Singing Help?

Question

I'd like to be better at singing, but I need some help. I have taken chorus since fifth grade, and I'm now in eleventh. I've had five different school chorus teachers, and been in eight different choruses but it seemed like they never agreed on anything. So now I'm confused and fed up and need help.

My teachers always tell me that the sound isn't 'supported'. I can hear it too when I listen to recordings. What exactly does this mean and how can I fix it?

One teacher said that when you sing using your diaphram(sp?) your stomach should push out. Another teacher who hates that teacher said that your stomach should go in. Which should it be, and how do I get used to using my diaphram?

I lost my verbrato after all that time. How do I get it back? Every time I try it sounds like my voice is shaking because I'm scared.

I have good intonation though, and I don't do a lot of 'stylizing'(is that a word?). I now how to read sheet music.

Any advice? Any books I should get?

According to the districts grade sheet (I got into districts one year) 'stylizing is sliding into notes, and I know that that isn't good. I've gotten into five choruses that are outside of school that I had to AUDITION for. I also got a relatively big role in a musical production that I had to audition not only in front of the judges but also the other people auditioning. I was once in a chorus concert where I got together with two friends and sang a song in HARMONY. I can sing in harmony I've got good intonation. I'm not one of those people that take chorus because they think it is the easiest and they won't have to do any work.

I can't afford a private tutor.

Answer 1

Breathing exercises and lots of water!..

Answer 2

Ohhh Dear, this is terrible!!!

I know how confused you are right now. In my Opinion and please no body get offended, Choir teachers are not Voice Technique teachers. Yes, they have some knowledge, but they are not experts in this subject.

Yes, some teachers say you need to push out, some teachers say you need to push in to create support.

I would never say to push out NEVER! In My opinion that is technically wrong.

The muscles of your stomach are going out when you take a deep breath, right? so, then, you should do a soft pressure in and up while you are singing. But Never Push.

When your start pushing your muscles of your stomach you literally are pushing your breath to your vocal chords. Please Don't do that. That will eventually creates a voice damage.

You say you lose your vibrato and the voice teacher sais your voice do not sound supported. I think that person doesn't know anything about voice technique.

You lose your vibrato because you are probabely pushing so hard the muscles to satisfied the "idea" of "support" this lady has. The problem you are facing now is: Too much tension, your muscles are tight and your thraot rigid. You probably feel pain, tension or tired on your thraot after a while.

My dear, my advice is: RUN AWAY FROM THIS PEOPLE!!!!!

Find a Private voice teacher and start studing a real voice technique. Try to find a teacher trained in Bel canto Style. Excellent Voice technique for any singer.

For Now Buy this Book: "how to sing" from Grahm Hewitt. Great Text book, I recommend it to all my students.

Go to my 360's Blog: How to find the right voice teacher. And start looking for a good voice teacher right now.

Good Luck

Note: I read you cannot afford a private teacher. I would recommend you this book: Singing fot the srtars.

Now, this book has two cd's of vocal warm ups and vocal technique excersises and it explain how the voice mechanism works.

How ever, you need to be really carefuly in your practice because if you practice wrong you can hurt your vocal chords. And that is seriously true. If you feel tired or pain in your throat stop inmediately.

Go just to the first and second voice excersises and stay doing that at least for two weeks, do it every day for 10 to 15 minutes. No more than that, the first excersises are to help you to create flexibility in your vocal chords and start creating stamina. then Add one new voice excersise every two weeks.

This book caould work wonderfuly if you follow the steps I am telling you. If not, you can hurt your voice seriously. Be smart girl and follow my advice.

Good Luck

PS.
Books: How to sing (G. Hewitt)
Singing for the stars (Seth Riggs)
Set your voice free (Roger Love)

Just practice the excersises from the second book on the list.

Answer 3

Sounds like you've been the vicim of a common problem; lack of professionalism in the school. Singing is natural. Sounds like all of these teachers need to realize that.

When your sound isn't supported, they're basically saying it's wimpy. You need to resonate a little more. Really sing from your heart. Let emotion take over when you sing. You can fix this by clearing your mind of everything but the song and what it means to you, then expressing the natural feelings that come in the package.

Vibrato is natural. Don't force it back; it will sound like you're just shaky. If you're singing the correct song in the correct key, it will come. Your voice also may have been undergoing changes at the time you had it and you may not have all that much of a vibrato. It's happened, but talk to a PRO Vocal Instructor. Also realize that vibrato has it's place. If you use it on every song, it sounds bad. Try to hold on to it for classical pieces.

It's good that your intonation is good, but stylization is what makes people want to watch you sing. If you say you don't do much stylizing, to me it sounds like you're one of those people who comes to a chorus concert and stands around twirling their hair, yawning, and not singing on stage. I'm sure this isn't you, since you're trying to find help, but yeah. Stylization is key. Use expressionism. EYEBROWS. Raise them and lower them in warm up excercises, and soon you won't have to worry about stylizing. Since you can read music, you can focus on tapping into the emotion of the music to the point stylizing is natural.

Talk to a professional Vocal Coach if you're still worried.

Thanks for caring!!!!!!!

Answer 4

Using "support" and "using your diaphragm" are basically referring to the same thing. Think of it like this, your on one side of a crowded and load cafeteria and your best friend is on the other side. If you tryed to get her attention verbally without support she wouldn't hear you. But, if you tighten your stomach (diaphram basically) and give a loud yell she would hear you.

Here are a couple exercises to try. Find a desk or table the is at the same height as your stomach. Take a step back and then lean into the desk to put all your weight on your stomach. Now sing. The only way you'll generate much sound is by tightening your stomach. (if you can't find anything tall enough kneel down to a lower object)

Another good one is to sit in a chair sideways so that the back of the chair is either to your left or right. Then lean halfway back like a situp with no support. In order to stay on the chair your stomach tighten to hold you up. Now sing.

Be carefull with these two exercises not to over do it or cause any strain to your back or neck. They are both designed simply to get you to feel what it's like to sing with support. Then you duplicate it on your own. Good luck and keep singing!!

Answer 5

Don't worry about vibrato and whatnot, I'll tell you that right away. Whether or not your voice has that quality is entirely you, and trying to force it to be one way or another can damage your voice.

As for suppoort, your stomach going in or out depends on how you're breathing. But really, I think it should go in. When you breath, your diaphragm is the muscle that pulls your lungs down and out to inflate them, and it sort of squishes the rest of you down, so your stomach inflates. When you then push the air back out of your lungs, it will cause your stomach to go back in. Sometimes it'll go the other way around, but I find that I get more power the way I just described. If you breath in a way that makes your stomach shrink, then it's really hard to squeeze power out with your exhale.

The real trick is just to make sure you can feel a difference. It's easy to tell when your voice is supported, because it feels like the sound is being pushed out, not pulled, and you can hold a note longer and more clearly.

The other big thing I notice in singing, is your nose. If you pay attention to your singing, you'll notice that you can sort of close off your throat and let the sound reverberate in your nose. It ends up sounding nasal. What you weant to do is make sur eyour mouth is always wide open inside. Make a big "O" with your mouth and try to feel even the back of your throatr fill up with air, then try to train yourself to keep that opennes even as you move your lips. All vowels should be rounded, not flat, and that's as eays as making your lips the shape you want the sound to be.

Last of all, watch how you pronounce things. Speak your voewls almost as if you have a british accent, and all your consonants should be very sharp and crisp. Only "n", "m", and sometimes an "s" or "z" should actually be sung. ESPECIALLY never sing an "r". If you're saying the word "lord" in spiritual music, say it, basically "lahd". It may sound very funny when you sp[eak it, but it'll add a lot to a classic or choral voice. And make sur eyou go from ntoe to note without sliding in between. That takeas a lot of practice, but eliminating scoops and slides is great, unless they're called for.

Good luck with your singing!

Answer 6

Well I have been singing for a while and I think I can help you.
First off, when you take in a breath your stomach should puff out.
Resist the urge to lift your shoulders when you breathe.
Your vibratto should have gone away and it is a controlled thing.
It really comes with practice and only on certain parts of certain songs.
If you haven't developed your vibratto yet don't worry about it. It's not that big of an issue.
What your teachers mean by being supported is that you have to tighten the muscles around your stomach to allow your diaphram to push the air out. This also has to do with your breathing.
I hope that this information helps you and if you need anymore help please email me! I'd love to help you!
Valerie

Answer 7

Okay, as someone who has had every singing problem there is, and I think shares your propensity to singing in your throat, I sympathize! I did take private lessons, then last semester I took a singing class with an amazing prof.

What you should first focus on is relaxing your throat. hang over from your waist, knees slightly bent, and bounce and sway a little to loosen up (you'll look like an idiot, but it works like a charm!) and breath. Keep your hands on your lower back and when you breath they should move apart. This means you're breathing properly. Staqnd slowly, vertebra by vertebra, leave your head hanging till the very end. You'll be perfectly alligned after this, which is great (go you!)

Breath again, holding one hand on your stomach and one against your breast right below the collar bone. The top hand should stay still while the bottom hand should move out with your breath. When your lungs fill, they should expand down and out to get the most air, and that will push your diaphragm (which is a muscle that sits under your ribs and sort of divides you in half internally) down, which is why your stomach expands. There isn't really any air in your stomach, but there is air where the stuff down there ususally sits.

Keeping a relaxed throat and neck is vital to good singing. if after singing for an extended time your throat hurts, that's a sign of tight muscles. Yawn, and feel the stretch in your mouth and throat -- that's your soft palette, it should be relaxed. A relaxed tongue is thick and sits against the roof of your mouth. While warming up (which is THE most important thing to do!!! And not just singing the song a few times, work those scales quietly for a while, then you can get loud) hold your hands against your throat with the heels touching in the center of your throat and your fingers wrapped around. it should feel loose as you sing.

There's lots of other things you can do as well, just remember that even Pavorati is still learning to deal with a tight throat! and it won't happen overnight.

* Imagine a line dropped straight through you, pulling you straight from the top of your head (you can even have someone pull up gently on a few of your hairs to get the feeling!) and another line, or axis, through your shoulders which straightens out your torso.
* Keep your feet planted about shoulder width apart and your weight evenly distributed.
* Practice sitting down, on the edge of your chair so you don't slump. Only having to think about half your body makes it a lot easier!
* Try to breathe properly all the time, and it will come easier for singing.
* Hold your chin with your thumb tucked under where you can feel the base of your tongue (swallow to find this place by the movement) Sing like this, to make sure your tongue isn't dropping back or moving too much while you sing.

And don't worry about vibrato or any technique-y thing like that. Master the basics, and those things will come in time. Vibrato is a natural thing, and trying to force it or overly emphasize it without the proper training will hurt your voice.

The book I had for class was Basics of Singing, by Jan Schmidt. It's a textbook, but if you can find it it's a really great basic manual, with some great basic songs.

I hope this helped a little, and just remember to have fun. If you are going into college (I don't know if you're planning on college!) take a singing class if your time/credits allow, it's a great experience, and good training!

Answer 8

Privat tutoring for singers comes in two types: a voice teacher that will teach you technique (like how to support your sound) and a vocal coach that will help you on your performance.

Work with a strong vocal technique until you feel confident (any of the books/tapes previously suggested).

Then you can use your teachers and chorus leaders at school as if they are coaches. They can tell you what kind of sound they want, but you will already know how to produce it!

Keep singing.

Answer 9

It sounds like you are primarily singing in your head voice. It will be necessary for you to learn to use your diaphram if you want to get a better sound. Also, don't worry about verbrato. It sounds like you might just be trying a little to hard and trying to force your voice a little bit. Just relax. Find your natural tone. Verbrato NEVER has to be forced...when people do too much verbrato, they eventually can't help but do it and it ages the voice a lot faster. Too much verbrato is not very lovely. With the voice, we really want it to sound as pure and smooth as possible, some natural verbrato will come as you use your diaphram more. So, how to help your voice?

Your vocal chords are muscles. How do you strengthen muscles? You work them out. You want to be sure not to strain muscles so you don't lift more than you can, etc, so as not to strain or tear the muscle. With singing, you want to gradually build your voice up. You do warmups and try to breath and use your diaphragm and try to smooth your voice out. To properly use the diaphram, don't think of pushing your stomach out...it is slighly lower in your stomach where the diaphram is...think low, try to sing out from your feet (or at least intenstine/lower stomach). Just try to support your sound with every inch of your body. When singing, open up your entire body, breath into your feet, and try to bring out your tone through the mask of your face. Don't strain, train. If you cannot hit a note, or if your voice cracks...do not force it. Gently warm your voice up and smooth it out. Gently push it, but do not force it. In time, like learning to do splits, you will develop a smoother richer tone, with more flexibility and more range. Keep at it! :)

Answer 10

Well, to the thing about your voice shaking, that can be caused by fear of singing in front of people or not enough support from your diaphram (can't spell it either!). If your scared, try findind a comfort. Like a person to think about, or a special song to sing before going in. If its your diaphram: When you breath you should be able to breathe using ur diaphram. So when you exhale your stomach should go out, not ur chest. When you inhale your stomach should go in, not your chest. and ALWAYS sit up straight wen you sing it adds extra support! hope i helped!!!

Answer 11

Generating a "supported" sound is a combination of many factors, all of which have to properly align for the individuals comfort and taste.

Here are some things to take note of: the placement of your soft palate (the roof of your mouth toward the back of your throat) - in most singing styles, this area should be higher, like a vaulted ceiling creating a resonating chamber of your mouth to hone the tone as it comes off of your vocal chords; the looseness of your lower jaw - if the mandible is tense, it can cause strain on your vocal chords and even damage them; breathing - obviously singing would be impossible without air to carry the sound, but the way you breathe can affect your tone as well. Check that you breathe with your ribs and torso as opposed to your shoulders which can actually truncate your breathing space and further strain your singing efforts.

These in mind, getting under a tone with your diaphragm should in effect be both of what your warring teacher's say - the breath drawn in will push your stomach out, while supporting the tone while you're singing will pull the stomach back in, the control of which will determine the timbre and volume of your tone.

Physically, it's like this (and forgive me if this is review for you) - the diaphragm is the muscle that closes the bottom of the rib cage or chest cavity and pulls the lungs like a syringe when you draw in air. This muscle moving down in your torso will flex your abdominal muscles out as you breathe air in, in accord with the first teacher. The easiest, fastest and fullest example of this is when you push out all your breath and then relax, allowing the diaphragm to spring to the breathe in position in a singular automatic and autonomic motion.

Naturally, breathing is an involuntary thing. When you sing, obviously you need to reverse the flow of that air & take control of the diaphram. Here you will feel the stomach flexing inward as your other teacher said. With practice, this muscle can control almost all aspects of your vocalizations except intonation, including vibrato. Try breathing warm ups like "ma-ma-ma-ma-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" on a descending scale and holding the note through the laughter.

Vibrato is a sensitive thing because you can take complete control of it or allow it to come naturally. All voices have a natural vibrato when they are being intoned from a relaxed state. There are several ways to control it ranging from diaphram control, as mentioned above, to facial contortions (see Whitney Houston). The ultimate effect of vibrato is to accentuate the mood and "rifle" the tone, somewhat like the rotating action of a barrel on a bullet as it leaves the gun. Ultimately the application of vibrato is up to the performer and the state of his/her instrument. As with all singing, tension in the body is the enemy. Overall, if the aparatus is working in harmony with itself (breathing, posture, etc.), it should feel like a yawn and even induce such a reaction at rest.

The other factors mentioned above for honing the tone will help you achieve a fuller recordable sound. This too, like vibrato, is based on preference and the sound you wish to generate and market as your own.