Building a strong BASE.

This is step one. Build a strong base to build your skill on.

The Breath.

Clarity, intonation, stamina, tone, placement, pitch.. I could go on. All of the skills you learn as a vocalist will eventually come back to the breath. No matter your experience level is, proper use of your breath will catapult your skills. And ignoring the importance of the breath will bring you to a standstill. I say this from years of personal experiences myself as a Singer and also as a Vocal Coach and Yoga instructor. When were born, we breath properly. Think of a baby. Their bellys rise and fall, relaxing their muscles on the inhale and contracting on the exhale. somewhere along the way, we stopped breathing properly. Life started to speed up and the breath started to become fast and high. The goal is now, to get back to that low, deep breath that lets the lungs stretch out fill all the spaces around it.

Mindset.

Why are you here? just take a second to think about that. Do you love learning new skills? are you losing your voice constantly? or maybe you just need inspiration for your next audition or speech. Whatever it is, obviously I am so happy your here and would love you to consider this a safe space. having a strong mindset behind what you are doing in all aspects is super important. Especially with the voice. Anything is possible, so what is your goal? make that clear and make sure you are doing the work for YOU. and not for anyone else. The voice is the only instrument located in your body. In that, it is also the only instrument affected by emotions, bad days, good days, anxiety, nerves etc. So just make sure to take midget seriously sometimes it’s not as obvious as maybe getting a cold in how it affects the voice, but it does.

Movement and Posture.

Simply put , our bodies are like a water hose, if you’ve got a kink, the water stops. You don’t get the job done till you go unkink it. The same applies with our breath. It’s amazing the difference movement can make in the strength and support of the voice. In order to produce a supported sound, the breath needs to be consistently delivered straight to the bottom of the lungs. If you’re hunched over or out of breath, it isn’t happening. Overall, a straight spine, relaxed shoulders, relaxed jaw and relaxed belly is what were looking for. Also important to performance in general, is having an awareness and control of our diaphragmatic muscles*, intercostal muscles*, and abdominal muscles* to aid in breath control. How much and how little air and what speed it enters and exits your body shouldn’t be depicted by your mouth, but instead by these muscles.

*Diaphragmatic muscles: The diaphragm is our primary muscle for respiration. It contracts as we breath in, delivering air to the lungs and relaxes as we breath out. for example, how long you can hold a note depends on how long you can send a steady stream of air out of your lungs, past the vocal cords, through your lips out to your audience. The stronger your diaphragm the more control you have.

*Intercostal muscles: Our intercostal muscles frame the ribcage. They help create room for the lungs to grow, and squeeze every drop out with contraction. Releasing tension in the intercostal muscles by stretching the side body also makes moving and vocalizing easy and alleviates tension.

*Abdominal Muscles: Using our abs really comes into play with dynamics and phrasing. A “belly-button to spine” type feeling is how you’re going to produce staccato dynamics, belting, and general dynamics within your song or speech.

Overall, Vocalists need to be fit. Theres no way around it. Breath work and exercise will make you’re voice strong. You can get by for a while singing or speaking in one spot. But if you want to sing and dance at the same time, make big speeches on large stages without a sweat, be able to run across the stage and hype up a crowd with ease, you need to put the work in. It’s always such a shame when I see a live performance of someone I know usually can sing or speak well, then they hit the stage and they’re out out breath and sound horrible. hopefully this helps keep you out of this category.