Make this ONE change to your vocal exercises and see results

Author

Ivan Lu
May 02, 2024

Make this ONE change to your vocal exercises and see the results

Today I want to share with you a VERY simple change you can make to the way you do exercises that will make your voice much easier and consistent to use.

Before we dive in! Quick shoutout to Richard who’s been working through the course.

Thank you Richard for these kind words! For anyone who’s interested in improving their voice faster, I do offer private lessons and also a self study course that you can work through at your own pace. Links are down in the description.

Anyway, let’s dive in.

Now this was inspired by a recent lesson with one of my students.

To illustrate the challenge, I’m going to try demonstrate what was happening.

See if you can call out what the challenge/issue is.

[Share example where I’m starting each rep with different volume]

Now what did you notice?

The main thing to call out here is the changes in volume. As I’m going up the volume doesn’t stay the same.

Now why is this a problem?

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with changing volume. In fact, say in the context of a song this can be really useful to help you express.

However when we’re running scales, a good goal is to NOT have these variations.

Why? A key part of developing the voice is learning to independence between the 2 mechanisms of the voice.

  1. The mechanisms that STRETCH and help us change pitch.

  2. And the mechanisms that CONNECT the cords and helps us adjust volume/intensity.

Think of it this way, when the volume is constantly changing as we adjust for pitch.

We are basically signalling to our brain that each time I move to different notes, I can fiddle with how much I connect/press the cords.

What this causes is a lack of independencies. This is why for some of you where you sing up higher, your vocal folds either flip or press in harder you start to really push your voice.

It’s because of this independence.

Another reason, is that it always reveals a lack of PRECISION with the cord closure. Basically each time you’re aiming for say a connection of 5, but you end up getting a 2. And then you move on, once again never training the root of the problem which is precision of cord closure.

And so when you’re singing you’re basically slightly missing the coordination each time.

So how do we fix this?

Learning to find balance through your range can be tricky especially when you’re starting off. So what I find to be a great stepping stone is just NOTICING how you START the exercise.

Let’s get you to experience this.

Step 1: Find a scale that’s really comfortable for you.

And I just want you to FOCUS on how you start the the scale.

[DEMONSTRATE]

Personally I would just aim for somewhere in the middle in intensity. Similar to a confident speech level.

Step 2: Try to move up and down your range on the same scale

Now the key here is this.

As you move up and down different ranges.

Do NOT change the way you start the note in terms of intensity/pressure like this:

[DEMONSTRATE INCORRECT]

Rather focus on keeping it EXACTLY the same to the best of your ability

[DEMONSTRATE CORRECT]

Or at the very least when you notice it deviating, redo it and see if you can get it.

When you compound this daily, you’ll start to signal to your brain, that CONNECTION and the STRETCH of the voice can be independent and make your singing easier/efficient

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 

🌍 Stream my music: https://linktr.ee/singingsimply

🌍 Business/other inquiries: [email protected]