What are the Basics of singing?
What are the basics of singing and how do you apply them? Many people wonder this when they’re just starting out with their singing ambitions. The truth is, I personally am not sure that the basics are as “cut and dried” as some others may have you believe. I know what matters to me though, and even though I’ve been singing for years and years now I still find that I’m learning new things about singing better all the time. It seems to me that the more you do it, the more you learn about what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. We can cover some of what I would consider to be the basics and you can decide for yourself if or how they apply to you.
Basics of Singing – Breathing:
Well by now you’ve all heard the old adage that you need to breath from your diaphragm when you sing. Probably many of you have even taken singing lessons where the vocal coach would run you through a series of exercises designed to help you breathe better while singing. I remember one guy telling me that he once went for lessons and the vocal teacher had him bend over at the waist, exhaling as he went down, and inhaling as he rose to standing position. We talked and he thought this was absolutely silly. I was right on board with his line of thinking at the time. I now know a little better why a singing coach might have you do an exercise like this (even if he didn’t articulate it well at the time). I’ll get into why in a short bit.
Basics of Singing – Breathing:
Well by now you’ve all heard the old adage that you need to breath from your diaphragm when you sing. Probably many of you have even taken singing lessons where the vocal coach would run you through a series of exercises designed to help you breathe better while singing. I remember one guy telling me that he once went for lessons and the vocal teacher had him bend over at the waist, exhaling as he went down, and inhaling as he rose to standing position. We talked and he thought this was absolutely silly. I was right on board with his line of thinking at the time. I now know a little better why a singing coach might have you do an exercise like this (even if he didn’t articulate it well at the time). I’ll get into why in a short bit.
For me there’s just not a single way to breathe when I’m singing a song. Each song is different and requires breath to be expelled over different lengths of time,at different speeds, at different volumes (more air required) etc. So it’s not really too easy to put the idea of breathing when you sing into a box and say “do it this way”. It just can’t be
done. The same is true for other basics of singing too, not just breathing. My personal view is that you need to have enough air to sing the line you’re trying to sing, no more (give or take), and certainly no less. This is one of the reasons it’s important for us to practice songs.
Breaking a song down line by line allows you to figure out for yourself when and where you need to take a breath in order to prepare for the next line. It’s not rocket science. You just need to run through the song a few times to figure it out. You’ll learn quickly enough that some songs are much more demanding than others when it comes to what is required of your breathing so it’s worth figuring out. If you don’t figure it out, you will invariably find that you will run out of breath when singing, causing you to push harder than you need to, which causes you to become fatigued, which may result in you losing your voice or cracking your notes. Even worse, you may damage you throat by pushing too hard. This might not bug you too much in the case of one song, but when you’re singing for four hours a night, a couple of nights in a row, for four months, it can catch up to you
pretty quickly. I’ve been there before. I’ve been on tour and lost my voice after the fourth night from pushing too hard (usually trying to hear myself) and have had to finish out a tour with “for hire” singer (i or risk being fired. One thing however that is very important in my mind for working on songs in this way is that you need to be singing at your stage volume.
done. The same is true for other basics of singing too, not just breathing. My personal view is that you need to have enough air to sing the line you’re trying to sing, no more (give or take), and certainly no less. This is one of the reasons it’s important for us to practice songs.
Breaking a song down line by line allows you to figure out for yourself when and where you need to take a breath in order to prepare for the next line. It’s not rocket science. You just need to run through the song a few times to figure it out. You’ll learn quickly enough that some songs are much more demanding than others when it comes to what is required of your breathing so it’s worth figuring out. If you don’t figure it out, you will invariably find that you will run out of breath when singing, causing you to push harder than you need to, which causes you to become fatigued, which may result in you losing your voice or cracking your notes. Even worse, you may damage you throat by pushing too hard. This might not bug you too much in the case of one song, but when you’re singing for four hours a night, a couple of nights in a row, for four months, it can catch up to you
pretty quickly. I’ve been there before. I’ve been on tour and lost my voice after the fourth night from pushing too hard (usually trying to hear myself) and have had to finish out a tour with “for hire” singer (i or risk being fired. One thing however that is very important in my mind for working on songs in this way is that you need to be singing at your stage volume.
Basics of Singing – Muscle Control:
Now for the bending over thing I mentioned earlier. It’s not exactly one of the basics of singing but it does help you to learn how to use the muscles that may be required of you to sing certain notes. I spent some time playing with this little exercise and found a very valuable take away from this exercise. If you’ve spent any time at all on my site you will notice that there have been a few recurring themes. One of those themes is to play with the muscles in your face and body to see how they will help or hinder your singing. Well this bending over thing is a perfect example of that and here’s how:
It’s not the actual bending over that helps you with your singing, and it’s not the inhaling or exhaling in this exercise that helps you either. What you’ll find however is that is you’re inhaling and bringing your body back to a standing position, you have to use the muscles that are right around your solar-plexus to get back to upright. You need to pay particular attention to how that muscle feels at this time because that’s the muscle that’s going to give you what vocal teachers call “support”. Support is what you need when you’re singing a note that is not quite high enough for you to use your head voice for and is too high for your chest voice. Brett Manning from Singing Success calls this the mixed voice, which is an apt description for sure (head and chest). You’ll know you’re in your mixed voice range because the note you’re singing will have a tendency to waiver and sound weak. Remembering how you feel when you bend over and inhale will help you to add strength to that note. In fact I’ve even tried to bend over a little bit and utilize those muscles to help me get support on notes when I need it.
Other “muscle control” basics of singing include utilizing the muscles in your face. I know that it must sound ridiculous but it’s true. I once took (mail order) lessons from a guy that said when you’re singing (especially higher range stuff) you need to smile wildly so that the only pain you feel in singing is in your cheeks and not in your throat. Once again it took me forever to figure out what this guy was talking about. Fifteen years in fact, but it finally made enough sense to me that I can share it with you now. Smiling in this manner forces you to have more open vocal chords and will actually change the position with which your tongue comes into contact with the roof of your mouth etc (I don’t think Speech Level singers agree with this theory). This has the effect of changing where the sounds are projected from in your throat, and as a result you should experience no throat pain when singing like this. The problem with this method is that it’s kind of “conceptual” and hard to explain. In fact I never figured it out for myself until listening to Sammy Hagar sing one day and it all of a sudden made sense. You can hear him utilizing this in his tone, once you know exactly what to listen for. I’m not sure he even knows he does it, he’s such a talented singer
Now for the bending over thing I mentioned earlier. It’s not exactly one of the basics of singing but it does help you to learn how to use the muscles that may be required of you to sing certain notes. I spent some time playing with this little exercise and found a very valuable take away from this exercise. If you’ve spent any time at all on my site you will notice that there have been a few recurring themes. One of those themes is to play with the muscles in your face and body to see how they will help or hinder your singing. Well this bending over thing is a perfect example of that and here’s how:
It’s not the actual bending over that helps you with your singing, and it’s not the inhaling or exhaling in this exercise that helps you either. What you’ll find however is that is you’re inhaling and bringing your body back to a standing position, you have to use the muscles that are right around your solar-plexus to get back to upright. You need to pay particular attention to how that muscle feels at this time because that’s the muscle that’s going to give you what vocal teachers call “support”. Support is what you need when you’re singing a note that is not quite high enough for you to use your head voice for and is too high for your chest voice. Brett Manning from Singing Success calls this the mixed voice, which is an apt description for sure (head and chest). You’ll know you’re in your mixed voice range because the note you’re singing will have a tendency to waiver and sound weak. Remembering how you feel when you bend over and inhale will help you to add strength to that note. In fact I’ve even tried to bend over a little bit and utilize those muscles to help me get support on notes when I need it.
Other “muscle control” basics of singing include utilizing the muscles in your face. I know that it must sound ridiculous but it’s true. I once took (mail order) lessons from a guy that said when you’re singing (especially higher range stuff) you need to smile wildly so that the only pain you feel in singing is in your cheeks and not in your throat. Once again it took me forever to figure out what this guy was talking about. Fifteen years in fact, but it finally made enough sense to me that I can share it with you now. Smiling in this manner forces you to have more open vocal chords and will actually change the position with which your tongue comes into contact with the roof of your mouth etc (I don’t think Speech Level singers agree with this theory). This has the effect of changing where the sounds are projected from in your throat, and as a result you should experience no throat pain when singing like this. The problem with this method is that it’s kind of “conceptual” and hard to explain. In fact I never figured it out for myself until listening to Sammy Hagar sing one day and it all of a sudden made sense. You can hear him utilizing this in his tone, once you know exactly what to listen for. I’m not sure he even knows he does it, he’s such a talented singer
Basics of singing – Head Voice:
Head voice is the basics of singing breakthrough that allows even non singers to realize that they have a much higher than expected range and allows even seasoned singers to add as much as an octave to their present range. What is the head voice you ask? Well I have a whole page dedicated to using the head voice but I’ll try to sum it up quickly here as well.
The usual demonstration of head voice goes something like this: you place your hand on top of your head and in a high, shrill voice you say the word “weeeeeeeeeeee” (like a little kid on a swing). When you do this you should be able to feel the vibration of the note in your head with your hand. Naturally all notes vibrate at different frequencies so you may not be able to feel all them through your skull. It doesn’t matter. The point of the demonstration is to show how the notes are made and that they do in fact resonate in your head. However he real secret to utilizing the head voice is to be aware of how your throat feels when you’re singing that high note. You will likely notice that you’re singing quite a high note and that your throat is not hurting in the process. And that’s the beauty of head voice, high notes, no strain. When you play with the way you exhale while singing them you’ll see that you can add considerable power to those notes and that they have good tone as well. It took me a while to get into the swing of using my own head voice but it honestly allows me to sing live weekend after weekend, usually a couple of nights in a row, and sometimes even when I’m sick I’m still able to put on a good show. I find it incredible when somebody comes up to me when I know I’ve been sick and they say “hey you’re a really great singer, man…”. I know that head voice is the real secret.
So that’s a few of my thought’s as to what really are the basics of singing. As always, you can’t break it down to one idea or the other really. It’s a combination of how all of those things work together that help somebody be able to sing. That and a lot of practice of course. Give some of the ideas a try and see how they work out for you.
Click the link to go back to the top of the top of this page or go back to the homepage for more info on how to sing. Good luck!
Head voice is the basics of singing breakthrough that allows even non singers to realize that they have a much higher than expected range and allows even seasoned singers to add as much as an octave to their present range. What is the head voice you ask? Well I have a whole page dedicated to using the head voice but I’ll try to sum it up quickly here as well.
The usual demonstration of head voice goes something like this: you place your hand on top of your head and in a high, shrill voice you say the word “weeeeeeeeeeee” (like a little kid on a swing). When you do this you should be able to feel the vibration of the note in your head with your hand. Naturally all notes vibrate at different frequencies so you may not be able to feel all them through your skull. It doesn’t matter. The point of the demonstration is to show how the notes are made and that they do in fact resonate in your head. However he real secret to utilizing the head voice is to be aware of how your throat feels when you’re singing that high note. You will likely notice that you’re singing quite a high note and that your throat is not hurting in the process. And that’s the beauty of head voice, high notes, no strain. When you play with the way you exhale while singing them you’ll see that you can add considerable power to those notes and that they have good tone as well. It took me a while to get into the swing of using my own head voice but it honestly allows me to sing live weekend after weekend, usually a couple of nights in a row, and sometimes even when I’m sick I’m still able to put on a good show. I find it incredible when somebody comes up to me when I know I’ve been sick and they say “hey you’re a really great singer, man…”. I know that head voice is the real secret.
So that’s a few of my thought’s as to what really are the basics of singing. As always, you can’t break it down to one idea or the other really. It’s a combination of how all of those things work together that help somebody be able to sing. That and a lot of practice of course. Give some of the ideas a try and see how they work out for you.
Click the link to go back to the top of the top of this page or go back to the homepage for more info on how to sing. Good luck!