“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
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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.

​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:

• Has a good library of songs. Some of the free options don’t have any more modern or popular options.
• Collects data over time if possible. Some of the apps score your performances and aggregate these scores over time, showing your progress.

Check out my video on karaoke apps and intonation for more on this topic.
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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. ​

How to Improve Singing Voice Tip #4: Use Your Hands 
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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:

• Belly button (to encourage diaphragmatic breathing)
• Sternum (to discourage chest movement during breathing)
• Neck, under chin, side of face (to discourage muscular engagement)
• Chin (to encourage lowering the jaw for open vowels and higher notes)
• Nose (to discourage nasality)

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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.

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 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:

1. Hear a note
2. Correctly mentally process that note
3. Figure out how to emit that specific pitch with your voice
4. Correctly coordinate your breath, onset, and other factors to accurately reproduce the note.

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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. ​

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Before you try to sing accurately along with your favorite tunes, there are a few skills you’ll want to work on. Here are the ones that often come up first in my Fort Wayne voice lessons.

Hearing the Note
This step has nothing to do with your hearing and everything to do with concentration. Your first step is to really focus on listening to the pitch you are trying to match. Try to imagine it in your mind before you attempt to sing it. If you’re in beginning singing lessons or practicing this on your own for the first time,, do this one note at a time at first rather than with an entire song.

Learning to Navigate Your Voice
For many singers, singing out of tune isn’t a result of not being able to hear a note; it’s a result of not knowing how to vocally reproduce the note. That’s why a big part of learning how to sing in tune is actually just learning how to sing well.

To help with this, as you practice matching pitches, pay attention to patterns. If you have trouble singing in your head voice in tune, for example, you’ll need to practice singing in your head voice in general before you can try to match pitches in the top of your range.

On that note, students of my virtual voice lessons and Fort Wayne voice lessons quickly learn that it’s easiest to sing pitches that are within their comfortable range. When you’re learning how to sing in tune, stick only to notes that are easy for you to sing. Don’t try to match extremely high or low notes at first. That’s why practicing your pitch accuracy by trying to wail out Ariana Grande or Let It Go isn’t a great idea.
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Figure Out If You’re Flat or Sharp
When you do sing a note incorrectly, use it as an opportunity to figure out in which direction you’re off and by how much. Are you too high (sharp) or too low (flat)? Are you just a half step off, or are you a larger interval off? You can use tools to help with this at first, as you’ll see below. Gradually, as your musical ear improves, you’ll instantly be able to tell if you’re flat or sharp and be able to correct it. 

We’re lucky to live in a digital age when virtual voice lessons and other virtual tools are available to help us learn. For beginning singing lessons focusing on pitch, I suggest leveraging pitch accuracy tools along with more conventional methods to improve your ability to sing in tune. Here’s what I recommend:

1. Karaoke Apps
Many karaoke apps now let you see exactly when you’re accurate and when you’re not. Not only is this fun; it’s an invaluable tool for helping you learn if you’re flat or sharp as you sing. For the most success, choose music that is within your comfortable range (if it feels like you’re screaming, it might be best to pick something else). Some apps also allow you to change the key of a song if it’s too high or low; don’t be afraid to tweak keys for a more comfortable—and accurate—singing experience.

2. Pitch Matching Exercises
This isn’t as fun as karaoke apps, but a few minutes a day of pitch matching exercises can work wonders on your ability to sing in tune! For this exercise, you’ll need a keyboard (physical or digital) and a tuner app. Simply play a note in your comfortable range while looking at your tuner. Listen, then sing the note on an “ooh” vowel. Were you able to sing the note accuracy? If you were off, were you flat or sharp, and by how much? Repeat the note until you’re able to sing it correctly, sliding up or down to correct your pitch if necessary.

When you’re able to sing one note accurately most of the time, try two-note sequences. Work your way up to three or four notes at a time.

3. Choral Singing
Choral singing is amazing for practicing pitch accuracy because you’re surrounded by other singers who can help you stay in tune. Whether it’s a community theatre chorus, volunteer choir, or your church chorus, consider joining to sharpen your skills. 

As you work toward learning how to sing in tune, keep these three tips in mind.

1.Consistency
Pitch accuracy doesn’t happen overnight. Much like exercise, this is something you’ll need to do on a daily (and I do mean daily!) basis for at least three weeks to see results. You don’t have to practice for hours on end, though. I often tell students in my Fort Wayne voice lessons that even a few minutes in the morning and a few in the evening of concentrated practice will do the trick. Quality over quantity definitely applies here.

2.Gamification
Practice is more fun if it doesn’t feel like practice. That’s why the karaoke app is such an important tool. This also applies to your other practice as well. Can you challenge yourself by trying to figure out where your pitch accuracy veers off when you’re singing along to your favorite song in the car? Can you make a game out of the pitch accuracy exercise by seeing how many notes you can remember in a row? Make it fun, and you’ll be more likely to stick to it.

3.Patience
Any beginner singing lessons teacher will tell you that it takes time to improve. Try not to get frustrated with yourself if you don’t see results from your virtual voice lessons right away. Instead, focus on having as much fun as possible while you consistently practice, and recognize that even baby steps (like being able to hear when you’re out of tune and by how much) are a form of improvement.

Need a better explanation of something I mentioned in this article? Ready to sign up for my online vocal training program or Fort Wayne voice lessons ? Please feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you and help you learn how to sing in tune once and for all! ​