Truth be told, private voice lessons can be expensive for some people. Plus, not everyone has access to a great voice tutor. Still, if you’re passionate about music, you may be thinking about self-taught voice lessons. Alternatively, for the top Houston voice lessons, click here to find an instructor who can help hone your skills.
For anyone intending to go it alone, you’ll need some exercises to set you on the right course. Let’s break them down into tips you can implement to get your voice lessons off to a good start.
- Start with a Good Posture
Did you know that your posture can make or break your voice? Generally, you should strive for a ‘tall posture’ as it affects your voice. Pay attention to how you position your body- from head to toe. To that end, consider implementing the following tips:
- Keep your chin as parallel to the floor as possible.
- Your hands should be at your sides and relaxed.
- Hold back your shoulders to allow the chest to move slightly forward and higher.
- Keep your feet slightly apart (about the same width as your hips for optimal support and balance).
- Your abdomen needs to be firm- ready to expand.
Look in the mirror to see if your posture is right and comfortable. Start here, and you have a good foundation for your voice lessons.
- Practice Breathing Exercises
To improve your voice, focus on increasing your lung efficiency through breath control. Diaphragmatic breathing exercises are a great way to go about this.
When you breathe normally, you hardly get to utilize your lung’s full capacity. As a result, your breathing tends to be shallow. On the other hand, diaphragmatic breathing allows you to take deeper breaths consciously.
Good breathing means your abdomen expands when you inhale and contracts when you exhale. Besides, it provides you with better control of your pitch as you get in shape, which may improve your singing.
- Learn to Sing on Pitch
While this may be difficult to teach yourself (especially when you sound off), you don’t have to fret over it. Fortunately, with the help of a keen instructor, you can find out when you’re flat or sharp- above the note. With their help, you would be better positioned to make quick tweaks to your voice.
But if you’re learning on your own, consider recording your voice. By going back over your voice, you can get an idea of your progress- in terms of whether you’re hitting the right notes and areas you need to work on. You may also use an app such as a pitch monitor to gauge your voice.
Another way to determine if you’re in tune is by having an audience listening to you. It doesn’t have to be a professional audience. You may rope in your friends or family members to critique your voice and tell you whenever you are out of tune. And through continual practice, you can learn to hit all your notes perfectly, especially the high or low notes you couldn’t previously hit. In turn, it would give your voice professional appeal.
- Project Your Voice
Projecting your voice may mean a myriad of things to different people. But basically, it entails raising or moderating your voice to fit into the environment you’re performing. In short, you want to make sure everyone in your audience can hear you. That implies you don’t yell or whisper, and your voice is ‘pitch-perfect.’ Plus, projecting your voice takes less effort.
A great way to project your voice is to work on your pronunciation of a song’s lyrics. If the audience can grasp what you’re saying, you’re on track. Focus on pronouncing words clearly, as this can improve your projection. A good starting point to improve your tone would be to practice scales with combinations of vowels and consonants, such as dah, deh, di, do, and doo.
- Learn to Sing
Practice makes perfect. But let’s face it, singing is challenging. Imagine having to adjust to changes:
- Vowels
- Consonants
- Speed
- Volume and melody
To kick things off, memorize a song you love- its lyrics and melody- by singing along. A recorder would come in handy while you sing. Once you’re done, go over the recording to check whether you’re on key and if your articulation of the words is on point (especially the vowels).
By recording yourself, you can get feedback on your progress. Keep practicing the song until you’ve fully grasped it and can hit all the high and low notes. Then, you may put your spin on the song. Doing so would impress an audience if you plan to deliver a rendition of the song.
If your exercises go well, you could be on your way to becoming a good voice artist. You may also consider signing up for professional voice lessons at Cy-Fair Music and Arts to fine-tune your skills as an advanced learner. Such a step would also mean you don’t have to fuss about the basics. Besides, having one-on-one sessions with a professional instructor implies you can access immediate and invaluable feedback, which you can implement to improve your craft.