How can I project my singing voice?

Question

I always sing so nasal-y and quiet. How can I project my voice?

and how can I gain more control over it?

Answer 1

The others are right on. Breathing and breath support are definetly part of your issue. However, vocal instrument placement is what is effecting your resonance and causing what you refer to as "nasal-y" sound.

Proper singing is cummulative. Each skill is reliant upon the other skills. If you don't have one thing right it will mess up the others even if they are correct.

Before singing one should make it habbit to stretch all of the body to release tension and to warm up the vocal instrument. Any tension can and will cause vocal strain and eventually damage.

Nothing should be stiff. Loosen up. Do some light stretching and rub out tight muscles especially the ones around your neck, face, and jaw. It might seem strange, but yes, you should massage your face.

Posture: the foundation of great singing.

(Standing) from the top:
Your head should be level with the floor and you are looking ahead, not up or down. No tension, just placed as so.

When singing everything should be loose with no stiff tension. Tension causes things to be incorrect even when you know the right way and use it.

Next, Roll your shoulders back. Rolling your shoulders back elongates the spine and thorax or chest cavity and lifts the sternum, the bone in the middle of your chest. This allows space for proper breathing.

Keep your knees loose, so that they can bend. Don't lock them.

Keep your feet shoulder width apart. One foot can be a little farther forward than the other if that is more comfortable for you.

Imagine yourself as royalty. This is all perfectly natural and normal. It is simply the way you present yourself--with poise and self-confidence.

(Sitting) additional information:
When sitting it is important to keep all the same posture techniques used for standing.

Make sure you sit as far forward on the seat as possible and keep your feet flat on the floor.

When you have proper posture you can learn to breath properly. Correct breath support and control is the gateway to good singing.

To learn the proper way, you've got to know which ways are wrong.

Improper ways to breath when singing:
1) Clavicular breathing ~ shallow breathing--the shoulders lift
2) Costal breathing ~ heaving like when you are sick
3) Abdominal breathing ~ from just the stomach excluding use of the top of the lungs

To understand diaphragmatic-intercostal breathing, the proper breathing for singing, it is import to understand basic breathing for life. Breathing for life is nearly the same with only a few slight alterations.

How we breath for living:
1) involuntary impulse of the brain
2) the diaphragm contracts and flattens to enlarge the thorax or chest cavity
3) the costal or rib muscles expand causing the air pressure to drop within the lungs. the air pressure inside then equals to the air pressure outside the lungs.
4) exhale

Modifications used when singing:
1) more air is required
2) quicker inhalation
3) longer periods of exhalation requiring control
4) voluntary--you determine how and when

**It is impossible to breath correctly if you are not using proper singers' posture.**

Ways to make sure you are breathing correctly when singing:
1) Make sure your shoulders and upper chest don't raise when you inhale.
2) Make sure you are expanding all around. The stomach, sides, and even the back

The laying down exercise is great for practicing proper breathing. You should practice it every night before you go to sleep. When practicing, pay attention to the appoggio, or the moment of balance between inhaling and exhaling just like breathing for yoga.

Before bed breathing exercises:
Lay on your back and wait until your breathing deepens and evens. You will feel expansion around your stomach, sides, and even back. This type of breathing is the ideal form of healthy breathing and the breathing we use for singing.

1. Practice inhaling over a count of 10 and gradually grow to a count of 15 and as high as your lung capasity will allow.
2. Use inhalation explained in (1). Exhale with a hiss of air. It will sound like "tissss...". Work your exhale from a 10 count to a 15 count and so on.
3. Use inhalation explained in (1). Exhale with a hiss of air and pulse using the abdominal muscles. ("tisss, tisss, tisss,...) Work your pulsed exhale from a 10 count to a 15 count and so on.

Remember: When people refer to singing from your diaphragm it is ment to be a locational reference. The activities of the diaphragm are completely involuntary. You don't control it--your brain does.

Proper breathing takes time to develop. You have to keep practicing to build stregth and endurance.

Now we can work on your vocal placement. We want to pull the sound out of your nasal passage and bring it to the front of your mouth to the soft pallet to produce a pure and focused sound. Vocal placement is the secret.

Vocal instrument placement:

We'll start with the voice box or larnyx. You can feel it in the center front of your neck. Swallow while touching it. Feel how it lowers? That's the position it should be in when you sing. You can't really mentally control it, but if you've gotten rid of your tension it should be just right.

Your mouth/teeth/lips... It should be opened wide enough to fit two fingers in vertically between your teeth. For some people even wider for higher notes. Sometimes people just don't open their mouths wide enough for high notes to come out properly.

Your hard and soft pallet... Feel the top of your mouth with your tongue. Upfront, behind your teeth it's hard--that's your hard pallet. Farther back, there is a soft fleshy part. That's your soft pallet. When singing you have to make sure your soft pallet is raised. This allows the air to resonate for a fuller sound. This kind of resonation is especially important for high notes.

To find this position you can yawn. Feel how your soft pallet raises? You could also imagine you have one of those really cool little paper party drink umbrella things. Imagine putting it in your mouth and open it up in there. Now sing like that.

You should feel the resonace in your mouth and soft pallet, not in your nose. To make sure you are keeping the air flow out of the nasal cavity you can plug your nose while practicing. If you feel pressure you are still resonating in your nose.

When everything is working in harmony (correctly) and you build breath support endurance you will gain the ability to project.

**"Control" is not how I prefer to think about singing. Control suggests something forced and mechanical. Singing should be totally natural!

Good luck and happy singing!

Answer 2

folks, the diaphragm is an involuntary muscle. You cannot control it. Yes, we all use the diaphragm when we breathe. It works by itself. What enn is trying to convey is the use of all the other abdominal and dorsal muscles that we feel around our waistlines to help control the rate of our exhalation. This is often labeled "diaphragmatic breathing" in singing, but it is misleading. A better term, and more factual, is breath flow control. We use the muscles that we use when we enjoy a good belly laugh, or when we do leg lifts or sit-ups. Most often we use all these muscles together, which is why learning breath support takes time and patience.
The way to project one's singing voice is to make use of this very important physical activity. The other is feel the back area of your mouth and throat to be as open as if you were just beginning to yawn. ( Not the whole yawn, just that first inrush of air ) The two activities will allow your voice to project farther without the nasty feeling of having to force it out of your nose or throat.
Find a singing teacher to help you learn these important things. There is no way to learn them from a CD or DVD or on-line. You need the personal attention of someone who really knows what they are doing.
Best wishes and keep on singing

Answer 3

Drink a lot of water and don't clear your throat a lot. It causes the mucus to go down but it just comes right back. Also stay away from sugary food or drinks. And if you are trying to project don't scream or yell. All that will do is hurt your voice. Try taking good deep breaths or breathing exercises before singing.

Answer 4

It's called your diaphragm (no not the vaginal insert, your stomach muscle).
You sing a note using your diaphragm muscles to push the air out of your lungs and through your vocal cords.
You practice by humming first. You control your diaphragm by holding what's called a sustained note for eight counts, then breathing, then another eight counts, then breathing, and working your way up to holding the note for four counts of eight or 32 counts in rhythm.
Closing your mouth and forcefully pushing air out through your nose will help strengthen your diaphragm muscles. Add a hum, and practice until you are used to singing a hum with your diaphragm muscles.
Next practice singing scales using your diaphragm muscles, each note one beat and one breath, holding the last note for four counts. Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huuuuuuh.
Participation in a good choir will help you practice and get better. Most school choirs work out every day.
And keep practicing. Find a place where the acoustics make a good echo so you can hear yourself better (the girls' bathroom at my old high school was a great place to sing - the notes just rang like bells off the tile walls!)
Good luck.

Answer 5

Sounded like good advice there from enn. One way I just learned to find out how using the diaphram feels it to do a series of short, huh, huh, huh, noises, like you just got hit or fell down.
What I just found out also about getting rid of nasal sounding voice is to pull back and up with the back of your throat.
Project by imagining you are singing to a person in the back of the room. Not just louder, shoot your voice at them.

Answer 6

Use your diaphragm. It's the muscle you use to laugh with. Do some laughing exercises that project a loud "Ha". Do that three times with the third being sung with the same feeling of the other two "ha"s

Answer 7

from your belly muscles and practice everyday like this aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh

Answer 8

nasal decongestant?

and maybe...

PRACTICE

Answer 9

open your mouth
and your throat.