Singing better is the goal of every singer, whether beginners or professional vocalists. A great voice is the dream of many people. So, how to sing better?
If your voice is not naturally beautiful, practice can help you develop it. Even the most famous singers also need to practice to enhance their singing ability.
In this post, we will give you the instructions and some tips to become a singer.
Let’s get right into the details!
How To Sing For Beginners Step By Step
You can choose to learn to sing with a coach or by yourself. The latter will be more challenging and take you more time and effort.
If you don’t want to hire a vocal coach, you can consult the following guide to learn how to sing for beginners.
Step 1. Get to know about the essence of singing
Before learning to sing, you should know how some of your body parts can make vocal sounds.
To sing, you will take an amount of air from your lungs and bring it up through your windpipe. On this path, it will pass through the larynx and meet the vocal cords. Then, air passes through the narrow gap between the vocal cords and vibrates them to create sounds.
The sound pitch you make will depend on the width of the gap between vocal cords. The smaller it is, the higher pitch you can sing.
The tone and sound volume will change according to the vibrations in where the air passed. Thus, in summary, learning to sing is learning to control your breath, adjust your vocal cords, and properly utilize your body cavities.
Step 2. Learn to control your breath and breathe from the diaphragm
Your first singing lesson is breathing correctly. Once you master your breath, you will be able to produce high-quality sounds.
Breathing control means you know when and how much air to release or take in. The following breathing exercise will be a good starting point for controlling your breath.
- Stay in a quiet corner and slightly tighten your lips.
- Take a deep breath through your nose.
- Exhale by letting the air go slowly through your mouth in full 30 seconds. At this step, you need to hear the sound as the air passes through your slightly pursed lips.
- Ensure that the volume of this sound is the same during 30 seconds of exhaling.
In this exercise, you need to keep your lips in one position for 30 seconds. If the sound volume of your breath is not stable, you should repeat the process.
This breathing exercise will be helpful for you to control your breath when singing. If you put it in your daily practice, after a few weeks, you can master it.
The hard part of this exercise is that you have to maintain the breath in full 30 seconds. If you breathe by your chest, you will find it challenging to do this task. It’s the reason why you need to learn diaphragmatic breathing.
In this breathing technique, you will take the air deeper so that your diaphragm gets pulled down. In this way, your lungs will contain much more air than shallow or chest breathing.
Breathing with your diaphragm will provide more air to support your singing. As a result, you can hold the notes longer and increase the volume of your singing.
You can watch this video for the instructions on diaphragmatic breathing. In the video, the expert explains the benefits of this breathing technique and provides a step-by-step guide to do it.
Step 3. Have a correct body posture
You need to sing in the proper posture to breathe correctly and make the most of your voice.
The proper body posture for chanting is standing up with your back straight and your shoulder relaxed. Your legs should stay separated at a distance of your shoulder width.
Besides, adjust your chin so that it’s parallel to the ground or a bit downward. In this posture, you will feel like you get rooted to the floor. It will provide you with more support when you sing.
Step 4. Learn to open your mouth widely while singing
No matter how beautiful vocal sounds you can make, you can’t sing well with a closed mouth. Thus, it’s better to belt out a tune with your mouth open as widely as possible.
However, this requirement doesn’t mean that you have to strain to make your mouth wider. You can try singing with the different open levels of your mouth. Then choose the widest one that you still feel comfortable with.
Step 5. Remove muscle tension
Many beginner singers often strain when they perform, especially when they deal with high notes.
Yet, this state is not beneficial for your voice and your body as well. Moreover, the sounds produced when you strain will be far worse than when you relax.
Whether you can sing with a loud volume or hit high notes is due to appropriate practice. Forcing your vocal cords can result in a damaged voice, even voice loss. Therefore, you should get rid of all the muscle tensions to sing comfortably.
Some people can’t realize that they are straining while singing as it has become their habit. To check if you are putting tension on your voice, you can perform in front of a mirror.
Some of the most noticeable signs of tension are a red face and popped neck veins. You may also feel strained somewhere around your throat. In this case, it’s better to stop singing and find some ways to relieve muscle tensions.
To protect your voice, you need to stop straining. You can find how to handle high notes properly in this guide.
Step 6. Know how to get a silent breath
If you have watched the performances of amateur singers, you may hear their breaths through the microphone. It’s due to their lack of breathing control.
Learning the silent breath technique will help you get rid of all these air noises when singing. Silent breath also reduces friction on your vocal cords and makes your sounds pure.
To do this technique, you need to lower your larynx by opening your mouth and adjusting your throat like a yawn is coming. Then, start breathing while maintaining this position.
While breathing, move your larynx up and down with each inhalation and exhalation. Remember to pay attention to the change in the sound of your breath.
After practicing this silent breath technique several times, you can know how to breathe without making sounds.
It’s essential to combine this method with diaphragmatic breathing. In this way, your lungs can get full of air in less than one second. After inhaling, exhale slowly and stably in 30 seconds.
Sometimes, this breathing method may make you dizzy. In that case, you should stop practicing and breathe as usual until you feel better.
Step 7. Define your vocal range
After you have mastered the breathing exercises, you can move to vocal exercises. But before practicing, you need to know about vocal range, then find yours.
Vocal range is the limit from the lowest note to the highest note you can sing. Each singer will have one in four following vocal ranges.
- Bass (E2 – E4)
- Tenor (C3 – C5)
- Alto (F3 – F5)
- Soprano (C4 – C6)
Many singers have a varied vocal range, which means they can manage the notes of two different ranges.
It’s essential to find your vocal range as you will define the exact music notes for you. To find which range you’re at, you need a piano or install a piano app on your phone.
After that, play specific notes in the lower notes and sing along to find your lower range. Then, go to the higher notes until the highest one you can hit.
Remember to write down your result, then compare with the four vocal ranges and find yours.
Step 8. Do voice warm-up exercise 1: Lip Trills
Singing is a form of workout, so warming up before belting out some songs is crucial for singers.
Warm-ups are the most effective and convenient way to prepare your voice for singing with your full ability. If you do warm-up exercises in sport to get your muscles ready before using them, a similar thing happens to sing.
Besides, warming up your voice can help you naturally develop your vocal range.
Among many warm-ups, lip trill is one of the best exercises. To do a lip trill, you can imagine that you are imitating the sound of a car engine.
Close your mouth and let your lips relax, then push air out of your mouth so that your lips flap together. You will feel your lips buzz, and you need to keep the airflow steady.
Lip trills will struggle at first, but you will master this exercise after trying several times.
After you get used to lip trills, you can upgrade them by practicing lip trills with scales. This combination is beneficial for improving your vocal range.
Lip trills will place your vocal mechanism in the proper position. Thus, it will be able to show all of its capacity.
Step 9. Do voice warm-up exercise 2: Scales
This exercise may sound boring for some beginners, but scales have an incredible effect on your voice.
If you practice scales well, you will find it easy to recognize notes in every melody. So, you can ensure you will always sing in tune as you get used to all scales.
You can consult this video for how to practice scales to warm up your voice.
The vocal coach will give you detailed instructions to do this exercise. It’s better to add scales into your daily practice. Then, you will see your improvements in singing with the support from this task.
Step 10. Learn how to sing in tune
If your problem is singing out of tune, you can completely fix it with proper practice unless you get tone-deaf.
To sing in tune, you need to know how to open and close your vocal cords correctly when belting out a note.
If the gap between your vocal cords is too large, your vocal sounds will be flat. If you close your vocal cords too tightly, your voice will be sharp.
Therefore, to keep your natural instrument in the correct position, you have to practice a lot. You will sing a different pitch with only a slight vocal cord adjustment. Besides, those whose weak vocal cords may experience a wobble when holding notes.
A simple way to check if you are singing out of tune is to record your performance and listen again. It’s better to ask others to listen to your recording, especially a singing teacher or musician.
To solve the problem of singing out of tune, you first need to know the cause. Below are some reasons for this issue and how to bring your back in tune.
Have weak vocal cords
Beginner singers haven’t trained their vocal cords before, so they won’t be strong enough to hold long notes. Weak vocal cords will result in shaky singing and note miss.
Practicing exercises like scales will help strengthen your vocal cords and make them more flexible.
Breathe incorrectly
Sometimes, you can still reach high notes, but you are not in tune at the end or beginning of the note.
If this situation happens, you may have breathed incorrectly. You use too much breath to start, so the pitch gets changed.
On the other hand, you may drop the note’s end too early. Thus, the vocal cords are loose before you finish the note and make it flat.
For this problem, you can do breathing exercises to make your breath more consistent. Moreover, pay attention to the beginning and the end of every note, and keep your breath stable before completing one.
Cannot recognize pitches
Another reason for your singing out of tune is not recognizing the pitch.
You can’t feel all the notes you make, so some of them sound bad. But if you have excellent muscle memory, you will sing perfectly without listening to your performance.
Besides, you have to learn more about pitch recognition. You can attend some courses to learn how to recognize pitches.
Your technique is not consistent
The problem may come from the technique if you still sing out of tune after trying the above solutions.
The singing techniques you learn by yourself may be inconsistent. Thus, although you practice every day, you don’t make many improvements.
In this case, you should register for online singing lessons and learn from professional teachers. They will help you correct if you do something wrong.
Step 11. Sing with your head voice
You will sing with your chest voice, as it’s the most potent and natural voice.
But chest voice can’t bring you to the highest note you can hit. Thus, many amateur singers strain this voice to reach higher notes and damage it.
The right way to raise your voice by a couple of halftones is to use head voice. This voice also uses air support from your diaphragm and goes out from your vocal cords. But the resonance of the head voice is in the head, not in the chest.
When singing with a head voice, you will feel your vocal sounds somewhere from your neck up. Many professional singers said that the head voice helps them to manage high notes easier.
You can start with learning to use your head voice and make it more powerful. Then, combine both head voice and chest voice in your performance.
Chest voice allows you to sing with more power, while head voice helps you handle the high parts. When you succeed with connecting these two voices, you have increased your vocal range.
Step 12. Practice as much as you can
By this step, you have learned the fundamentals of singing and basic singing skills. Now, you need to practice these skills hard to improve your singing ability.
It’s better to set aside a couple of hours every day to practice breathing techniques and vocal exercises. You can also practice your voice while doing housework or taking a shower.
If your life is too busy, you should still practice in a fixed time per day, but for a short duration. You will need a longer process to achieve your target, yet the result won’t let you down.
Tips On How To Sing Better
In addition to the singing techniques we provided above, there are many things you can learn for a better singing voice. Here are some helpful tips for singing better for male and female singers.
How to sing better male tips
If you are a guy with a passion for singing, check out the following tricks to become a better singer.
Recognize your vocal range
The vocal range of men tends to be broader than that of women. So, it’s easier for male singers to reach and hold high notes.
However, to make the most of your voice, you should know the exact range that you can belt out. Performing within your comfort zone will help protect your voice and create better vocal sounds.
Stay away from alcohol and cigarette
Another tip for guys who want to sing better is to avoid drinking alcohol and smoking. They are extremely harmful habits for your voice.
Many male vocalists think that drinking or smoking can add more bass when performing. But alcohol and cigarette will damage your lungs and your vocal cords.
Have a healthy diet
Men have less tendency to care about what they take for the meal than women. But your diet also affects your vocal sounds. Therefore, it’s necessary to have a healthy diet with foods and drinks beneficial for your voice.
How to sing better female tips
Now, let’s move on with some advice for female singers.
Choose a suitable music style
If men usually have issues with their vocal range, women tend to choose the wrong music style. Many female singers think that by enrolling in a conservatory, they can sing in all music genres.
However, if you dream of becoming a pop singer, you’d better register for a pop training course than a classical music course. So, you need to determine your desired music style and focus training on it.
Believe in yourself
Lack of self-confidence is a common issue for female singers. Being confident is a crucial factor in performing a song well. Thus, you should believe in yourself more and accept new challenges to perfect your vocal ability.
Avoid singing nasally
To get a “baby voice” when chanting, many female vocalists choose nasal singing. It’s not a recommended vocal technique as it will affect your natural voice in the long run. You should stop if you find yourself overusing your nasal voice.
Conclusion
Above are the ultimate guidelines and tips that can help you sing better. Singing is a kind of talent but also a skill that requires a lot of practice and effort.
Hopefully, the instructions in this post can help you realize your dream of becoming a better singer. Thank you for reading!
