Vocal Training Exercises to Become a Better Singer

Becoming a better singer is less about talent than it is about determination and the drive to succeed. If you have those two ingredients, you’ll be able to push yourself through exercises and practice sessions that can completely change the way your singing sounds to others. If you don’t believe me, give a six-week singing program a try. You’ll be amazed at how far you come along in six weeks.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s consider what you might do over one of these hypothetical vocal training programs. In order to do that, we have to look at individual training exercises that can really help you become a better singer by managing your breathing, your pitch, your volume, and other elements that play into the sound you create. Without any further ado, let’s consider some really great vocal training exercises that can help you become a better singer.

Scales

One of the most elementary forms of practice in the musical world is the scale. The scale is essentially a run-through of an octave of tones - in other words, eight tones. There are many different types of scales, with the most basic being, perhaps, the "Major" scale. If you know the tune to "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do," then you know how to single a major scale. Can you sing one? Can you go to the upper "Do" and sing your way back down? If you can’t, this is a great place to start practicing your pitch.

Many musical teachers will warm up their students by having them go five notes - Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So - up and back down again. If you know what a half-step is, then you can practice like they do: you move the scale up a half-step after every completed five-note "scale." When you hear choirs sing five "La" notes up and down, you’re probably listening to this practicing technique.

What good will learning scales do you? It will help you to recognize pitch and to be able to reproduce pitch yourself. If you need help identifying whether or not you’re in tune, try listening to yourself on a recording. This is a great way to keep yourself accountable to the way you actually sound. Remember: we all sound different than we think we sound.

Breathing

Breathing is one of the most important elements in the world of singing, because it’s the air in your lungs that provides the fuel to vibrate your vocal chords and actually produce notes. In other words, you can’t very well sing in outer space unless you’ve got access to some air.

In order to enhance your singing, gaining control over the quality of your lung capacity as well as your breathing technique can go a long way. Pay attention to the way singers breathe. If you listen to some songs, you’ll hear the singer quick inhalations - it’s one of those things many people never notice until they look for it.

Pay attention to when these inhalations come and ask yourself if you can become this effective at breathing while singing.

You can. To expand your lung capacity, try this a few times a day: bring in your breath, inhaling the air, and pause for just a second or two. Then exhale all the air back out of your lungs slowly, as if you’re breathing out of a thing straw. Don’t give yourself a headache; just push yourself a little.