Singing scales is helpful to you when you’re just learning how to sing for a number of reasons.  We’ll take a little bit of time to explore those reasons on this page and help you figure out why you should be singing scales as well.
 

You’ve probably heard me mention elsewhere on this site that one of the keys to singing properly is to try to sing within your most comfortable range. Well that can be a tad difficult as many songs are done in such a manner that it’s range may suit you well for much of the song but not necessarily for other parts of it. That is to say, you can sing most of the song, but other parts of it may be too high or too low for you to sing. Scales can be a huge benefit in this instance because they can help you to identify your range at any point in time and give you predictable manner in which to work on trying to expand your range.  

Enter benefit number two… Practicing with scales is a method by which you can learn to increase both the high end and low end of your range over time, using a consistent pattern of consonant and vowel shapes while you’re singing. I urge people to get creative with the sounds they make when singing scales because it’s really the best way to replicate what you may actually encounter in a song. Like always however, find the noises you do well first and work from there. Using the “lip roll” method of singing is an excellent way for you to find how to begin to use your head voice when singing. I actually have a CD of scales (the same ones I sell on this site in fact) that I play in my car and I sing along to it when I’m in the mood for working on something to do with my singing.  

Generally you want to be singing in your chest voice.  I find this voice is where you’re power comes from. This is most likely where you sing from while trying to find your natural range. If you place your hand on your chest while singing you will feel the vibrations created by your voice in this case. This should be a good voice for most mid range to mid-high range singing that you do. You’ll likely find that as you continue to sing the scales, you may have a tendency to “push” harder as you get higher. From early on you should resist the temptation to really push and make the transition to your head voice. Using the head voice is the easiest way to sing higher register notes. You need to learn how to mix the two voices together to get the power out of it however.

The lip roll exercise is excellent for this because it sort of forces you to use your head voice on high notes. I try to pay attention to how my throat feels and what my breathing feels like while achieving these notes, then I try to achieve those same feelings again without the lip roll exercise, but by actually singing the notes. I find this works well for me too if I’m trying to learn a particular line in a song. I’ll first hum along to it using the lip roll exercise premise until I get a feel for what line should feel like. After that I simply try to sing the line and achieve the same feeling in my body that I had experienced while doing the lip roll exercise to it.