| Singing Tips
1) Have you ever had a hard time staying on pitch?
There are several reasons that could contribute ranging from breath to hearing but before trying anything try relaxing your jaw and faking a yawn. With that mouth position try the same note and it should come more naturally!
2) Don't Trust Your Ears.
I know, it sounds crazy! I can't tell you how many times a student will stop in the middle of a song with their nose crinkled and say, "I sound funny."
My advice?
Stop listening to the sound of you own voice; we do not hear ourselves the way that others hear us. When we use our voice we are hearing ourselves muffled. It's almost like we are in a box. Other people hear our voice clearly, as it rings out into air, free of the box. This is why our voice sounds different on tape although tapes also offer some distortion!
So, if we can't trust our ears how can we learn to sing? Trust our body and its muscle memory. Muscle memory is the memory that our body develops after doing things over and over again or practicing. An everyday example of this would be drinking a glass of water; our body has the distance from our hand to our mouth in its muscle memory, which is why (for the most part) we are able to drink out of the glass without thinking about where it is in relation to our body.
3) Why is breathing so important?
Breathing is especially key to the following body parts:
- Solar plexus
- Thalamus
- Hypothalamus
- Cerebellum
- PH of the blood
- CO2
- Mucous Membranes
- O2
- Blood Vessels
- Joints
- Muscles
- Tendons
- Skin
- Extra pyramidal centers
- Hypopphsis
- Cerebrum
- Lungs
Regardless of our knowledge of human anatomy it's easy to see that breathing affects just all parts of our bodies – even the parts that are hard to pronounce! To complicate matters even more our breathing is affected by our emotions, physical state at any given moment and environment…getting the picture? Just about everything affects your voice.
For example: have you ever been so startled you held your breath, got out of breath or almost fainted? Our breath quickly changes in order to adjust itself. We are likely to take quick shallow breaths, as our body tries to return to its natural state. If this happens too often, like when we are nervous, stressed or even just deep in concentration, it can set up a pattern that eventually can turn into a habit.
Learning breath control is central to learning to sing. This means that we may have to unlearn years of bad breathing habits that will interfere with a strong, clear and free tone.
Check out vocal resources.
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