Singing Exercises For Dummies

Pamelia S. Phillips is a professional singer with over 35 years of teaching experience. She has designed curriculum for high school students, college BFA programs, and professional training programs, helping thousands of singers refine their singing technique.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Conventions Used in This Book 1What You’re Not to Read 2Foolish Assumptions 2How This Book is Organized 3Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing 3Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety 3Part 3: Working Out Your Range 3Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique 4Part 5: The Part of Tens 4Icons Used in This Book 4Where to Go from Here 5Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing 7Chapter 1: Warming Up for Singing 9Preparing Your Instrument: Stretching Out from Head to Toe 9Opening and Positioning the Lower Body 10Connecting your feet to the floor 10Balancing on the ankles and knees 12Distributing weight in the legs and hips 12Positioning the Upper Body for Easy Movement 13Lengthening your spine 13Releasing the shoulders 14Balancing the head and neck 15Managing the arms and hands 16Putting It All Together with a Vocal Warm-Up 16Chapter 2: Practicing Breathing Exercises 19Moving the Breathing Muscles for Singing 19Opening the ribs 20Releasing the abs 21Moving the sides 21Releasing into the hips 22Take It In: Shaping Inhalation 22Controlling the movement of your ribs 23Adding suspension to develop coordination 23Opening the torso for quick inhalation 24Let It Out: Controlling Exhalation 25Developing muscle coordination 25Isolating muscles for extra-long phrases 27Singing Practice Exercises with Long and Short Phrases 28Practicing short phrases 28Practicing longer phrases 29Testing your breath control 30Songs for Extending Breath Control 31Chapter 3: Shaping the Tongue and Lips for Vowels 33Coordinating the Tongue and Lips for Back Vowels 33Shifting the arch around for ooh and ah 34Altering your lip shape for oh and ah 35Tackling the tricky vowels aw and OOh 36Singing through the five back vowels 37Positioning the Tongue for Front Vowels 38Dropping the arch between ee and ih 39Moving between ee and ay 40Distinguishing between ee and eh 40Comparing eh and a 41Singing through the five front vowels 42Alternating between Front and Back Vowels 43Presenting the Middle Vowel, Uh 43Singing Combination Vowels 44Songs for Singing Vowels Precisely 46Chapter 4: Articulating Consonants Accurately 47Touching on the Tip Consonants 48Exploring the voiced consonants L, N, and D 48Distinguishing between voiced D and unvoiced T 49Sounding out the voiced R 50Singing unvoiced S and voiced Z 51Moving the tip of the tongue to the teeth for TH 52Singing through the consonants L, N, D, T, S, Z, and TH 53Arching Back for Soft Palate Consonants 54Practicing voiced G, unvoiced K, and voiced NG 54Singing through the consonants K, G, and NG 56Working on Lip Consonants 56Practicing voiced consonants W and M 57Alternating between voiced B and unvoiced P 58Moving only the bottom lip for F and V 58Singing through W, M, P, B, F, and V 59Consonant Combos: Moving the Lips and Tongue 59Puckering for voiced J and unvoiced CH 60Moving air through SH and ZH 61Singing through the consonants J, CH, SH, and ZH 61Songs for Singing Various Consonants 62Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety 63Chapter 5: Singing Precise Intervals for Musical Accuracy 65Recognizing the Most Common Intervals 65Major intervals 66Minor intervals 67Perfect intervals 68Hearing the Small Intervals 68Minor and major seconds: m2 and M2 68Minor and major thirds: m3 and M3 69Seconds and thirds in action 70Finding Perfect Intervals 71Identifying perfect intervals: P4 and P5 72Working in unison: P8 73Singing perfect intervals 73Comparing the Larger Intervals 74Minor and major sixths: m6 and M6 75Minor and major sevenths: m7 and M7 75Singing sixths and sevenths 76Discovering Chromatics 77Raising the pitch with sharps 77Lowering the pitch with flats 78Canceling an accidental 78Working on Scales 79Building scales with triads 79Singing major scales 80Singing minor scales 81Practice Piece: “Singing All the Intervals” 83Songs for Practicing Large Intervals 84Chapter 6: You’ve Got Rhythm: Conquering Rhythmic Notation and Tempo 85Rhythm Basics: Notes and Rests 85The whole note 86The half note 87The quarter note 88The eighth note 89The sixteenth note 90The corresponding rests 91Practice piece: “The Rhythm Song” 92Exploring Advanced Rhythms 93Joining notes together with triplets 93Adding more notes with dotted rhythms 94Emphasizing the weaker beats with syncopation 95Practice piece: “Checking Out Rhythm” 96Managing Rhythm at Any Tempo 97Songs for Working on Rhythm 98Chapter 7: Adding Diversity with Dynamics, Articulation Marks, and More 99Singing Dynamically 99Reading the markings 100Making a smooth crescendo 100Gradually singing softer with a decrescendo 101Mastering dynamic contrast 102Articulating What’s Written 103Connecting notes 104Making a note short and sweet 104Knowing when to let go 105Practice Piece: “I Sing Out!” 105Improvising to Give Songs Your Own Unique Stamp 107Adding more words 107Changing the rhythm 107Altering the melody 107Varying the tone 108Songs for Improving Your Musical Diversity 108Part 3: Working Out Your Range 109Chapter 8: Checking Out Chest Voice 111Getting Familiar with Chest Voice 111Exploring the sounds of chest voice 112Varying the heaviness in your chest voice 112Strengthening your chest voice 114Modifying vowels in chest voice 115Practice Piece: “Finding My Chest Voice” 116Songs That Work Out Your Chest Voice 118Chapter 9: Soaring into Head Voice and Falsetto 119Figuring Out Falsetto 119Working out your falsetto 120Taking falsetto down 121Exploring various vowels in falsetto 122Songs for singing in falsetto 122Discovering Your Head Voice 123Getting a feel for head voice 123Exploring high resonance in head voice 124Singing through consonants in head voice 125Positioning Your Larynx for Fuller Head Voice Sounds 126Stabilizing the larynx 126Monitoring your larynx while singing 128Managing many high phrases 129Developing Your Head Voice Range 130Creating spinning tone 131Sustaining notes in your head voice 132Songs for broadening your head voice range 133Practice Piece: “A Bejeweled Love Song” 134Chapter 10: Mixing Up Your Sound with Middle Voice 135Discovering Your Middle Voice 135Distinguishing male and female middle voice 136Getting to know your middle voice 136Strengthening your middle voice 137Finding clear vowels in middle voice 138Songs that work out the middle voice 140Combining Registers with Mix 140Knowing when to use a mix 141Rolling into a mix 141Changing around the mix 142Songs that require a mix 143Exploring Your Mix with a Few Practice Pieces 144For the guys 144For the gals 146Chapter 11: Coordinating Register Transitions 149Moving Smoothly between Registers 149Dropping into chest voice 150Changing back and forth from chest voice to middle voice 151Climbing from middle voice to head voice 152Leaping to and from Falsetto 153Singing from falsetto into chest voice 153Changing from chest voice to falsetto 154Rolling back and forth from chest voice to falsetto 155Refining Your Smooth Transitions 156Shifting from middle voice to chest voice 156Shifting from middle voice to head voice 157Practice Piece: “Marching Forth” 158Songs That Require Register Transitions 159Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique 161Chapter 12: Developing Your Vocal Tone 163Touching on Tone Basics 163Practicing the onset of tone 163Opening the space to change the tone 165Releasing tension to enhance tone 167Coordinating breath to improve tone 167Eliminating intonation issues 167Creating Echoing Tone with Resonance 168Finding your resonance 168Using vowels to explore resonance 169Varying where tone resonates in your body 170Choosing the right resonance for a song 171Varying Tone with Vibrato 171Discovering vibrato 172Changing between vibrato and straight tone 173Practice Piece: “Changing Tone” 174Songs for Developing Your Tone 176Chapter 13: Expanding Your Vocal Agility 177Exploring the Art of the Quick Breath 177Catching your breath quickly in fast songs 178Taking a quick breath 178Howdy, Neighbor! Working on Stepwise Motion 179Giving up control to get a feeling for agility 180Stepping up the pace 180Turning around on the tonic 182Running to the top of the scale 183Mastering Thirds 184Singing every other step of the scale 184Gaining momentum 186Taking Musical Leaps with Larger Intervals 188Starting on the top 188Jumping up (or down) an octave 189Practice Piece: “A Joyful Noise” 190Songs for Flaunting Your Agility 191Chapter 14: Belting It Out with Exercises from Beginner to Advanced 193Getting Started with Belting Basics 194Feeling belt transitions in the voice 194Making a plan to develop your belt 195Resonating All the Way to the Back Row 195Chatting It Up 196Buzzing your words on various pitches 197Speaking chatty sounds on specific pitches 197Working on your speaking range 198Using different phrases to expand your speaking range 199Developing Stamina for Belting 199Comparing Belt and Mix 200Changing from mix to belt on one note 201Songs that move from mix to belt 201Belting Your Face Off 202Applying your belt sounds to a tune 202Increasing your belt range 203Developing vocal stamina 204Testing Out Your Belt Sounds with Practice Pieces 205“Don’t You Tell Me No Lie” 205“It’s Time” 207Cooling Down Your Voice after Belting 208Songs for Beginner Belters Looking to Try Out Their Technique 208Songs for Advanced Belters Looking for a Challenge 209Part 5: The Part of Tens 211Chapter 15: Ten Tips for Practicing Like a Pro 213Set Aside Time to Focus on Singing 213Plan What to Practice 214Use the Exercises in This Book 214Record Your Practice Sessions 215Track Your Progress 215Cool Down after Practicing 216Know When to Rest 216Get to Know Your Song and Your Story 217Prepare for the Performance 218Find Help from a Voice Teacher 218Chapter 16: Ten Questions Singers Ask Frequently 219What Style of Music is Right for My Voice? 219When is a Song out of My Range? 219Am I Tone Deaf or Just Singing Out of Tune? 220How Do I Blend with Other Singers? 221How Do I Blend My Voice with Instruments? 221What’s the Best Way to Develop Vocal Endurance? 222How Can I Maintain Proper Singing Posture While Playing an Instrument? 222When (And What) Should I Eat before a Performance? 223How Do I Get Over Stage Fright? 223What Do I Have to Do to Keep My Voice Healthy? 224Appendix: About the Website 225Listening to the Audio Tracks 225Customer Care 228