3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Singing
How to Improve Your Singing
Believe it or not, your voice is as much of an instrument as any piano or guitar. What that means, though, is that it’s possible to improve your singing with regular exercises and drills–it’s not all about natural talent! We’ve chosen three of our favorite techniques for their approachability, simplicity, and overall effectiveness, along with helpful video tutorials demonstrating what they sound like in action.
It’s All in Your Head…and Middle, and Chest!
There’s a concept in vocal training known as the three voices: your chest voice, middle voice, and head voice. As self-explanatory as these might be, it’s worth exploring them in greater detail. Different voices will find themselves more at home in one versus the others.
Your chest voice is where you’ll hear those bassy, buzzy, low notes–think of slow jazz standards, or something Dean Martin would sing, for reference. The bright-sounding middle voice, on the other hand, is home to most pop hits and other timeless radio classics. It can also be a bit tricky to slide into from the chest voice or the head voice. As for the head voice, you’ll hear this in a lot of operas along with other popular genres, like pop, R&B, and even rock.
Be Mindful of Volume
It can be tempting to show off the strength of your voice on the very first note. After all, who isn’t in awe of powerhouse voices like Whitney Houston and Ariana Grande? However, sometimes you can showcase your vocal power best by pulling back and singing softly.
Holding back a little also allows you to sing the song more easily, and you’ll be less likely to strain your voice. One of our favorite exercises for practicing volume control is the “Speeding Ahhh” technique. To practice this technique, sing the word “ahh” as if it were approaching really closely and then moving away just as quickly–think of a car speeding by!
Enunciation Matters
Vocal range and dynamics control won’t matter a whole lot if folks can’t understand what you’re singing, though. This is why practicing your enunciation, or how clearly you sing the words, matters. To get a sense of what expert enunciation sounds like, listen to any song sung by Nat King Cole or Johnny Hartman. These two classic crooners perfectly demonstrate how to sing words in a clear and artistic manner.
Time to Put in the Work!
Now that you’ve got three effective vocal exercises in your toolkit, you can start sharpening your skills. Just remember to stay consistent in your training–practicing a little bit each day is better than a lot every once in a while. As always, thanks for reading and keep checking back for more cool posts in our How to Sing Better series!
