don't all laugh at once!!!!

[VideoHere]

well folks, it may sound stupid to say, but i have finally come to terms with the fact that the only way to really get to the next level of singing to your best ability is to commit to daily vocal exercises. i mentally fought doing them for so long feeliing like just singing a lot would up my range or improve my tone, but it's just not true and i see that now.

took a while to get past my stubborness...

so i am proud to say i have now exercised, 6-days a week, 30-45 mins. a day for just 6 straight weeks and i can already feel a difference in my singing.

i can't wait till i hit my first year!

so i want to say to all the folks out there who have not realized that you must make vocal exercising a part of your life if you want to improve to start today. don't wait till you're 56, and think you'll get by...i assure you you won't..... long term.

also realize it takes hard work too... (but still can't define or articulate "hard work" though)...lol.

[joshual]

I'm on the same boat

I think for me the most difficult thing is to have a well planned program of exercices to practise. When you can't get a lesson every week, it's very hard to make your own program.

Could you detailled it to us, or if you don't want to show it to everyone you could mail or pm me, that will be so great!

[VideoHere]

I'm on the same boat

I think for me the most difficult thing is to have a well planned program of exercices to practise. When you can't get a lesson every week, it's very hard to make your own program.

Could you detailled it to us, or if you don't want to show it to everyone you could mail or pm me, that will be so great!

sure my friend...

hums

lip bubbles

falsetto slides (softly up the scale)

messa de voce, a.k.a. transending tone (the absolute hardest to do, to do it right, still haven't got it )..

full voice one octave slides

diaphram exercises...ha, ha, ha, ha, open throated with a breath between the "ha's"

breathing exercises...i'm convinced that one of the biggest to worry about

gotta stay with it, even though you'll feel like you're getting nowhere at times!!!

[Jens]

Man this is what ive been doing to, im on like my 4-5th week

doing one and a half hour vocal practices 4-5 times a week, singing scales mostly in my midrange, then adding songs sing on only twanged sounds like quack. Nothing worksout your voice better then that

Im doing james lugos program it's very good and you can take your mind off what exercises your gonna do just run the cd and then add some exercises of your choice afterwards :P

[VideoHere]

Man this is what ive been doing to, im on like my 4-5th week

doing 1, 5 hour vocal practices 4-5 times a week, singing scales mostly in my midrange, then adding songs sing on only twanged sounds like quack. Nothing worksout your voice better then that

Im doing james lugos program it's very good and you can take your mind off what exercises your gonna do just run the cd and then add some exercises of your choice afterwards

hey jens, you exercise for 5 hours?

[Jens]

hehe no it's supposed to say one and a half hour ;)

[VideoHere]

hehe no it's supposed to say one and a half hour

oh, i see

wow..i'm 30-to 45 mins. sometimes more plus singing the hard stuff.

here's a cool link for guy like me who dosen't read music

http://www.thevirtualpiano.com/

i do scales too reaching for the 7th key from the right which i believe is the enviable tenor high c?

my current goal is to hit that note cleanly and hold it in full voice on an "a" as in "rate" vowel.

hey, i keep trying! take care

[kalapoka]

Just thought I'd drop my two cents -

My biggest problem is time management & my heart management lol. After my full time job, its a struggle between the guitarist heart and the wannabe singer heart for the remaining small 2 hours of the day for myself only. When I do the vocal exercises though, I usually follow bret mannings cds, and do a whole CD & may be repeat 1-2 exercises a few times. Usually consists of

Humming

Lip Rolls

More Lip Rolls

Exercises for using the 'pharyngeal' voice - usually long scales with Nay Nays

Exercises on long scales with 'Mum Mum'

Some exercises on fixing pitch issues (there is a great post somewhere around where Steven Fraser gave some awesome ideas. thanks steven!)

Then I try singing any of my fav songs...and erm...I usually do that standing on my bed with my mic and micstand...imagining myself on stage in front of 239,876 screaming fans :D:D...I am trying my hand on 'Don't stop believing' now and the crowd just loves me Lol (This is the same thing I did when I was learning guitars, and believe me - this absolutely works wonders!)

Sometimes I also try an acoustic set after the exercises.

End the session with Warm Downs.

I agree 100% that vocal exercises are a MUST for improving voice. It just cannot be bypassed unless you somehow have a instinctive grasp on all the required coordinations.

[Robert Lunte]

Two things that keep vocal training/practicing fun:

1). train with a microphone and amplification and little bit of reverb. Dont practice acoustically if you dont have to. Let yourself sound great.

2). Make sure that you spend some time working on your songs AFTER you have worked out on your vocal scales. Dont lose sight that at the end of the day, its suppose to be fun and you want to apply it to songs.

Rob

[David]

a lot of great information here.. thanks guys for sharing...

[VideoHere]

Two things that keep vocal training/practicing fun:

1). train with a microphone and amplification and little bit of reverb. Dont practice acoustically if you dont have to. Let yourself sound great.

2). Make sure that you spend some time working on your songs AFTER you have worked out on your vocal scales. Dont lose sight that at the end of the day, its suppose to be fun and you want to apply it to songs.

Rob

rob, you are so right. i'm in my 7th week and boy you start to develop this ability to place the sound or redirect the sound. this "sensory" ability kicks in too where you learn to instinctively compensate....yes folks, it can be a little boring at times , but there's no saying you can't swtich off and try other things... before you know it you're done.

the trick is to stick with it like weight lifting.

this is coming from a guy who dodged exercising for years!! i'm convinced now, no exercising religiously, no improvement....period.

[denamurray]

oh videohere -- I know you! Sounds so familiar...

Practice is the repitition of new habits vs. the old. If you don't practice you only allow old habits to remain and you will never improve. Sometimes it will only get worse if all you are doing is singing songs. Vocal exercising is key for this reason.

Keep it fun by taping yourself as well. Listen for what you know you should be listening for (and you know what those things are). Pretend the tape is some other guy vocalizing. It won't be too long before you get really pissed off at the tape and start correcting those bad habits. Your will will always prevail. It just takes time because the voice itself is stubborn. It has muscle sense memories that need to change in order to improve and anyone at any age can improve with the help of good books, a good teacher, and practicing vocal exercises.

Keep on keeping on!

Dena Murray

www.denamurray.com

[VideoHere]

oh videohere -- I know you! Sounds so familiar...

Practice is the repitition of new habits vs. the old. If you don't practice you only allow old habits to remain and you will never improve. Sometimes it will only get worse if all you are doing is singing songs. Vocal exercising is key for this reason.

Keep it fun by taping yourself as well. Listen for what you know you should be listening for (and you know what those things are). Pretend the tape is some other guy vocalizing. It won't be too long before you get really pissed off at the tape and start correcting those bad habits. Your will will always prevail. It just takes time because the voice itself is stubborn. It has muscle sense memories that need to change in order to improve and anyone at any age can improve with the help of good books, a good teacher, and practicing vocal exercises.

Keep on keeping on!

Dena Murray

www.denamurray.com

thanks dena.....i only wish i had started years ago.......a lot of years ago..lol!

[Robert Lunte]

Singing is an Athletic endeavor... anyone that pretends that they dont need to get physical and practice workouts to get better is delusional. When we are practicing vocals... we are working on building strength and coordination of muscles and other physiological properties required to execute "extreme" phonations... which for the sake of this argument, singing is...

[VideoHere]

Singing is an Athletic endeavor... anyone that pretends that they dont need to get physical and practice workouts to get better is delusional. When we are practicing vocals... we are working on building strength and coordination of muscles and other physiological properties required to execute "extreme" phonations... which for the sake of this argument, singing is...

yes, rob!!!

but also by exercising, you begin to develop this array of vocal options, which now means you can elect a mode of singing.

i love the notes where you can sing the same note different ways, the ones where all you could hope for was a note in falsetto and now you can sing that same note in full voice with richness and this awesome carrying power. or you can swell and contract note volume

i wanted to say this from the standpoint of a new-to-exercising, here's-what-to-look-forward-to, point of reference.

i think the one i've thing i have learned is when you listened to these great rock stars when we were young and naive, no one was there saying or writing... by the way, steve perry (for example) studied voice and trained hard to be able to sing like that. the media kept this from us so guys like me thought it was just attainable by just singing and singing and singing.

do you ever notice how no one ever talks about how hard these guys worked to be able to sing like that?

the average listener, non-musician just hs no clue. hope all this just made some sense...it's hard to artiuculate

[jonpall]

I'd like to hear some of the CVT people chime in here because the CVT book advocates singing SONGS more than scales. But maybe what they're really saying is that you should sing PARTS of songs, i.e. a single line over and over, before sing the next line in the song, most likely sung slowly, until you really nail it without straining. Am I correct? Note that I've been doing a lot of this - singing parts of songs slowly, over and over (the guy that sometimes critizises CVT, lol).