Elaina Robbins, Singer and Voice Teacher
“How can I sing better?” This is a question I get all the time as an online voice teacher. It’s totally understandable, but when students of my online vocal training program ask me this, I immediately turn it back around on them and ask the to be more specific. Imagine that you’ve gone to the doctor and asked, “How can I feel better?” The doctor will obviously ask, “Well, what’s wrong? What are your symptoms?” Vocal problems are really no different. If you want to improve vocal for singing, you first have to figure out what the vocal problem is. It’s no good just asking “How can I sing better?” without specifics. So, why are you asking, “How can I sing better?” What is it about your singing that you feel doesn’t sound great? Are you gasping for air? Do you sound whiny? Does singing feel uncomfortable? The more specific with you can be about your vocal problem, the easier it’s going to be to fix. In this article, I’ve covered the six top vocal problems that come up in my online vocal training program students. I’ll also share with you the general idea of how to improve vocals for singing my addressing these problems. Vocal Problem #1: Pain, Discomfort, or Fatigue
Cause: Vocal Tract Tension or Vocal Injury Solution: Move the Effort of Singing Down Pain, discomfort, or quick fatigue due to singing are three major red flags of destructive vocal technique. Almost always, these problems occur when a singer puts the effort of singing into the vocal tract rather than the muscles of breathing and breath support. Imagine, for a second, that you’re watching a bodybuilder preparing to pick up a heavy weight. She squeezes her neck and facial muscles, and maybe her face even starts to turn purple. That’s a very tense vocal tract right there. If she tried to sing, how do you think it would feel? How long could she sing without getting tired? The vocal tract includes the neck, throat, jaw, and tongue. Putting a lot of pressure on these areas strains the vocal folds themselves, and the vocal folds are pretty delicate little things. Singers who put the effort of singing into the vocal tract tend to feel a lot of pressure, itchiness, or even pain when singing. Over time, or due to one particularly bombastic event, this type of singing can lead to vocal injuries like hemorrhages, nodules, and polyps. The solution? The effort of singing should occur in the breathing and breath support muscles. My video on the big picture of singing explains this. Learning to relax the vocal tract and engage the breathing and breath support muscles is a long-term project, but if you work on it, your vocal health and sound can completely transform. This is a major part of how to improve vocals for singing.
0 Comments
Wondering how to improve singing voice quickly? Before I give you some tricks to try immediately, please remember that improving singing is a marathon, not a sprint. I remember once having a student ask me how many lessons they’d need to learn how to sing, and it definitely gave me laugh! This is sort of like asking how many physical trainer appointments you need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. It’s just not quantifiable, and it depends a lot on what you do in between lessons. That being said, if you’re wondering how to improve singing on the fly, I do have some advice. You can use these five holistic tools to start to shift your mindset around, notice more about your vocal habits, and see some results in a relatively short period of time. How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #1: Use a Karaoke App Melodies comprise of rhythm and pitch. If you have issues with either, a karaoke app is a fun way to practice! The best karaoke apps work sort of like Guitar Hero—they have a guide showing you what rhythms/pitches to sing when, and they show you what notes you’ve actually sung. When working with students, I’ve noticed that being able to see notes in real time helps people to sing more accurately. Looking at whether you’re flat or sharp or whether your rhythm is wonky can help hone your musical ear. Plus, practicing with an app like this makes practice more fun! It feels less like work and more like a game. When using a karaoke app to augment the best online singing lessons you can find, I recommend choosing one that:
Check out my video on karaoke apps and intonation for more on this topic. How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #2: Sing in Front of the Mirror My online vocal training program, The Five-Minute Singer, relies on four senses: sight, sound, touch, and kinesthetic awareness (body awareness). You might think sound is the most powerful of the four, but I actually think sight is even more important, especially for beginners. You might not know exactly what to listen for when you’re starting out, but the mirror doesn’t lie! When you sing, you should look surprisingly normal and relaxed. My favorite famous contemporary example of this is Whitney Houston’s Star-Spangled Banner (skip to 1:15). Do you see how normal she looks? No straining, no heaving, no weird muscles bulging out, easy lowering of the jaw for high notes? That’s what masterful singing looks like. Because classical music is technically the most challenging, classical singers are in my opinion the best examples of this. Let’s look at another famous video: Luciano Pavarotti’ Nessun Dorma from Verdi’s Turandot. Once again, it looks easy. No straining, no coiling up for the high note, loose jaw movement, grounded stance—tremendous sound. No amount of extra jerking, bulging, and straining will help you sound like that. If you learn what optimal singing looks like, you can stand in front of the mirror and watch yourself as you practice, ensuring you look the way you should. Here are some things you can look for:
How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #3: Record Yourself Recording yourself has many of the same advantages as practicing in front of the mirror, except you can also use it in a few additional ways. First, you can view yourself in profile or at other angles to check your alignment. Second, you can listen to your performance to check your sounds for signs of vocal faults, including pitch and rhythmic accuracy. This can be very eye opening. When recording yourself, I recommend finding decent lighting and an angle that lets you see everything from the torso up. If you’re a decently loud singer, you may need to place your device far enough away so you don’t distort the sound. How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #4: Use Your Hands As I mentioned already, one of the senses I advocate using is touch. This means putting your hands in various spots on the body to feel what’s going on. I find that placing hands in problem spots often works the same way watching a child works—if you’re looking right at the kid, the kid is way more likely to behave! So, if you’re wondering how to improve singing fast, keep your hands on those misbehaving body parts to supervise them accordingly. Here are some useful spots you can place your hands:
How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #5: Get Low When you sing, your effort should come from your breath, which happens primarily below the armpit line thanks to the diaphragm and the intercostals. Everything above that line, from the chest and shoulders to the neck, jaw, and tongue, should be relatively loose and floppy so as not to interfere with vocal production. Check out my video on the big picture of singing for more on this. This is the opposite sensation to what many people experience. Lots of people feel the effort of singing up high, especially in the throat. An easy way to correct this is to try to shift that effort down. Feel like you’re working hard with your breathing muscles instead of your neck. Use your air to be emotional and expressive rather than employing your neck or large facial muscles like the masseters. Hand/arm gestures can help with this; my favorite is a low, circular motion like waves. You can also try bouncing around from the knees so you feel that lower center of gravity. How to Improve Singing Voice the Smart Way
You might have noticed that these five tips for how to improve singing voice quality all rely on self-awareness, with a focus on body parts. This is a hugely important tenant of signing, since as singers, our body is our instrument! That’s why I designed my online vocal training program to center around all the most important body parts involved in singing. I tried to make one of the best online singing courses I could by focusing on habit-based, anatomical practice. The course teaches you how to improve singing by training your various body parts to do what they are supposed to do to help you sing your best. Once these habits are locked in, your vocal instrument will run smoothly whenever you sing, even if you’re nervous or on autopilot. Sound good? Learn more here, and happy singing! It seems like some people pop out of the womb with amazing voices. Singing, like many other skills, is a talent, and it’s true that some people just have “it” naturally. But what if you don’t have “it”? Can you learn how to sing, or do you need to be born with it? Plenty of people seek out the best online voice lessons or in-person instruction they can find, but some don’t even get that far because they believe they are a lost cause. Does that sound like you? If you are scared that your voice is beyond help, you’ve come to the right place. Can you learn how to sing? I really believe anyone can. In this article, I’ll explain why anyone can learn to sing, the one exception to this rule, and what to do if you feel like there's no hope. Can You Learn How to Sing? So, can you learn how to sing if you’re not naturally a fabulous singer? Absolutely! I often compare singing to sports. I, for example, am 4’11”. I will never be a fantastic basketball player. But what if I really, really wanted to play? I could practice footwork and shoot hoops in my driveway until I became extremely accurate. I could play basketball at the gym or join a community league, and I could have a ton of fun in the process. I might never play with the greats, but if I was really passionate about it and doing it for self-fulfillment, who could tell me I shouldn’t do it? Singing is very much the same. People tend to underestimate their natural talent, but let’s say for the sake of argument that you really have none at all. Who cares? You might never sing on a national stage, but is that even what you want? If you enjoy singing and simply want to improve as a hobby, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t try. Working up to recording your own music, participating in local productions, or just feeling brave enough to pick up the mic at a karaoke bar are all great goals. Plus, there are plenty of wildly successful singers who aren't actually virtuosic vocalists, instead relying on songwriting and instrumentals to carry their vocals to fame. Low Skill Level = Fast Progress There’s also a silver lining to starting with little natural talent. When teaching in-person or online vocal lessons, I’ve found that students with low skill levels often improve the most, and the most rapidly. Again thinking of fitness, let’s say two people want to lose weight. One of those people weighs 400 pounds, and the other weighs 175. Who has the potential to lose more weight? In many ways, substantive progress gets harder the better you are at something. Losing the last five pounds can be harder than losing substantial weight at the beginning of a weight loss journey. So, if you feel like your singing voice is beyond help, you might find that when you start learning how to sing, progress is swift and satisfying. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Can You Learn How to Sing? The One Reason You Should Hold Back In my opinion, there’s only one reason why someone shouldn’t learn to sing: vocal health. Back to the fitness analogy here. Let’s say I really wanted to learn to play basketball. My height isn’t a real issue, but what if I had bad knees from years of working out with poor form? Should I launch myself straight onto the basketball court anyway? Not unless I was looking to ruin my knees for life! I would first need to address my health issue before trying a new sport. The same concept very much applies to vocal health. A lot of people who want to sing and try to learn have unhealthy vocal habits (sort of like working out with poor form). Over time, they end up with injured, swollen vocal folds. Common signs of this include a raspy speaking voice, pain or discomfort when talking or singing, and fatigue/hoarseness at the end of the day. Does this sound familiar? If so, before you learn to sing, you have to rest up and get your cords healthy again. Then, when you start learning to sing, tread carefully and avoid over-practicing or singing in ways that might injure you. Can You Learn How to Sing If You’ve Tried and It Isn’t Working? What if you’ve signed up for the best in-person or online voice lessons you can find and tried your hardest to learn, but you’ve hit a wall? Some people start off feeling optimistic, but as they start to learn, they become discouraged by their lack of progress. As with any skill, singing also takes time and effort to master—it won’t happen right away. But singing can also be confusing, and there is no standard way of teaching singing, which adds to the frustration. I certainly felt discouraged a lot as a student, particularly because of the way voice is taught. Voice lesson instruction often focuses on preparing a specific song, triaging the biggest vocal issues without always explaining the anatomy behind them. This can help you sing that one song better, but in my opinion, it has inconsistent results and doesn’t leave you with much learning you can apply to other songs. That’s why I created The Five-Minute Singer. Can You Learn How to Sing Online?
My online vocal training program, The Five-Minute Singer, is a habit-based learning method relying on true understanding of the vocal instrument. In it, you’ll learn how the voice really works and which body parts are supposed to be doing what. You’ll learn to control each body part one at a time, creating new vocal habits that take over automatically as you sing. This method helps you actually understand what you’re doing, organize your practice time, and see real, quantifiable results quickly. So, if what was supposed to be the best online vocal lessons left you feeling like you were a lost cause, I encourage you to try out my course. Taking ownership of your instrument is very satisfying. Once you get how the voice works and are taking steps towards improving, you’ll definitively know the answer to the question, “Can you learn how to sing?” A lot of people ask me how to increase vocal range. It’s an understandable question, and for a lot of singers looking for the best online voice lessons or an online vocal training program, it’s the ultimate goal. After all, what’s more thrilling than a perfectly executed high note or floor-rumbling low note?
As much as I wish I could wave a magic wand and add an octave to your range, that’s just not how to increase vocal range. However, there’s a lot you can do to increase your range healthily over time. In this article, I’ll address healthy range expansion, the top 3 factors that hold most singers back, and the sneaky extra consideration of registration. Safety First: How to Increase Vocal Range Without Hurting Yourself You might want to know how to increase vocal range, but first, let’s take a step back and think about vocal health. Vocal extremes are one of the most difficult parts of singing. I often equate singing to athletics, and singing a note at the top of your range is sort of like lifting the heaviest weights you can or sprinting as fast as you can. If your form isn’t good and you’re not in good shape already, the potential for injury is high. So, before you think about singing as high or low as you possibly can, consider working on your technique in general. Once you have a decent understanding of how the voice works and have developed some fundamental skills, you’ll be in a better place to tackle healthy range expansion. Luckily, learning how to increase your range overlaps big time with standard vocal technique. One more thing to keep in mind here is your actual instrument. People’s natural voices come with different limits, just like our bodies do. At 4’11”, I will never be a great basketball player, but I was perfect for gymnastics in grade school. If you have a low voice, your ceiling, even with perfect technique, is lower than some. If you have a high voice, on the other hand, those rich low notes may not be in the cards for you. That’s okay. Celebrate your natural abilities, work on your technique, and enjoy singing in your comfortable range. Disclaimer: The following article contains my thoughts and opinions. This is not to be construed as medical advice or the only way to think about these concepts. There are as many ways to teach voice as there are voice teachers, and all of them are valid. Interested in beginner singing lessons? If so, one of your key concerns may be learning how to sing in tune. You may even be worried that if you can’t naturally sing in tune, there’s nothing you can do about it. This is not true! In my Fort Wayne voice lessons and online voice lessons, I have helped many students with this specific issue. Confusion about how to sing in tune can be one of the most emotionally difficult issues for singers, but with the right routine, you can learn how to sing in tune. It’s been my privilege to watch students go from having no idea how to match a pitch to accurately singing a song. Here’s how they learned how to sing in tune—and how you can as well. Why It’s Hard to learn how to Sing in TuneWhy do so many people have to learn how to sing in tune? While it’s true that some singers know how to sing in tune naturally, many others can’t quite figure it out. That’s because the physical process of singing in tune is pretty complicated. There are quite a few things that have to happen in order to accurately sing a pitch. Here’s the basic process of how to sing in tune:
Yikes! If you can’t naturally figure out how to sing in tune, I hope this makes you feel a bit better. As students in my Fort Wayne voice lessons quickly learn, this is a complex process that involves multiple steps. That’s why, to learn how to sing in tune, you have to keep this muti-step approach in mind. How to Sing In Tune: |