 Serena Koi, Pexels.com. How to Sing Better by Changing Vocal Habits in Singing Classes for Adults Cover Image This is part of a series of blog posts derived from my book, The Five-Minute Singer. You can view video versions of most of this information in the free introductory series to the Five-Minute Singer vocal program. First, if you haven’t yet read the other two articles in this series—"What I Wish Singing Classes Near Me Taught About How Singing Works” and “My Best Tips on How to Become a Better Singer when Teaching Voice Lessons Near Me”—please turn back for now and read those first. These articles are supposed to go sequentially, so you need the information in those for this article to make sense. Now that you’ve learned about the big picture of how singing works and my four singing rules, let’s discuss what this book is all about: how to sing better by changing vocal habits. Everyone has specific habits with which they go about their lives. You walk, type, talk, brush your teeth, and do a million other things each day based on habit. You don’t consciously think about putting one foot in front of the other when you walk—your body just knows what to do. As I teach students of my Fort Wayne voice lessons, when you sing, you likewise do many things automatically. You probably have some helpful and healthy vocal habits already. But, more than likely, you may have other habits that detract from your singing. These mysterious bad habits may limit your range and make singing unpleasant, uncomfortable, or even harmful to your body. If you’ve taken singing classes for adults, you might already be aware of some of these bad habits. If you develop new habits that improve your singing, you’ll implement them automatically, even when you’re not thinking about them or you’re under pressure. You can probably manage to put one foot in front of the other to walk without thinking about it even when you’re stressed, right? That’s what The Five-Minute Singer is all about: using concentrated practice to develop new vocal habits. That’s how to sing better automatically regardless of your emotional state or level of focus.  RF Studio, Pexels.com How to Sing Better with Anatomy-Based Vocal Habits: Practice Smart, Not Long The Five-Minute Singer relies on anatomy, and so the vast majority of the habits I cover involve a specific body part. There are a few reasons for this. First, if you focus on a specific body part, you can get plenty done in just five minutes a day. This approach strongly mimics that of physical therapy. If you’ve ever suffered a minor injury, you may remember having to do some exercises at home each day. I broke my pinky in middle school, and I had to play with putty and do other little exercises to keep my joint flexible, but I didn’t have to do them for hours and hours. I just had to be consistent. Similarly, if you understand what you’re trying to accomplish and focus on specific exercises to that end, you can train your body on how to sing better in just a few minutes a day. I’ve seen it happen time and time again, and I’ve done it myself. This is something I emphasize heavily in my online singing classes for adults and in my online and Fort Wayne voice lessons. Additionally, singing is a highly complicated process, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or confused if you attempt to do too many things at once. So many singers out there have been taking lessons for years, but if they practice without a specific focus, a bad habit they’ve had since the beginning can linger. It can stick around even after years of study and tens of thousands of dollars of investment in lessons. That just plain stinks. Basically, the more factors you introduce, the harder it is for you to practice in a focused way and the longer and less efficient your practice sessions will grow. This is The Five-Minute Singer, and so that’s not going to work. My approach in my online singing classes for adults is all about working smart in short bursts and getting real, tangible results to learn how to sing better.  Pixabay, pexels.com How to Sing Better by Changing Vocal Habits in Singing Classes for Adults Getting those real, tangible results relies on making and breaking habits, and admittedly, that’s not easy. Have you ever tried to change a habit? It takes an awful lot of focus and dedication. But after working with more students than I can count in a one-on-one lesson setting, I’ve developed a simple three-step process for changing vocal habits when taking my online singing classes for adults. How to Sing Better by Changing Vocal Habits Step 1: Notice Awareness is the first step to recovery. If you don’t know you’re doing something, you can’t change it. The first step, therefore, is to simply notice the problem. Perception relies on those four senses we already talked about: sight, sound, touch, and kinesthetic awareness. The details of how to notice differ depending on the habit in question, and I’ve included specific instructions for each body part whenever appropriate. I’ll get more specific about how and when to notice your vocal habits in the section on how to practice in Chapter 2. How to Sing Better by Changing Vocal Habits Step 2. Get Annoyed It takes constant focus over an extended period to change a habit. With proper motivation, you can achieve this kind of concentration without feeling beleaguered. And nothing motivates like irritation! As your awareness of the issue increases, let it annoy you. This bad vocal habit is adversely affecting your singing. Are you going to stand for that? Are you going to keep letting it happen? I didn’t think so! You want to learn how to sing better! As your perception sharpens through your studies in singing classes for adults, you may come to dislike the sound the bad habit causes, or you may even discover that it’s actually physically uncomfortable to sing with your bad habit. Once you’re feeling that way, you’re in a great position to make a lasting change. One word of caution here: don’t let your annoyance spiral into negative self-talk. Don’t start thinking, “Why can’t I just fix this? I’m worthless. I’m a bad singer.” Stick to being annoyed by the bad habit, not by yourself or your inability to fix it right away. Fixing any habit, after all, takes time and patience. How to Sing Better by Changing Vocal Habits Step 3: Fix It At this point, you constantly notice your habit and are getting increasingly annoyed with it. Now, it’s time to fix it! My online singing course will teach you various methods of improving your skills, and the practice log can help you track your progress and stay focused as you chip away at that habit one day at a time.  Cytonn Photography, Pexels.com How to Sing Better with Online Singing Classes for Adults With your eyes on the big picture and your efforts on anatomy-based habit building, you can condense a lot of progress into just five minutes of focused practice each day. With this approach, which I heavily advocate in my singing classes for adults, you can finally figure out how to sing better. Take a look at my online vocal training course page to learn about both fully automated and hybrid lesson/online training options for my singing classes for adults. If you’re interested in traditional Fort Wayne singing lessons, you can also check out my voice lessons page. Whether you choose to reach out or no, I wish you luck on your singing adventures!
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