Videos - Singing Practice & Information
2.) EXERCISE / WARM-UP
A VERY LOVELY OCTAVE (SINGING STARTS AT 4:25)
LEARN TO LISTEN
1-3-5-3-1 'mum-mum-mum' simple arpeggios
LOWER VOCAL REGISTER STRETCH
THERAPY Sounds for a TIRED VOICE
Vocal Technique Reminders:
VOLUME: For great results, sing exercises fairly quietly. After a week or so, increase the volume. Never FORCE your voice to sing too high, too low or too loud.
BREATHING: Avoid taking a lot of short breaths. At first, you might even almost "over-breathe", which will help to condition your lungs for taking naturally deeper breaths. Sing longer phrases with one breath. This develops control and comfort. Remember to not raise your shoulders when you take a breath.
HEALTH: Get cardio exercise every day! Your whole body is a part of your singing instrument! Click here for more info on vocal health:
PROGRESS: These singing exercises are for vocal warm-ups.
But they also address all of these things:
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increasing your high and low vocal range,
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assist with accurate pitch placement,
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help you to hear and predict key changes
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improve breath control
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opening up vowels and adjusting shapes in the throat
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singing larger intervals
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increasing clarity for diction and spoken articulation
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encourage consistent work ethic and practice routine
....You can turn my vocal WARM-UPS into WORK-OUTS by increasing volume. 'Push' only to where it's comfortable. Sing without vocal tension.
You can email me with questions: purevoicepower@bell.net
A BREATHY VOICE CAUSES PROBLEMS
DIAPHRAGM CONTROL
PRACTICE SINGING OCTAVES
HOME BASE SCALE
HOW FAST IS MY SONG?
INTRODUCTION TO VOICE USE
O CANADA !
This is a basic piano track for O Canada !
It is lower, in a "comfortable" male vocal key.
I like it because you can clearly hear the melody being played without a lot of cymbals and production.
It has the lyrics there in both English and French.
There is no lead vocal. Please practice with this.
If you need to hear the melody with a singer, you can search for lots of examples.
Here's an outstanding group sing of O Canada for MLK Day,
Jan. 2021 featuring lead vocalist Martina Ortiz Luis
O CANADA: 10 year old Angelica Hale - English
O CANADA: Young Sophia Pearce - English & French
O CANADA Traditional orchestral version with clear melody
HOW LONG SHOULD I PRACTICE EVERY DAY? ( 2 - minute read )
EVERYONE asks me this question and expects me to answer it!
Students are so used to being told everything to do, that they often won't figure it out for themselves.
But you are a smart, creative person.
And this question has been a challenge to answer; even to the point where I just make something up to keep the student happy.
How much you practice involves using common sense.
Everyone has a different schedule and different time demands.
A different instrument, a different set of vocal areas that need focus, a different musical goal. A different time of day they're available. There are MANY factors that would determine how much and when yo practice.
it depends what you're practicing. It's a difficult question to answer!
Do you have time to practice 90 minutes a day? That's 10.5 hours a week. 546 hours a year.
Do you have time to practice one hour a day? That's 7.0 hours a week. 364 hours a year.
Do you have time to practice 30 minutes a day? That's 3.5 hours a week. 182 hours a year.
Calculate how your day is split up:
* Out of 24 hours, suppose you sleep 7 hours. That leaves 17 hours.
* Assume you eat 3 meals a day at an hour per meal, that leaves you 14 hours.
* An hour to get dressed and ready for the day leaves you with 13 hours.
* Do you work 8 hours a day? That leaves you 5 hours.
* There may be travel time involved. If you drive to work, you can sing in the car as you drive.
* Humans can't work CONTSTANTLY so there needs to be at least an hour for rest. That leaves you 4 hours.
* Do you have children? Do you work out? Other projects and obligations?
You may have up to an hour per day to sing. If not, you can sing 30 minutes a day.
So I think the reasonable time to allow for vocal practice and to experience PROGRESS, is 30 minutes a day.
That's my ideal ask. You can also get a lot done in 15 - 20 minutes of solid practice a day if you stay focused.
BUT - and this is important - you can't save it up.
You can't go for days without practicing and suddenly sing for 4 hours one day in a week.
Progress doesn't work like that. It works if you practice CONSISTENTLY as little or much as you want or can.
If your voice is tired, please stop. Nothing good or positive ever comes from forcing the body to do things.
If you are in a stressed state, exhausted state or feeling extremes, I don't recommend practicing voice. You can develop negative anchors if you do that. The voice tends to be an emotional instrument even though I try to make practice a more scientific process than artistic. Artistry enters when we perform, not when we practice. That's my approach and I hope it makes sense to you!
How long do you spend on humming, quiet tones and long tones each session?
Sometimes you will feel quite warmed up after 5 minutes. Sometimes it will take 15 minutes.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, it may take 30 minutes of therapeutic tones.
I once spent over 10 hours warming up for a big gig as I drove to the USA. I kept warming down in between warming up. Then I stopped warming up 2 hours before the gig and did a quick 5 minute warm-up before stepping on stage.
Please be patient with your instrument and its progress. Allow your voice to flourish and develop organically with nudges above and beyond your comfort zone when it feel right to do so. You might be surprised that as you get very familiar and intimate with the sounds your voice makes along with its preferences and even quirks, you will command it with more ease, confidence, empathy and ability!
I can't tell you exactly how many minutes a day you need to practice, or how many times to sing a scale, or how many times to sing a song. There are some songs you sing ten times and others you can sing hundreds of times.
But I hope this explanation is a good guideline.
Learning to sing well and developing your instrument should be a joyful journey.
But this much is always true - as it is with most anything: YOU GET OUT OF IT - WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT.