It is more than clear that if you don’t know how to do something very well, given a basic amount of talent to start with, the way to improve is to learn everything you can about how to do what you want to do. This makes perfect sense and is completely true when it comes to singing. Students seem to accept that they have a lack of knowledge and bodily control and that’s the reason they came to take lessons in the first place. So what is it that makes them not practice?

Are they too busy? We are all busy. It seems like we are all attempting to cram two or three lives into one; fitting fifty hours into a day. When you take lessons, it’s important to not just allocate the hour or half hour per week for the lesson, but to schedule a block of practice time each day while you’re studying. Are they too lazy? Well, they were motivated enough to sign up for weekly lessons, so it’s hard to imagine that laziness is the true reason. Are they afraid? Maybe we’re on to something here. But which demon is it that they’re afraid of, failure or success? I know when we’re dealing with fear, the student is in an emotional state and rational thinking kind of goes out the window. Yet if we examine the failure side of the equation, not practicing creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. If the student is beginning with a lack of knowledge, technique, and control, and as a result seeks out voice lessons and finds a highly qualified and gifted voice teacher, then to fail to practice insures that they don’t internalize the expertise and are destined to fail. Who would logically follow that path?

What about the fear of success side of our question? There are thousands of books on human psychology and/or the philosophies of personal growth that claim that contrary to our desires to thrive, grow, and improve in the areas of our lives we are skeptical about the possibility of our own greatness. Is it really possible that we can fear the very thing that we appear to long for? There are thousands of success stories out there. Pick up a few biographies of people you admire and see what they did to overcome fear; to put one foot in front of the other, day after day and do the things necessary to reach that amazing goal of yours. What that means to a singing student is to practice, practice, practice; every day following the instruction of your awesome vocal coach, unless you have a fairy godmother in your pocket.

When you’re ready to do the work to achieve greatness and want to study with one of the best vocal coaches, do yourself a favor and contact the Singing Lesson Expert.

The dream is to be the star, the focal point, the “it” factor. And toward that end, singers are working tirelessly to get an edge. Something unique, something quirky, something that will make them stand out. They play with their voices, developing affected sounds, asking the world to “look at me,” all the while weakening their true talent for actually singing. I would never deny the singer their shot at the attention that they crave; however, I want to tell the other side of the story.

As a record producer, I have worked with many different vocalists over the years and I acknowledge that an edgy, unique sound can “cut” through the production and that it can be a desirable aspect to someone’s “sound.” The challenge is that not every gig that you get hired for will be as the lead vocalist, no matter how good you are, and now all those years of training yourself to cut through are wasted. Because the main thing a producer or arranger is looking for in the backing vocal tracks or the secondary harmony to the lead line is “blend.” An edgy lead voice stands out like a sore thumb in backing vocal tracks. It is so important as a background singer to discern what the other voices are doing and sing in such a way as to match that timbre or tone. You must be able to control pitch flawlessly as well as control tone and phrase volume to match the other singers and give the producer what they want.

Even greater in importance is the ability to sing without vibrato. As beautiful as vibrato can be on the lead, solo line, it is a curse for the background singers. Since everyone has their own unique rate or speed at which their vibrato cycles, imagine trying to get a tight three part harmony backing vocal to sound good with three totally different vibrato speeds. It creates the “wow” from hell. If you haven’t studied and mastered the ability to modify your tone, sing in pitch, blend and match the phrase timing, and most importantly, learned to sing well without vibrato, don’t bother showing up for a background vocal session. You’ll just get sent home.

However, if you have a desire to be master of your sound, your chops, and your fate, find a vocal instructor who can help you learn both lead and background singing. It really is part of being the best that you can be. And even if, as a lead vocalist on your own recording, you end up sing all your own backgrounds in the studio, you’ll be ever grateful you acquired these skills.

If you want to develop a complete singing skillset so that you can further your singing career, the Singing Lesson Expert is your best choice.

Singing Lesson Expert, a pastoral performance

At the forefront of your new body awareness is adequate hydration. Drinking enough water is incredibly important for the body on so many levels. Water helps function in the body chemistry to create energy. It is one of the most important body lubricants. Holistic health practitioners suggest drinking roughly half your body weight in ounces of water. In other words, if you weigh 120 lbs., you need to drink 60 oz. of water. I know very few people who drink enough water and in addition to that, wet drinks are not only not water, but also often increase our need for water. Coffee and tea are diuretics and every ounce of diuretic you drink subtracts an ounce of water from your storehouse, so for every eight ounces of coffee or tea you drink, you need an additional 8 ounces of water to offset it.

One of the biggest obstacles to creating good tone in the resonant cavities of the body is inflammation. Inflammation in the bodily tissues greatly increases mucous, which is an acknowledged enemy of singers. Unfortunately for your sweet tooth, the biggest cause of inflammation in the body is the ingestion of sugar in all its forms. If you want to reduce the presence of inflammation in your body, cut way back on your sugar intake.

The last thing I’d like to discuss in this article is becoming vigilant about what you eat. This is more than for the obvious reason of fueling your body with the optimum in nutrition so that your health and vitality are at the highest level. There is a much greater reason for vigilance than choosing good food to eat. It’s also about avoiding substances that have no business being in your body. We’re talking about toxins here. The lion’s share of all the processed food products out there are laced with unpronounceable chemicals whose purpose is to preserve a product’s shelf life, or add or enhance color, or replace more expensive ingredients with affordable chemical ingredients to keep prices low. Regardless of the reason for their use, none of those chemical ingredients have any justification being in your body and they only increase your toxic load, which leads to a higher incidence of illness, which can’t possibly help your singing.

If you want to increase your health and vitality, raise your energy levels and help to keep your body clear of congestion and mucous, I suggest drinking plenty of water, avoiding sugar like the plague, and eating whole, organic foods without those insidious additives. These suggestions will help your body to function in the best possible way to support your dream of being a great singer. Wow, it sounds just like something grandma would have said!

If you need a voice teacher who fully understands the role of body awareness in your singing development, we recommend contacting the Singing Lesson Expert.