10 RULES FOR HEALTHY SINGING

I’m fond of saying that learning to sing is not “rocket science” but it’s not always intuitive either. There are rules to follow that will help you not only sound better, but feel better when you sing.

Here are ten rules for healthy singing.

Rule number 1: Prepare your body. Singing with an open throat and a tone that will project to the back of the hall or house requires a vigorous amount of activity and depends on balancing tension. You want to have tension in some places of your body; but not in others. So, before you sing, you’ll want to stretch your muscles to be prepared to expand or contract the muscles that control your singing. Plan to stretch your neck muscles as well as your shoulders, back, and legs. Also, it’s a great idea to stretch your face muscles so you don’t get what I call “frozen face syndrome” from jitters or tension. All of these areas in your body need to be flexible, warmed and ready for singing.

Here’s rule number 2: Prepare your mind. Not only will this help you focus on how you are going to sing, but on what you are going to sing about. When you are practicing, do it in a quiet place where you’re not feeling distracted or intimidated by being overheard by someone. And try not to do any other activity when you sing, like dishes or laundry. Though that’s a great way to memorize a song and maximize your time doing a semi-tedious chore, it does distract you from focusing on technique. So whenever possible, just focus on singing. Not only will you pay attention to honing those healthy singing skills, but you’ll also be giving yourself the opportunity to get away from the craziness of modern life and the tendency to always multi-task. Indulge in the privilege of just focusing on your music!

Here’s another rule. Whenever possible, avoid sight-reading. Sometimes you have to sight read because someone’s showing you a song that they want to hear in the moment. But really, it’s much better to study the music first and then trying singing it through. Look at the tempo markings, look at the meter, and look at the words. The problem with sight-reading is that very often people tense their throats and kind of sing in a very constricted way. It’s really a common problem and happens to everybody. It would be better to spend a little bit of time at the piano or however you learn a song before you try to sing it through.

Here’s rule number 4: Memorize. Memorizing your song gives you many advantages. Instead of focusing on your words, you can dig into the meaning behind the words. Understand the poetry and listen to the innate rhythm of the sentences. My voice teacher, Lois Hartzell, was fond of saying that there are no “vocal” problems, only “musical” ones. So, get the song memorized as quickly as you can so that you can focus more on how you’re going to sing the song, and on building a real story and character for selling your song in a more powerful way.

Rule number 5: Sing with good breath support to help you achieve a full and beautiful tone. You want to; as I said before, make sure the tension is balanced in the right place. Don’t hold tension in your throat or your neck muscles. Take a nice full breath, expand your lungs, expand your ribcage and then use those muscles around the diaphragm and the ribs to hold your breath so you can use it to support your tone. We call this “singing with the inhaling muscles” since you are literally keeping those muscles in tension while you sing.

Posture is also very important for breath support and is my sixth rule for healthy singing because if your back is out of line, or your butt is sticking up in the air, or your neck is off to one side, or your chin is sticking up or down - all of these things will throw off the support. Make sure your spine is straight, your neck is straight and you are standing in a way that supports being able to hold those inhaling muscles in tension.

Hang in there - you’re over half way through. Rule number 7: Aim to sing with a darker, rather than lighter tone. What I mean by this is to not let your tongue get flattened and held down by pulling your face muscles out to the side when you sing. This results in a kind of shallow tone and limits your range because you tend get to get stuck going up the scale this way. I see a lot of untrained singers who have a tendency to draw their lips back when they sing. It’s better to get your lips off of your teeth and out in front of you. It is kind of a megaphone affect which means that your sound will project out in front of you instead of getting swallowed up. It also allows for better resonance and maximum flexibility of your tongue, which has an impact on your range.

Rule number 8: Balance the tensions in your body. I have mentioned this a couple of times, but it is incredibly important. Balancing the tensions means holding on in some places and letting go in other places. You need tension to sing, but the tension cannot be in your neck or in your throat muscles, or in your upper shoulders. It really needs to be lower down in your body: your legs, your intercostal muscles, your back. Holding on here, instead of clenching the back of your neck or your throat muscles with allow you to sing with an open throat. Balance the tension of your lower body by really singing real vowel sounds with your tongue, lips and the muscles around your mouth. You can sing very casually to yourself, with no instruments and no room noise or other competing factors - but if you want to be heard in the back of the room or against an instrument or another voice, you’ll really need to use a balance of tensions to project your voice out.

Here’s a huge rule that really is an easy fix, but often a big problem for untrained singers and makes up rule number 9: Be sure you are singing in the correct register! You have two basic registers; speaking (also called belting or chest) register and head register. All sound first resonates in the larynx, but higher tones resonate in your sinuses, your pharynx, and your mouth. Singing too low in your head register will result in a weak tone, but singing too high in your belting register can make you feel like you are screaming! So be sure to learn what the two different registers are and then how to balance them. This is one area that really takes a trained voice teacher to guide you through properly. As I said at the beginning, not rocket science, but not intuitive either. There are ways to manage the registers, especially in that tricky middle range - but someone with a trained ear and technical savvy will best help you navigate this issue.

Lastly, I really encourage singers who are looking to make their singing extra special to learn how to develop their “Off-Stage Bit.” This is rule number 10. The “Off-Stage Bit” is a technique for developing a character and really understanding the story of your song so that you can give an intense, compelling and believable performance of your song - be it in any style of music: rock, jazz, country, hip-hop - you name it. If you are more interested in learning about the “Off-stage bit”, contact me or look up my video blogs to understand this concept more in depth.

So there it is - my 10 Rules for Health Singing. Even if you focused on one or two of these rules, your singing will benefit. Try one out, and if it improves your singing, then try another one. Add them in one or two at a time and you’ll steady progress in your journey to be a better singer.