7 Helpful Tips On How To Sing Better (Part 5 of 5)
- If you have been training correctly, and you over sing one night, it is best to come back the next day and do a full proper workout. This will keep the elasticity in the chords. Otherwise, it usually takes several days to recover.
- Often in rock (and or singing for long periods of time) people are afraid of being “sore”. There are many types of sore. If you have been singing correctly, sore is ok most of the time. Hoarse is NOT. We get “sore” when we go to the gym and work out. If we “over work” something it will feel strained. So it is with the voice.
- The best drink to have on stage is room temperature water
- Always warm up about 45 minutes before your performance. Try not to allow more than 30 minutes between the time you warm up and the time you sing. Otherwise the voice “settles” and you’ll need to warm up briefly again.
- Don’t over train on days you are going to sing. So don’t do your warm up in the morning and then sing at night. Warm up just before you sing.
- Most performers want to come out with their hardest material to sing in the beginnings of their sets. This is the exact opposite of what you want to do. You want to stagger your harder material toward the end of the set when you have carefully paced yourself, warmed up through the show and are ready to take on the harder material.
- At sound check (if you get one 🙂 never try to impress the few straggling guys that are in the room watching. Resist the temptation and save if for the show.
- With your band, do you best to practice at a lower sound volume. Mistakes will be much more evident then. Don’t deceive yourself by thinking that cranking it up makes you better. This way when you get the board mix from the sound man, you won’t have to say to yourself, man we sounded much better in rehearsal.
- If your guitarist insists on have his amp louder than the rest of the band (because all his sound volume is blowing by his legs and he has no idea how loud he really is) have the amps faced away from you so you can get the vocal monitors up as loud as possible.
- When sound checking monitors, always have them make your vocal mic MUCH louder than you think you’ll need. You can always back off the mic. You can’t always get the sound man who is more interested in the chick with the low cut dress right in front of him to “give you more” during a performance.
- Some of the best ways to building the chest head bridge are with sliders. Sliders start about 5 notes below your break and then pass across the break into head voice.
- When doing “sliders” (building the bridge between chest and head) always sing at the same volume. But don’t sing louder than you can connect without hearing “the break”. Even if you have to start outvery very lightly. Also don’t back off the sound at the break just to get across it. The idea is to grow this part of the voice, not let it atrophy.
- Whenever possible, nix the smoke machine. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room and make it much more difficult to keep the chords moist. I know it looks cool with the lights (it’s why they do it) but try to avoid it if possible.
- Try to get in some exercise. C’mon guys let’s face it. This is sport. The sport of singing and is very physically demanding. If you can’t run around the block, what makes you think you are going to throw down hard with good technique in a 45-90 minute set?
- When gearing up for a tour it is always best to work out 3 times as much as you think you’ll need. 3 – 1 hour CORRECT workouts per day. This will save you.
- If you do get lucky enough to tour, resist the hang out with the hot blond in the front row until 3:30 am thing. They are in every city waiting to steal your voice from you and make you go back to working at that Burger Joint.
- Treat your voice like a business. It IS a business. It’s called the business of singing. Don’t think you are going to post a couple of youtube videos to get noticed by America’s Got Talent. Do all you can to preserve and grow this gift you have been given. Take care of it.