Good Singing Technique

To be honest, no! Good singing is around 80% technique and 20% stuff you are either born with or not. In fact there is so much technique involved with singing that after three years I still have to make a mental check to see if I have everything set up right before I open my mouth!

So what do you have to do in order to not just sing quite well, but to sing fantastically, effortlessly and with much better quality if sound? Here's the outline of how to prepare before you sing:

PHYSICAL WARMUP

VOCAL WARMUP

*DURING VOCAL WARMUP YOU WILL BE CORRECTING POSTURE AND PHYSICAL SET UP IN OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY*

That's not too bad, just two things to do! Let's make it a little more detailed.

Physical Warmup

In order to be able to sing at your best you should do some sort of physical activity, such as a run, dance even some stretching or Tai Chi would be sufficient, just make sure you do these before you are going to sing. You don't need to be running a marathon right before a concert, but a short jog in the morning and a couple of stretches before you have the performance would be my idea of a physical warm up.

I'll be completely honest, the reasoning for the physical warm up is not something I can explain scientifically with a picture of the human body, but believe me it does work, even if it just makes you more centered and connected to your body.

Vocal Warmup

In order to prepare your voice for singing it is important to warm up with some simple exercises. You can sing scales and arpeggios to a syllable (for a classical voice I use "MA" and for a more musical theatre voice "NYAH" makes the sound a little more twangy) which is good both for finding and warming up your entire range.

After scales and arpeggios I might siren my voice, this is where you try and imitate the way a siren slides up and down in pitch. This is good for overcoming "bridge notes" (the notes where a voice moves between head and chest voice) and allowing you to create a more mixed sound.

If you find it especially problematic to blend head and chest voice, try starting in falsetto and slowly slide down the scale until you reach your bridge note and then try to support it as it switches, when there is no noticeable jerk between the two you're doing it right!

That's plenty of exercises for a vocal warmup and in all I would usually spend about twenty minutes doing those exercises.

Now your body is prepared to sing, but how can you make your voice sound that bit better than the average choir singer.

Physical Set Up

This is the really picky stuff and it's also where the really good voices come from.

I'm going to describe from the bottom up how to set your body up for a better voice. First up are legs. if you are moving around you can't expect your legs to stay still but the key here is to be relaxed and to keep your knees slightly bent. At the same time you want to rock your pelvis slightly forward (I always feel as though I'm trying to sit on the very edge of a tall chair or bar stool). You should aim to keep the pelvis slightly forward through any movement you have to do as it facilitates good support from... The diaphragm.

You must absolutely support with your diaphragm, this gives you your power and allows you to hold onto notes as long as you need to. My favourite way of checking I'm using the diaphragm is to place my hand on my stomach and say "ZIP" your stomach should flatten if you are supporting. The reason for "ZIP" is that you can also imagine that when you sing you are zipping up a coat and the diaphragm is where that zip starts. Now while we are still hanging about your abdomen, have a quick look at your lower back, did you know you can breathe into your back? If you didn't get started, deep breaths into your lower back are far more useful than weak shallow breaths high up in the lungs!

To test your lower back breathing get a friend who doesn't mind physical contact to stand behind you and place their hands roughly over your kidneys, then take a few deep breaths and ask them if they could feel your lower back expanding, if yes good work! If not don't worry, check your posture and keep trying. While they are there another important part of supporting with the back is that you should be able to stay on the support if your helper gently pushes the small of your back, again if you have to step forward adjust your posture and sit into it a bit more (but not so you fall over backwards!).

Now you might notice that there is a fair bit of tension in the lower body and that is fine, however all tension must stop above the diaphragm. Your neck and shoulders should be completely free and relaxed (this is where stretching for your physical warmup is helpful) and to check your neck is free have a friend move your head from side to side as you sing. The reason you need to watch this tension is that humans have a tendency to tense their necks when they think about things and if you are thinking about singing, then you will tense and make the sound strained.

On relaxing, the next thing to relax is your jaw, I like to use a method called "idiot jaw" basically every vowel sound you sing let your jaw drop completely, this feels very strange at first but combined with good support and general relaxation will allow you to go higher into your range with ease. Another thing to mention is that you should keep your chin on a natural level, don't let it stick out or reach up for the sky as both of these cause the neck to shorten and it actually makes the big notes you're reaching up for harder than if you stay on the level.

Finally the last two points on vocal apparatus, the singers pout and the nasal cavity. For the singers pout you want to create a slightly ovular mouth and have the bottom of your top teeth showing. This creates space in your mouth which allows a greater resonance whilst the raising of the upper lip causes the soft palate to move and changes the nasal cavity, again creating more space. You might feel your nostrils flaring, if they do then that is great because it linked with your nasal cavity.

Now you have set yourself up correctly and warmed up physically and vocally, you are ready to sing your song!!

So to summarize:

DANCE AROUND, RUN, JUMP... BE PHYSICALLY WARMED UP

SING SOME EXERCISES TO GET THE VOICE READY

KNEES BENT SLIGHTLY, PELVIS FORWARD, SUPPORT WITH DIAPHRAGM AND LOWER BACK, RELAX YOUR SHOULDERS AND NECK, ALLOW YOUR JAW TO RELAX IN BETWEEN CONSONANTS, KEEP YOUR CHIN DOWN AND YOUR NECK LONG, POUT LIKE MARILYN (MONROE, NOT MANSON), FLARE THOSE NOSTRILS...

AND OF COURSE HAVE FUN! 

Good luck and enjoy your singing!