How Do I Sing Better? - Tips to a Better Voice

If you found yourself here, you're probably wondering how do I sing better? We've got some simple tips that will help you to find your voice.

Relax the tongue. Almost all beginner vocalists and many folks in general hold excess tension in the tongue. Most vocal problems involve tension in the tongue. Tension in the tongue leads to tension in the jaw and constriction in the back of the throat. You want your tongue to rest on your bottom front teeth. Relax the tongue more forward in the mouth. If your tongue is curled up or resting on the top of your mouth it is too constricted.

Breathe naturally. If you breathe in too much when singing it can hinder your ability to sing in a free and uninhibited way. Too much air constricts the muscles at the back of the throat and makes it difficult to reach the high notes. Breathing is natural and singing can be too if you focus on keeping the breath free and easy while singing. If you are looking for ways to answer the question - "how do I sing better?" remember to sing and breath naturally.

Open the mouth wide. Your voice is the path to your soul. It is where the authentic self and the music meet to express your version of the song to the world. Stretch out the muscles of the throat, face, and mouth. When singing, open up wide. Let it all out. If your mouth is too tightly closed you could be constricted in the area of the tongue. Open the front, the top, the bottom and the back of the mouth when singing. Sing "ahh" from the center of the heart and open the back of the mouth. It is a very pleasant sound and resonates beautifully when the back of the mouth is open wide.

Sing with your authentic voice. There are many vocalists out there who can sound like other people. This is ventriloquism or karaoke. Sing with heart and your own authentic voice instead of trying to mimic others. When you truly connect to the music and feel the emotion through the song, you are in touch with your authentic self. Let your passion for singing and your passion for life come through your singing voice. Allow yourself to get excited and have fun when singing. Your energy level with come through your song so remember to stay energized.

Singing can be as easy as talking. Do not force it. If you force your voice you risk injuring the vocal cords and sounding atrocious. There should be no straining or reaching when you sing.. If you are looking for ways to answer the question "how do I sing better?" remember to sing with your own voice and sing naturally.

Sing out! We all have it in us.

Sklar Larimar has been a professional vocalist and voice coach for many years. She is passionate about helping others find their voice and experience the same satisfaction singing has created in her life.

Singing Tips!

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Voice Lesson and Singing Tips: How to Find Your Singing Voice

Many singers struggle to find their own singing voice. They may be able to sing along with the radio but find that they are unable to support their voice alone without an additional recorded voice track playing along. Many tend to feel that their live performance are lack luster due to a lack of vocal and performance skills. All is not lost, however. They can find their singing voice with vocal training, listening skills and performance techniques. This article will explore the listening skills needed to find one's own singing voice.

1. Listening to the skeleton of a song. Listen to a song for its sequences. and try to imagine a song without the original artists' vocals on it. Explore ways to play with the melody and phrasing. Does the song sing itself, does the melody leave room for interpretation or are there things that may be more natural for you that the artist doesn't do?

2. Learn to play with different keys when singing. Song keys are not set in stone. In fact, many artists lower the keys of their own songs when performing live. If there is a song you like and you feel it would fit your voice perfectly except for it feeling a bit high or low, don't be afraid to change it. Adjusting a song up or down by a half or whole step is not a negative reflection on your vocal skills.

3. Examine vocal affectations that are authentic to your voice. Vocal affectations, such as a unique way to attack a note (think Christina Aguilera) or a vibrato or run (think Luther Vandross) or a 'lick' (think Michael Jackson's 'hee hee') sound good on some people's voices but sound out of place in others. With the help of listening to diverse musicians, learn and develop the ones that are authentic to you and your voice.

While you do these exercises, don't be surprised if you begin to see flaws in your favorite artist's singing. Remember that they are limited to only do what is in their skill set as well. If you find yourself thinking 'geez, that was ugly', or 'why did he/ she do that? Then you are learning to find your voice. If you follow these steps to find your voice you will find that it will become more than you had imagined. You will develop a gift for interpretation which will make you unique amongst the crowds of singers out there.

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Voice Lessons and Singing Tips: How to Breathe for Singing - 3 Tips That Work!

The preparation for great singing is the breath. How we breath along with the things we physiologically allows to happen before singing can greatly affect the voice's performance. In order to learn how to sing correctly, we must explore the art of breathing to sing. This includes deep breathing, breath support, and breath control.

Let's first explore the purpose of studying the breath. The overall goal is for breathing to be a moment of relaxation, and rejuvenation. It is a way of refueling the body and allowing the body to give itself its second wind. Too often, though, singers find themselves gasping for air and so tensed up that they are soon fatigued and unable to sing to the end of a phrase. This can be frustrating, disheartening and discouraging. the good news is one can be trained to sing in a way that will rejuvenate and refresh their body. Its kind of like how a jogger finds their rhythm and can run for five miles without needing to catch their breath. Here are a few ways to maximize breathing while singing.

1. Breathe deeply each time. Focus on expanding your lower abdomen. Relax the shoulders and neck. These all work together inversely. The more tense your neck and shoulders are, the less deep your breaths will be and vice versa. A good way to practice this is by gently swaying back and forth allowing your head to 'bob' from side to side while breathing in through your nose. This helps to relax the body and the effort to draw in air is focused on the diaphragm.

2. Imagine yourself trying to stay full of air while you sing. This is great because so many people undoubtedly feel the need to 'empty' the air while they sing. If one imagines themselves trying to keep the air in while they are singing, their phrases and tone quality will improve because they will now be more in control of the flow of air due to downward pressure.Some envision this as a bowl movement feeling. If you think of your abdomen being pushed 'out- and - down' as you sing, you will find yourself with much more breath control.

3. When you are running out of air, do not collapse your chest or tense up. Keep your ribcage high to maximize air flow.

Good breath control enhances your singing in so many ways. It improves posture, tone quality, phrasing, and makes it easier to find the correct voice placements. This leads to a good vibrato which leads to vocal runs and melismas. Just remember that they all work together. Don't expect to master the breath in one day, but instead take time to lay a good foundation for a lifetime of good singing!

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The Singing Voice Visualized - Overcoming Barriers With Imagery

As an aspiring singer, if you have ever dealt with such issues as:

Upon hearing your recorded voice back, think, "Eeeww, that's not me!You go for the high/ low notes and chokeYou run out of energy and can't seem to complete a phrase seamlesslyYou sometimes confuse ascending and descending movements of pitch

...then you could benefit from using various concepts of reinforcement in the form of visualization.

We have either auditory or visual dominance in our brain's analytical processing. One might assume that auditory would be the most desirable in singing. Not necessarily. Imagery may be very helpful, and cultivation can be developed. An analogy is making related doodles in the margins of text you need to memorize.

Solutions: Try individually, to discover which ones/ combinations are most effective for you.

The 'direction' of the voice is often perceived as coming out of the mouth and straight forward, but it may be more advantageous to monitor oneself by 'channeling' the sound back toward the ears. Think of a 'J' shape.
Similarly, if you think of the voice as coming 'up' through your body, instead send an energy downwards through your feet, grounding with the earth. Think of a pulley system, whereby the downward motion of one side automatically raises the other.
Rather than thinking of pitches as existing on a vertical plane, try a horizontal plane. Extending your arm off to your left, begin a 'siren' on any vowel with your lowest pitch, slowly moving your arm to the right as you ascend pitch. Swing your torso around with the rising tone, watching your finger pointing to the horizon as you go. This gives all frequencies of your voice 'equal opportunity'.
If you feel as though your head might explode when you go for a high pitch, imagine that your head is a pressure cooker with the valve on top for all the excess 'steam' to escape.
Think of the melodies in terms of changing shapes, especially helpful in right brain activity associated with overtone singing, in which the hemispheres become more highly integrated. (Overtone singing is the ability to clearly produce two or more pitches simultaneously.)
Toning on a particular vowel with eyes closed encourages visual imagination rather than having the interference of external stimuli, therefore informing the singer of powerful associations.
Use silence as you imagine creating a sound, 'picturing' the associated inner physical activity, eliminating interference of the brain's auditory response.
Using a mirror, notice your body language. If it seems extreme, counter it with the opposite extreme. Get someone else to observe your body language, as typically one is not self-aware of it (i.e. rag doll, wooden soldier, football quarterback). You might be 'favoring' a particular part of your body.
Holding an imaginary bubble in front of you, fill the space with your voice, allowing the bubble to increase in size, moving your hands apart to simulate.
Imagination is key: 'picture' being in your greatest comfort space, a useful concept for stage fright.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, using body 'tapping' to reinforce new and useful programming)
On a more concrete level, overtone spectrum analysis offers visual biofeedback, displaying color bands for which harmonics are pronounced, lending intuitive information about how to enrich the sound.

Above all, singing is a joyous mode of self expression, so to convey yourself with a full palette of the senses is the most effective way to move your audience.

Kiva Simova, world-renowned pioneer of western polyphonic overtone singing/ composition invites you to investigate the vast potential for singers of all types at http://harmonicovertones.com/. Beginners to advanced, solo to choir singing, all voice ranges. In addition to elaboration on tips outlined here, singers may greatly enhance their vocal expression with harmonic overtone singing studies that focus on practical musical applications. Additional information may be found through http://about.me/kiva

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Voice Lessons and Singing Tips - How to Sing With a Beautiful Voice

Many people want to know how to have a beautiful singing voice. It's been said by great instrumentalists that they wonder about the personal enjoyment of making beautiful music using the only internal instrument, their voice. It would bring them a sense of joy to be able to express themselves by singing. Here are a couple of tips to having a beautiful voice.

1. Relax your tongue- Beautiful voices sound so beautiful because they sound relaxed. In order to sound relaxed several things need to be happening simultaneously. The great thing is, some things happen as a side effect of other things happening. For example, when one learns to relax their tongue to sing, it allows teaches them to relax their throat. Once the throat is relaxed, it is no longer supporting the voice, the breath is, which is exactly what every singer wants to do. Also, once the throat is relaxed, it allows one to take deeper, fuller breaths, which allows the singer to engage the diaphragm, which is a thin muscle between your lungs and abdominal muscles that pulls air in the lungs and supports air pressure as one exhales. Learning to relax the tongue can be as simple as singing a favorite tune while wiggling the tongue back and forth. This exercise teaches one to focus on air flow and placement rather than having an emphasis on a 'holding' the tongue or throat in place to sing.

2. Sing in your 'happy' tone. Beginner singers will quickly realize that singing exactly the way you talk may sound a bit rough. 'Lift' the voice a little to make it sound more musical. To demonstrate this, one can imagine the musical theater of the 1960's and earlier. I like to envision Julie Andrews in movie "The Sound of Music". The actors in those days spoke with a sing- song tone. The sing- song sound is a result of 'lifting' the voice. It is able to project more. Using this method of voice production, it is easy to understand how they were able to break out into song at any given moment without missing a beat!

While singing with a beautiful voice may seem like a distant goal for many beginner singers, it is possible with dedication and practice. Beautiful voices have grace, flexibility, strength, control, and agility. In time, using these vocal techniques will transform your voice into something beautiful.

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