Basics of Singing

"The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way." - Josh Billings

Indeed, I let my stubborn students do it their way so they can self-realize that their way is not the right way. After all, experience is the best teacher.

Recently, I took a new student to a recording (not my recommendation, but since he insisted, I obliged). This was also a perfect opportunity for him to hear his voice in the early part of his training with me, and we can address the areas for improvement.

I took him to a great facility with a seasoned engineer. We were meticulous in cleaning up the recording to come with a decent output. And oh, how we used technology to our advantage: aside from creating an appropropriate reverb and adding some effects, there was auto-tune, auto-rhythm, and even an engineered vibrato! (I am not a fan of vibrato but this student has developed a nasty way of producing a vibrato by shaking his jaws ..... so what we did was to even out the shaky notes, then creating a more-relaxed and naturally-sounding pattern. My student was present during the mixing and curing so he can understand the process.

Teachers also learn from their students and this has brought me to review the basics of singing:

1. Enjoy singing! After all, singing is a fun experience.

2. Know your instrument (your voice) and how to control it.

3. Breathe properly. Relax! Inhale through the nose. Feel the air fill up your lungs. Gently exhale the sound you intend to produce. Work on minimizing the inhale and increasing the release. When singing, plan where youre supposed to inhale.

4. You may want to start vocalizations but it is equally important to do stretching too.

5. Find your core! Always support singing (as well as talking) with the diaphragm.

6. Imagine that the voice is a ball of energy coming from the core, then push gently or with accent (depending on the appropriate attack).

7. Let the voice travel through the spine (keeping your ribs floating and your shoulders relaxed).

8. From the spine, let your voice travel through the nape (no tension from the throat and jaws).

9. Before you release that ball of energy, feel the sound reverberate in your head (resonance). Find the resonance, do not force the volume.

10. Remember, the voice is a ball so take note of the shape. Create a passageway so that the voice will come out easily. Feel the dome shape in the mouth (upper palate), relax the tongue, and drop the jaw.

11. Form your jaws to the vowel position you need to produce. Let your jaws roll gently to the different vowel formation. There is no need to exaggerate.

12. Enunciate! Singing is not just producing a beautiful sound. You have to be understood, which will bring us back to the previous item, clear vowels; and this time, think of crispier consonants too.

13. Be precise with your notes. Work on improving your intonation in general so you will avoid sharps and flats.

14. Unless it is your intention (for the sake of styling), do not glide, scoop, or wade through the notes.

15. Feel the groove. Don't lose the rhythm. And by the way, even slow songs have groove!

16. Sing as you would say the words, that's diction!

17. Be original. Do not make yourself a replica of another singer!

18. When you're building your interpretation of a song, you can do some improvisation but you have to establish the melody first, how it was orginally composed or written. Also, look at the intention of that particular part of the song and evaluate if your improvisation is will help bring out the meaning.

19. Experiment during rehearsals, not ever during a performance! And yes, you can make mistakes during rehearsals. Do all the mistakes during rehearsals so you wont do it during a performance.

20. Establish contact with your audience. Look in the eyes! Reach out! Tell a story through your song and take your audience to a journey with you.

21. Do gestures that are helpful in bringing out your emotions and reaching out to the audience. It may be a choreographed movement but once you discover the meaning of your every movement on stage, you will look more sincere!

22. When you perform, sing as if its your last performance!

There are gazillions of exercises for these, and your voice teacher will certaily help you. Learning is a never-ending process, which will bring us to the final item:

23. Take singing classes! Even professional singers continue to have lessons with their coaches and even classical singers do take master classes. So if you have finished a singing course package, dont even think that you already know it all.

I may have missed out some points so I'll appreciate if my fellow voice teachers can comment.