Improving my voice?

Question

I want to improve my singing voice!

Before I had my baby I was taking singing lessons and I passed Grades 4 and 5 in singing. I gave up this year because I was too busy with my baby and couldn't really afford lessons at the moment.

My voice is nice and tuneful but I think I am producing it wrongly. I love classical repertoire, but I can't seem to get much above a top "G" and it sometimes sounds really strained. I think I'm singing from my throat but not sure - I need a good teacher ands as my old teacher only really did exam prep with me I need to look for someone new.

Trouble is I'm so nervous! I'm 35 and so not really expecting to become a professional opera singer and so many teachers just seem to think that someone like me is a waste of their time as they just want to train the future professionals. Any advice!?

Answer 1

If there is a local college or university, check with their music department and see if they have a Music Pedagogy department. I am in my 50's, and have been able to get free voice lessons as a student's student of the program.

I checked out the Music department on the web and identified the head of the Pedagogy department and sent her an email letting her know I was available if she had any students needing a student for the class.

Pedagogy means teaching. The pedagogy department prepares it's students specifically for teaching voice, and usually, requires each student in the class to have at least one voice student. The only thing it cost me were nerves when I had to go to class with my teacher so she could give me a lesson during class. Over the course of the semester, I had lessons every week, and had to be available for her class time twice during the time she worked with me. GREAT experience for both of us. She would identify what I needed to work on, and if we were not getting it, she would get advice from her teacher. Her teacher came in once to work on a problem I was having that we could not work out. Her teach fixed me quickly and helped a lot. I would do this every semester if I could, but the course is only offered once a year, so I get it when I can.

Answer 2

Firstly, keep using your voice. It's one of those things where if you don't sing for a long period of time, you have to build back into it.
Make sure you warm up before singing. Just do a simple ascending and descending scale, moving up a semitone each time, using the words 'My and Ve-Va'. Then you can go onto arpeggios.

Make sure you have sufficiently warmed your voice before singing high notes, and that you support in the correct fashion to prevent vocal damage. I would suggest asking your local music store about potential teachers, and in the mean time, revising and praticing the songs you did at grade 5, just to make sure you are using the right technical support as you were when you did grade 5 (as this can slip if you havn't sung properly for a long time)

Best of luck in grades 6+

Answer 3

Don't attempt to sing until you've sufficiently warmed your voice up by vocalizations. Otherwise you might damage it. Especially if your goal is to hit notes higher than that "G!"

Answer 4

Chack with your local music store to see if they can recommend someone. Meantime, do short tones to set and improve proper attack followed by long tones. Keep your voice light with your jaw and mouth wide open.