What makes your singing voice better

There are lots of these courses online, and we have even reviewed some of the best courses. Taking an online course can make it easier to hold yourself accountable to regular practice and work on your singing. Many of these courses offer a seven to 14 day trial, which is all you need to make some serious improvements. You clicked on this guide because you wanted to improve your singing quickly, and taking a course for a week is a sure-fire way to make some improvements.

Singing with good posture is a huge deal. So many singers struggle with their posture as they're singing, and it has a direct effect on their singing ability. Your posture has to be flexible enough to allow for expansion in the lungs and good projection. It also has to be efficient, so that you are not spending extra effort on singing or creating tension in your body. Imagine a string holding up your head at the very top.

This is a neutral position for the throat and allows the jaw to drop. Do not raise your head or look up when singing high notes — this creates a lot of tension and cuts off the air supply. Maintain your posture, and sing with good technique.

Your shoulders should be low and back. Place your arms behind your back and try to touch your elbows. Your chest should be open and forward, but not too far forward. There is no need to be unbalanced and cut off your lower body. Do not collapse the chest backwards or inwards. Your hips and knees are related.

Keep a nice loose position in your knees, and do not lock them. Stay in a comfortable loose position so that you can move with ease. Keep your hips in a slightly tucked position.

Feet should be shoulder-width apart and under your hips. If your feet are too close together, you will find yourself with excess tension in your upper body. If they are too far apart, you will find yourself using excess energy to support yourself. It seems weird to focus on improving your breathing — we all breathe all the time! That said, breathing while singing is different, and many people do it improperly.

Normal breathing is a shallow inhalation and an even exhalation. When you sing, breathing must be taken off this autopilot. You need to be able to inhale quickly, take a full breath, and exhale over the course of a phrase. This requires a different technique. Controlling your exhale is also important. You need to be able to have a sustained and smooth exhalation.

This will help you sing high notes and long phrases. After a while, this will become second nature. However, this is a small thing that can make a big difference. One of the biggest improvements you can make to your singing regimen is learning to open your mouth properly while singing.

Again, this seems simple, but many people do not do it properly. Learning to open your mouth to sing vowels correctly is key to a great singing voice. We talked above about dropping the jaw, and that is exactly what you want to do here. Stand in front of a mirror and sing the five vowels. Practice singing these vowels in front of the mirror until your mouth no longer changes shape.

Attempt to sing all of these vowels with the same mouth shape. Relaxing your face is the goal. Your lips should be relaxed and your jaw should drop easily. A relaxed jaw, a relaxed face, and a nice open vowel is the goal. Many students also struggle with projecting and getting volume out of their voice. We can all learn to sing louder — after all, opera singers sing without a microphone over top of an entire orchestra! However, if you do not employ proper technique when attempting to project your voice, you will end up with a brash tone that is unpleasant to sing and listen to.

The first step to singing loudly is taking a good breath. We already talked about the importance of taking a good breath — all aspects of technique are related to each other. Inhale using the diaphragm. Allow your stomach to puff out a bit while maintaining excellent posture and a relaxed face. Exhale using the diaphragm again. Good breath support required muscular effort — you should feel your exhalation in your abs. Keep your rib cage expanded and your chest high while you exhale. If you sound too breathy while singing, this is because you are not using your muscles properly.

You need to work on taking good breaths and using your diaphragm to support the exhalation. If you sound too pinched or bright while singing, you are probably using too much muscular effort. It should be relaxed and natural. One way to fine tune this balance is to sing a note too breathy and then sing the same note too pinched.

Once you identify these two feelings, you can try to find a happy medium between the two. When you are trying to project, it is important to open the back of your throat. This relates to singing vowels well — you need to open your mouth wide in order to project properly. Imagine an egg in your throat while you sing, or the feeling of a yawn while singing. You could also imagine smelling a rose while singing.

While it might sound absurd to you personally…. So before you even begin practicing a new song, you should already have the lyrics and the entire song structure memorized by heart. The entire thing should just naturally flow from your mouth, without you having to think about the actual words. Unlike other musical instruments….

For most people that happens anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours…with 1 hour being about average. So…if you really want to get good, the ONLY way to do it is to practice every single day , no matter what…. To get you incrementally closer to reaching your ultimate goal of becoming an all-around great singer. One of the most obvious tell-tale signs of weak singers…. But they still feel it emotionally. And even if every other aspect of your performance is on-point, their overall impression of you will be mediocre at best.

The good news is…you can improve your breath control simply by being conscious of it as you practice, and always attempting to extract the maximum amount of sound from the minimum amount of air in your lungs. And you can even test your abilities with the following exercise :. The first time people hear a recording of their own voice, either singing or talking …. They finally realize that the way their voice sounds to them in their own head…is entirely different from how it sounds to the rest of the world.

And the reason people initially hate hearing the sound of their own recorded voice is that it conflicts with their perception of themselves. Luckily, you can solve this problem quite simply by building a mini home studio for yourself, and spending at least HALF of your practice time singing into a microphone…. As a HUGE side benefit of singing into a microphone, you will also learn microphone technique …. And if you want lots of people to hear you sing one day as I assume you do …it makes sense to dedicate most of your time toward learning the skill that will help you accomplish that goal.

Singers are one of the few musicians who have nothing to rely on but their own ears. So you would assume then, that on average, singers would have the best pitch perception of anyone in the band. Typically next to maybe the drummer , singers often have worse pitch perception of anyone in the band. Which is quite embarrassing when you stop and think about it. The NEXT thing you can do is dedicate minutes of your daily practice time specifically toward ear training. Which is why you ideally want to perform this exercise on a digital piano , as you will have a virtually unlimited number of instruments to choose from.

One of the first questions singers have when building a practice routine is…. Which will make you sick of singing in general, and most likely lead you to stop practicing altogether.

Over time, your list will continue to grow until you reach a total of around At that point, most people find that if they continue to add more songs to their repertoire…. So when you reach that point, and you start getting bored of your list…you need to begin crossing off some of the old ones, in order to make room for the new ones.

Whenever you start to get bored with a song…. The main advantage here is that it gives you a chance to practice not only your singing, but your composition , and improvisation as well…. Which in turn, makes you a more well-rounded singer and musician overall, and helps you further refine your own unique style. You want to eventually learn to switch back and forth between these voices from moment to moment, as your mood suits you, stringing together an entire tapestry of emotions in just a single performance.

Practice this enough, and you might one day reach a level of virtuosity that probably less than 1 in singers ever reach:. A level where you never sing a song the exact same way twice, you never quite know where your voice will go from one moment to the next…and every performance you put on is one that will never be heard again. And while certain rare individuals might naturally sound amazing on their own… And certain other rare individuals might always sound awful no matter what… The vast majority of us will sing terribly when we first try…but then get better by practicing.

But let me ask you this… How many of those names do you still remember…years after the show? So what were they missing? The reason we remember those select few names among the sea of others that have come and gone over the decades…is simply because they had their own unique style… that no one ever really had before and possibly no one will ever have again …while all those cliche American Idol singers sounded more like clones produced in a factory.

Starting first with… 1. The audience will know exactly who you are, and how you are feeling at any given moment… Because they will see it in your eyes , on your face , and in your body language …and most importantly, they will feel it in your voice. And it will repel them. So the next question then becomes: How do you develop that confidence?

Well, while there are many ways to trick yourself into being delusionally self-confident… As we all know from the first few episodes of every American Idol season…delusional self-confidence is even worse than uncertainty.

A scale is a series of intervals that exist between pitches. If you move up and down a scale, then you'll be singing both low and higher sounds. For example, C to C is a scale and C to D is another scale. Try to sing for at least 30 minutes each day. This is long enough to warm up your vocal cords, but not extended enough that it could strain them. It's best if you can use this as undisturbed practice time. However, if you get a job singing, this could also provide an opportunity to develop your skills in a public setting.

You might be able to get a job singing by approaching local places with small stages or performance areas, such as coffee shops. If this isn't an option, you can also offer your skills on a volunteer basis by participating in a church choir or other group. Work on maintaining proper singing posture. Stand up with your back straight and your face looking forward.

Make sure that your shoulders are back and your neck isn't overly bent. Rest your tongue lightly at the bottom of your mouth, so that it almost touches your front bottom teeth. Slide your jaw from side to side gently to keep it relaxed. Do breathing exercises to strengthen your diaphragm. Try costal breathing, which means expanding your rib cage as you inhale. Keep your rib cage open and let your abdominal muscles relax when you breathe in. When you breathe out, engage your abdominal muscles.

On a count of 4: inhale to fill your lungs completely full. On the counts of exhale slowly and gradually. Method 3. Drink at least glasses of fluids per day. Keeping your throat hydrated will help it to produce a deeper, richer range of sounds. Water that is lukewarm, but not hot, is best for your voice. Cold water can actually tighten up your throat. You can also add in 1 teaspoon 4.

You want to avoid ingesting additives and chemicals if you can. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. If you are fatigued, then your voice will suffer as a result. This is even more important when you'll be singing for extended periods of time. If you can't get a full 8 hours of undisturbed sleep at once, try to supplement it with short naps throughout the day. Practice deep-breathing techniques. Concentrate on taking a deep breath with your mouth that fills your lungs to the very core with air and then releasing it out through your nostrils.

Try doing this repeatedly to a count, such as in, out. You can also watch videos online showing other deep breathing techniques or even work with a respiratory therapist.

Otherwise, your voice can become higher pitched and strained. Avoid overusing your voice. Try not to talk loudly, shout, or sing to be heard above other sounds, particularly for long periods of time. Instead, use a microphone to amplify your voice when applicable. If you use your voice a lot, such as in performance or while giving a speech, give it a rest to let it recover. Don't smoke. If you are currently a smoker, reach out to your doctor for advice.

They might suggest a nicotine patch or even a medicated approach to quitting smoking. It might not be possible to quit immediately, but even cutting down on smoking can have a positive effect on the quality of your voice.

Watch for signs of a strained voice. If your voice sounds hoarse, raspy, or gritty, then it's possible that you've strained your vocal cords.

Your throat might also feel raw or slightly painful when you try to sing or make vocalizations. If you can limit talking or any vocalizations, then that can help as well. Voice strain is often a sign of vocal cord overuse, so giving yourself time to recover is important. If your voice still sounds odd or if you continue to feel strange after 2 weeks, then it's time to see your doctor. It's possible that you've developed growths on your vocal cords that are impacting your singing abilities.

Annabeth Novitzki Music Teacher. Annabeth Novitzki. Almost anyone can be a good singer if they learn good technique and practice regularly. Some people have paralyzed vocal cords or amusia, but even deafness didn't stop singer Mandy Harvey from earning a golden buzzer on America's Got Talent! Not Helpful 16 Helpful It is important to first develop and practice great singing technique, and you may find that working with a voice teacher is helpful.

High notes need excellent technique, especially strong breath support, a relaxed throat, and soft palate placement. Not Helpful 21 Helpful Consistent practice is key. Work on the techniques in this article or take voice lessons to guide your efforts.

Not Helpful 23 Helpful Whenever you feel you are ready start uploading YouTube videos. It might be scary but what you have to keep in mind is to not get unmotivated by the negative comments some people might say.

Just try to take singing lessons if you sometimes feel as if your voice isn't that good, chase your dream no matter what. Not Helpful 33 Helpful I'm shy about my voice. I don't want my siblings to hear. How can I be sure that they will not hear me? Go to the bathroom in front of the mirror and practice. Or, you can sing when they are not around. Or, sing in the garden. However, it'd be best to become more confident.