Perhaps you’d like to be able to win your neighborhood karaoke contest. Or maybe you’d like a role in the spring musical being put on by your local community theater group. Or you might even have aspirations of recording your own CD. No matter what your musical goals are, you can learn how to sing so that you will meet them—and maybe even surpass them.
To learn how to sing well, you need to master the fundamentals. Just like a quarterback must be willing to practice laterals and forward passes week after week, you’ll need to rehearse basic breathing and vocal techniques on a regular basis. At times, this can seem boring, but it’s absolutely essential if you are to excel in the art and science of singing.
Joe Theisman may have had great inherent athletic ability—but he still had to show up for scrimmages. Likewise, a singer such as Aretha Franklin has a tremendous natural gift. However, that does not mean that she necessarily nails each song she records on the first take.
To begin to learn how to sing well, you will first have to learn how to control your breathing. The legendary singer Frank Sinatra, for instance, excelled at controlling his breathing during his singing. Sinatra told interviewers he was able to do so by studying the way that musicians maintained breath control while playing horn instruments. To make sure you hit every note, you’ll need to learn how to sing from your diaphragm—the muscle which gives support to your singing.
You’ll also need to be able to learn how to sing so that you can effectively manipulate your larynx while transitioning from one note to another. Through skillful positioning of your larynx, you can determine the tone of your voice, creating a richness to your sound. You also need to establish a resonance to your vocal performances that will allow you to add texture to your notes.
In addition, it’s important that you practice moving from one register to another—from chest voice to middle voice to head voice. The easier your transitions between registers become, the smoother your sound will be. You’ll want to be just as adept as a singer such as Kelly Clarkson when it comes to smoothing the “bridges” within your vocal range. If you fail to smooth out these bridges, you could end up straining your vocal chords, which can lead to lasting damage and can seriously impact your ability to sing.
After you have a handle on the fundamentals of singing, more challenges lie ahead. You’ll need to use those fundamentals as building blocks to help you construct a sensational vocal repertoire. In other words, learning basic singing techniques will only take you so far at karaoke night, choir practice, or in the recording studio. It’s not enough to be able to simply carry a tune. You’ll eventually have to find ways to take your vocal performances up a notch—to learn to improve your tone quality with every melody you sing.
