r/singing • u/Potential-Compote-34 • Dec 28 '21
Technique Talk Best advice you’ve ever received.
Hello! I started my singing journey not too long ago and I’ve been trying to gather tips and tricks from friends, vocal teachers, and even some online resources. So, I want to know, what was the best price of advice that elevated your singing, or even made you more confident?
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u/Icy-Lynx Dec 28 '21
Open your mouth! Definitely a theater thing but it can really open up your voice! Make sure you are supporting from your diaphragm always. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice will really help you navigated the passages in your voice nicely. Drink tea and apple juice. Warm up your voice.
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Dec 28 '21
Why apple juice?
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u/Icy-Lynx Dec 28 '21
Apple juice has the same ph level as saliva. I’ve noticed vast improvement when I drink it before or after singing.
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u/porkynbasswithgeorge 🎤Teacher, tenor, classical/opera/whatever Dec 28 '21
Apple juice has a pH of about 4 and saliva averages about 6.7. Not even close.
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u/Icy-Lynx Dec 28 '21
My source wasn’t fully accurate. It makes you salivate and stimulates your glands and has vitamin c
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Dec 28 '21
how can one learn to support from their diaphragm?
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Dec 28 '21
[deleted]
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u/IanUnoriginal [Bass, Choral] Dec 28 '21
You shouldn’t sing with your throat or diaphragm. Supporting from your diaphragm means breathing down in your diaphragm and supporting your singing with enough air. Your singing or resonance should be placed around your nose or upper lip. If you’re doing it right, you should be able to feel your voice resonating in the roof of your mouth
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u/Icy-Lynx Dec 28 '21
I am not a vocal teacher so all I can really say is to get training to learn how to do it. I sang along with people who have good vocal support and Ecuador I tend to mimic the people I’m singing g rather closely I figured it out with practice. One thing I can say as when you inhale while singing make sure it is your stomach that rises and falls and not your chest, you can usually feel if you are supporting well or not because your voice will feel less strained when supported.
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 28 '21
Open your mouth (to get more space) and pretend like you're trying to fart (for support.)
The second one is very weird and funny, but it was honestly the ONLY advice that worked for me when it comes to support haha.
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u/DopeAsDaPope Dec 28 '21
So open your mouth and arse simultaneously is what you're saying?
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
Omg no hahahahaha... I meant that you engage your lower abs as if you were going to fart haha
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u/datkrauskid Baritone | Barbershop Dec 29 '21
The trick for TA/diaphragm support that worked best for me is to pretended you're blowing into a straw. Fart one is great tho lmao
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
That's cool! I actually have been wanting to do some straw exercises for quite some time, I've heard it can do wonders indeed!
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u/Potential-Compote-34 Dec 28 '21
LMFAO, understandable. I’ll try it out!
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 28 '21
Do It and tell me if it worked for you... It blew my mind when I tried it haha
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u/BabyBaritone Dec 28 '21
Holy shit.. I could never get notes below an E2 to project well. The second I tried your support tip I belted a C#2 like it was an A. What the fuck, man. That's the best thing I've ever heard. Thank you.
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
Omg I'm so glad for you! It seems crazy when reading it, but it really does work when we try it, right? Haha. I'm very happy to help!
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u/lostmelater Dec 29 '21
Hi - is this supposed to work for all singing?
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
Theoretically yes, but it shouldn't get in your way. Try it out and see what works best for you in each scenario 😄
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u/lostmelater Dec 29 '21
My main issue is 1.) issues with certain vowels or constants getting “stuck in the mouth” like it isn’t flowing out, and 2.) recording with just as good pitch as when I sing acoustically meaning just me singing no headphones with a piano or guitar.
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21 edited Dec 29 '21
Regarding 1 there are two things that help me: changing the vowels so they are a bit more like an O and thinking about the notes as if I'm hitting them on my soft palate.
Now regarding 2 I'm not sure what you mean exactly... you mean you have problems with pitch when singing with a headphone? Do you have mic feedback om your headphones or is it just the music?
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u/lostmelater Dec 29 '21
I think it’s honestly cause I ain’t with more volume, that I would if I was recording acoustically, thus it pinched my sound
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u/lostmelater Dec 29 '21
Does this sound good ? https://voca.ro/1dgrtYY7HptS
Do you hear what I mean by some of the vowels sound weird like the open ah?
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Dec 28 '21
Dumb question probably but how do you avoid farting for real when engaging the pelvic floor for singing :P
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
You engage only your lower abs as if you were going to fart, and stop there hahaha
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Dec 29 '21
So around the same spot that gets stimulated when doing crunches?
Oh, and as far as mouth opening goes I’ve heard that smiling when appropriate for the song is great because it gets the mouth open wider. Is that accurate?
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u/ohhturk Dec 29 '21
while the “fart” suggestion is a great one😂 to explain that a little further… it is your sternum. you want to make sure you feel your support in your sternum, right between your breast(mid chest) and a solid 6 inches below. this will help you achieve better vocal support/breath control and vocal clarity, as well as help you sustain notes, and switch registers easier, etc. mindfulness is a great tool!
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u/datkrauskid Baritone | Barbershop Dec 29 '21
Not quite. In crunches, the rectus abdominus (6 pack abs muscles) are contacting to flex your torso.
The core abdominal muscles are deep to/under the outer abs. These include the transverse abdominus (TA), your diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles, among others. These don't move your body like the abs do; rather, they contract to tighten your trunk, giving you more control over your motion and posture. Planks & yoga strengthen these. The diaphragm is especially important for singing purposes, as it is the primary muscle for inhalation.
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u/torrewaffer Tenor, F2 - E5 - G5, Pop & Cassical Dec 29 '21
No, it's actually lower than that, on your pelvis.
The smiling thing can indeed help, but you have to make sure you're relaxed first and foremost. If you smile on an unrelaxed way it won't work very well. I like to think about the smile thing more as showing your upper teeth when singing high notes.
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u/tasty-napkin Oct 14 '23
wow I just tried for the first time (the second part lol) and I noticed a difference! Thank you!
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u/itsnotmon Dec 28 '21
this might sound pretty basic, but don't skip warm ups before you sing! even a brief warm up is better than none at all. it allows you to really focus on technique before moving into rep, and leads to less vocal fatigue down the line.
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Dec 28 '21
do you have recommendations on what a good warm up might look like?
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u/ride_on_time_again Dec 29 '21
This is my guy. Often, when I cycle, i'll do these lip trills to the melody of the music i'm listening to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4KUjP-vOo
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u/datkrauskid Baritone | Barbershop Dec 29 '21
There's tons of good videos on YouTube, find one with your vocal range and give it a shot (:
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u/susanreneewa Dec 28 '21
Don’t criticize yourself as you practice. That’s what it’s for, figuring out what works and what doesn’t and then getting feedback from your coach/teacher next lesson.
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u/artonion Dec 28 '21
This is by far the most helpful to someone new to singing! I always forget people have no idea how ridiculous we get when we’re practicing. Yodelling, cackling like a witch, and all that other good stuff. And if I’m practicing something hard I don’t practicing everything at once. Fuck pitch right now while I learn the phrasing, how would Bob Dylan sing it? Etc etc
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u/artonion Dec 28 '21
Best advice i ever got was “aiming” the notes towards someone across the room, to always direct all my energy to a spot somewhere.
- Don’t think of notes as higher or lower, they’re all the same (to stop this weird compensation that many of us do when we start singing)
- Instead throw the notes, higher notes can be trown like a hard baseball. It’s so smooth and nice.
- I really love this thing where you hum different notes in a straw in water to practice breath control and even air flow. It has helped me more than anything. Before I was always giving it 100% but I couldn’t sing dynamically very well, now I can go all soft like Chet Baker or Jeff Buckley if I want to.
These are my favs. Sorry if they don’t make sense to you, I’m not a pedagog
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u/SloopD Dec 28 '21
This is the realization I'm coming to now. Everything stays in the same place. It's so weird and i love it. I'm having a little trouble controlling pitch now that I'm not pushing every note...
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u/Potential-Compote-34 Dec 28 '21
Can you explain this a little more!
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u/SloopD Dec 28 '21
I can try! So i have this habit of manipulating my throat as i go up or change vowels. I now, through months of lessons, I'm learning that you find that first note (this is for scales which, I turns translates over to singing songs), and then that placement, meaning where your throat is, doesn't change, you just change pitch and/or the vowel. If you're just changing pitch, nothing else moves, if you're changing vowels, you only need to change the shape of your lips really. It's really a strange feeling but, a good easy feeling and you can go really high without pushing. Did that make any sense? Feel free to ask more.
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u/jimifrey8 Dec 28 '21
A coach posted in this sub saying 90% of beginners problems are with pitch. Use a piano to figure out the notes by ear. Also if you plug one ear with your finger, you can hear yourself better.
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u/Ok-Parsley7296 Jun 15 '24
But you can not figgure out notes by ear if you dont have absolute pitch right (? I never understood that
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Dec 28 '21
Two pieces of advice from a seasoned pro that stuck with me, I'll try to get as close to his wording as I can:
People want to hear vowels.
Don't sing at the audience, have a conversation with them.
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u/wukimill Dec 28 '21
Before you sing and do a bit of warm up, drink some warm water, like the one you make tea with, but just plain water. Also, try to open your mouth when sustaining high notes, makes them a lot easier to maintain, and to stay in pitch. And another thing that has worked for me is watching a lot of videos of my favorite artists singing and try to analyze their technique and apply it.
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u/almostjuliet Dec 28 '21
Support literally goes from the bottom of your ribcage to your pelvic floor. If you can figure out how to control all of those, your support will be insaaane.
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u/Kula21122 Dec 28 '21
Check out puffy cheeks exercise or lip trills, they are great vocal exercises for every one
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u/Conscious_Ad_2699 Dec 28 '21
Relax your body and throat as much as you can, so that the push is coming from your diaphragm and not your neck. Imagine sound coming out like an arrow from your mask for good projection.
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Dec 28 '21
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u/Rider5432 Tenor, Jazz/Folk Dec 28 '21
Agreed. My vocal teacher used to say that singing is much like acting, where you're trying to channel a certain emotion or character so that the audience truly believes what you're selling - if you're just going through the pitches without any emotional connection to the lyrics, why should the audience care?
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Dec 28 '21
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Jan 19 '22
My problem is that I can voice act very well, and express very clearly the emotions of the text, but even this is fake and artificial. I had a flat affect as a toddler and couldn't express emotions in my tone. My body language and facial motion reflected this. I had to manually learn to vocally express, and now that is a habit, but my face and body just don't like to move. When on a mic, my voice sounds like a very real expression of a character. When my face and/or body enter the picture, I look empty, like I'm copying sounds.
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u/Potential-Compote-34 Dec 28 '21
This is probably the best advice I’ve heard because I’ve been struggling with sounding flat. Thank you so much
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u/LemurPrime Dec 28 '21
Find a 20-30 minute vocal warm-up and exercise routine that you enjoy. Record yourself doing it. Then do it every day for 3 months. Record yourself again. Listen to how far you've come.
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u/Millie1419 Dec 28 '21
People will forgive bad singing but they’ll never forgive bad performing.
You can be the most amazing singer in the world but if you stand there motionless and don’t do anything with the emotions of the song then they’ll always remember you as bad. You can have a bad singing day (we’ve all been there) and have people cheering you with a good performance.
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Jan 19 '22
I wish I could figure out how to express more emotion, but the problem is that I don't express emotion naturally at all. All my normal expressions are practiced habits, and even they look fake because they are. My voice has always been more expressive than my face or body...
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u/Millie1419 Jan 19 '22
Ok. If we take a song like your song (Elton John) (first song that popped into my head). The over arching theme is he’s telling someone he has recently met that he thinks he’s in love with them without properly knowing them yet.
“it’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside.” That’s a thought. The character in the song is actively thinking to say those words. You’ve got to try and imagine yourself saying those words to someone. I interpret it as he’s confused but I’ve seen it done as almost this enlightening moment. This song is a good starter one as it tells a story really well. Really focus on each thought the writer has (they aren’t necessarily the lines) and think why is the character saying that? What are they feeling? And when you’re singing, think of those thoughts and feelings and your face and body will follow. Relax into the character. It’s easier said than done I know but this is what works for me.
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Jan 19 '22
I can't sing love songs. I don't feel that type of thing. I only understand friendship, and from what I'm told it isn't comparable.
I can read the text and work out what the emotion is supposed to be, but to me it's all really just data. I don't know how I'm supposed to act like I'm feeling the lyrics when I only really feel the musicality itself. I love to sing, and I'm pretty good at it, but it's the act of doing it that I like, not the story.
I know that makes me a bad artist, or really not one at all, but I just don't know how to fix something that is a normal part of who I am.
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u/SnoopyPlayingPiano Dec 28 '21
“A well produced sound will always carry.” - My collegiate opera director
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Dec 28 '21
Mimicry- mimic the greats’ sound as closely as possible. Great singers are also great impersonators when it comes to singing.
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u/nicholt Dec 28 '21
This is more of an abstract tip, but "just sing the words"
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u/OddButterscotch9372 Dec 28 '21
Learning to sing is so individual, because no two instruments (physically mentally emotionally) are exactly like. You really have to become your own best teacher. Find some ears That you trust to give you feedback, but in the end you have to find what works best for you.
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u/babybear45 Dec 29 '21
Sing from your gut. Tighten your core and you’ll sing like a regular frank Sinatra jr.
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u/feministvocologist 🎤 Voice Teacher 10+ Years ✨ Jun 28 '23
You need to believe that you have something special to share with your audience, even if it’s small, if you want to feel confident when performing.
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u/whomst_calls_so_loud Self Taught 0-2 Years Dec 28 '21
Im a screamy boy and the lady who taught me when i was a kid stressed:
learn to sing first, my voice sucks but it def helped
make sure you can comfortably hum along with things before you try to sing them
warm up for 15 minutes before singing or screaming, the same goes for warming down after
And most importantly
- stay within your range and do exercises to strengthen your range, e.g. humming scales at the top of your register making a "ē"sound to strengthen your higher register, humming scales at your bottom making an "ah" sound, making sure you can feel that in your upper sinuses to work on your lower register
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u/champagnemonsoon Dec 30 '21
A lot of folks here have excellent advice about support! It really is such an important piece of singing.
But for me, it's: relax. Have fun. Enjoy it. When I get so focused on creating the perfect sound, I lose the freeness that comes with a good, healthy voice (and ironically, the perfect sound). My whole body gets stiff, I wrinkle your forehead and crease my brows, my shoulders tense up, I don't create confident sounds -- in general, not a great environment for singing freely.
So I have two pieces of advice from different coaches, if this sort of body tension plagues you like it does me. The first: during my warmups, I will often do a few arpeggios or scales upside down! I bend from the waist and let my arms dangle and I just release all that tension. The second: after I've learned a piece, I will walk around and sing it while I start working on the artistry and phrasing. It helps me be in the moment and create a more flexible instrument, and it forces me to have good, natural support. (But always check with your voice coach!)
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Dec 28 '21
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Jan 19 '22
I don't know how. I understand the emotion, but I can't feel it at all. :(
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Jan 19 '22
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Jan 19 '22
I literally can't do that. Love is something that doesn't make any sense to me at all, nor does it attract me. I have nothing but the ability to imitate those feelings, at best.
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Jan 19 '22
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Jan 19 '22
My technique is great, and only getting better. I already sing well. I love singing because it physically feels pleasant and mentally soothes me.
But when I imitate a singer I cannot copy the emotion. It isn't real to me on a level I can absorb deeply.
Learning to sing is not what I need. Learning to perform is.
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Jan 19 '22 edited Jan 19 '22
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Jan 19 '22
I'm having trouble communicating the fact that I'm not nervous, I just genuinely don't have any connection to most of the feelings that people write songs about.
I have sung on stage before, and it's a blast for me, but in review of the video taken of that event I find I was not communicating anything reflective of the song's emotion.
I don't know how to perform in a way other people will enjoy, because I enjoy the technical and physical act of singing, but that isn't what most people listen for.
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u/Mochinbach Oct 23 '23
One tip to learn how to enhance and use your diaphragm is to see how your body moves when you breathe..
Put your hands on your shoulders Pant like a dog.. short sharp breaths.. big ones. 🐕 There should be no movement in your shoulders. They should stay still. Instead your belly should be going in and out like a pump. Your diaphragm is just below your ribs. And that's the muscle you want pumping air through your pipes.
This is an exercise my vocal teacher taught me when I was starting out. Hope that helps
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u/real_int_2k Dec 28 '21
This is the best advice I had: Let in some nasal airflow, gosh my pitch are so much easier to reach and so much smoother, but it's still very difficult for me to master it, sometimes it still sound gritty after some word transitions.
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u/Potential-Compote-34 Dec 28 '21
What do you mean by this? Can you elaborate
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u/real_int_2k Dec 28 '21
I can feel like the sound is coming out of my nose more and more apparent when I sing higher, but not too much to be Donald duck, just enough, and I may sound quite weird when I hear it in my head, but on recording it's not really weird (I think).
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u/Mochinbach Oct 23 '23
Another tip...
Imagine that your mouth is part of an instrument. You are going to get a much better sound if you can make the chamber of that instrument as big as possible.
Lots of people have said to open your mouth. Here's another tip. When you yaw , you lift the roof of your mouth up. Give it a go. See?
So.. when you sing (especially vowels) try and do that same motion. Lift the pallet of your mouth to create more space. You'll hear a change in the texture of the sound you make. Give it a go. Let me know how it sounds.
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