You need to improve your voice? Check this out!!
Sit or stand up straight with
your muscles relaxed. Keeping your back
straight and your posture neutral will allow your diaphragm and lungs to expand
properly as well as encourage air flow. Since your singing power originates in
the diaphragm, making a point of relaxing the rest of the body will help you refocus
your attention on the parts of the body that matter.
Make a special effort to
relax your stomach. Resist the urge to hold or suck it in, as this will make
your breathing unnatural.
Using your thumb, push
the larynx from side to side gently, allowing your vocal chords to loosen,
there by putting less stress on them when you begin to sing.
Breathe from your diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle beneath the lungs that contracts
whenever you breathe in, allowing your lungs to expand into that space. Expelling
air is therefore a question of allowing the diaphragm to relax in controlled,
gradual manner. To test what it feels like to breathe through your diaphragm,
bend over at the waist and sing. Notice the feeling in your stomach and
the sound that you create.
Warm up before starting to sing. Make nonsense sounds (ex. expelling air to forcibly flap
your lips by and create a b-b-b-b-b or p-p-p-p-p sound, making a prolonged
"shhhhh" sound, and so on), covering different consonants and vowels
to engage different facial muscles. This produces a richer, less strained
sound. (When you blow up a balloon, it is much easier to stretch the balloon
before blowing it up; your vocal chords function in much the same way.
Start with songs that are in
your vocal range. Covering territory you're already comfortable
with will continue to warm up your voice before you try to train it to do
anything new. Consider choosing a song that has a few notes slightly above your
usual range and make these your goal.
Practice
scales, gradually increasing the pitch each time.
Remember that your vocal chords are delicate membranes and must be eased into
any new techniques.
Train your
body to hit the high notes. As you sing the note, press your lower
belly in but keep your upper belly out; this is called a “lower belly boost.”
Drop your lower jaw dramatically but keep your mouth opened narrowly. Bend your
knees slightly to make yourself feel like you're moving downwards as your voice
goes up. Try to minimize the height to which you lift your larynx up as you
increase your pitch; though this is what people naturally do when raising their
voices, this strains your throat and can cause your voice to crack. Monitor
this by placing your fingers above your larynx while you sing and adjusting
your technique to keep the larynx down.
Don’t look up while you sing high notes;
keep your vision directly in front of you to avoid bending your throat and
straining the sound.
Always remember to not
strain your voice. Don't try to force yourself into a much higher register
too quickly; there are often serious consequences when you do. Remember to
always drink water before a performance or practice, which will keep your voice
steady. Keep one near you for emergencies as well.
Improve
your posture. To strengthen your singing voice, make good
posture a habit, not a mode you switch into. Get in
shape. Take up running or practise interval training to increase
your lung strength and capacity. Develop facial flexibility. Make funny faces, stretch your
mouth and tongue in all directions, yawn to open the back of the throat, and
loosen your jaw until you're able to push or pull on it with your hand. These
exercises will help you shape and perfect the sound as it comes out of your
mouth.
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