What I Wish Singing Classes Near Me Taught About How Singing Works

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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.

I think learning to sing starts with a basic knowledge of what’s happening in there in the first place. If more singing classes near me and afar taught this basic concept, people would probably be a lot less confused. Why? The big picture of singing is not at all intuitive. This is something I try hard to cover in my online singing program.

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Here’s the scoop: the voice is basically a wind instrument. We breathe in, and the breath provides fuel for the sound. Because the muscles of breathing cause external movement localized primarily in the abdomen (below your chest), the effort of singing largely occurs in the abdomen as you inhale and regulate your airflow. You can see this in the bottom layer of this friendly singing skeleton.

Next, we have the middle layer. Most people know their vocal cords are located in the larynx, which sits in the throat. Therefore, people think they need to exert effort in this area, “reaching” or “pushing” to “hit” notes. Does any of this sound familiar? This is certainly what I used to do.

In truth, your vocal cords are tiny and protected inside the hard cartilage of the larynx. The movements of the vocal cords are miniscule. Many muscles intersect in this area, and you do have to engage some facial muscles to form words. But, as a general rule, keeping your chest through your lower jaw as loose and relaxed as possible reduces resistance and fatigue, promoting efficient singing. Annoyingly, this area—the middle area on our skeleton—includes a lot of body parts most people pressurize when singing. If you’ve seen a singer visibly straining when singing, you know what I’m talking about.

You’ll find the last piece of the puzzle, a small flap made of muscle and connective tissue called the soft palate, on the roof of the mouth. Lifting the soft palate prevents you from singing out of your nose, streamlining the vocal tract and, again, reducing resistance and fatigue. So, when you think about it, you’ve got layers of effort and relaxation: soft palate engaged, middle section relaxed, breathing muscles engaged. It is not at all intuitive.

Does this occur naturally when you sing? If you’re like most people, probably not. That's totally normal.

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How I Spot Signs of Healthy, Efficient Singing When Teaching Singing Classes Near Me

How can you tell if someone is singing this way? With four specific senses. I’ll encourage you to hone these four senses throughout my online singing course. With them, you can detect both healthy, efficient singing and less healthy, restricted singing, so let’s go over them here and then apply them to healthy singing technique. This is also how I detect healthy and unhealthy singing when teaching singing classes near me.
 
How I Use Sight in Singing Classes Near Me

When watching singers, you can often see clues that belie healthy and unhealthy singing. Whether you’re taking an online singing course or you’re working on your own singing, you have two options: using a mirror to watch yourself in real time or recording yourself and watching it later.
Whether it’s you or someone else, what does optimal singing look like? Take a second to picture someone using unhealthy singing technique, then picture a true expert easily singing. They look completely different, right? If you mute a video of a great singer and just watch them, you might notice:

• Loose, easy, aligned singing stance
• Lots of lower abdominal movement during breathing
• No visible strain (muscles engaging, tendons popping out, veins bulging, etc.) in the neck or jaw
• Free, easy jaw movement to open and close the mouth
• Relaxed and emotionally appropriate gestures that aren’t jerky or strained
• Relaxed or emotionally appropriate facial expressions
• Normal facial coloring (doesn’t turn red)

 
How I Use Sound in Singing Classes Near Me
What about sound? You might notice these qualities in healthy, sustainable singing:

• Clear, flexible, non-nasal tone with dynamic contrast (can grow louder or softer and change tone colors0F[1] as needed)
• Wide vocal range with easy, free notes both at the top and bottom of the vocal range
• Great stamina – no discernable fatigue even after prolonged singing

How I Use Touch and Kinesthetic Awareness in Singing Classes Near Me​
In addition to seeing and hearing, you can feel many vocal habits. One way to do this is with your hands—I refer to this as “touch” throughout this book. I encourage my online singing course students and in-person students of singing classes near me to take a hands-on approach with themselves. For example, if you aren’t using your diaphragm enough during inhalation, placing a hand on your belly can help. If you have a bad habit of craning your neck up for high notes, placing your hands (gently!) around your neck keeps your awareness there.
If you had the opportunity to put hands on a world-class singer in action, you’d likely feel:

• Lots of lower body movement during breathing
• Soft, flexible, relaxed muscles in the shoulders, neck, and face

 
You can also feel what your body is doing without placing your hands in specific spots, relying instead of kinesthetic awareness. Kinesthetic awareness is simply your knowledge of your body. For example, if you put your hand behind your back and lift up two fingers, you know you’re doing so because you can feel it, right? That’s kinesthetic awareness. The better your awareness of certain body parts and their ideal function, the more you’ll notice when bad habits kick in.
 
Optimal singing feels like this:

• A sensation of work and effort in breathing muscles in the lower torso
• Filling up with air and having plenty of air to sing and play with
• Easy, comfortable vocal production, with no feeling of effort or strain in the area from the chest up (with the exception of the soft palate)
• A calm, grounded stance
• A sensation of excellent vocal control and confidence

 
That sounds pretty good, right? My online vocal training course will help you get closer and closer to feeling that way when you sing. By focusing on shifting your current vocal habits more towards this smooth, efficient singing process, you too can gain all that wonderful, relaxed freedom and ease.

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Using Healthy Vocal Models when Teaching Singing Classes Near Me

Excellent vocal models can help you internalize the big-picture concept of singing. Can you think of singers in your preferred genres with similar vocal types to yours? If so, find some video recordings of them singing live. Look for videos that show the singer clearly from the torso up (studio recordings are great for this).
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Once you find a good video, observe carefully and note if the singer fits the description of an optimal singer. Do they look relaxed, free, and easy as they sing? Do they move comfortably? If you’re not sure, feel free to shoot me a message with the link to the video, and I’ll let you know if they’re a good vocal model!

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If you want to learn to sing with this big picture in mind, keep those senses of sight, sound, touch, and kinesthetic awareness in mind. Find good vocal models, and keep reading this series of articles as it comes out.

If you’re local to my area and can come to Fort Wayne singing classes near me, I’d love to work with you to help you master this. If you’re not able to take Fort Wayne voice lessons, no worries—my online singing course has you covered so you can learn to master that big picture of singing wherever you live. Learn more on my online vocal training course landing page, and happy singing!

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​About the Author

Elaina Robbins is a Fort Wayne singer and Fort Wayne voice teacher specializing in crossover and contemporary music. She is an adjunct professor of voice at the Purdue School of Music and a regular regional performer in a variety of genres, and she has a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan. Her online vocal training program, The Five-Minute Singer, uses anatomy-based habit building to teach students to sing in just five minutes a day.