The 30 Day Singer Blog

Am I Breathing Correctly?

Am I Breathing Correctly?: Answering common questions about breath & support. Camille van Niekerk This article will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about breath and support. If you have a question that was not answered, head to our forum! How am I supposed to breathe? Believe it or not, breathing for singing doesn’t need to be that complicated. The basics are: (1) stand with good posture: spine is long, chest is lifted, shoulders + arms are relaxed (2) relax your belly muscles so they can move (3) inhale through your mouth (when you’re preparing to sing) (4) control your exhale to supply a steady stream of air to your vocal folds That 4th step, of course, is where most of the work comes in. You can feel your abdominal muscles naturally...

How To Build Vocal Stamina

How To Reduce Vocal Strain

Strain And Pain: A Guide To Reducing Excess Tension When You Sing Camille van Niekerk First, what is vocal strain? Vocal strain refers to the overuse or misuse of the muscles involved in singing. Sometimes, strain will show up as engagement of muscles that normally wouldn’t be engaged in the singing process. Why is that bad?      1. Strain indicates that we are putting our vocal folds under too much stress, and other muscles are trying to “help out”.      2. Straining negatively impacts our tone and limits our vocal abilities, as you tire out more easily.      3. Repeatedly straining the voice can lead to long-term damage. But the vocal folds are hidden within the throat, so how do you know if you’re straining your...

Can You Improve?

Can I Really Improve, Or Are People Just Born Singers? Camille van Niekerk The short answer is: yes, you can improve! But let’s talk about why we feel that’s not true and what we can practically do to see improvement. Singing seems like a talent rather than a learned skill because:       1. We use our voices all the time! It doesn’t make sense that singing should be so difficult, when you have no trouble using your voice to speak. If you don’t know the difference between your “speaking voice” (or “chest” register) and your “singing voice”(which includes your chest register, head register, and “mixed” coordination of the two), then you’ll approach singing as you do speaking and run into problems...

Jazz Vocals For Beginners

How To Memorize Lyrics

How To Change The Key Of A Song

The quickest way to make a song easier is to change the key so that it fits comfortably within your range. But most beginning singers - whether or not they play an instrument - don’t know how to change keys without the help of a teacher. Today, I’m here to help!

How To Practice Riffs & Runs

Riffs and runs, though they originated in gospel music, have made their way into almost every contemporary music genre, including r&b, pop, and even country. We might define a run as “one lyric or syllable sung with many fast-moving pitches in succession”, while a riff is often more improvisational and can be vocal or instrumental (ie: guitar riffs). Read on for tips on how to improve and practice this skill.

Build Confidence As A Singer

When it comes to nerves and confidence, we can work from the inside out. That entails gaining performance experience, identifying your strengths, listening to encouragement from others and addressing any underlying fears at the root of your nerves That’s all great, and it’s the main way singers build confidence over time. But we can also work from the outside in to get some more immediate benefits. Read more to learn how you can do this too!

A Beginner's Guide To Vowel Modification

Vowel modification is simply: changing a vowel sound to make it easier to sing AND improve the tone quality. Why would we need to change vowels, though? Aren’t they all basically the same? No! Each vowel is the result of a slightly different shape in your vocal tract (the pathway from your larynx to your lips). Different mouth posture, tongue placement and lip closure make up the difference between an EE sound and an OO sound, for example. It’s getting a little sciencey, but I promise it’ll make sense!