel as if it’s not taking near the effort that you think would be proportionate to that sound.
5. Keep your tongue slightly concave at the base of your mouth except when absolutely necessary to properly articulate sounds (like “L” for example). This helps build resonance and takes out some of the artifacting you can do if you’ve got a strong accent or manner to how you form words.
6. I haven’t seen this corroborated anywhere in print, nor practiced often by professionals, but it works for me like a charm: For high notes, tilt your head down. For low notes, tilt your head up. I’m assuming it’s mostly about strain and air access.
7. As a warm-up exercise, stretch up and then out as far as you can and hold it for a length of time. This should open up the chest a bit, leading to better breathing and more space for the sound to bounce around in.
8. Overemphasize consonants but only really sing and extend vowels.
9. It’s arguable but I’ve heard the same mechanism for yelling is used for high notes. Sometimes that works for me, sometimes not. I think it’s meant for you to feel it out on your own. When you get it right you’ll see what they meant.
10. Vibrato should be allowed to come naturally, and not be forced. Also understand that the wavering is between soft and loud versions of the sound and not between sharp and flat versions of the actual note.

That’s it for now! Honestly, I tried tackling these one by one and they each made their own incremental difference. It can be hard to concentrate and make sure you’re adding them all together properly into one performance, but it’s worth it if you can practice enough to get it to become second nature.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS