Guidelines
What Does it mean to
be a Singer?
1. Your Body is your Instrument – overall
health
a. plenty of
SLEEP
b. EXERCISE
– a singer needs strong core muscles for support and a flexible strong
diaphragm muscle for breathing.
So an exercise program that includes use of balance
and
moderate aerobic activity to get the heart and lungs working makes for a
stronger
singer.
c. REGULAR
HEALTHY MEALS
1.
It’s difficult to sing when your blood sugar has dropped because you haven’t
eaten all day.
2. It’s also difficult to sing if your stomach
is really full J.
3. Some foods can cause a mild
allergic reaction and you will produce extra
mucus.
Find out what foods those are for you.
e. HYDRATION
– lots of water to cleanse the system, and water plus a little
nutrition (lemon or apple juice, Gatorade) to keep hydrated. Watch coffee
and
alcohol intake, as they will de-hydrate you quickly, as will air conditioning
and
heating systems in buildings.
f. WHEN
FIGHTING A COLD – extra rest and hydration, gargle with salted warm water
2-3 times a day, inhale steam to keep your
lungs clear and ease coughing. See a
doctor
if needed.
DON’T SING WITH A SORE THROAT OR LARYNGITIS – it’s like running
on a sprained ankle.
g. BODY
BALANCE – you will need to be balanced, flexible and light on your feet for
good
singing.
h. NO
SCREAMING or YELLING – at sports games, etc.
We want those vocal folds for
beautiful
singing, so we don’t want to bash them on the head.
2. Warmups – warmup your voice up 10-15 minutes each
day that you are planning on singing.
a.
sirens/glides
b. lip buzzes
c. Start
in your mid-range, then your low range, your mid-range again then your high
range.
d. Make
your warm-ups progressively longer to warm up your breathing for singing
e. To
develop your voice, find a good voice teacher or coach in your area
3. Songs
a. choose songs that you like and that are in
your range
b. listen
to as many recordings as you can
c. sing the
melody by itself on a comfortable vowel until you know exactly where all the
notes
are. Be as smooth and connected from
note to note as you can.
d. tap through
the rhythm of the melody until you can do it without mistakes.
e. practice
fast songs slowly and slow songs quickly sometimes.
f. practice
song on just the vowels of the words
g. have
accompanist/teacher make a practice recording of the piano part.
h. coach
your songs with a teacher or voice coach
4. Text
a. READ
the words aloud to yourself until you understand what the song is about
b. If song is in a different language, find WORD-FOR-WORD
TRANSLATION and write
into your music. (IPAsource.com is an excellent resource for
translations and
pronunciation)
c. Learn the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as it is how pronunciations are
written out.
d. Find a
friend who speaks the language to speak it to you, and record.
e. Speak the
words in the rhythm of the melody, until you can do so at the tempo of the
song
without mistake.
f. Do some
background research on the song – you night find out something interesting.
5. Practicing Timeline - It takes a few months
to a year, depending on how difficult the song is,
for a song to
settle in your voice. This has to do
with the muscle memory involved in singing.
a. CHOOSE
your songs at least 3 months before a competition
b. LEARN all
the details of notes, words and rhythm immediately
c. LISTEN to
recordings of other singers
d. Sing
phrases A CAPPELLA, listening for smoothness (legato) and accuracy
e. LISTEN to
and SING with recorded ACCOMPANIMENT (on-line sites/itunes/teacher)
f. Work on
DETAILS of the song, then sing the WHOLE song, each practice.
g. TAKE A
BREAK from your songs for a few weeks.
h. POLISH
(coach with teacher) and MEMORIZE (which should be easy at this point)
6. Attitude
a. Your MIND
must understand something first before your BODY can do it.
b. Your BODY
will take longer to learn than your MIND – be patient.
c. ENJOY
yourself when you work on your music – make it fun. Otherwise you will build
tension/frustration and resentment into your body while you sing.
d. A MISTAKE
is only a learning moment, and you will make lots of them J
e. Every
audition is an opportunity to PERFORM and every performance is an AUDITION.
f. Do YOUR BEST and don't care what other people think.
g. Your best
tomorrow will be better than your best today :)
c. Marieke Schuurs 2015