Where do you do your vocal exercises?

[Simon T8W]

Lol so today guys I have a rather 'silly' question. You know I'm studying with KTV now and as you know, I've had some SS/SLS experience in the past and I'm yet to see a vocal exercise that doesn't sound 'silly' to a non-vocalist. You know, people look at you like: 'what the heck is wrong with this guy' when you having vocal exercises. In school (college), I usually have exercises in my car with the music turned on (for distractions) cuz there ain't know way I can do these exercises in my room lol. So I want to know guys, lol (I know most of you have been called a 'mad man' at some point in time when you were exercising at home or somewhere) where do your exercises? Thanks :)

[Owen Korzec]

I'm not in college yet so I don't have this problem, and when I do go this fall it's a music school so it won't be as frowned upon...can't help ya, but what I will say is, it is worth going great lengths (metaphorically) to find a proper practice space with the privacy needed to do vocal exercises without fear. Don't give up on it.

[Simon T8W]

I'm not in college yet so I don't have this problem, and when I do go this fall it's a music school so it won't be as frowned upon...can't help ya, but what I will say is, it is worth going great lengths (metaphorically) to find a proper practice space with the privacy needed to do vocal exercises without fear. Don't give up on it.

lol thaks. My car is the greatest and closest safe place I can think of right now. Lol I remember how I was doing the speech level singing "go go go" and the "meows" some years back in my room. It wasn't so loud by sister nearly called the ambulance lol the rest is history.

[ronws]

Most anywhere. I have no shame. Many times, in the car. I have an hour commute to work, another hour to home. Sometimes, at work, out in the shop checking on materials, I can do some stuff. Then, of course, singing with my boss to his ipod. Outside of being a paid singer, I have the best job in the world and work with the smartest people I have met. They are smarter than I am and that is not false humility or kissing up to the boss. Just a fact of life, like the rotating of Earth upon its axis.

Sometimes, I will work on stuff while doing the dishes.

I don't have a set time to start or a set duration. But I resolve to pay attention to what I am doing and I blame that on Enrico Caruso.

[MDEW]

I could do the vocal exercises in my home. It would not bother anyone, except me. That is one of my mental blocks. I am an introvert. I do not want others to hear my squeaks and squawks when practicing.

But it is part of the process and exercises need to be done to progress. So I make excuses to drive to the store and do what I can in the car. I am 5 minutes or less to work and store so I do not get the exercises that I should.

[Enigma1881]

In my car, but not at the stoplights ;)

[jonpall]

In my car, usually.

[Felipe Carvalho]

At home.

[Mivke]

At home, but I bought earplugs for my fiancé :)

[eggplantbren]

At home but after my fiance has gone to work. Only my parrot hears. But my singing exercises sound like singing. It is what I'm trying to get better at. Not meowing or whatever.

[MDEW]

I have cats so the Meowing execises seem like normal behavior.

[Owen Korzec]

I have cats so the Meowing execises seem like normal behavior.

:lol:

[eggplantbren]

Lol MDEW. Actually my parrot has some pretty awesome range and volume, and is quite capable of a good distortion.

[ronws]

Fiddling around on the way home from work.

This is about the last 10 miles to the house. The recording ends abruptly because I pulled into my driveway and turned off the recorder.

https://www.box.com/s/aslk8snga60i07rec03r

[Owen Korzec]

Fiddling around on the way home from work.

This is about the last 10 miles to the house. The recording ends abruptly because I pulled into my driveway and turned off the recorder.

https://www.box.com/s/aslk8snga60i07rec03r

So you got the zoom H1? :D

[ronws]

So you got the zoom H1?

Ja, ist wunderbahr.

[Gneetapp]

I usually practice at home, but most of the times with my 10-month-old boy in my arms. It gets really tiring after a while, and it makes it hard to feel if my diaphragm is working right. Last week, though, I found a cheap practice studio near my job. So, I go there by the end of the afternoon and practice with backing tracks from my computer for about 1 hour. After that I drive to pickup my wife at her job, and we go home. The studio has been working well so far, because I don't feel very confortable practicing while driving back home.

[colin040]

Just at home. Sometimes I do so small lip trills at school but that's about it. I'm definitely someone who pays too much on who's near when vocalizing which isn't an advantage I guess.

[VideoHere]

in my store, in my car, anywhere it's possible to work out without any need to contain the voice.

you have to be in a place where you cannot be concerned about being heard.

[ronws]

in my store, in my car, anywhere it's possible to work out without any need to contain the voice.

you have to be in a place where you cannot be concerned about being heard.

Amen, brother from the northeast. You've got to be in a place where you can let the voluime swell and if you hit a wrong note, who cares?

Any training is going to include some fumbles. And a singer must be allowed the time and space, especially with himself, to make the mistakes that are going to happen.

No one browbeats the teen-ager learning to golf or play tennis. They expect some "mulligans." Some net shots. Let it pass, do better on the next one.

Not so with singers, especially with themselves. They expect Caruso, right out of the gate. We can be our own worst enemies. Never mind the neighbors, we stifle ourselves worrying about each passing note.

Singer training is mental.

[pubrocker]

It used to be exclusively in my car - but having seen a documentary where Ozzie Ozbourne is doing lip-rolls in his house, I'm not quite so bothered!

[Felipe Carvalho]

To keep things in perspective, if you are worried about family and neighbors hearing you, what about the audience??

What you do on exercises, which is the simple part, is not better or worse than what you will do when singing, its simply what you can do. Maybe its silly, but so what? Is a beginner violin player any better? Or a guitarrist doing blublublublu faster and faster?

Understand that the problem is not about others hearing you, but the idea that YOU have about having to sound

great to begin with. Its not about being alowed to sound bad, but assuming that in your current state thats all you can do with comfort, and period. IF you have to do a warm up with your band are you going to be shy? How will that affect you?

Its not like you are going to go public with your training, or place a video on the internet of you murdering a song nor anything like that, its just treating your voice like another instrument and assuming your current condition.

Neighbors will suffer, familly will buy ear protectors, and it will always be annoying, what is annoying is not the quality but the repetitions. Of course it does not mean that you should practice 3:00 AM, close the doors to reduce the ammount of sound leaking, try to not annoy others so much, but there is no place for fear of others hearing you. Besides, at the 5th time you are training people will already be used and not even notice if you are doing the ultimate performance of a song or breaking on a 3 semitone scale...

[MDEW]

All good points Felipe.

Even though I know that if I go ahead and sing that phrase with full intent it will sound better than being timid and flipping ,breaking or just failing in general. But I still allow myself to falter when others are in earshot when practicing. Mental barriers are sometimes the hardest to breach.

[ronws]

Understand that the problem is not about others hearing you, but the idea that YOU have about having to sound

great to begin with. Its not about being alowed to sound bad,

Actually, yes, it is. There are going to be some foul notes. Out loud. And the singer has to allow himself the chance to learn from them. With or without neighbors. I'm not saying the beginner or even an accomplished singer needs to go through a period of sounding bad. But they will sound bad on some stuff. And need to to let that go, not obsess on it.

And I am NOT saying that you, the great and wise teacher must "allow" them to be bad and not catch their mistakes. I am saying that you, the great and wise teacher need to move on from the bad to the good and allow that bad note to fade into obscurity. By all means, stop the mistake. And then lead to the right thing, immediately.

I get it, some singers like to get "punished" and some teachers like to punish. I also know that, right after the "that's not good" one should lead to the thing that is good. I am not a teacher of singing but I have been a teacher. In an actual, honest-to-goodness "official" program for what I was teaching.

When all you do is say "wrong, wrong, wrong." it takes a while for the student to stumble on what is right, quite by accident. Showing what is right and then letting them know they have done right moves things along so much quicker.

What I mean about allowing the time and space to make mistakes is to let the mistakes go and concentrate on the good thing. And while you, the great and wise teacher may be able to do that, the student must also allow himself that room.

And no, this is not all from my study of operant conditioning as it relates to dog training. As an electrical instructor for Job Corp., when I was there, I also had to receive instruction from the principal of academic studies on learning theory, especially for those diagnosed with ADHD and other learning challenges.

So, not only was I teaching students who knew nothing about electrical work, I was teaching students diagnosed with learning challenges.

So, I allowed my students some room on some things. Maribel was having a problem seeing pipe angles in her head, a must for electricians. So, I had her take a few sticks of pipe and just go crazy with the bender. Make some pretzels out of it. After about an hour, she had it down cold and ran 60' of EMT in a tight attic in an hour. That is commercial grade production. Because she had the "space" to make a few mistakes and not get down-hearted about it.

[Owen Korzec]

Folks, what are your thoughts during allowing the occassional flip or crack or any other god awful sound to happen during vocalizing? And be allowing I don't mean intend, I mean not being afraid to go somewhere with your voice that could potentially fail and make those kinds of sounds.

Is that bad practice? IMHO no, because you are practicing, you are not performing. You are not trying to sound good, you are trying to improve your coordinations and build new ones. This involves a lot of trial and error. And the result of a failure could be anything. With the voice in particular it can make some really loud awful sounds.

If you try to prevent those sounds from happening accidentally, you will be incorporating fear into your practicing which will slow down your progress. And then on top of that, if other people who have been taught by society that you're born to sing or you're not can hear you, they could walk in and insult you at any second and throw off your mindset for the rest of your session just cause you cracked once just cause wanted to see how high your chest voice goes.

I'm not talking about family. Hopefully your family is supportive. But neighbors, friends, visitors, cousins...that could be a problem. You need a way to practice somewhat outside of their earshot if necessary. You may not be able to get them to not hear you but at least to get you quiet enough that they can't hear what you are doing they just know you are using your voice.

It is of utmost importance for SINGERS in particular to practice in privacy. Second to them would be wind instruments which make equally awful sounds, but wind instruments somehow get the benefit of not being held under the you're born with it or you're not misconception. They can also blame their external instrument.

Practice is not only when you improve on what needs improvement, it is also an opportunity be vulnerable and explore both what you can and cannot do with your voice so you know the difference. Performance is when you stick to only that which you have practiced and know you can do without failing. If you skip that second element of practice, how can you trust your performances?