Hammond Music

Posts Tagged ‘Singing’

Seasoned singers and beginners alike realize the importance of including vocal warm up exercises in their daily singing sessions. Most singers and instructors are well aware of the benefits associated with vocal warm up exercises such as improvement in voice strength and quality and the removal of muscle tension. For the warm up exercises to be effective they should be done for at least 20 minutes. It should be started after drinking lots of fluids to lubricate and moisturize the vocal chords. 

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Vocal warm up exercises help to condition the voice producing organs by augmenting the blood flow to them. It is important to relax yourself mentally and physically before starting the warm up exercises. This should be followed by breathing exercises, vocal strength improvement exercises and pitch exercises. It is not unusual to start enjoying certain warm up exercises and form a routine incorporating them. 

But if you are just starting out your instructor may be able to advise you on warm up exercises specific to your level of expertise. It’s normal to enjoy and benefit from certain exercises more than the others and you should incorporate these in your daily regimen instead of following set guidelines. You have to make sure that you start the warm up exercises at the mid-range which is usually the comfort zone for most singers and then proceed to the higher and lower ranges. There are many books and online programs that provide a wealth of information on the topic. Seeking the help of a voice professional is another option and even though it may be expensive it will help you to develop a set of vocal warm up exercises that will be customized to your needs. 

Some of the common exercises include: 

Yawning while you Sigh: This is a very simple exercise where you yawn normally inhaling deeply with your shoulders, jaw and tongue relaxed and then exhale with an audible sound. 

The Hmmm Exercise: Use the hmmm sound at a comfortable pitch and then change the sound halfway through the exhaled breath. 

Using a Straw: Inhale through a yawn but when exhaling use a straw. 

The ‘huh’ exhalation: To begin with,  breathe in deeply feeling your chest and diaphragm expand to the maximum capacity and then exhale sharply by clenching the abdominal muscles and breathing out with an audible ‘huh’ sound. 

{Vowel Sounds}: A good exercise to relax the jaw and to improve pitch range is to sing various combinations of consonant and vowel sounds at different scales ranging from low to high and vice versa. 

{Tongue Twisters}: Tongue Twisters like ‘ She sells sea shells on the sea shore’ can also be used in warm-up routines. This exercise is very helpful in relieving tension from articulators like the palate, throat, tongue and lips. You can also use the exercise to improve your pitch level by singing the tongue twister at various pitch levels. 

Listed below are a few of the benefits associated with warm up exercises: 

• Augments Stamina
• Improves the vocal range
• Mental and Physical conditioning
• Increases voice control
• Promotes correct breathing
• Helps to prepare articulators for singing to avoid damage
• Increases vocal strength 

There is no disputing the fact that vocal warm up exercises are necessary to keep your voice and speech organs in the best condition. 

For more information on vocal warm up exercises please visit this page on my website The importance of Vocal Warm Up Exercises

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Visit my Blog Pamela C Smith’s Singing Blog

It is true to say that nearly everyone loves a bit of a sing song every now and again. It doesn’t matter if you can sing or not, singing is a great way to boost a mood.

Singing has been raised through the roof over the past five years or so through television shows such as Britain/America’s got talent as well as American Idol and the X-Factor. These shows have encouraged many to go in and audition with the chance of becoming a huge star themselves. The most successful of all of these seems to have been Kelly Clarkson but it is also true to say that without these shows these singers would almost certainly still be unheard of today.

Of course many people will enjoy having a sing along with just themselves but many also love to sing with their friends too. So if you think you are actually half decent at singing why not buy one of those microphones, start singing and get ready to do something about it! There are many brands out there like Shure and AKG that are perfect for experienced or inexperienced singers and with the right sound system you could really get started.

{Trying out for one of these shows could actually put you where you want to be}? It’s tough to get a break if you can actually sing but if you really can chances are you will at least get through to the first round which is very useful as record companies will have front row seats to your performance. It never hurts to give it a go and if you really beliee you have the skills to become a professional singer then there should be no reason at all why you cannot do something about it,.

Of course the alternative is simply buying Lips for the Xbox 360 or Sony’s equivalent of Singstar if you would rather simply enjoy a sing along to your favourite songs.

To sing backup, you must learn to serve the music, not yourself. The meaning of singing backup is to sing behind someone, not compete with them. If you can control your need to be the center of attention, you can learn backup singing.

This is a difficult skill to learn and is not much understood or appreciated. Backup singing requires a great amount of listening and being very sensitive to the main singer, much as an instrumental accompanist would. You have to begin and end the phrase exactly as the main singer does, you must breathe as they do. As a shadow is always there, so is the effective backup singer.

If you can control your place on the stage, see to it that you can see the singer at all times. If you cannot see the face of the singer your job will be difficult indeed. You must watch the main singer always. If you are watching the singer you can see when they make a mistake or intentionally take another repeat etc. Keep your eyes on the singer. The singer may use a hand gesture to indicate a repeat from the top or even a modulation so be aware.

Learn to blend your phrasing to the will of the singer. If you want to blend in the proper way, start your melody just after the singer starts theirs. Sometimes you are not sure of how loud the singer will be so start quietly and gradually come up to the proper level after the line develops. Another tip is to be easy on the consonants at the start of a melody. If you pronounce a consonant too hard and it is slightly off from the main singers line, it will be very noticeable and disagreeable.

The same technique is to be applied to the ending of all melodies as well. As the singer approaches the end of a melody, gradually decrease your volume so you can avoid the embarrassment of ending after they do. So learn to blend melodies, listen and watch the main singer and you can be a backup singer every band wants to hire.

A few points to remember about expanding your vocal abilities are as follows.

If you are well versed in the rudiments of voice, only then can you work on the extreme methods we will be discussing here. This is absolutely necessary. You can very easily harm your voice if you work it too hard without grasping how it works. If you have not been able to talk one day after yelling at a soccer game the day before, you know how it feels to have a hoarse voice.

Vocal ranges are defined as soprano, alto, tenor and bass. You will see this referred to as SATB. The lowest note you can sing to the highest note you can sing adequately is your range, to put it simply. You can define your range yourself by singing slowly up from middle C and down as well until you feel you are uncomfortable. Only when you know what your range is, can you enhanceit.

In order that you do not set yourself up for failure, set an achievable goal. If you want to be reasonable, do not set a goal of reaching an extra octave of range in the near future. Injury will certainly result if you are too ambitious. Practice and diligence are the only things that will bring results. As an athlete would do, warm up before you try to work on advanced singing techniques. Warming up is done by all singers and with good reason.

Only with time will your voice improve and become more flexible. A singer wil not reach the top of their form without following this rule.

Always get guidance from an instructor or program in order to improve. Teacher to student is the best way, albeit expensive. Many online programs offer a perfectly acceptable alternative to the instructor and student relationship.

Here are two exercise tips for your at home singing between lessons.

Study standing, facing a mirror. In this way you can observe the position of your jaw and chest. Your posture should be correct and your jaw should not reach up for the high note. Even though it seems natural to reach to hit a note, it does you harm, not good.

It is a hard reality, but if you want to advance, you must record yourself so you can hear what you are actually doing and sound like, not what you think you sound like. It is a shock at first to hear what you sound like, but if you continue to use this valuable tool you will improve even quicker. You can go over your lesson again and again if you record it. Try to get the most bang for your buck, as they say, and record yourself for further study.

The study of state-of-the-art singing is rewarding and can be done with effort and patience.

All singers admire those who can sing high notes with apparent ease. If you would like to be able to improve the range of your voice, consider these points.

It is necessary of course to have a strong foundation of previous vocal training upon which to build before attempting this area of advanced study. Even with knowledge of singing it is still possible to harm your voice through over use.

If you would like to extend your vocal range, you must have a good idea what your range covers today. Range is loosely defined as the lowest note you can sing most of the time to the highest. The divisions of ranges are bass, tenor, alto and soprano. To improve your voice will take time, this is no quick fix program. A complete warm up is necessary before you work on  any advanced technique. Easy  is the key word here. If you want to not injure your voice, make sure you vocalize before you perform. Warming up is so important it can absolutely not be over emphasized. If you vocalize before you perform, your voice will be pliable . The voice will last well into old age if you treat it well .

If you want to improve even faster, record your voice during your lesson and performances. If you can  sincerely judge your performance, you can improve much quicker. This is an excellent method to hear your performance, learn from your mistakes and triumph over your success as well.

You can monitor your position and posture if you stand in front of a mirror while you practice. This will help you enhance your voice that much faster. While singing, the only thing that should move is your vocal cords. When singers lift their jaw when they try to sing higher, they are limiting the vocal cords and working against themselves.

Working with a competent teacher or through a college-level course is fundamental if you expect to make long lasting progress in extending your vocal range. This will make certain that you have the guidance that you need.

The printed music is the roadmap through which all musicians adhere to, and when you learn to read music you will know the very meaning of the phrase “being on the same page”.

It would be foolish to expect that someone could speak with a Spanish speaker without knowledge of the language, why then would we expect to be able to communicate with one another without the basics of this language?

Ensembles, bands, choirs, opera, jazz all operate on the written notes first. As soon as man could sing he wanted to pass on his songs to the next  generation, hence the need for written music.

Before improvisation was the written note.

It all comes down to if you cannot read; you cannot be with a group that reads. This leaves you as a performer left out of a large portion of musical performance venues.

You cannot comprehend music theory without the notes on the page. The theory of music is by necessity based on the written note. You may say this sounds very difficult and it may be, but all music theory comes from the written page and harmony, melody and structure cannot be understood otherwise.

Learn a song without any other reference. When you follow music you can learn a song without an instrument in your hand. If you can read music you can go straight to the book and get all of the basic information on your own. Have you ever learned a song from someone else and not known if you got it right or got all of the information you need? If you can read you can learn a song much faster and more completely without having to play a cd over and over and wonder if you got it right.

You can learn exactly how the author of the song meant for it to sound. It can open up new worlds when you read a song from the authors’ point of view, only to find all of the versions you ever heard did not include 
the intro or coda or a repeat etc. In “Georgia On My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, for example, no ones plays the intro. The fact remains that just because you have heard it on the radio a million times does not mean it was written that way. It may be even better the way the author originally intended it! If you are involved in songwriting, I am sure you would want people to know the way you wrote it. Think about that for a moment.

When you can read music the discovery of new worlds awaits you. If you can read music you can open up a songbook and discover new worlds. I have found many songs this way that are favorites of mine now and if I did not read I certainly would never have found them.

Discover new music you would never know otherwise. When I was young it was hard to learn to ride a bike and I fell over a lot. These days I hardly fall at all. The same is true with any new skill, it is hard at first but soon you begin to move past that and grow.

You will only become a better musician if you learn to read music.    Are you prepared to discover new music, perform with people you  might never have met otherwise, speak with authority about the origins and intent of a particular piece of music or composer? Learn to read music, you will not be sorry.

In the past if you needed to learn how to play guitar, play piano, or sing you had to hire a local instructor for private lessons. This was a very expensive way to go about learning music! It was also not always particularly effective because the unfortunate fact is, many local music instructors are horrible at teaching and getting music lessons from such a teacher may be much worse than not receiving music lessons at all.

Now it’s the internet age and it’s much more easy to get the musical lessons you desire as you can download them on the internet immediately. This means there’s nothing to wait for. These lessons are also satisfaction guaranteed which means there’s not any risk in trying it out.

Singorama online singing lessons are the recommended singing lessons. Everything you need to learn how to sing like a real professional is included and you can actually be singing just like a pro in less than three months if you follow the program closely. As previously mentioned, the program is fully satisfaction guaranteed and can be downloaded online instantly. You can start learning to sing exactly like your favorite vocalist whether it be Justin Timberlake or Thom Yorke. These singing lessons also include a lot of great free bonuses such as a free “mini recording studio” which you will also get instant access to.

Jamorama Online Guitar Lessons are the recommended guitar lessons. You can learn to play like your favorite guitarists and also develop a style of your own with these very effective guitar lessons. As with Singorama, Jamorama can be downloaded online immediately. If you want to be a great guitarist, why should you wait? Start learning to play like The Beatles, The Edge, Radiohead, and Keith Richards today!

Rocket Online Piano Lessons are the recommended online piano lessons. Rocket Piano is just as effective for learning to play piano as Singorama is for learning to sing and Jamorama is for guitar. It is highly recommended that you learn to play piano even if it’s not to be your main instrument. It really helps you to understand music when you can play piano. With these lessons you’ll learn how to play your favorite songs on the piano whether they are by Billy Joel or Mozart.

If it’s your dream to be a truly great vocalist then I have some very good info for you: Singorama.com is the totally guaranteed online singing lessons program that will have you singing like a professional in just three months.

It’s a myth that only certain people are “born with” the ability to be a great singer. Being a singer is something that is inside of almost everyone (except for the people with serious issues such as being tone deaf but this is a rare.) Just like any other skill, it just takes practice.

With Singorama singing lessons you will greatly improve your voice. You will learn how to always sing in tune and you will also expand your singing range (you will be able to sing both lower and higher.) You will learn how to sing harmony parts as well as lead! If you are a big fan of groups like The Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills, & Nash then you will greatly enjoy the ability to sing those beautiful harmony parts.

One of the really great things about singorama online singing lessons is that you’ll be downloading these lessons within minutes from right now. You can start practicing right away. You will start hearing an improvement in your vocal abilities within minutes.

These singing lessons are 100% guaranteed to work for you with a full 8 week money back refund period. Try to get that with private singing lessons! It’s really just not going to happen.

Yes, I actually think that Singorama is better than private singing lessons. Because you with private lessons you often get a sub par teacher who doesn’t really know what they are doing and you also often get someone with a really nasty attitude that  really impedes your progress. With these great online lessons you don’t have to worry about that.

You will also get some great free bonus materials like the mini recording studio and Jayde software for learning how to read music.

Don’t wait another minute! Why wait? Begin reaching for your goals! Maybe you will be the next American Idol?