How to sing more consistently (mapping sensations)

Maybe some days, you sound like a vocal god.

You’re hitting all kinds of notes.

You’re singing effortlessly.

But then the day after

You sing that song again and it is nothing but struggle street.

What’s going on?

Well in today’s episode let’s go deep and explore why your singing isn’t consistent. I’ll also share some strategies to overcome this so make sure to stay to the end.

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. There’s a lot of sensations

When we sing, there’s a lot of sensations.

I mean, just try this.

I want you to close your eyes and sing a phrase.

As you sing just observe all the different sensations you can experience.

Maybe there’s certain vibrations in your head, your face. A feeling of pressure in the body.

Maybe there’s a certain feeling in your throat.

That’s a lot.

So how does this relate to being consistent as singers?

We can’t see our voice when it comes to singing.

It’s not like you can go in and physically stretch your vocal folds.

What we can do though, is rely on the sensations that our body creates as a PROXy for what’s going on inside.

We become more consistent and accurate when we learn to associate the right sensations with the right mechanism of our voice.

The trap I see with singers and including myself especially when we aren’t singing the way we want and consistent.

Is we haven’t taken the time to map out these sensations accurately OR even correctly.

When we practice, we just run through scales without thinking.

This is okay, if you’ve already doing things right.

But I know for a lot of us learning to sing. This may not be the case.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve mixed up some of the sensations.

A common one is we confuse good cord closure for tightness in the throat.

I mean don’t we just have to squeeze something?

Not quite…

Now there’s a lot of moving parts in singing, but the main ones that I mainly help my students focus on are.

1. How does it feel like to stretch the cords? This helps with high notes

2. How does it feel like to press the cords? This helps with building power and strength

3. How does it feel like to keep the throat relaxed?

So here’s a really KEY piece of homework for you.

Run through some exercise, some songs. And ask yourself?

1. Do you know what it feels to stretch your cords?

2. Do you know what if feels like to close your cords?

3. Do you know what if feels like to not have a tight throat

Do you really?

This might be a good reminder to revisit some of those fundamentals.

If you feel like you do! Test it out.

Try stretching your cords on command, try closing your cords on command. Try relaxing your throat on command when you’re singing.

If it’s not as consistent as you like, then you may need to ask yourself - is this the correct sensation for the mechanism I’m after? And can I be more specific about this sensation.

I’d encourage you to check out some of the previous episodes including isolating the stretch, building more power and keeping an open throat.

Bringing this back together

Now it would be a mistake to think that,

Ivan, you’re getting me to focus on all these different sensations.

That’s going to drive me crazy when I’m singing a song.

I can’t focus on that many things at once.

I got you,

The purpose of training isn’t have you think about these millions of things when singing a song.

But rather, because you’ve done the work right mapped out the sensations accurately.

You’ve also built them in as habits to the best of your ability.

When we come back to singing. The goal is to let your voice do its thing. And allow for these habits to work together. But because you’ve mapped them correctly and accurately.

They NOW help you. Versus fight against you.

Anyway that’s a wrap team! Hope you’ve found value out of this episode. If you did, please share this with a friend or on your social media. It really helps this channel grow and would mean the world to me.

Also if you’re looking for some tailored/specific help. I’ve got ways to study with me down in the description. Apart from that, my name is Ivan - I’m your voice teacher and I’ll see you next Thursday/Friday for our weekly episodes.

Take care!

Extra Links/Resources

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