Techniques for Singing Better than You Ever Have Before

We’ve all had that moment. Before it, we think we’re great singers. We love the sound of our own voice. We love the kind of acoustics we can get in the shower, and promptly shout our songs out over the sound of the shower water so that people can hear us all the way down the hall and in other apartments.

But when we have that moment, everything changes. You know what I’m talking about: the moment you hear yourself singing in a recording and asking everyone around you a simple question - is that really me?

The bad news is that, yes, that’s really you. The good news is that you can change and improve your singing voice and the first step to doing it is realizing that you have a problem. If you hadn’t accomplished that step already, you probably wouldn’t have even found this article - so it’s good you’re coming into this with a little momentum on your side. Let’s use that momentum and check out some techniques for singing better than you ever have.

Practice Your Scales

If you don’t know what a scale is, then you probably don’t have a lot of experience in music. Why? The scale is one of the first things you learn. You don’t, however, have to be learning the piano in order to practice a scale: vocal scales can also be great techniques for improving your singing voice and making sure that you are a master of pitch.

Pitch, of course, is essentially the frequency at which your voice is singing - how in tune you are with the song. The first mistake you can make is to sing a song out of tune, or out of pitch. So if you sound tone-deaf on those ghastly recordings, you’ll definitely want to concentrate on your scales.

You can try out a simple "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do" scale. Many music teachers advice you to try a scale and then continue to practice by moving the bottom "Do" note up a half-step. In music, a half-step is often simply the next highest note. If you have a piano to accompany you, you’ll find this is easy to locate.

Eventually, however, you should be able to recognize pitch to the point in which you can handle these scales all on your own.

Make Sure You Can Breathe

One of the best ways to ensure that you have a good singing experience is to properly manage your breath. If you aren’t breathing, you won’t be able to belt out those high notes or bring up your volume when need be.

Breathing is the "infrastructure" of your voice. Without the wind in your lungs, you wouldn’t be able to create a single sound, let alone a sound that’s attractive to whoever’s listening.

One good breathing exercise is simply to begin singing a song and practicing the best spots to take a deep breath in between "musical phrases." If you can plan out these times, you should be able to get a lot more out of your voice than you might have originally thought.