Hey, I made an intro lately and heres the topic I was talking about. Any way I want to get into writing acoustic songs but when I sing I think it sounds a bit flat. I stick with in a small group of notes. I would like to learn some exercises if thats possible to help that. How do I do that sort of thing? How do I learn to sing with my diaphragm aswell? Thanks a lot to anyone who is willing to help!
I've got two suggestions here.
one, to become more in tune, learn solfege. You know, do re mi fa so la ti do, and sing those in tune with a piano or something like that.
two, to sing with your diaphragm, breath in and out through your stomach. practice it so that when you breath, your stomach is going in and out, and not your chest.
good luck!
what do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
a drummer.
a few things that really helped me make progress;
a small routine is best to stick to - first warm up with breathing exercises as frankthetank says, with the diaphragm working properly your stomach will move in and out more - these help - panting like a dog (seriously now) with shallow and then deep breaths (hold a finger just below centre ribcage and monitor the movement) , also for breath control - take a deep breath in, and exhale slowly in an even flow for as long as possible, continue until you're right out , then repeat. (about 10 mins of practice per day and you will feel a difference)
- as for singing, always warm your voice up, running up and down a scale (eg A,B,C#,D,E,D,C#,B,A) heres the wacky (but killer) part , I start off breathing the notes through the lips so they vibrate (as close as I can decribe is if you were exaggerating how cold it is outside, like brrrrrrr !) this helps to warm up your sinuses which is vital,
Run up and down the scale then move it up slighly to a higher pitch, and repeat til as high as you feel comfortable before coming back down to where the scale is as low as you feel comfortable. (maybe do this twice)
Then repeat with an 'Nnng' sound -where your mouth is open but your tongue muffles the sound at the back of the throat (again 2 or 3 times) -each time make the scale one continuous smooth sound.
-then move on to the same scales but with humming this time -the 'feeling' or vibration should be at the fron of your mouth at this point - definately not at the throat) -again a couple of times
-The brrrr part can be done in between stages to loosen up further if necessary
-Then open voice exercises -same scales - to Aah, then Ooo, then Eee, then Aaay and variations.
few goes of this then tackle a simple song perhaps,
Once you get more into how you are with your voice you find exercises that work for youbest
I hope this is the sort of thing you were looking for though ( I came on here looking for guitar advice) - but it really helped me, and the main things to remember are; that your voice is a muscle, so will build with proper and regular exercise, and structure is the key to progress with this.
Some people are natural singers and don't need this kind of help, sadly I am not one of them!
Anyway if you're still reading good luck with it, and let me know if I can offer and help ( there are plenty of 'troubleshooting' points that I learnt along the way!)
Rich
thats kool...thanx man
" Take what you can from your dreams and make them real as anything " - Dave Matthews.
iv found the breathing has a lot to do with it, not so much the accuracy of a note (though it helps that as well) but it helps the timbre of your voice, gives it a nicer sound. more musical and less strainy (sometimes i sound like im trying to sound good...if you get what i mean) makes it nicer to listen to for sure
