Like any other musical instrument, singing is something that requires continued practice to stay at the top of your game. Many beginner vocalists will find themselves asking “what techniques can I use to develop and perfect my vocal skills”. The first thing you must realise is that the human voice is a muscle like any other, and so in order to get the best performance our voice needs to be warmed up and well-conditioned for optimal performance.
In this article we share with you a few great vocal exercises that you can use to correctly train your voice, helping you to maximise your vocal range and how to sing better.
Relax Your Body
Our first vocal exercise to help you sing better is for you to practise relaxing your body and the muscles involved with singing. By relaxing ourselves our body will be looser, with less tension and strain in your voice, allowing you to project more clearly and also access your full vocal range.
Relax your shoulders, neck, throat, jaw and face, allowing all the tension to leave these areas of your body. Once you have relaxed these areas, take in air through your nose for three seconds, hold for one second before exhaling smoothly for three seconds. You can repeat this for 5 repetitions. Keep your focus on staying as relaxed as possible, and feel the tension leaving your body with each exhale.
Posture
Our next vocal exercise idea may sound a little bit silly, but we assure you that developing a better singing posture can greatly improve your singing ability.
To start with, choose a song that you are very familiar with and find comfortable to sing. For the next step, balance a book on your head and practice singing through your chosen song a few times. Balancing the book on your head will force you to think about your centre of mass and maintain a neutral posture with no lean to the front/back or left/right. After a few run throughs you can try removing the book but keeping the same body position.
Vowel Practice
For our next vocal exercise to help you sing better, it's time to focus on our annunciation and clarity. In this exercise we will begin by cycling through the vowel letters of the alphabet, concentrating on the shape of our lips and mouth.
Starting with the vowel shape of “A”, sing the vowel and move up and down in pitch to the upper and lower ends of your vocal range. You can exaggerate the lip/mouth movements required for each vowel as much as possible to get these muscles fully engaged. Some vowels like "A" or "O," will require more wide mouth openings.
Once you have completed this for a few rounds, you can then introduce volume into the exercise. Repeat the same steps but modify the volume of your voice, going from your quietest voice all the way to your loudest register.
A - Ay
E - Ee
I - Eye
O - Oh
U - You
Lip Trills
Another classical vocal exercise for better singing is to make use of lip trills. They are very useful for helping to develop both your pitch control and overall vocal range. Lip trills are achieved by vibrating your lips by blowing air through them whilst making a humming sound. Gently press your lips together without clenching them. Exhale air through your lips until you hear a buzzing or vibrating sound. You can begin by holding each trill for 5 seconds at a moderate intensity, and then gradually increase the duration and intensity of the trills until you are feeling adequately warmed up. By including lip trills into your vocal warm-up routine, you can build vocal stamina and improve your technique without putting any unnecessary stress on your vocal cords.
Scales
Scales are one of the fundamental building blocks of music, and so it's a good idea to incorporate them into your regular singing practice. Practising scales helps you become more comfortable with finding and holding pitches, which is crucial for staying in tune.
To practise scales, find a youtube video with a piano or other instrument simply playing through the notes of your chosen key and scale (C Major vocal example). You can then sing along with this and match your voice to the notes in the scale. As you progress you begin to try higher and lower notes in the scale to push your range. Practising scales using this method can be a great way to warm up for a particular song. Just find the key and scale of the chosen song and repeat this exercise for that scale.
We hope you enjoyed checking out this post on vocal exercise to help you sing better. Remember that consistency is key when it comes to improving your singing, so for best results try to make these vocal exercises a regular part of your warmup and practice routine.
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