Singing Practice
Do you need to enhance your singing practice?
Practice is definitely the aspect of singing that’ll help to make or break you. That’s why we have made these specific proven practice suggestions that you must know included in our ‘Beginner’s Guide To Learning Singing’ series.
Why Longer Singing Practice Doesn't Equal Great Practice
Practice. If you do it regularly enough, you’ll be great. We all know this. So just why is practice so difficult?
Motivation is essential. Without motivation, you will not trust yourself to return to singing day after day. How do you get motivated?
By winning. Yes, that is what I said. Winning. You’re in continuous competition with yourself, and whenever things go very well, you really feel like you are winning. When you’re in this frame of mind, it is simple to practice. It’s the circle of life – winning a lot more gives you much more motivation, which means you practice a lot more. Practising, even more, means you win more, therefore it provides you with even more motivation. And that continues exponentially.
If it’s that straightforward, why is practice still so hard?
And the answer? Because it’s not really that simple! Just practising isn’t sufficient. You could practice for eight hours per day but not progress.
Therefore if it’s not the amount of practice that sets you in the circle of life, what does?
Level of quality.
Practising for 15 minutes on a daily basis, concentrated, beneficial top-quality practice is considerably more advantageous than ten hours of unfocused, ‘auto-pilot’ practice.
So all you need is a good quality practice in order to hop aboard the circle of life train?
What do you think?! It’s not that easy. Merge quantity and quality, and you’ll finally become a first-class passenger.
Continue reading to see how to get your first-class ticket, and ways to stay on the train for as long as you want…
Structure Your Singing Practice
Exactly what is the suggested amount of practice?
15 to 20 mins is a superb starting point, and in all likelihood no longer than 45 minutes or so at the same time. After that duration, all of us humans usually tend to zone out – and then the practising becomes much less effective. As a rule of thumb, if you sense your concentration waning, stop. Be happy that you just showed up to your practice session, and don’t stress over how long you practice for.
How frequently must i practice singing?
This is a simple answer – practice every day. In that way, you’ll transform your singing practice into a habit. A dedicated concentrated regular practice is a lot more effective than twice per week one hour at the same time. And keep in mind, if perhaps you’re pondering “but how will I spare the time to accomplish 20 minutes on a daily basis? !? ” – just take some of your time and efforts from social media over to singing. We all do in fact, dedicate on average 142 minutes on social media every day!
When should I be doing my practice?
It will make no significant difference when you practice, just so long as you do practice. Test out developing a fixed schedule for yourself versus simply being ad-hok. See which solutions are best, and follow it.
Singing Practice Top Tips
1. Remove Probable Distractions
Imagine your practice moment as ‘you time’. You are hopefully enjoy singing because you want to; so switch off your mobile phone, tablet pc, laptop, watch, and then any other device that’ll distract you!
2. Be Sure You're Comfortable
As you’ll be playing for hours and many years to come, it’s really vital that you are comfy. The more relaxed you are, the more effective you’ll play. Pressure is invariably our adversary, therefore ensure that it stays out of your practice area.
3. Establish Aims
Decide on what you want to accomplish, making it something you can actually achieve within the session. By centering on the result, you get there faster and much more effectively.
Create a strategy, and stay with it. Monday, Wednesday and Friday could possibly be learning eight new bars/measures; with Tuesday and Thursday piecing together whatever you know. Set yourself a reward, and when you achieve your selected objectives, open that box of goodies!
4. Discover Your Undesirable Habits
Each of us get it incorrect, well before we get it correct. It’s identified as practice! The most obvious point should be to get rid of the incorrect points as soon as possible. If you don’t do this, we start to produce bad habits.
So when you notice a terrible habit showing out of no-where, say a nice big HELLO to it. Then swat it like the most irritating fly.
The same goes for solving specialised issues with stuff like posture and your technique. Whilst it takes longer beforehand, it’ll pay dividends later on and can save you a lot of time.
5. Don't Shut Your Eyes
Have you been driving a car, and suddenly discovered that you can’t recall the last thirty minutes? Or been on a journey which lasts hours, but you can just recall specific parts? This is exactly what I call being on ‘auto-pilot’. It is precisely what we have to avoid during practice.
Should you practice much the same way each and every time, your progress will slow, your motivation will shrink, and singing will end up a chore. You can actually beat this tiny annoying fact by switching your practice techniques.
There are lots of choices. Close your eyes to perform. Try performing the piece of music backwards. Attempt standing up or sitting down. Play whilst using headphones. Have fun with everything quietly, or even loudly. The list goes on and on. Creativity is definitely the name of the game, and whatever you decide and do, don’t become bored!
6. Become Your Own Personal Teacher
We have a good reason most people go to school; and it’s because we learn best when we have a teacher standing over us, inspiring us to advance. But unless you happen to be Founder of Microsoft, you’re extremely unlikely to be able to manage to pay for a teacher 365 days of the year. Will it matter? Certainly not! You happen to be your very own mentor – and also you come for free!
First of all, it is more than possible that at least 50% of the time you are singing, you’re too busy concentrating rather than actually being attentive to what you are singing! It may sound ridiculous, I am aware. But it’s true… Now that you’re mindful of it, correct it! Hear your singing WHILST you sing…
Secondly, most of us are living in an age where one can generate a respectable recording of your playing with nothing more than your mobile phone. So get it done. View it back and self-critique. Keep doing this until you improve.
And whether or not the world’s most wealthy folks wanted to seek the services of my own tutor, they couldn’t afford it!
7. The Curse Of The Starting point
It seems right to start a piece at the beginning. The thing is should you choose that every session, your first few notes will sound incredible, however, become disproportionately practised in comparison to the remainder of the piece. Mix it up. Begin at the end! Or in the center! Or shut your eyes and randomly choose a section. Just don’t always start right from the start!
8. Don't Cheat
It feels wonderful to sing parts we know well. However, if that’s all that you ever sing, you will have part of the piece to a fantastic standard, but the more difficult half will be a disaster. And yes, you will naturally get drawn to the easy bits, which in turn results in the troublesome bit out in the cold. All alone. Shivering for some comfort and love.
Think logically now; which sections do you need to learn first? Yes, that’s correct. The difficult parts. The straightforward parts will sort themselves out.
Go on then! Find those challenging areas…
9. Have A Good Time With New Things
One of the greatest skills you can discover is sight-reading. But what the heck is sight-reading? It’s singing anything that is put before you, instantly and without fuss. The aim isn’t to be perfect. It’s to get through it as best as you can whilst keeping rhythm.
10. Keeping The Beat
Your metronome is there not as your enemy, but as your good friend. So remember to put it to use!
For faster, complicated sections, fix your tempo at 50% of the ‘final’ speed. Practice the part every single day, and each day raise the tempo by 5 beats (BPM). You’ll have so gradually increased the tempo, that before very long, you will be at full speed.
Bonus Suggestion: For faster areas, make an effort to get at ease performing the challenging elements 10% faster than you need – this way, whenever you come back to the speed you want to perform it at, it should feel nice and simple!
11. A Box of Goodies
Did you notice in point number three that I talked about a reward? Well, I think it’s so essential I’m bringing up it twice! Make sure you celebrate your success…
Singing Practice Bonus Tips
1. Sort Out Your Brain
Each and every time you choose to do new things, your brain learns something about it and produces a neuron. This neuron is like a branch of a tree, and the more times you replicate the neuron action, you reinforce it. Basically, the branch of the tree gets stronger and tougher. This only occurs though should you do exactly the same thing, regularly.
Alternatively, each and every time you modify something, a new branch is generated. Should you sing the very same passage of music four times, and every time you use a different technique or are not completely consistent, you’re developing four branches.
So what is the matter with that? A branch acts similar to a route that the brain walks down. It needs to choose one of the possibilities you’ve built. The issue is that rather than one solid choice, you might have other weaker alternatives. This just confuses your wobbly gel of a head and slows the processing time right down. The end result is usually a slip-up.
So don’t leave things to chance. Stay consistent. Discover stuff slowly and effectively. And always sing things properly repeatedly.
2. BOOKS
Here are some great books that really helped me when I was starting out and I regularly recommend them to students to this day.
Music Practice: The Musician’s Guide to Practicing and Mastering your Instrument like a professional
I also highly recommend you include How to Read Music in 30 Days in your must-read list. If haven’t already read our guide on How To Read Sheet Music, then do check that out as well.
Singing Practice - Summary
Don’t leave practice to chance. Structure it. Be conscious and never go on ‘auto-pilot’. Shorter is absolutely sweeter. Be your own teacher and champion. Above all, be ready to reward yourself!
About the Author
Elinor Jane Moran
Elinor is a world-class Opera singer and Olympic Hip Hop Dancer all combined into one! She is currently travelling the globe on tour with André Rieu and The Johann Strauss Orchestra as a guest soloist.
Whilst not performing on the stage, she likes making records - and was recently featured on the SONY BMG album, “The Best Of Gilbert And Sullivan” which reached the top of the Classical Chart. Oh, and did we mention she also loves hip-hop! What a brilliantly odd combination...
Other posts by this author
Whilst not performing on the stage, she likes making records - and was recently featured on the SONY BMG album, “The Best Of Gilbert And Sullivan” which reached the top of the Classical Chart. Oh, and did we mention she also loves hip-hop! What a brilliantly odd combination...
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