FREE SINGING TIPS
By Vocal Coach Nicole LeGault

Six Steps to Reaching your Singing Potential
Copyright © 2006 Nicole LeGault. Reprinted with Permission.

When a beginner - or even an intermediate vocalist – attends their first professional voice lesson, one of their main concerns is usually “the assessment”.

The vocal coach’s job #1 is to determine what the vocalist is doing well, what they need to do to improve, how to help them achieve their goals, and of course, the student wants to know “how long until I’m good?”

“That depends” I usually say, upon how much they practice, and what are their goals. Results are guaranteed, but of course a student who, for example, plays bass in a punk band and would like to sing his/her own compositions may reach their goals more swiftly than a gentleman who would like to sing his favorite female diva’s passionate love songs. They will be working on differing technical requirements.

Music is a beautiful thing – its purpose is to share emotions, and convey thoughts and ideas. If one is singing from the heart, especially if the song is good, it is rather difficult to go wrong. The mistake I would warn against is just singing out of your caliber pending further improvement. Strain all you like at practice, but when in public stick to your comfort range.

We can all easily name five rich and famous singing stars that are very successful, but not at all accomplished technically. Why? We love to listen to a good story teller, and a good song.

So that said, if you’d like to reach the full limits of your own potential, (and why not?) there are six basic talents of music to work upon: Pitch, dynamics, melody, timing, tonality, and authenticity.

Pitch = hitting notes with accuracy
Dynamics = adjusting the volume levels in the music for texture and expression
Melody = flowing from one note to another skillfully and gracefully
Timing = one must be in “in the pocket” grooving with the rhythm of the music
Tonality = the quality and the timbre of the sound you’re creating
Authenticity = the thoughts should be clear, your emotion authentic

To be a complete singer, one requires a complete program.

My words of advice regarding potential:

- Beware of vocal coaches who don’t want to work with you unless you’re already pretty good. Afraid of a challenge are we?

- The difficult parts are only difficult because you’re not good at them yet.

- “Talent” is an illusion. Practice a lot (correctly!!!) and you will be “talented” too!

Nicole LeGault is President of “A Sharp” School of Music and the creator of the Song Savvy Vocal Instruction Program.

MORE FREE SINGING TIPS
By Nicole LeGault

• Using the voice correctly is an exercise in coordination that requires practice. You must relax most muscles, while strenuously exerting others. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart, arms hanging at your sides. Your shoulders, throat, tongue, and jaw should all be relaxed. Focus all physical exertion upon the diaphragm for power (straining your throat or pushing your shoulders forward will not help), and use the facial muscles for pronunciation and shaping of the vowels.
  
  
• Contrary to what most people would assume, releasing more air while using your voice causes the sound to become softer, and using less air makes your voice louder. This is because the volume in your voice comes from resonating the sound - via the air - through your sinus cavities, not from pushing harder. If you release all the air out of your mouth before it can reach your sinuses, you will soften your voice, as you do when whispering.
  
  
• If you're in the habit of restricting your voice into a thin sound and would like a more open throat voice, try this: Stick your tongue all the way out as far as it will go, and sing the alphabet song all the way through like that (supporting your breath with your diaphragm of course). Then, put your tongue back in your mouth and sing with the same relaxed tongue and throat.
  
  
• You may have heard before: "You must sing from the diaphragm". To locate your diaphragm, put one hand on your solar plexus - that's right where you get your "gut feelings" - above your stomach and between your rib cages, but below where the two cages connect. Now, blow all the air out of your lungs until there is nothing left, just keep pushing and pushing. Feel that? If not - push harder! That's your diaphragm muscle getting tired.
  
  
• The vocal cords are not really cords at all, they're more like flaps - also called vocal folds - which stick out horizontally from the sides of your windpipe. The vocal cords vibrate in accordance to their length, mass and tension. If you are going hoarse or losing your voice, what's happening is your delicate vocal folds are hitting each other, causing them to become bruised and swollen - losing their elasticity. You must learn to support the air flow with your diaphragm and direct the air into the sinus cavities where it resonates to achieve good tonality and volume with ease.
  
  
• As you warm up your voice, you will find that your range increases gradually allowing you to hit notes much higher from when you started. If you don't warm up and then go trying to hit notes that you can only hit once you've warmed, they will not only sound bad, but you stand a very good chance of causing damage to your vocal cords. Many little muscles in your throat are working very hard to create your singing voice and they need to be stretched slowly before you push them to their limits. Would a gymnast go flipping around without stretching first? Absolutely not.
  
  
• To gradually increase your range, warm up first and then keep attempting to reach notes that you cannot hit - high and low. Use the proper techniques described in this program, and if you begin to go hoarse, STOP. Your upper range and quality of tone will temporarily suffer if you damage your voice. A muscular "pulling" sensation in your throat when stretching your range is harmless and quite normal. If you have an instrument like a keyboard or a pitch pipe handy, you can keep track of the new notes you are acquiring. Be sure to use your new notes regularly - if you don't use your entire range for a while, it will shrink back.
  
  
• Sometimes I get recognized in public as a vocal coach people have seen on TV. Why is it that untrained vocalists always ask me: "What should I drink?" I tell them that if they're singing properly, it doesn't really matter very much what they drink. I personally like to avoid caffeine because I don't like the crash that follows the artificial high (you wind up below where you started, and if you're still singing, then uh-oh.) I like to remain hydrated and fueled, so spring water and fruit juice are very nice. Hard liquor will burn going down, and the fumes on your breath will be hitting your vocal cords. Dairy products may produce phlegm. I'm afraid there is NOT a magic drink that will allow a vocalist who is losing his/her voice to repair it. That is a problem with technique, you must LEARN how to use your voice safely. You may also want to avoid carbonated beverages unless you can keep your burping under control. It can be embarrassing - especially during ballads.
  
  
• Confidence in your voice will come when you have improved your ability. To improve your ability, you need to have confidence in your voice. See the catch 22? Many (but not all) beginners are afraid to attempt any high loud notes because they are self conscious and afraid of how it will sound. They won't project forward, and they stop as soon as they begin - usually while making a funny face. But if you're not producing tones, even if they are foul, you have nothing with which to work on your technique.
  
  
• Using dynamics is the art of raising an lowering the volume of music or our speaking voice to give it texture and expression. Also know as "colour". When singing popular music, you know that the higher the note, the louder it will usually sound. When switching from one pitch to another, it is important to remember to alter your volume accordingly. I like to compare the changing of high notes to low notes with taking an off ramp to an ordinary street after driving 100 km/h on the highway. It really takes some effort to lay off on that gas pedal because in comparison 50 km/h seems so slow. Likewise, going from low notes to high notes is like hitting the gas on the on ramp.
  
  
• Singing high notes softly requires as much as or more abdominal support than singing them at full volume. Quiet notes in your upper range will require more air - meaning you can't hold them as long and they are more difficult to keep off the throat and resonating within the sinus cavities. Gradually fading out the volume of a note requires gradually increasing the support and the flow of air simultaneously.