5 Essential Steps for Voice Practice at Home

Here is a check list for practicing voice at home.

1. Stretch - Make sure you stretch and relax your muscles before you start your voice workout. 

• Do neck rolls to relax your neck muscles.
• Reach for the sky and stretch your waist and chest.
• Touch your toes.

2. Breathing Exercises – Singing is all about exhaling so work on lengthening and controlling your exhale.

• Inhale for a count of 10 then exhale for a count of 15.  Work up to doing this 10 times.

3.  Lip and Tongue Trills – loosen your lips and your tongue by doing trills to one of the scales.

• A lip trill is when you relax your lip muscles and blow so your lips flap, such as when you make a motorboat sound or blow a raspberry.
• A tongue trill is like when you purr like a cat or roll your r’s.

4.  Warm-up Scales – Singing scales will warm up your throat, your vocal chords and stretch your range.  Just like lifting weights where you gradually increase the weights so you can lift heavier and heavier weights, you need to gradually stretch your range in order to sing lower and higher, until you reach your full range.

• Sing with the CD I have given you, play the piano for different scales or sing with my warm-up video.

5.  Song – Now it is time to practice your special piece.

• Break the song up into sections and sing each section one at a time.  Go over the section until it sounds good.  Remember to work on the techniques your teacher has given you.
• Then sing the entire song all the way through.

Tips and Tricks - For more tips read 10 Habits for a Healthy Voice

• Remember to drink lots of water before you begin practicing and all day long to keep your entire body, including your vocal chords, hydrated.
• Remember to open your mouth!
• Remember to breath!
• Most importantly, have fun!

For more voice tips read 10 Habits for a Healthy Voice.

10 Habits for a Healthy Voice

As humans, we have been created to use our vocal chords to talk and sing all day long.  As singers, our voices are our instruments.  Other musicians can replace their instruments if they wear out but singers can’t.  We have only one voice for our lifetime.  We need to take care of our voices so they stay healthy and do not wear out before their due dates.

10 Healthy Habits

5 Do’s

1.       Drink lots of water.  Stay hydrated all day long.  Don’t just drink water while you are singing.  You need to get and keep your vocal chords hydrated before you begin singing.

2.       Eat a healthy diet.  Your voice is a part of your body so keep your entire instrument healthy.

3.       Exercise.  Again, keep your entire body/instrument healthy!

4.       Warm up your voice.  Hum, do lip trills, and sing gently before bolting out your performance song.

5.       Take care of allergies and colds so you can breathe correctly.

5 Don’ts

1.       Avoid straining your voice and singing at the top and bottom of your range for long periods of time.

2.       Avoid screaming and shouting for long periods of time.

3.       Avoid coughing and clearing your throat.  This might be hard to do during cold and flu season, but do your best!

4.       Avoid singing when you have a sore throat.  Give your throat a rest.

5.       Avoid smoking!  It’s bad for your vocal chords as well as your entire body.

Bonus Habit!

Smile!  Feel great about all your hard work and enjoy making music with your voice.

For more practice ideas visit 5 Essential Steps for Voice Practice at Home