Singing Made Simple Review

Reviewer: Jack Flagg

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Quite often, you will come across people who would like to improve their confidence and over-all tonal quality while singing and they will become frustrated because they cannot find the right programs. Even though there are numerous singing techniques and tips available online, most of them don’t take care of individual requirements.

It is easy to find vocal coaches, but choosing one that can work with your tone of voice and give you techniques to help with your singing could turn into a guessing game that is lengthy and costly. For this reason, this singing made simple review was put together to let you know about a program that can work for you.

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A well sung duet can literally cast a spell on your audience. Duet songs have so much more to them than a solo performance as it gives you the freedom for the highs and lows of the song far more easily than a lone singer can. But duets are not just about two good singers singing together a well written composition. The chemistry between the two singers is vital for the quality of the song.

The pair is chosen in accordance of the theme of the song or the relationship in consideration. If it a love song, the duet will be sung by a male singer and a female singer. If it’s about friendship, camaraderie, brotherhood or any similar topic then it will be preferably sung by two male singers.

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What do you think about or comes across your mind when someone mentions singing to you? Well, maybe you think of composition, lyrics, music, notes, pitch, voice, scales audience or other similar things. But there is one thing we all often forget about singing that can entirely change the way your song may sound. That one thing is confidence. Singing with Confidence.

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Free Vocal Training… Learn to Breathe All Over Again

This article will be about Free Vocal Training. We don’t usually think about breathing since it is part of our lives and an automatic process. It’s involuntary and we don’t have to think about it.  We probably only think about it when we have health problems and the doctor needs to know how is your breathing.  But this is not the case in singing.

Well, for this free vocal training post, we will.

Singing will  become the most important factor that you need to understand, manipulate and control. Learning to breath or making yourself aware of how you breath is important in singing in this Free Vocal Training.

This is true and many of the professional singers today can attest to that. The whole singing process is dependent on air and one of the main determinants of the quality of the singing depends of how you manage the air flow throughout your body. A Free voice training, here what to do,  an important aspect of singing is that you should be able to hold notes, sustain it as long as necessary without being short of breath. Aside from that, you also need to control the rate of air passage out of the body.

Breathing Control

Understanding how to regulate and handle the release of air from the lungs is the initial step when you are starting your vocal training, and that’s an important free vocal training tip here. You must control the air release based on the words and notes you are applying. This is what makes breathing for singing more completely different from breathing for talking.

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To put it simply, you have no certain pattern or need for air at a specific moment when you breath normally. You just breathe. When you sing, you do not run out of air too soon in the middle of the set because the air you exhale is controlled. For our free vocal training tip, you have to learn control, that’ s the only way to make certain that you can complement the exhalation process to the singing.

Below are a couple of free vocal training that focus on the abdomen muscles, which control how fast air is expelled during the exhalation process.

Free Vocal Training – Exercise 1

• Stand using good posture
• Place your feet approximately shoulder width apart
• Extend both arms out until they are perpendicular to your body
• Turn the palms down
• Breathe in for 3 to 4 seconds
• Hold your breath for 3 to 4 seconds
• Breathe out for 3 to 4 seconds

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Free Vocal Training – Exercise 2

• Stand using good posture
• Place your feet approximately shoulder width apart
• Breathe in deeply
• Exhale as long as possible while making a hissing sound

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How to control the release of air is what these two basic breathing exercises teach you and that’s an important free vocal training.  In the first one, you can start increasing the amount of time you spend talking in air and exhaling air. This will show you to manage the time it takes to let go of the air and will also, at the same time, increase lung capacity.

In exercise two of free vocal training, you are learning to release air steadily. You don’t want your breath coming out in short bursts or gasps, as that is completely contrary to the act of singing, which requires a steady stream of connected sounds.

Important Breath Training

Many voice and singing teacher that give free vocal training will tell you that breathing is important in singing and this will be the first training that you will be taught. Songs have specific notes and proper breathing is required to sing it properly.

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For example, long notes require extended steady exhalation without interruption. The range of pitches that you must glide through when singing also requires breathing control.

If you keep on doing this exercise, it will become second nature to you just. This will be sooner than you may thing so it is recommended that you do this breathing exercises regularly. When you sing, the things like breathing pace of holding notes will not matter as they will now come naturally.

Expand your capacity during Free Vocal Training with the aid of a number of available breathing lessons. Try to concentrate too on avoiding tension while you are working on your breathing control.  In other words, try not to exhale air to the point where tension is created in the vocal cords because you are trying to force air out that doesn’t exist.

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Vocal Exercises

The vocal exercise that you choose will mostly depend on the demands of the performance materials that you will be rehearsing. That is for any given practice session at least. You can start by determining what skills your pieces require.

You will need to choose an exercise that focuses on the piece that you are rehearsing that calls for the extremes of your range. You will do flexibility exercises if the material has a lot of fast runs or trills. You would want to work on breath support and control if the piece you’re working on has many sustained notes. There are different kinds of vocal exercises for different kinds of songs and we will list most of the here.

Vocal Exercises for Low Range

There exercises are for alto or bass. If you are a soprano or tenor that sometimes sings a lower part than your usual range, this exercises can also be beneficial for you.

Descending octave slides. You can start in the middle range in your most comfortable pitch. Then slide down the scale one octave from your starting pitch, moving down by half step. This is done using the buzz technique (also called bubble lips or lip roll). Aside from that, various vowel sounds can also be used like “oo”, “ah”, “Vee”, “voh” etc.

Fifth slide. This one is called the fifth slide. Start on a comfortable range just like the first one and go down a fifth (so-do), moving down by half-steps. This is done also using the ‘buzz’ or the syllable “Vaw”. With back up to the starting pitch (so-do-so), add a third tone. Move down half-steps like the rest. Finally, reverse it (do-so-do).

High Range Vocal Exercises

After doing some exercises for the lower vocal range, that is altos and basses, these set of exercises now focuses and will be helpful for sopranos and tenors. But these can also be used by lower vocal range if they need to work on their high range.

Up and down arpeggios. If you know arpeggios on guitars, you know that this is a simple broken chord up and down. Using the buzz or any vowel sound or syllable, move in upward directions by half-steps with each succeeding repeat.

Upward arpeggio and downward octave with turn. Compared to the first one, this is a little harder. Sing the upward arpeggio (do-mi-so-do), then do a turn (ti-do-re), then the 8-tone descending octave scale from do to do. Use vowel sounds; do a few on “ee”, a few on “oo”, and a few on “ah”. Shown in the pattern below, start each arpeggio a half step higher than the last one.

ee—————————————–
oo—————————————– etc.

Upward arpeggio with repeated high note. {Another variation of the arpeggio, this is especially helpful with keeping a light tone on the high notes.|This is very helpful with keeping light tone on the high notes even if this is a variation of the arpeggio.} Sing the upward arpeggio (do-mi-so-do) and then do it again with the high do, staccato, five or six times using the syllable “ha”. See the pattern below.

Flexibility Vocal Exercises

Ascending triplet scale. This will be easy to follow if you read the notes below but explaining this exercise verbally is complicated. Sing an eighth-note triplet upward starting on each syllable using the solfege syllabels (do, re, mi, etc.) Reverse and sing each triplet downward when you get to the top of the scale. Try to sing this one as fast as you can as part of the requirement for this exercise.

do re mi fa so la ti do ti la so fa mi re do

Ascending and descending thirds. Singing it will be much easier than to explain by words. Starting on the base note, go up a third, down a whole step, up another third, etc. until you reach the fifth tone, then reverse and go back down a third, up a half step, down a third, up a whole step, etc. Just like the previous one, sing the exercises as rapidly as you can.

Rapid repeated up and down five note scale. This one is simple–just go up and down a five tone scale (do-re-mi-fa-so-fa-mi-re-do) and repeat.

Breath Support and Control Vocal Exercise

Vocal Exercises with Vocal Release Product

Buzz-slides. In terms of breath support, the buzz is one of the best exercise for it. You usually start on a mid-range tone and eventually will end up to the fifth-so-do by sliding down. Repeat several times, moving down by half-steps. Then buzz the descending triad–so-mi-do–sliding between tones. Again repeat several times, moving down by half-steps. Finally, buzz a five-tone descending scale–so-fa-mi-re-do.

Messa di voce. For this exercise, sing a comfortable mid-range pitch on “ah”. Sustaining the note, begin very softly and get gradually louder, then softer again.

To improve the quality of your singing voice, Voice Lessons are the simple most effective way to go. The moment that you decided to take lessons, you must look for a good teacher that you can feel comfortable with, that is, uses effective methods and whose style is compatible with your musical goals and needs. The singer and teacher relation must be a good fit for this is essential to success.

Voice Lessons and Pitch Perfector

Take your time and do not rush in defining your goals as specifically as you can. Do this before you look for a teacher for voice lessons. Some of the goals that you may have could be, you want to be the next American Idol or to sing solo in a church choir on Christmas Eve, an act in a community theather musical and others.  How about eventually teaching music? Do you your self teaching?  Or, do you simply want to be a healthier singer with better tone and breath support?

Where to Find Great Voice Lessons Teachers!

Talk with anyone you know who is involved in music like your school music teacher, church choir director or maybe the staff at a local music store. This is one of the best way to find a good voice teacher. If they are not available to teach you, that’s alright. There’s a big chance that they know somebody and can recommend several teachers in your community.

Local singing instructors can post fliers and business cards in music stores so most probably these stores keep lists of teachers for referrals. They may even have teachers on staff.

Some more good places to find good teachers are in colleges or university music departments. Since we are in Colleges and Universities, there are some advanced music students that are required to spend several units of teaching experience to complete their degrees. You can help them meet that requirements if you will become their private student.  Some music professors also take private students, but they are likely to charge much higher fees.

Be sure to tell something about your self when you first contact a prospective teacher for the first time. Some information that you may want to share is your musical history like piano lessons in grade school or your church choir experience or school glee club perhaps? You should ask about her expectations for practice time, whether she holds recitals for her students, her qualifications and experience, and her fees.

Day 1 of Voice Lesson – What to Expect

Schedule for a first lesson only if you and the teacher agree that you have a good fit. Do not forget to ask your teacher if you need to bring anything with you. Some things that most teachers may suggest students bring along is at least a pencil and a notebook. He could also ask you to bring along example of music you have sung or would like to sing or perhaps a portable cassette tape recorder and blank tapes.

The first few voice lessons will be almost like a job interview. Your teacher will most likely want to get to know you and your skills. He or she most probably will ask you to sing a song that you know very well in order to listen to you tone and observe your posture and breathing. After that he will evaluate your range and resonance by asking you to vocalize various exercises, like singing scales or arpeggios on various syllables, i.e “ah”, “hee”, “voo”, etc..

What to Expect on Taking Voice Lessons

Some of the things that your teach will tell you is your areas for improvement and his assessment of your voice. A good instructor will look at every beginners recognizing that he or she was once a student like you, so he should be sympathetic and supportive and not hypercritical.

Many voice lesson will have a similar pattern after the first few sessions are done. The teacher will review what you did at your last lesson, have you demonstrate your progress, and give you feedback on how you’re doing. If you are having problems, he or she will show you how to overcome them. If one particular exercise doesn’t work for you, the teacher should have a repertoire of others to try.

The rest of the lesson will be about working on more songs! This is right after the warm-up and technique exercises.  In the topic of choosing the song to ponder upon and work on, you and your voice teacher should collaborate and discuss. You need to respect his or her knowledge and experience when considering suggestions, but of course your instructor should also respect your preferences.

You need to trust your teacher’s expertise, besides, you are paying him or her to help you build your singing skills. Some songs you like may not be well-suited to the skills you need to learn.

The process will be similar for any type of material when learning a new song. If you are having problems with the melody, the teacher will most likely ask you to hum it or sing it on a single syllable, like as ‘loo’ or ‘va’.

Improve Your Singing Voice

In order to work on your breath support and phrasing, you may be asked to “buzz” the melody of the song, ie, produce the tone through pucked, vibrating lips. You will most likely do just one section at a time if the song has multiple sections like verse or refrain.

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You will begin to sing the lyrics of the song and the dynamics, i.e loudness/softness, diction and expression when you  have learned the melody on a hum or syllable.

There is a chance that you will meet other students even if it’s just a passing exchange, that’s one great benefit of having and working with a teacher. You will get along with other students knowing that these same people are grappling with the same challenges and obstacles.

Group recitals are held annually or semi-annually by many teachers for their students. This is a chance to learn how to deal with performance anxiety (“stage fright”) and of course gives everyone the opportunity to demostrate what they have learned.}

And finally, remember that when you begin your musical journey of your life, your voice teacher can give you a strong foundation.

Warm-up exercises is a must for everyone who plans to sing better. Below articles talks about the different ways to do warm ups for the voice and vocal cord muscles.

Warm-up Exercises

Singers need to prepare their voices (warm-up exercise) before a performance or every rehearsals in order not to strain their voices, we can compare this to what  athletes do before they compete in their big game. Is it really necessary to do singing warm-up exercises? The short answer is ‘yes’.  The main reason for this is that is basically relaxes and readies the muscles for singing, which is a strenuous activity.  What happens is warm-up exercises get the air flowing smoothly and readily in the air passage. At this point, we now know how important proper breathing is in singing. Doing warm up exercise before the singing activity is the best way to prevent vocal fatigue.

Always do Warm Ups Before Singing

Many people may ask, will too much vocal exercise good to your singing? Yes. The thing is, the tiny muscles, which controls the vocal fold, when they warmed-up they they become  more flexible therefore easier to use and less susceptible to injury.

You may at first find it unrelated but do some whole body exercises first, like stretching and relaxation before you start your singing warm-up exercise. Start with the “rag doll” exercise. How do you do this?  Well, bend forward at your whiles from the standing position, allowing your head and arms to dangle freely like a doll.  Shake them a bit, then just let them dangle for another minute or so.

For the right posture alignment, do the stretching exercise afterward.  You should stand with your feet flat on the floor, right about hip-width apart, and your arms at your sides. Bring your arms rapidly upward and across your body in a circular motion until they are over your head.  Take a good, deep breath as you move your arms up while rising on your tiptoes.

Come back down to flat feet when you bring your arms back down to your side as you slowly exhale. Try to keep your chest up and shoulders back, as they were at the top of the stretch, after bringing your arms down. You will now be ready for singing after doing all these warm-ups.

The Buzz, Bubble Lips, Lip Roll, Lip Trill Exercise

The buzz or lip roll or someone calls it bubble lip or lip roll. That is the first warm-up exercises that we’re going to do, yeah I know, it has many names but basically do the same thing. You do this by exhaling  with pluckered lips to create a sound like a “raspberry” or a bit liek a motorboat. This is due to the vibrations of the lips.

You will do the buzz slide between three tones: the base tone, up a fourth, and back to the base (do-fa-do): in the key of C major, it would be C,F,C. Repeat, moving up a half step each time (C#, F#, C#, then D,G,D, then Eb, Ab, Eb, etc.). You can also do this on the syllable “ee” or “oo”, but the buzz forces you to use good breath support.

The Fifth Slide Warm-up Exercise

The next warm-up exercise is the fifth-slide. Start on the fifth tone with the syllable “wee” and slide down to the base (so-do): in C major again, it would be G, C. Repeat on the same tones with “zoo”, then move up a half-step and repeat, “wee” and “zoo” on  Ab and Db. Continue moving up by half-steps.

Five-Tone Scale Warm-up Exercise

Next is the five-tone descending scale. Starting on the fifth tone, descend stepwise to the base: so, fa, mi, re, do. First do the syllable “na”, then “nay”, “noh”, and “noo”. Move up a half-step and repeat the scale on each syllable.

Descending 8-tone scale is the fourth warm-up exercise. It goes – (do, ti, la, so, fa, mi, re, do) on the syllable “noo”. Just like before, move up a half-step with each repeat. You may also want to  try other vowel sounds, such as “nah”, “nay”, “nee”, or “noh”, or use “m” instead of “n” as the initial consonant. Try to feel your mask, or upper resonance, as you do this.

Follow that with a descending arpeggio: do, so, mi, do, on the syllable “nah”. Repeat on “nay”, “nee”, “noh”, and “noo”, then move up by half steps and repeat on each syllable again.

Octave Slide Warm Up Exercise

The octave slide is the final warm-up exercise that we’ll do. As before, use the buzz and start on the base note; slide up an octave and back down to the base: do, do, do. Repeat on “oo”. Move up a half-step, do the buzz, and then “oo”. Continue moving up by half-steps.

Hopefully, if these are done properly, you have made a great warm-up exercise that will surely helpy you with your singing practice for that day.

Many individuals make the mistake of thinking that vocal training lessons focus only on the technical aspects of singing. In reality, it brings out the beauty of your voice by combining technically superior vocals with the raw power of human emotion. Emotion through song is conveyed through the use of vocal registers and subtle fluctuations, known as vibrato.

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vocal traning lessons

There is much more to good singing than belting out notes in the right keys. You should exert control over the notes you sing in order for it to come out warm and pleasing to both the ears and heart. This skill is difficult to develop without professional guidance, since these singing qualities can only be attained through accurate vocal placement.

Vibrato Means Vibrancy – Vocal Training Lessons

Vibrato is defined as the slight tremulous effect imparted to vocal tone for added warmth and expressiveness by slight and rapid variations of pitch. While anyone can sing a flat or off-key tune, vibrato requires the knowledge of expressing natural voice quality without an excessive trembling sound.

It may seem to be an elusive concept, but it is attainable through controlled breathing to create regular changes in pitch. Vibrato should not be mistaken for a tremor. It is more of a pulsating, nuance in pitch. It is usually heard in older voices, but not often.

One gets a feeling of emotion through the pitch variations in vibrato. However, you may not want to use vibrato, which is okay considering the fact that many professional singers abuse this technique. Since it requires controlled breathing, vibrato may be used in certain parts of a song but not in others. If done correctly and at the right time, it can greatly improve the quality of a song performance.

Chest Voice and Head Voice – Vocal Training lessons

Vocal training includes lessons on vocal registers, specifically referred to as the “head voice” and the “chest voice”. Vocal register will help you to identify which specific vocal qualities will be created by certain sections of the vocal folds. This concept is rather difficult to understand, but the technique has long been used by professional singers.

Let us distinguish between the two types of registers. The head voice is produced by the thinning of the vocal cords, which when vibrating rapidly, produces tones of higher timbre that seem to emanate from the head. The head voice is clearer and can be projected to greater distances in comparison to the chest voice. No vibrations can be felt in the chest when the head voice is used.

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The chest voice is produced from the thickening of the vocal cords, causing them to vibrate slower. This register has a low, heavy sound that emanates from the throat or sternum.

A third register – called the “even voice” – strikes a balance between the head voice and chest voice. Blending of these three registers is important, so that no strain is imposed upon the voice in the effort of holding one specific register. Vocal training can teach you to make smooth transitions between registers with the use of a break.

Learning How To Make Smooth Transition – Vocal Training Lessons

Vocal training lessons

An important goal of vocal training is teaching how to make smooth transitions between sounds. It is not easy to master concepts like head voice, chest voice, and vibrato unless you perform certain exercises that will help you to blend vocal registers and control vocal pulsations.

The voices of professional singers are capable of projecting emotion through the control of voice registers and timbre, thus eliminating the sudden, ear-jarring shifts in tone. By mastering these qualities, you can attain a voice that is full, warm and with personality.

Learn more! Keep on reading about the subject. I hope that this vocal training lessons articles helped you in some way.

It is the erroneous belief of many that everyone knows how to sing. All one has to do is just open their mouth and belt it out. However, just go to a karaoke bar and you will discover that not everyone has the gift of song. As for those who do, they are completely unaware that there is a right and wrong way to sing. The wrong way of singing can be unhealthy and damaging to the voice. The right way, on the other hand, is healthier and helps sustain the voice.

Take Care of Yourself and Your Voice

You must take care of your body in order to take care of your voice. Whether you are just singing for fun or have ambitions of a music career, you would want to keep your voice sounding good preferably for your entire life. Keeping yourself physically fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are the key factors to preserving your voice. This would include a healthy diet, regular exercise, and adequate sleep. Factors that can damage your voice are smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, and taking illegal drugs.

Despite what showbiz tabloids say, not all singers and musicians follow the stereotypical hard-partying lifestyle. Recording artists who have celebrated long, rewarding careers strictly observed healthy lifestyles and shunned the alcohol and drug excesses that marked the short lives of such legendary superstars as Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley.

Singing Teacher vs. Online Singing Course

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If you are serious about your singing, whether you are doing it for recreation or professionally, you will need to be trained on how to sing correctly. Singing lessons are a must for aspiring professionals. You can avail of the services of a voice teacher in your local area or download online singing lessons, like Singing Is Easy by Yvonne DeBandi or Singorama by Emily Mander.

Regardless of the type of instruction you choose, you need to learn how to properly use your vocal apparatus and how to avoid or address any voice problems that develop. This can be achieved with the right voice coach or singing program, and it can even prove to be a fun and exciting endeavor.

The first lesson you will learn focuses on correct posture and breathing techniques that will enable you to produce the best tones from your voice. The ideal singing posture is standing in any erect by relaxed manner, with feet hip-width apart and with either the left or right foot slightly forward. Shoulders should not be hunched forward and back curved. The back should be straight with chest high and shoulders back, but not as rigid as a soldier standing at attention.

Exercise for Singing Posture

Do the exercise below to help you attain a good singing posture…

1) Stand with feet hip-width apart and with arms hanging loosely at the sides.
2) In a quick circular motion, raise your arms across your body and up over your head.
3) As you do this, go up on your tiptoes and take a deep breath.
4) As you slowly exhale, lower your hands to your sides and get down on your feet.
5) Make sure that your chest and shoulders retain the same position as when you performed the stretch.

Breathing techniques help you to produce solid, full sounds without imposing strain on the throat. Whenever you inhale to sing, your diaphragm, abdominal and spinal muscles should work together to create a feeling of expansion especially along the midsection.

Once you have inhaled deeply, slowly exhale, creating a hissing sound, while you try to maintain your midsection in an expanded state. Strengthening your diaphragm and abdominal muscles will take some time and effort, but the exercise will enable you to sing in a healthy way, producing high quality tones and reduced fatigue on the vocal cords.

Correct posture and breathing techniques are but the foundations to learning how to sing properly. You then advance to the level focusing on tonal placement and quality. Vocal tone resonates from three primary areas, namely the head (sinuses), the pharynx (mouth and throat), and the chest. The “head voice” is utilized for the creation of high notes while the “chest voice” is for lower tones.

Most of the time, you will be producing sound originating from the head and pharynx called the “mixed tone.” Also termed “mask resonance”, this is because the sound vibrations emanate from an area that would be covered by a half-face mask similar to the one used by the Phantom of the Opera.

Voice Tone and Quality

Do this simple exercise to feel mask resonance…

1) Inhale deeply.
2) Starting with a high note using the syllable “hee” or “hoo”, slide your voice from the high to the low range.

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Similar to yawning, you should be able to feel vibrations in the triangle-shaped area, starting from the point between your eyes going down to the bridge of your nose and the roof of your mouth (or soft palate).

These basics are the first steps that you need to master to be able to learn how to sing. You will be able to see results if you work hard and with patience, discipline and regular practice.