by Firy

Created on: September 19, 2008   Last Updated: February 27, 2011

Listen to Your Voice

Improving your voice is a process so the idea of "instant" is deceptive. You will not get up one morning with an improved voice. You must put conscious effort in order to see change in your voice. Just like anything else, just thinking it won't make a difference. Doing, not just thinking things, is what makes the difference. A long-distance runner will not "instantly" develop stamina for running by quickly rummaging through a checklist, instead he or she builds up technique on technique by day. Singing is not different.

Set time aside for your singing practice. If you are in the habit of singing all the time, don't just sing pay attention to how you sing. I will give you an example, if you sing one phrase and it sounds like a violin, the next sounds like a drum, the next like a different instrument and so forth ask yourself a few questions. What style of music is this? Is it intentional to sound like different musical instruments in one piece of music? And so forth.

If you are following the classical style which has a much more formal and strict presentation than most genres, then you are most likely not going to produce different sounds for different phrases in a specific piece of music. Your sound will be more consistent. Imagine an Opera singer switching out of vibrato into a straight violin tone. Whether or not you like Opera( because not liking a music genre tends to bring out more the undesirable elements than the opposite) you understand that the straight tone violin does not belong in this style of singing. So, when you practice, remember your style of music because that will help you design your practice and you will make the best of your time.

They say singing along with a CD helps, but I am sure as with all teaching aids, it won't help everyone. The problem I have experienced with singing along is to tend to mimic the singer.... I prefer to accompany a male soloist over singing along because I can still sing but retain my voice while I have fun. By the way, you can record yourself while you accompany other singers and then listen to the performance afterwards. Believe me, this works!

Even if you don't know what is technically wrong in your performance, you will find out what is odd. You will find yourself deconstructing your own presentation to make it better. You know who you listen to a solo or quartet and say, "oh! that was awful!" Now, hold onto that thought. What is it specifically that made it awful? Was one voice screechier

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