How to work on your voice

• 1. Warming up the voice
• 2. Breathing exercises
• 3. Projecting the notes
• 4. The "nasal sound"
• 5. How to sing in tune
• 6. Working on diction
• 7. Vocalises
• 8. Tongue position
• A few technical terms

There are a great many bands, choirs and artists in Switzerland, and their level varies enormously with the quality of the singers. Loving to sing is an essential prerequisite, but it is not everything. People who lack motivation will struggle to progress and improve their vocal technique, because it is serious work that demands daily effort.

As with any art, and music in particular, only those who work on their voice with discipline can hope for virtuosity.

Practice develops the timbre of the voice and the singer's range (the distance between the lowest and the highest note). It brings accuracy, control of volume (dynamics) and stamina. All of this under the guidance of a professional who knows how to support a student and keep them from hurting themselves.

The ideal is therefore to be guided by a teacher who specialises in singing lessons. Enrolling at a reputable music school guarantees the quality of the teaching. 61% of Swiss people learning music trust a professional teacher.

That said, here are ten recognised exercises that will help you improve your vocal technique starting today. Ready? Let's go.

1. Warming up the voice

It is essential to warm up your instrument before singing. Producing a demanding, powerful or effortful sound without warming up first can cause injury, and that kind of effort comes up all the time. Every practice session therefore calls for a few warm-up techniques. We strongly encourage you to make them your own, so you are never caught off guard.

How do you look after your vocal cords?

First of all, every voice needs rest. After a performance or a practice session, your instrument needs at least 7 hours of rest to recover from the effort. Acidic products such as dairy, fizzy drinks and the like should be avoided. Water, on the other hand, is very important: drink regularly and enough! Your vocal cords need to stay hydrated.

Which exercises?

The first is to sing scales with the help of a piano, which lets you place your notes well. At the same time, you work on your intonation.

You can then try it a cappella: start from a low note and rise towards the high register while keeping your mouth closed. This will stop you from forcing.

Be relaxed and comfortable: a multitude of small muscles make up your mouth and throat. To relax them, you can do various exercises: make childish sounds, flap your cheeks and lips, or imitate the sound of an engine. Warming up the voice also protects your larynx and your vocal cords.

Good to know: your vibrato (the ability to vary the pitch of your voice at a controlled rate) will be of much better quality if you have warmed up.

Avoid singing songs. The point of warming up is precisely to prepare you for them. Don't skip steps!

How long should you warm up?

It differs from one person to another. With practice, a singer gets to know the feeling of being "warm" and knows when they can start working. Listen to your sensations. Still, a warm-up should last at least 10 minutes and rarely exceeds 30. At first, try singing after 10 minutes of warm-up and observe: can you place your voice without forcing? If not, you are not warm enough yet; carry on and test again 10 minutes later, and so on.

With training, the time needed to warm up your voice should decrease.

When should you warm up?

On waking, the body needs two hours to warm up and reach good overall working order. It is better to wait until you feel "ready" before working on your voice. Doing it straight out of bed is not a great idea, and if after two hours you still don't feel up to it, put your warm-up off. Listen to yourself!

Note too that warming up isn't only about the voice, but also about waking up the parts of the body you will use when you sing. So add some physical stretches: lips, chest, cheeks, jaw, tongue…

2. Breathing exercises

To sing well, you need to breathe correctly: role, intonation, power and so on all depend on how the lungs work! The quality of the voice is intrinsically linked to the quality of the breath. Breathing may be innate, but breathing for singing is not at all; there is a lot to do to become more at ease.

Lying-down exercise

Lying on your back, place a book on your chest. Then breathe normally. At this stage, try to feel and identify which parts of your body are taking part: intercostal muscles, pelvic floor, abdominals, and so on.

To help, put one hand at mouth level and the other on your ribs. The book should not rise too much.

Start by breathing out all your air until you run short, then breathe in slowly. When your lungs are full, hold the air for 5 seconds, then let it out slowly, making sure the book goes down gradually and gently. Stay straight, don't raise your shoulders, don't puff out your chest, don't lower or raise your head, always look straight ahead.

Be aware: the muscles you are working in this exercise are the same ones you will use to sing!

The muscles of the upper chest are of no use to a classical singer. It is the abdominals, abdominal breathing, that do all the work. Thanks to constant pressure, the chest voice takes on its full breadth and beauty.

This is called intercostal-diaphragmatic breathing. In less technical terms, it simply means breathing low, at belly level, while opening the floating ribs as wide as possible. That is abdominal breathing.

Exercise against a wall

Hard to lie down for your exercises? No problem, you can also work standing up: all you need is a wall!

Facing the wall, place both hands on it. Leaning slightly forward, keep your back straight. This natural position makes abdominal breathing easier. You can check by putting a hand on your belly: feel how easy breathing is.

This exercise is also a very good way to feel the mechanism of abdominal breathing, so you can reproduce it more easily while singing.

Learning to breathe by blowing bubbles

This exercise is perfect for learning to control your airflow and keep it constant. It relaxes your vocal cords and opens your pharynx. It can be part of your vocal warm-up or come afterwards, to rest the voice.

As when you were a child, take a glass of water and a straw, and blow into the water through the straw. While breathing out, produce a sound for a few seconds, then stop. The size and number of bubbles should not vary.

Relaxing the diaphragm: essential to sing better

You think it can't be done? There is a fairly simple exercise for it:

• Sit on a chair,
• Both hands at the solar plexus, inside the ribs,
• Breathe in,
• As you breathe out, lean forward,
• Go down until your arms touch your thighs,
• Come back up and repeat several times.

The more you feel able to take in a large volume of air, the more relaxed your diaphragm is.

3. Practising projecting sound

Being audible doesn't simply mean shouting. To be heard powerfully and clearly at a distance takes technique.

The exercise is to imagine singing for someone standing about fifty metres away. To do that, you will have to project your voice as well as possible, contracting the pelvic floor for as long as you are producing sound.

Then release the pelvic floor and make an "sss" sound while contracting the abdominals. Keep going until you have no air left, then release your muscles completely. Your body will naturally take in all the air it needs, without forcing.

Repeat! This will help you take hold of the sensations you should have with good breathing technique, and therefore good singing technique, and it doubles as a warm-up!

A teacher to work on your harmonics

Developing the harmonics of your voice is essential. They define its colour and timbre. A voice rich in harmonics sounds louder than an ordinary person's voice: it seems more powerful while the actual power is the same. To realise this, just listen to an opera singer speak; the difference is striking.

Pushing a voice that is poor in harmonics is riskier: more power is needed to get the desired result, and so there is a greater risk of vocal fatigue.

Working your resonators

Unique to each of us, the resonators are the parts of our anatomy that resonate and give the voice its distinctive character. They vary from one person to another: nose, mouth cavity, shape of the face or skull… these resonators make each voice unique.

A good singing teacher will teach you to place your voice in its resonators, making the most of your body's capabilities without tiring the voice. It is long work, though.

Smile, you're on camera!

Smiling is the first piece of advice to help a singer place the voice in its natural resonators. It isn't easy at first, but it is an excellent exercise that makes projecting the voice easier.

4. The "nasal sound" technique

Mezzo-soprano, baritone, modern singer or tenor: they all pass their tone through the nasal cavities, which act as a sound box. Contrary to a widespread belief, the rib cage does not! This is an important point for learning to place your voice correctly.

Being empty spaces, the nasal cavities and the sinuses are naturally excellent resonators. We cannot change their structure, but we can learn to make the most of them.

That is why a singer who is unwell, with a cold for instance, struggles to produce sound: the nasal cavities are blocked, the resonating spaces are obstructed, and normal singing becomes impossible.

A simple tip to help: rinse with sea water from one nostril to the other. Kits are available in pharmacies.

5. How to sing in tune?

Before thinking about going on stage, it is better to be sure of your intonation.

Taking music lessons is an excellent idea, because only practice makes the difference and gets you exactly on the right frequency, singing at the right pitch (singing lessons in Lausanne).

A first simple exercise: start by listening mentally to a melody (without words) and pause on each note. Then hum it. It isn't easy at first, but with practice it becomes more and more natural.

Once you can hear a tune, an accurate melody inside your head, half the work is done. This is the development of what we call the musical ear.

Now try to hear, still mentally, the timbre you want to produce. When it seems clear, try to reproduce it with your voice. It is best to start with simple songs: nursery rhymes are good examples. Move on gradually to more complicated songs until you reach the piece of your dreams!

As you will have gathered, in a singing lesson, listening is the basis of all the work.

Keep in mind that being in tune is not essential at the beginning. What matters is enjoying yourself! Let go, and you will see that everything becomes much simpler. In any case, never freeze up over a wrong note. Nobody sings perfectly on the first day!

6. Working on diction

Clear articulation is the ABC of a good voice. It is the foundation for any self-respecting singer, and the back of the throat plays the main role in good pronunciation.

Here are a few typical sentences to repeat (tongue-twisters in French) that will help you improve your diction. Try them several times in a row, taking care to pronounce them properly. You will see, the result is immediate:

• Petit pot de beurre, quand te dépetitpotdebeurreriseras-tu,
• Trois petites truites cuites, trois petites truites crues,
• Seize jacinthes séchant dans seize sachets secs,
• Des blancs pains, des bancs peints, des bains pleins,
• Un chasseur sachant chasser sait chasser sans son chien,
• Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches ?

7. Vocalises

Vocalises are exercises that use vowels. They build flexibility by working on simple sounds. Start for example with:

• or
• o
• oui

"or" opens the pharyngeal cavity, "o" keeps the larynx low and "oui" sharpens the voice. It is simply a matter of repeating these exercises; there are others with different vowels, of course. With practice, you will adjust your attitude and power for optimal projection.

Don't forget: don't tire your vocal cords! Gentle work is always preferable. Plan enough rest too. If you decide to take it seriously, the guidance of a qualified singing teacher is essential to protect your physical wellbeing. You will also progress faster and more effectively.

8. Tongue position

Where should the tongue go when singing? The question may seem trivial, but it matters a great deal. According to some musicologists, two vocalises out of three are badly executed because of a poorly positioned tongue.

Freeing yourself from this is an important step in mastering your abilities. A raised tongue is caused by excessive contraction of the root of the tongue, which blocks some of the vibrations and pushes them back towards the mouth cavity.

How do you work on tongue position? The best way is to repeat notes. The tongue should stay flat, close to the lower front teeth:

• Use "yor, yé, yor, yé, yi". This helps you find an ideal position for the tongue,
• Sing "gnor, gné, gni". This helps you reposition the tongue.

These two exercises will also help you avoid the tongue pulling back, a common problem among sopranos.

A few technical terms

Learning to sing also means learning a vocabulary. It is mostly related to anatomy and helps you understand what you are doing.

What is phonation?

It is the production of the sounds that lead to the voice and articulate speech. Air is pushed out of the lungs, through the vocal cords, then through the mouth and nasal cavities.

What is the diaphragm?

It is a dome-shaped muscle located above the abdomen. It separates the upper organs from the lower ones, but above all it serves breathing. It is thanks to the diaphragm that we can push air out of our lungs.

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