3 lessons that have TRANSFORMED my singing in 2023

Author

Ivan Lu
January 18, 2024

3 lessons that have TRANSFORMED my singing in 2023

Today I’m going to share 3 key lessons that have transformed my singing in 2023 along with some practical ways FOR YOU to implement this into your own practice.

Lesson #1 - Fundamentals really are king

If you’re CONSTANTLY running into the same problem.

Singing feels a bit harder than you’d like, not as consistent, high note feels a lot harder then the rest of your range

Then this most likely means your FUNDAMENTALS need to be strengthened.

This was a big focus for me in 2023. I spent a lot of time over this past year focusing on the fundamentals and it is paying off. In performances now, I’ve been feeling a new sense of ease/flowiness with my singing which has been awesome.

So what do I mean by FUNDAMENTALS.

Think about this - for most of us what are we trying to develop with our voice?

We just want to go up and down our range smoothly & consistently.

What’s really key to this UNDERSTAND and CONSISTENTLY executing 2 things.

1) Stretch the cords (to sing higher)

2) Keep them together enough so we make a sound.

When you have awareness of both of these functions and can execute them consistently enough. Then you would be finally tackling the root of a lot of your problems.

Strain.

Singing feels effortful in general.

Consistency. Sometimes you have it. Sometimes you don’t.

But you see, most beginners don’t focus on this. Most of us including me, get distracted by all the fancy exercises and terminology that we never think about what we’re actually doing.

If you’re in this boat:

Here is some practical advice:

  1. For your next practice session. Review all the vocal exercises that you’re doing right now. Ask yourself what is this exercise trying to teach me? What is it trying to develop? How is it really helping with the vocal problems I’m dealing with? What can you get rid of? Doing MORE exercises doesn’t mean you’d automatically get beter.

  2. If you aren’t clear on this - I would really recommend to take the time to understand what the fundamental mechanisms are. If you have zero idea what I’m talking about check out episode 129, 131, 132 at the end of this episode.

Before we jump into lesson #2. Let me introduce myself real quick. For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

  1. Singing that sounds good, doesn’t have to be a mystery.

Do you know exactly the ingredients you need to sound good?

If I gave you a song, do you know how to make it sound from boring to good?

If you don’t, this is going to be a big one.

Now for me, for the biggest time! I didn’t know how to sound good. I made the mistake of thinking if I could build my technique, have the high notes. Then naturally I would sound good.

But this isn’t true.

I’ve seen many instances where people would ask, I’m hitting the notes and on time. But my voice just sounds flat. Or it just sounds like I’m talking.

Most people don’t realise that sounding good, isn’t just about being on pitch and on time. There’s MORE to it.

This is why I think it’s really important to sing into the pocket.

Basically this means on top of being on pitch, on time, you need to make the right VOCAL colours.

What do I mean by vocal colours. This is simply making the right stylistic choices.

Because for example in the phrase of a song which is mean to be soft and breathy.

You sing it hard and strong. It would give it a completely different feeling. Not necessarily in a good way.

When you can start to become aware of all these vocal colours, especially with your favourite singers. You start to realise there’s this WHOLE other world beyond just hitting the notes.

This is the fun part!

Practical advice: Have a listen to your favourite singer. Beyond them hitting the notes. Try describing for yourself. What are some of the VOCAL colours that they are doing? What stylistic choices are they making?

  1. Practice Zooming out

This lesson has been incredibly important for me.

Personally 2023 has been a big year of reworking of my voice. I’ve been diving a lot deeper in my fundamentals because I’ve realised there’s so much more work to do to get to where I want.

Now I might create more detailed video to explain this

But what this meant is a lot of my practice sessions this year, involved my staring directly at my own flaws.

NOT comfortable!

I’m sure you all can relate. I’ve had many sessions where I felt frustrated, not good enough. I know a lot of us have been there too.

What helped me is learning to ZOOM out my focus to a longer term perspective.

You see, often when we’re caught up in emotions. It’s because our FOCUS is so tied in with the immediate. We’re frustrated because, we don’t see the results NOW.

But what if you took a breath AND allowed your focus to ZOOM out.

Instead of now, expand your focus out into the next 5,10,15 years.

Practical advice: Whenever you get frustrated with your practice. When you feel like you aren’t making progress. Mentally zoom out into the future. And ask yourself, if I genuinely put in good practice consistently AND got the right feedback along the way. Where would this genuinely take me?

Don’t lie to yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. Stick with what is true. Where would this genuinely take me?

Anyway! I hope this episode was useful. If it was, please support this channel through all the usual social media stuff. Like, comment/subscribe.

If you’re from the podcast, leaving a 5 star would really help us grow and mean the world to me.

Last but not least, if you’ve always wanted to improve your singing faster and with less confusion. Remember you don’t have to do this on your own.

I’ve got ways to work with me in the description down below. Make sure to check it out. Apart from that, my name is Ivan, I'm your voice teacher, and I'll see you for our weekly tutorials every single Thursday or Friday.

Take care.

🌍 Book Private Singing Lessons here: https://calendly.com/singingsimply 

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