I’m sure there are many people in the world that can sing or want to be able to sing. Singing is usually not something that comes natural. For those few who sound good no matter what, they still practice to make sure their voice is as good as it’s going to get.
I would like to help out those people that want to be able to sing but don’t know what to do to reach that particular goal.
I have been doing vocal exercises for some time now and I have noticed a major improvement in my voice, not just as a singer but the tone of my voice as I speak. There are many things you can do to improve your vocal chords but if you don’t do them right you could destroy what talent you had to begin with. It is good to have a vocal coach so there is someone who can tell you whether you are doing the exercises right or wrong.
A lot of people say that it is too expensive to work one on one with a vocal coach. That’s true but if you are looking at singing as a future career it would be worth spending money for some lessons with a good instructor.
I would like to show you some basic warm up exercises that I do. These exercises are for warming up your voice before the show and cooling your voice back down after the show. Ok first thing I would like to mention is breathing. Breathing is really the main part of singing. You can’t sing right if you can’t breathe right. You have to breathe deeply using your diaphragm. Breathing affects the tone of your voice. If you breathe deep and smooth then your tone will be fuller and smooth. The exercise for breathing that I do is like telling someone to be quiet. Put your finger up to your mouth and say, “shhh”. Do this till all of your breath is gone then just relax and let the breath come in. Do this about five times with regular breaths in between. You will notice deeper and fuller breathing. Another breathing exercise that I use is slow breathing. Start inhaling slowly and mentally count to about 20 seconds, then exhale slowly until you have again reached 20 seconds. Do this about five times and you will have more control over your breathing.
The next exercise that I do is called; “lip rolls” or some call it the motor boat. All you have to do is put your lips together then exhale allowing your lips to sort of flap. After you’ve done this you will apply it to a scale. The lip rolls pretty much loosen up your vocal chords and they also train your vocal chords. It is using the exact amount of air you would be using if you were singing but not straining your voice at all. Ok back to the scale. An octave is considered a scale. You can just start with a low note and work your way to a higher note. After you have went from low to high, you will need to work your way back down from high to low.
The next exercise that I would like to share with you is actually multiple work outs. Start with mum and do nay, yay, and no using the same scale as above. After you have done this I would like you to do a couple of two syllable words to the same scale as well. The two syllable words are la ga and yah, ga. When you do la ga and yah, ga you need to open your mouth and relax the jaw. Also when doing these exercises you need to make sure the jaw doesn’t move.
Ok now that I have given you some quick exercises to warm up your voice you will need to do the exercises two or three times to have superior results. You will notice at the end of doing these vocal exercises that your tone will have strengthened and you sound clearer, maybe even stronger vocally. You will be able to tell though, trust me. Now I know that you might not be able to understand everything because it is a little hard to explain on paper but if you know anything about vocal exercises then you might understand a little more then the others.
