https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:01:41 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-338304 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:24:50 +0000
I see your points here, all of which are valid, of course. It does make (what I would consider an) already great article even better, however, so thanks for the input! That aside, it is always nice to read about peoples' musical successes

:note1:]]> Singing Maelendiir https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-338304 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337799 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:22:00 +0000
There is indeed some good information in there, but I'd be cautious about seeing it as an overview of what singing is about. It seems more like his personal story than a complete picture.

For instance That is why doing scales is the easiest way to produce a resonant sound. There's no words, no consonants, no changes in pitch. I don't know what he meant there - but scales ARE changes in pitch. You start on one pitch and move to another pitch in a series of predictable steps.

I'd also say that statements like this can be a bit misleading to a beginner:
An effective method is, start with the AHHHH, let it resonate and then just change the shape of your mouth. The real difference among the vowels is as simple as that. Changing the sounds is not really quite as simple as that might sound. To a newbie, advice about changing the shape of your mouth can sound like nothing more than pushing your lips into different shapes, in a rather exaggerated sort of way. But to a singer the ‘mouth' is the whole box and dice - not just lips, but palate, tongue, and even consideration of the various connected chambers where the resonance occurs. Sure, movement of the lips might be something you could exaggerate in a specific practice routine, but overuse of facial gymnastics would be considered the mark of a beginner when done in performance. (but don't take that as gospel, or read too much into it, because I'm not a teacher either... :mrgreen: ).

There are also long vowels, short vowels, and endless regional accents to consider. There might be five written vowels (AEIOU), but there are numerous ways of treating them vocally. Using five of the long vowels sounds is indeed the common starting point for vocal exercises. But even knowing which those five actually are can be confusing to a beginner when read off page. One book I read suggested the word "I" (as in me) as demonstrating one of the sounds to aim for. Yet, depending on where you live, the phrase "I'm mighty pleased to see you" can sound like "Arm mardy..." through to Eye'm M eye tee" (and even reading my crude attempt at phonetics will be pronounced differently depending on whether you're from the US south, Ireland, England, Australia, France, etc. and what sort of school you went too... :? ). In that case they were shooting for something closer to "arm" than "eye". Another book called it a "modified i (ah)" and quoted "Ah-ha" as the target sound. You can't beat hearing a demonstration. :)


I understand his use of bench-pressing etc as an analogy - that's his thing - but if the message you take from that post is the idea that singing practice is mainly about pushing higher and higher notes then a beginner may do more harm than good with that approach. He also implies that having days where you put in lots of practice, followed by days when you do nothing, is a good pattern. I think that many singing teachers would disagree with that. As with learning any instrument, most teachers that I've come across seem to suggest short daily sessions rather than ‘big days' followed by days off.

You really do need to learn a lot more about breathing technique (a cornerstone of singing) and how and where the sounds are produced, resonated and projected (because it's not just one place or method) . For instance learning about what's called 'chest voice' and ‘head voice', etc. Understanding what they are, and how you transition smoothly from one to the other is a major step in learning to sing properly. Expanding your range is indeed an important part of learning to sing, but it's easy to over-emphasize, compared to other aspects. There really is a LOT more to it than just pushing a bit higher every day. I'm sure he'd agree with that too, it just doesn't necessarily come across unambiguously.

Apologies if that sounds harsh, but singing is very easy to misunderstand and get wrong. Dennet340 doesn't appear to be a singing teacher, he seems more like an enthusiastic and accomplished learner who is sharing his enjoyment. That's great, but it should be taken in context. He makes some very useful and accurate points, but it also seems a bit patchy, which makes it easy for a newbie to come away with the wrong messages. As he says at the start - it's just his 2c worth. And this has just been mine, so I hope it doesn't sound too critical. 8)

I'd recommend having a few lessons from a professional before relying on books or internet advice. If that's not an option then at least check out some of the books that have CDs demonstrating what they mean, or look at sites like Eric Arceneaux's where you can view some useful free videos and then choose to buy more if you wish.

Or why not just start by reading the articles already here at Guitarnoise

Singing articles at Guitarnoise

Singing 101 by Nick Torres would be a good one to start with.

If you like the idea of a book with a CD then The Complete Idiots Guide to Singing seems reasonable to me. It's inexpensive, thorough and easy to follow. But there are many books and course available - that just happens to be one that I've read. You can search the book's index at that site and get a broader idea of some of the things you should be learning about. But even that book recommends getting some lessons from a good teacher too!

You can search the contents pages by clicking on the arrows to the right and left of the pages here. Click past the "Contents at a glance" to get to a more detailed run down.

Singing


Cheers,

Chris]]> Singing Chris C https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337799 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337766 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:24:25 +0000
F.Y.I.]]> Singing Nathan080 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337766 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337695 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:06:37 +0000
Excllent job :)

Ash]]> Singing Maelendiir https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-337695 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209619 Fri, 17 Nov 2006 03:18:47 +0000
A pitch is a frequency of vibration that your ear hears and perceives. The note A is 440HZ, your vocals chords vibrate at this frequency to produce this note, and a certain amount of air pressure is needed to move your vocal chords at this frequency. As you hold the note, naturally you start to lack air, so as there is not enough air pressure for your vocal chords to vibrate at 440HZ they might be vibrating at 430HZ, flat... or really, really sharp depending on how you see it :) .

Your lack of air may be due to improper breathing. When you breath, imagine filling up a glass, dont take a shallow breath, you dont fill the top of a glass up and leave the proverbial orange juice floating around above half a glass of empty space? If you did I would probably shriek and run away, but anyways, what you want to do is to fill up your glass (lungs incase you didnt catch the half-arsed metaphor hehe) from the bottom up, like physics says we should. Breathe in and you should feel your belly rise and then chest rise; its like that breath you take when you're swimming and come up for air, that gasp is your body needing air so it instinctually fills your lungs up for you. Lay on your back and practice that, feel the air fill your lungs up like a glass... ok it sounds like cheese but it works.

Another reason you may be going flat is that you are not efficiently using your air. When you sing, does it sound airy? Like a whispery kinda thing? thats because you aren't fully attenuating your vocal chords. Sound like mumbo jumbo? Well, cup your hands as if you were going to stick 'em in water and pull up some to drink, now open your hands in the middle part, still with your fingers and wrists on both hands touching eachother. Thats what your vocal chords are shaped like, so when you are effeciently using your air, your vocal chords look like this, the front and back of your chords attenuate. Now open up your hands so only the fingers are now touching eachother, thats what it looks like when they aren't attenuated, this means you have to force more air past your vocal chords to vibrate, again, at 440HZ, so you use up your air alot faster. If your chords are attenuated, you need less air to vibrate at 440HZ.

To practice good breath control, yawn and hold a note. Then try to duplicate the feeling while singing normally. Anyone care to elaborate? I can't figure out a way to explain this well...

anyways, good luck and cheers!

Wolf]]> Singing Zacharias https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209619 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209458 Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:10:32 +0000
tried the vowel thing last nite for quite a while, i find though that i can only hold a note for 5 seconds in tune, 8 seconds maximum (out of tune) until my breath gives out. how long can you guys hold it? i thought my breath control was getting better but now im not so sure :S]]> Singing coleclark https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209458 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209313 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 10:38:54 +0000 Singing dennett340 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-209313 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-208308 Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:56:20 +0000 Singing xg5a https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-208308 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-208047 Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:19:39 +0000 Singing indiana_jonesin https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-208047 https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-207932 Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:56:09 +0000 Singing Misanthrope https://guitarnoise.forum/singing/practicing-your-singing-with-efficiency/#post-207932