Voice Training Tips

For people who are blessed with a melodious voice, maintaining and improving it is definitely a huge responsibility. You voice is necessary for communication purposes, and toning it is a good way of maintaining it. You may have an ambition to sing or to offer your voice for other professions, there is always a need to polish it and make it sound audible. When you go for auditions which are related to your voice, you are judged on its quality, sharpness and melody. Your voice has to be clear with noticeable pronunciations. Thus, if you want a good voice, you have to work hard for it, following a few exercises and using certain tips. Some of these helpful voice training tips are mentioned in the following paragraphs for your convenience. So, take a look and make sure you are a regular user of them.

Tips on Voice Training

The first thing you require to start with voice training is determination and will power. It is on the basis of these that you can get yourself to practice your vocal exercises every day. Professional singers and vocalists have regular schedules for voice training, which help them sharpen their vocal features and improve their voice quality. Along with the various voice training techniques that are well known in such professions, there are some voice training tips which can be followed effectively. These tips not only help you strengthen your vocal talents, but are very easy to follow even while doing absolutely nothing! The requirement of having a good voice is not just limited to professions, but you can use it for daily speaking as well. Other than using these techniques and tips for singing lessons they can also be followed for conserving a healthy vocal chord. Thus, take a look at these free voice training tips, which are nothing but helpful!

Listen to Your Own Voice

  • The first tip to improve your voice for singing or speaking is to hear it yourself. When you hear your own voice, you can judge if you have hoarse voice and improve it, by toning it.
  • Thus record your voice and try to find out your own mistakes. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong, you can take help from others so that implementing a required strategy can be helpful.
  • Continue to record your voice at every practice session, so you can judge your improvements. When you do this, you will notice changes as you hear your voice very differently in your head and on the tape. This will also help you improve your voice during conversations with people.
  • Other than simply being critical, this exercise can definitely boost your confidence. After recording your voice, don’t delete those recordings but hear the earlier ones to find out how much you have improved.

Healthy Breathing, A Must

  • Even though breathing is more of a technique than a tip, you can always practice it even while doing other things.
  • According to the breathing exercises suggested for voice training, deep breathing is a very essential exercise. You have to breath from your diaphragm and exhale gradually so that you can control your vocal chord more effectively.
  • Breathing through your diaphragm means taking deep breaths till your stomach is filled with air and then exhale slowly to liberate it.
  • When you practice this exercise at least once every hour, you can surely control your voice modulation. This control gives you the advantage of taming the voice, and becoming proficient in high and low pitching.

Practice Helps!

  • As it is rightly said, practice makes man perfect, keep practicing your vocal exercises and scales every day for a particular period of time.
  • When you practice the scales, you not only make your voice sharper, but also memorize the single notes of music. Practicing these scales in different octaves is a very important activity in voice training.
  • Since scales are only used in singing techniques, this is of the voice training tips exclusively used for singing at high pitches.

With these easy voice training tips mentioned above, you can get the desired fluency and flexibility in your voice in not time. These tips are very easy to follow and don’t require extra effort. So, make the most of them and I am sure you will fetch yourself lots of complements!

 

How To Sing Falsetto

The high pitch voice of operas can break glasses, says the old saying. And the same applies for singing falsetto, although it’s a way different from opera. Falsetto gained prominence during the 1950s. It evolved in the form of capella music, popularly known as ‘doo wop’, much sought after amongst the youngsters. People showed avid interest towards falsetto, forming groups known as ‘doo wop groups’. Similar to that of Southern gospel quartets, their group was composed of lead tenor, first tenor, baritone and bass. The first tenor delivered the extreme high notes while the lead tenor had to perform in a straightforwards way, forming the melodic counterpart. The bass performed the lower notes. Miguel Aceves Mejía, the pioneer of Golden age Mexican cinema, is still revered as the ‘king of falsetto’ and his superb caliber is depicted through more than thousand songs. People who have attended famous operas would well know how difficult it is to bring out the sharp voice from deep down the core of lungs. It needs immense practice to reach the level of perfection. Before going into the techniques on how to sing falsetto, I would like to elaborate a little on falsetto singing.

What is Falsetto

Falsetto is the Italian diminutive of the falso that means false. Technically, it refers to the vocal register that occupies a higher frequency range than modal voice register. The pitch overlaps at approximately every octave produced by ligamentous edge vibration of vocal chords as a whole. In simple language it’s the false voice that a male brings out in the form of a female’s. The sound is usually very high pitched and is entirely different from the baritone voice of a male. The quality of falsetto voice is similar to that of head voice and opera, but is a lot different from the two. Singing falsetto is no doubt difficult, because it has limited dynamics, strength and tones. While singing, you might also come across some subtle problems like breaking of voice, hollow sound of vocal chords or jumping of tones. Thus, switching voice to bring out the falsetto voice is not as easy as it seems to be. Therefore, let’s find out how to sing falsetto.

How to Sing Falsetto

Learning falsetto is not and overnight affair. You can either learn the technical perfection from a professional singer or take up online music lessons to learn falsetto. Vocal exercise books available at the music stores also help a lot. You have to always keep in mind that you are flipping voice and you won’t be performing with your manly voice. It requires a lot of breathing exercises to produce the high pitch voice. Read the following paras to get a clear concept.

Inhale Air
Vocal warm ups are necessary. Breathe as much as possible to inflate the air capacity of your lungs. Deep breathing or diaphragm breathing always helps much more than superficial breathing. Lie down on your back, keep your hands on your abdomen and breathe deeply. This improves your breath holding capacity while going on the higher tones of the yodel. Browse through some more tips on breathing exercises for singing.

Sing on High Pitch
You cannot do this in one shot. You have to gradually proceed to the higher tones while singing. Do not jump on the higher notes at once. Push the air upwards through your tummy to the upper respiratory passage and bring out the sound. Do not force your throat muscles. This technique aids vibration of vocal chords at the right place, transforming it to a falsetto. Your pitch will also increase. Here I would like you to go through our other article on how to sing high notes.

No Vibration on Chest
So how to sing well a falsetto? The air has to travel from your belly to head. The sound will actually vibrate on your head and if this doesn’t happen, then you are still on your own register or model voice. Thus, make every attempt to come out of it. Keep your hands on your chest and make sure it doesn’t vibrate. If your chest vibrates, then you are not singing a falsetto but singing in your own voice. You can also read through some tips on how to yodel.

Practice Versatile Styles
Every music style is different from each other. Once you have become adept with the technicalities, you can try out the varied genres to become a versatile falsetto singer. Experiment with your singing and observe the styles adopted by the famous falsetto singers. You will be amazed to see how versatile the singers are with their voice ranging from tender to sharp. Sing from the end of your vocal chord. Get some tips on how to sing from your diaphragm.

The aforementioned content has presented you the fundamentals on how to sing falsetto. If you are one of them aspiring to become a falsetto singer, do never miss out the performance of Frankie Valli in the song Walk Like a Man.

 

Singing In A Choir Is Good For Musicians

You are the musical instrument when you sing. This means that learning to sing and joining a choir provides a good foundation for mastering musical instruments.

Singing, according to Pompidor, is not a part of music study but the base. “Even for those studying a string instrument,” he says in his strong French accent, “the voice is the main way for learning music, not a small part, and your education is not complete without training in a choir.”

For one, there is no instrument between the conductor and you, he explains; you are the instrument. “You are, with your body, with your voice, by yourself, creating music.” Without having to worry about the instrument, the musician can feel the music and sing the musical phrase and understand it better. It is also helpful for the ensemble aspect.

Since there is only one instrument in a choir – the voice – you don’t have to learn to fit in with different instruments. It is thus a good way to learn from the techniques of other students and to improve sight reading. It can introduce difficult music to people who aren’t good at music. “In only one or two months, you can learn something complete,” Pompidor points out. And after only two years of music school, those in a choir can give a high-quality performance.

For so many reasons, a choral foundation complicated and challenging pieces that extend students’ potential can only help instrumental musicians with their musical education.

 

choir – a group of singers who sing together, also kind of “musical ensemble”
a choired taste – a play on words using the phrase “an acquired taste”
an acquired taste – growing to like something but only after experiencing it for a long time)
play on words – the clever and funny of a word or phrase so that it has two meanings

base - a strong place from where an activity can be started instrument – musical instrument, a device for creating music

string instrument – a musical instrument that has strings that are used to make music, includes violin, cello, bass and guitar

accent – speaking in way that shows where you are from or what part of society you belong to
conductor – person who directs musical performances, using hands and bodily

musical phrase – a series of musical notes in a piece of music
musical notes – a sign used in written music to represent the duration and pitch of a sound
training - to teach people how to do an activity or job
ensemble – musical ensemble, a group of musicians who sing or play music with an instrument
aspect - one part of a situation, problem, subject, etc
fit in – be part of something (group, plan, situation) and work together well with (cooperate in harmony)
techniques - methods of doing a task or activity

improve - to make better

sight reading – “the reading and performing of a piece of written music, specifically when the performer has not seen it before”
perform – do something in front of an audience to entertain them (examples: sing, act, dance)
performance - act of performing music, dance or play in front of an audience
audience – a group of people gathered at a place to watch or listen to a speech, music, a film, play or other performance
foundation - supporting structure, strong base to build a building or system on top of
pieces – musical pieces, pieces of music that people sing or play on an instrument
stripped bare – everything removed from something

back to basics – meaning: returning to learning the most basic things first (instead of learning complicated, advanced things)
embellished – to add more details, to decorate and make beautiful
complicated - has so many parts connected in different ways that it is difficult to understand (for example, a complicated machine or a city with a complicated system of streets)
challenging - difficult, in a way that tests your ability or determination
extend - to include something more
potential - what could be achieved, what is possible, the possibility of success

 

Musician’s Brains Highly Developed

Musician’s Brains Highly Developed

New research shows that musicians’ brains are highly developed in a way that makes the musicians alert, interested in learning, disposed to see the whole picture, calm, and playful. The same traits have previously been found among world-class athletes, top-level managers, and individuals who practice transcendental meditation.

The new study was conducted by Fred Travis, Maharishi University of Management in the US, Harald Harung, Oslo University College in Norway, and Yvonne Lagrosen, University West in Sweden. They relate to high mind brain development, and it appears that this represents a basic potential to become really, really good at something.

The researchers measure mind brain development in several ways. EEGs reveal special patterns in the electrical activity of the brain in people with high mind brain development. They have well‑coordinated frontal lobes. Our frontal lobes are what we use for higher brain functions, such as planning and logical thinking. Another characteristic is that activity at a certain frequency, so‑called alpha waves, dominates. Alpha waves occur when the brain puts together details into wholes. Yet another EEG measure shows that individuals with high mind brain development use their brain resources economically. They are alert and ready for action when it is functional to be so, but they are relaxed and adopt a wait‑and‑see attitude when that is functional.

Two questionnaires are also used to measure mind brain development. One has to do with moral reasoning. Those with high mind brain development score higher here. The other questionnaire targets what are called peak experiences. These are described as a higher level of consciousness. You have an intense feeling of happiness and harmony and of transcending limitations. Individuals with high mind brain development have many peak experiences.

Fred Travis emphasizes that everything we do changes our brain. Transcendental meditation and making music are activities people should devote themselves to if they wish to change their mind in the right direction. But you can make good progress by following common health recommendations: get enough sleep, work out physically, eat healthily, and don’t do drugs. How you think also plays a role.

“If you are a very envious, angry, mean person and that’s the way you think about people that’s what’s going to be strengthened in your brain. But if you are very expanded and open and supportive of others, there will be different connections,” says Fred Travis.