Professional and semi-professional singers, a question

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My best friend is graduating from college in about a month and a half, and for her graduation present, I had considered singing “The Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)” at her graduation party. I’m nowhere near a professional singer, and I’ve had no voice training at all, but she seems to like when I sing, and I thought this would probably last longer in memory than anything else I could get her. (And I’m not even sure about how long this will last. The way she throws back beers, I’m convinced she’s got a hollow leg.)

Anyway, what I’d like to know from any trained vocalists is if there are any breathing or vocal exercises that are simple and that will help me out a little. I’m not looking for a full course or anything, just some simple stuff that will keep me from running short of breath during a line or will help me increase my range a little. So any help will be appreciated, and all jibes had better be good-natured.

2

My best suggestion, under the circumstances, is to practice, at full voice every spare minute. You can see where you run short of air and figure out where you want to breathe. And you need to do it a full voice because your air flow and pitch is way different at low volumne. I don’t know how much time you have, but with practice, you will find it easier and easier and will memorize the breathing without trying to remember.
Good luck, and I hope she doesn’t nail you with an empty!

3

Let me recommend a helpful textbook on voice, both talking and singing, “Set Your Voice Free” by Roger Love.

Very helpful.

Comes to the worst, tell everybody you are/were drunk. Drunks are always forgiven for singing badly.

your humble TubaDiva

4

And Flyp’s often drunk, so it’s a logical excuse, Tuba. ducks

Seriously, I’ll second dragonlady’s comment. Besides, if you practice it enough, it’ll automatically warm you up, if that makes sense. The more singing you do, the easier it is.

[hijack] Love the sig, btw. [/hijack]

5

I would not recomment practicing at full voice at every available second. This can really wear out your voice if your not properly trained and by the time the moment comes your voice will be weak and scratchy.
I would recommend practicing scales…mouth relaxation techniques… and of course, know the words to the song inside and out. Sing loud, sing confident and your friend will love it no matter what :slight_smile:

6

I’d say your best bet is to teach Marni Nixon the song and just mouth the words as she stands behind you singing.

7

opinions differ on this.

First of all, don’t strain to hit a note. You should find the key in which you’re most comfortable and sing it that way.

Drink plenty of water or tea. Fluids such as these will help your throat to repair itself.

Do practice at full voice . . . practicing softer can mess up breathing (I know from experience). And practice enunciating every word more than you will. Nervousness will cause you to not do so as much, so you have to overcompensate for that by practicing.

At the same time, don’t sing all the damned time. Do give your voice a rest.

Hope some of this helps :slight_smile:

8

No one has mentioned proper breathing yet … so I will. When you sing, you want the air to come from your diapragm, which is rather lower on your torso than where people normally breathe. Sing and watch yourself in a mirror. When you take a deep breath to sing the next line, do your shoulders rise? If so, you are not breathing correctly.

The area you want to breathe from is the same place that you work out when you do abdominal crunches. Practice deep breathing in and out. When you breathe in, this area should push your hands out and apart, meaning that it is expanding and filling with air … this is the correct way to breathe. Practice this until you feel natural doing it, then add your singing.

This will allow you to sing longer phrases without running short of breath, once you get used to it. Good luck!!

9

Brunetter nailed it succintly.

And yes you will need to practice at full voice but beware of overpracticing.
At the end of the day sing it loud, proud and with enthusiasm.

All the best.

10

Start off by finding the song in the right key - not too high, not too low (both can be bad for you). Then start singing the song easily, like you would sing along to the radio while doing the laundry - not belting at full voice, but not whispering or airy. Just sing at your normal voice. Keep doing this, and over the course of the time until you’re due to sing, slowly build up and sing it at “performance” voice, i.e., again, not belting it, but singing it strongly and confidently.

It would take quite a bit of in-person training to get you to sing, breathe, stand, and think like a singer, but you can still do a fine job of it without either sounding like a dolt or ruining your voice.

Esprix, who used to be a choir director and voice teacher

11

All very good advice here. I’ll just add one tidbit.

The admonition against over-practicing is valid. You should definitely do some trial runs in your “performance” voice, so you can figure out the best places to breathe and whatnot, but if you’re not using your voice properly, as GreenEyes said, you can really screw yourself up.

One of the most common problems with vocal use is placement. Your head is a resonator, and you can use that. However, for a variety of reasons (“manly” voices are deep, “feminine” voices are high and thin, etc.), a lot of people shift their resonance to their throat, their chest, or whatever. This is fine for everyday speech, but if you try sustained singing or oratory, you won’t sound so good, and you can even hurt yourself.

How do you place your voice properly? In my experience, there’s a very simple trick that will work in the short term. When your voice is correctly placed, humming will make your face vibrate. It’s called “mask resonance,” and it’s the most efficient means of getting maximum vocal quality with minimum effort and risk.

Try this. Close your lips, and open your jaw. Not too wide; pretend you have a plum in your mouth. Now hum, at about speech volume. The place that vibrates the most is where you’ve got your primary resonance. It’s impossible to explain textually how to shift this, but just fiddle with it. Don’t change your pitch (high or low), just try moving your jaw, lowering your Adam’s apple, shifting the back of your tongue, or even stroking your temples with your fingertips to psychologically suggest pulling your voice upward. By experimenting, you should figure out pretty quickly how to shift your resonance area. Then, once you’ve got your face vibrating, try opening your lips briefly, saying “mmmmmma ma ma ma mmmmma ma ma.” If you’re lucky, and your voice is already resonating efficiently, this won’t sound so different. However, it’s more probable that you’re like the majority of people whose voices aren’t resonating as well as they can, and you’ll be startled at how your voice “pops” out of your head.

Try it out for a while, and see how long you can sustain the effect. It takes a lot of training and practice to move your voice to a better place permanently, but if you do this a few minutes before you perform, the effect should last long enough to get you through the song.

Hope this helps.

12

I used to sing – well, yell, mostly – rock and roll in bar bands for a long time, and that involved a lot more projection that you will need.

The only tip I would offer in addition to the good ones above is regarding your breathing.

“Time of Your Life” is actually a pretty easily phrased and metered song for breathing purposes. It has pauses after relatively short phrases that will allow you to grab a breath.

It’s important to get a big, good inhale when the opportunity presents itself. But avoid making your sucking in of wind really noisy and noticeable. (Ever hear “Jet Airliner” by Steve Miller? Drives me nuts.)

You will get this with some practice.

There should be no real conscious exhalation of air - it should just kinda trickle out with the words of the singing. While you are pushing out air as you sing (from the diaphragm, as mentioned above), be careful to to meter the strength and rate of your exhaling. Don’t lose your “air-load” too soon, leading to an awkward gasp for replenishment at a part where the song’s phrasing doesn’t call for it.

All of this gets easier thorough sheer practice and repetition.

Your friend will love your thoughtful gift, I’m sure. Good luck!