The Technique Blueprint Singers Need to Know
Aimless. The word I’d use to describe my practice sessions in my teens and early twenties.
Rolling my eyes as I whipped through a couple of meaningless warm ups with no focus on changing or fixing anything.
Then I’d sing through my repertoire of songs a couple of times. Again, not making any changes or correcting any mistakes or moments of strain.
End scene.
I’d leave with a mixture of smugness (for even bothering to practice in the first place) and frustration (because I wasn’t getting any better at the songs I wanted to sing).
And this is the practice life of just about every singer I encounter.
Maybe you included.
So why do we practice in a way that ISN’T getting us results?
Usually because WE DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER.
Everything about the way I approach singing technique and practice has changed incrementally over the past decade.
I’ve collected morsels and exercises and concepts from over a dozen teachers from all over the world.
I’m obsessed with reading and tinkering and discovering things with my own body and voice and translating that into human language.
Hopefully you’ve started to learn that about me at this point.
CREATING A BLUEPRINT
I realised that every single “mistake” we hear when practicing has a reason and therefore a solution.
And once I learned how to connect the dots, I could build a blueprint and a toolkit to get there.
So here is what you’ll need to KNOW and the CHOICES you’ll need to make to build that blueprint.
KNOWLEDGE NEED #1
How to use your breath to create different intensities and volumes.
And stop your throat to your tongue stepping in and trying to do this heavy lifting for you.
Oh this one alone would have saved me a whole heaps of tears shed over strain and vocal fatigue.
I understood pieces of the way breath fuels the voice but was missing huge chunks.
We need to understand
how to inhale efficiently for the phrase we want to sing.
how the ribs respond on the exhale.
how the belly responds on the exhale and how this changes depending on the intensity you want for the phrase.
how breath control can feel quite different from singing depending on the sound you’re creating.
what onsets are and why they matter to consistency, longevity and tone.
KNOWLEDGE NEED #2
How the way you shape your mouth, lips, jaw and tongue contribute to the COLOUR of your voice.
Resonance, depth, brightness, warmth, a "forward" or "focused" sound vs a more muted tones, nasal or not.
Firstly, there is no one right shape. Breathe out a sigh of relief here.
If you’ve been taught by a classical teacher or have learned by mimicking opera singers, you may be used to a certain position of everything in your vocal tract. And the sound resonating in a certain way.
This will mean contemporary sounds will feel foreign and you may even go as far as to label them as “wrong” or “not real singing”.
And vice versa - you kids who were brought up on the phrase “forward placement” will start to panic as soon as the sound isn’t as “forward” because you think “forward” is the be all and end all.
It’s not.
You have CHOICES.
We need to understand
how the pieces of the vocal tract can alter the sound and how easy singing feels.
how they can cause what we feel as “throat tension” and how to retrain this.
the difference between a focused and a muted tone and our ability to create them when we choose to.
how some vowels need to be modified in order to blend seamlessly through our range without a break or a crack or strain.
which shapes are best for powerful, belt qualities and why.
KNOWLEDGE NEED #3
How to activate extra support for the big, crazy, belt sections.
As we add intensity and get up higher and higher in our range, notes can tend to feel stretchy or less grounded and less free.
This is when we may need to recruit other muscles in the body to take some pressure off the little ones in our throat and our vocal cords.
We call this Anchoring.
We need to understand
The different muscle groups we can engage to add this support and how they should feel.
When we would recruit them.
The way they add colour to the tone.
Which type of anchoring to choose based on tone, benefit and context.
THE QUESTIONS/choices THAT CREATE YOUR BLUEPRINT
Now it’s time to make CHOICES. These will depend on the song you’re working on and how you want your interpretation to sound.
What intensity and volume do I want and how does that fluctuate during the song (dynamics kiddos)?
What tone colour/s do I want and how can my vowel modification support this?
Are there any sections that require anchoring? If so, what kind?
ONCE YOU HAVE CLARITY AROUND WHAT YOU WANT, THEN IT’S ABOUT TINKERING TO SOLVE ANY PROBLEMS
When you know what technical elements influence to sound and feeling of your singing, you can start to pinpoint what is making your cringe about your voice and what needs to change in order to fix it.
If it’s power or clarity, start by analysing your breath, support and onsets.
If it’s that your sound is full but a little bright for your liking, play around with your vowel shape.
And if your breath support is solid and you’ve chosen a great vowel for belting but it’s still feeling stretchy - it’s anchoring’s time to shine.
There is nothing more empowering that finally understanding how it all comes together and what choices will get you closer to a sound you love.
Sure, it still requires a lot of focus and repetition to drill it in and build a new habit; but there’s so much less frustration because you know WHY it wasn’t working.
You’re no longer assuming that you’re broken or that your voice simply can’t do that.
It becomes a technical puzzle to solve not proof that you don’t have “enough talent”.
Don’t let that negative little voice bully you into believing that.
Everything is figureoutable.
Want a crash course in the pieces of this blueprint?
Nail That Song Salon is now open for enrolment.
4 weeks of curated trainings on the topics above.
Weekly masterclasses where I can coach you in real time.
The opportunity to submit video recordings of your songs for my personal feedback if you can’t make it to the masterclass that week.
The ability to ask me any questions you have and a community of singers all stretching outside of their comfort zones just like you.
FIND OUT MORE OR JUMP ON BOARD HERE. We kick off on Monday 1 June.