How to Sing Better?

Section #1: Sing with the Right Posture

Singing with the wrong posture might cause you to have less breath and reduces the
openness of the vocal tract. Both of these forces the body to use unnecessary external muscles for
voice production and can lead to voice fatigue, inefficient voice use, and even muscle tension
dysphonia (MTD), a condition in which the larynx is strained, and the voice cannot be produced
properly.

The vocal cords will then vibrate at the frequency of the pitch that we're singing –
making the sound! When you slouch or stand/sit in a bad posture, your rib cage won't be able to
expand fully, and your diaphragm won't be able to lower fully. This means your lungs won't have
enough room to expand

Proper singing posture not only improves your breathing, it also optimizes your breathing
for a better voice.

Sing in a Tall Poster

- Stand up with your feet apart at shoulder width.
- Make sure that your ears are in line with shoulders are in line with your hips and your
hips are in line with your feet.
- Stand with your back straight and your joints unbent.
- Keep your shoulders back and low.
- Keep your chest comfortably lifted and make sure that you’re not leaning backwards or
forwards.
- Allow your knees to bend slightly.
- Look forward

Relax Your Throat, and Tongue

- The tension should be reduced when you are singing.
- Most common area of singing are the larynx and the tongue.
- By looking at yourself in the mirror, you can check if there are any tension on you.
- If there are any tightness in your throat or face, you are probably adding tension to your
voice.
- The tongue is an important part of the mechanics of singing, allowing the singer to
produce a coherent and focused timbre of his voice. The tongue has eight separate
muscles that allow it to be moved and positioned in the mouth. The tongue is strong and
agile and can move quickly along with the lips and teeth to produce sounds. For optimal
sound, singers must be careful not to let their tongues fill their mouths. Tension in the
tongue not only interferes with proper posture but can also interfere with tone.
-
 Larynx
 - You can check your larynx by feeling it between your fingers (never push or poke your
larynx as you’re doing these exercises just gently feel the larynx or voice box between
your thumb and forefinger).
- If you can feel the tightness on larynx, try to be relaxed.

 Throat
- Check the tension of your tongue by feeling the muscles under your chin (don't push or
poke the muscles underneath your chin).
- Put your thumb between your voice box and your chin and feel the muscles.
- If you can feel the tension, try to be relaxed.

Making small yawns can help you with reducing the tension for the throat muscle

Don’t Lift Your Chin

- Many singers lift their chin as they sing a high pitch.
- The chin must be kept in straight when you sing.
- A way to keep your chin straight is to think “down” as you go up in high pitch.

Relax Your Jaw

- Depending on the position of the jaw, the sound can change dramatically.
- The jaw has many influences with your vocal tone and even when you sing on pitch
- Your jaw should move freely with the vowels you sing.
- If you just have a one set jaw position for different vowels, you'll sound like a robot.
- Relaxing jaw also prevent strain on the vocal cords.
- Having a relaxed chin is important while singing to prevent strain on the vocal cords. It's
easy to get tense while singing, especially when trying to reach the high notes and low
notes. Having a free and fluid jaw involves relaxing the jaw from its hinges and allowing
it to open gently. Jaw and tongue tension are often closely related, and singers who have
one often must contend with both. The jaw forms a consonant sound, so it should not
move with the tongue. The mouth should be open enough to produce clear sounds, but
not so dilated as to cause strain. Excessive strain on the jaw can cause complications in
both singing and common activities such as chewing and speaking.

 How to relax your jaw

- Choose passages that feel a bit tight or restrictive.
- Look at your face and mouth in the mirror and say the line of the song you are about to
sing.
- Note how vertically your jaw opens as you say the words of the phrase.
- Now sing a phrase and open your jaw to the same height you saw in the mirror.
- Make sure your jaw is not lower or higher than when you practiced.

Section #2: Breath Support

- Getting a good vocal tone is based on the proper breath support.

 - A spine-conscious posture that allows free movement of the abdominal muscles while
keeping the shoulders and chest quiet, is the first step in developing well-controlled
breathing (posture is easy to learn but difficult to maintain).
- It should be a relatively passive process of letting the stomach drop without dropping the
chest as you inhale the air. Then exhaling or singing becomes an active process.
- Free singing comes from the air that moves, not from the air under pressure.
- A good song has an embroider where the air seems to be compressed, rather than through
a tightly held oboe, it feels like you're blowing air like you're playing a flute.
- While singing, your chest should expand and collapse freely, and you should make a
conscious effort to make sure that your shoulders or collarbones are not heard. This can
greatly expand your support capacity. In any case, it is important to remember that
breathing is an area of singing that can be improved through consistent and systematic
training.

Sing from the Diaphragm (a muscle that helps you inhale and exhale which is breathe in and out)
- Instead of breathing through your shoulders or chest, inhale through your diaphragm.
- Breathing from the diaphragm is the opposite of how you sing with your throat.
- When learning to sing with the diaphragm, it's important to make sure your belly expands
when you inhale and contracts when you exhale.

 How to Sing with the Diaphragm

- Stand in front of the mirror so that you can see the full length of your side torso in it.
- Place your hands on both sides of your lower stomach.
- Breathe in through your mouth.
- Expand your stomach outward as you inhale.
- As you exhale, breathe out to bring your belly back in.
- If there are any movement on your shoulder or chest, that means you are doing it wrong.

Farinelli Breathing Exercise Technique

- Set the metronome to 60 beats per minute.
- Open your mouth and take a slow breath from the diaphragm for 4 counts (from the
metronome.
- Next, hold the breath for 4 counts.
- Then exhale the breath for 4 counts.
- After completing the 4-count cycle, increase the count to 5.
- Stop at the moment when you feel uncomfortable and do the exercise again tomorrow.

Slow Breaths
- Inhale through your mouth or nose for 4 seconds.
- Hold your breath for 8 seconds.
- Then exhale for 8 more seconds.
- Try to keep all your muscles relaxed during this whole exercise.
- Repeat 4 times.

Scared Breath (the breath technique you can use on the stage)
 - There is a high chance you might not take a 4-count breath on the stage
- Scared Breath is a good breathing skill that you take a breath from the diaphragm very
quickly.

 How you do it
- Stand in front of the mirror and watch for your side of the stomach.
- Take a quick breath in through your diaphragm, like you are on the stage and really
scared but can't make a sound.
- Make sure that your quick breathing is completely quiet and there are no "gasp" sounds.
- As you are doing this exercise, check for your stomach to be expanded every time when
you take a quick and silent breath.

Section #3: Train Your Ear

Train Your Ear

- Training for hearing is the ability to hear notes and sing them back.
- This is so important to be able to learn how to sing on the right pitch.

 Two Types of Ear Training

1. Train your ears to hear notes.
2. For your voice to hit the right notes.
o Try to hear notes and sing it.

Many people can hear the notes perfectly, but they have a hard time getting the tight pitch when
they are singing. If you cannot get the right pitch, you just need to be able to hear your own voice
better. A way of doing this is use your hands to cover your back side of the ear.

- Wrap your fingers to make a round shape and place them behind your ears (like a
animation character who wants to hear better).
- By hearing the notes of the music, try to match the pitch of it.

Learning how to play instruments can help as well.

Section #4: Sing with a Good Tone

Don’t Sing Too Breathy

- If you sing breathy, the sound may not be very loud, and the sound of the breathiness may
be louder than the pitch.
- If your tone sounds breathy or light, it may be a sign that your vocal cords are too open.

 How you can fix breathing in your voice.

- Pick a phrase from a song that's a little breathy.
 - Say the phrase at a strong volume, as if trying to reach the end of the auditorium without
shouting or whispering.
- Don’t not singing the song verses yet. We're just saying it.
- Now "speak" the words in pitch using the power of your normal speaking voice as you
practiced earlier.
- We pursue strong and projected sound rather than breathing and light sound.
- This strong, lively sound is called a “chest voice” and is the best way to make your notes
stronger.

Don’t Use Your Nose When You are Singing (Don’t Sing Nasally)
- Using your noses to sing makes your sound bad.
- Nasal singing happens when your vocal tone goes behind the soft plate and resonates in
your nasal cavity (noses).

 How to fix it
- Choose a phrase that sounds nasal.
- Softly pinch your nose with your fingers (pinch intermittently when you sing the phrase)
- If you feel a vibration on your nose, that means you are singing nasal.
- Keep practice singing until you don’t feel any vibration (exceptions to this rule are the
“n” and “m” nasal consonants and it’s okay to feel small vibration on your nose for these
consonants).

Section #5: Warm Up your Voice

Warm Up the Voice Properly

- Warming up increases your blood flow to the vocal cords.
- It helps you get more clear and better sound.

Section #6: Sing your voice using various vocal ranges, registers

- When the head voices of the range are activated and strengthened in a healthy way, the
overall voice becomes more stable, increases in volume, and has a firm but flexible
quality.

- When speaking with your normal speaking voice, your vocal cords are slightly longer and
longer in their natural position. As you go higher, your vocal cords should become
thinner or shorter.
 - change vocal register: So, when your vocal cords start to shorten, you're moving toward a
medium or "mixed" voice. Then, in order to enter the upper voice, the head voice, the
vocal folds have to be tapered or shortened again.

Chest Voice
- lowest register of the voice
- Sounds deeper and thicker.
- Vibration should happen from your chest.
- Chest voice is the same expression we use when speaking. It has a deep and thick quality
and sometimes gives a vibration-like feeling to the chest.

Chest Voice: A low pitched voice when speaking or singing. When talking to friends, you are
more likely to use your chest voice to speak.

- When first used, "chest voice" can sound a bit harsh and may seem too heavy. You will
learn a lot and get used to the sensations if you keep trying. In other words, you'll find out
how your muscles work and sing along with flexible muscle stretches while singing in
your "ugly" chest voice. Exercise provides an opportunity for this to happen.

- Another benefit of developing chest voice is increased volume because nearby muscles
are better able to convert air into sound waves. The stronger the surrounding muscles, the
tighter the folds close and prevent air leakage. The larynx uses enough energy to
effectively vibrate the chord in the flowing air.

 How to sing with a Chest Voice

- Singing in the chest voice can and should be done for a healthy voice. How do I do it?
Practice singing mainly using the [ah] vowel and using it from low to slightly loud (but
not too loud!) to focus on the lower pitch. When this exercise consists of these three
elements (low vowels, loud vowels, and open vowels), the muscles automatically respond
to the movement and we can feel and hear the texture of the sound, commonly referred to
as chest voice. Do a little bit every day and you'll see progress! Try this vocal warm-up!

Head Voice
Head Voice: The higher pitch of your voice when speaking or singing. Some people speak with
this voices when they are nervous or talking to strangers.

- Head voices, on the other hand, are usually used higher in the vocal range. It sounds
softer and sweeter. When you sing with Head Voice, you can feel the sound vibrate in
your head.
- In head voice, the vocal cords are shortened, so there are fewer chords to vibrate than in
chest voice.
- Moving from the lower notes to the upper range brings me to my head voice. The head
voice gets louder, and the chest voice lessens, dripping slightly.
- Then you'll want to go to the highest point, Caustic. Caustic is close to disconnection.
Not a real tone. Thus, falsetto always has a slightly more upbeat or upbeat feel to it.

- If you want to sing with your head voice, start with a high voice, but don't start with a
squeaky voice.

- It's important to be careful when singing! Do not try to sing high notes in your chest
voice for more power. Do what's comfortable for you and don't overuse your voice!

- Practice by making a sound in high pitches with vibrating the lips