What are the best practices for practicing singing? What practice hacks can you do for fast and lasting results? Inside this video, I’ll give you 5 practicing singing hacks to help you improve fast!
In my live broadcast earlier this week I confessed I stink at practice when I’m not in a show or preparing for an audition.
I do musical theater and sing because I love it, and because I experience joy and fulfillment on stage.
However my financial survival has not depended on me getting work as a singer and performer.
But, just like those who are striving to make a living singing and performing, if I don’t study voice or practice, I don’t get leading roles.
Because I want leading roles I practice.
Practicing Singing Hacks
Here are 5 practicing singing hacks that will give you fast and lasting results.
Hack 1. Study the right technique with a teacher that gets results for the student. Here’s a link to three videos about finding the right singing technique and teacher.
In my opinion studying the right technique with the right teacher for you is the number one hack and the fastest way to better singing.
If you practice the wrong thing you’ll not progress. If you practice the right thing with the wrong teacher for you, your progress won’t be as fast.
Personally the vocal technique I teach has changed my voice and my life for the better. But that doesn’t mean I’m the best teacher nor the best teacher for you.
If you’re practicing and putting in the work but not becoming a better singer, change teachers.
I’ve studied Speech Level Singing for 20 years. I’ve taken lessons from 12 or more teachers trained by Seth Riggs. And I’ve studied with Seth the Founder of Speech Level Singing. While each teacher has helped me, some have helped me more.
Hack 2. Record your lesson and listen to it repeatedly. Practice with the recording. Listen to the direction of your teacher. Listen to your voice and feel how you do the exercises and songs.
Record yourself practicing and then listen to your own practice session.
Listen carefully and see if you’re doing it as you’re directed. Be careful to follow the directions of your teacher. With the right teacher and technique (Hack #1), you can improve your voice faster by doing this hack than any other way.
Hack 3. Condition your voice with consistent, regular practice. Like an athlete, you get in condition doing sport specific exercises consistently. You can’t cram conditioning. It doesn’t work to be out of shape and then go all out for a week and hope you’ll be in top condition.
Rather, daily, consistent vocal exercises will keep you vocally in top shape with continual improvement. How long? 15-60 minutes a day.
Hack 4. Practice the Songs. Memorize the words and notes ASAP. Use sheet music if you have it. If you are working only with a track, memorize with the track. Mark words/vowels that need vowel modifications to maintain good technique.
Study and connect emotionally with the lyrics of the song. Feel and express the emotion and meaning of the lyrics as you practice.
Hack 5. Practice performing with good technique. Sing for family, friends, classmates, and teachers. Go to auditions. Sing at open mics. Practice with your band. Ask the choir leader for solos. Sing on the street corner. Do karaoke. Take ensemble roles in musical theater. Sing in church. Sing, sing, sing. Don’t wait until you’re perfect. You’ll get better and better by doing it. Consider each “doing” a practice.
Practicing Singing Hacks – Tips
Here’s a few tips that may help make your practice even better.
- Set singing goals. Then set practice goals to help you achieve your singing goals. For example: “I’m going to get the leading role in the school play” or “win the home town talent show”. Then plan your practices accordingly.
You may need to learn a certain song, or increase your range to a certain note to reach your goals. In high school I memorized every song King Arthur sang in Camelot before I ever auditioned. I listened to Richard Burton recite Hamlet and memorized Hamlet’s soliloquy using Richard Burton’s English accent.
“To be, or not to be–that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.”
I practiced obsessively to achieve my goal to get the leading role in our High School’s production of Camelot. Thankfully I got it. That too was life changing.
- Improve your musicianship by studying (and practicing) an instrument or taking an opera class or an ear training course. Go to night school and take music courses.
- Listen to all kinds of singers in all different genres. Focus on favorite genres. Try new genres. Listen, listen, listen.
- Attend live performances, concerts, musical theater productions, touring artists’ shows and bands.
All this will make your practicing better.
What are some things that have helped you? Please share your own practicing hack’s in the comment section below.
Knowing your vocal type also makes your practices better because you’re doing exercises that target and eliminate weaknesses while balancing your voice.
Do you know your vocal type? Go to PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz and discover your vocal type. Then visit the Knowledge Center and watch the videos about your vocal type.
Download the free exercises and start making your practicing singing sessions the best they can be.
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I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher, with beauty, confidence and power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
Responses
Absolutely follow your ambition!
Pursue your ambition with all your heart!
Thanks Flint! Great comments. You are right about golden singing moments. It’s not a fluke. It’s a sign of great things to come!
Chuck, you make a lot of sense. I have Seth Riggs’ Singing for the Stars Program and I need to follow through on it. I am accessing your presentations and do find them helpful. One of these days, I’m thinking I’ll try the test to see where I fit.
My prime ambition is to get the songs the Lord has given me and which you can find at ThePathofTruth into a decent presentation. I wonder if you have any thoughts on it.
Thank you.
Chuck,
Your five hacks are great, just great! Thank you SO much. Learning what my weak points are, and working on bringing them up has been my focus, thanks to you. I found out that my breath support needed work even though I thought it was good. I’m learning so much. I loved your message about consistency today – like an athlete. Even a few moments of vocalizing helps in a busy day. And relaxation! Oh brother! I’m slowly learning to release tension in the back of the tongue.. But breaking old bad habits ain’t easy! But if you want something – really want something – you have to go after it, even if it means ploughing through discouragement, defeat, even failure. We singing students need to cling to those golden moments when we sounded for a split second the way we wanted to, when we were in the zone and everything was working. If we could get it right once, we can do it again. And again. Thank you, Flint Long