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LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents...

The Voice Idol X Factor

Your guide to making the most of your audition and achieving your dream 1

Dare to Dream
It all looks so intimidating: the lights, stage, cameras, studio audience, television audience, judges. Oh, the judges! They nitpick every little thing. Simon! How do the contestants on TVs biggest singing shows manage the pressure, rise above the competition, and make it into rarified air? The dirty little secret is that they each started as regular Joes or Janes, just like the rest of us. They dreamt of the big time, which gave them the drive to work hard and prepare themselves. A poised vocal performance is not something you are merely born withraw talent is a small part of the equation. Rather, it is something you can achieve with training, practice, and coaching. Keep Reading... Inside you will learn more about breathing with your diaphragm, warming up your vocal chords, increasing your range, improving your technique, and maximizing your opportunity to perform.

LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents The Voice Idol X Factor!

Breathe, Relax, and Warm Up


Your body is a musical instrument. It produces notes when air flows through your vocal chords, into resonators throughout your upper body, and out your mouth. Making this instrument work properly for long periods of time requires the air to come from the right place and pass through vocal chords that have been properly warmed up. Lets look at this in some detail.

Master the fundamentals of singing to get the most out of the musical instrument that is your body

The Diaphragm
The thoracic diaphragm is a large muscle that sits just below the lungs at the bottom of the rib cage. It acts as a pump to expand and contract the lungs during the breathing process. Professional-level singers train the diaphragm to control the flow of air to the vocal chords to produce notes and tones. They know that, if they were to use the small muscles in the throat to control breathing, their vocal chords would incur undue stress.

LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents The Voice Idol X Factor!

Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises


As with any muscle, training makes the diaphragm stronger. A great way to start is to lie on your back and think of filling your stomach like a balloon while feeling your diaphragm with your hands. From that position, you can practice letting the air out slowly (as if there were a hole in the balloon); all at once; and in short bursts. Keep your mouth relaxed and teeth closed. After repeating those exercises several times, move to a standing position, and try them again. You may find them to be a little harder while standing than they were lying down. Be sure not to involve your shoulders or your chest in the breathing process. You want to focus on staying relaxed and pushing the air up with your abdominal muscles.

Vocal Warm Ups


Just as it is important to stretch and warm up before working out at a gym, any singing practice session or performance requires a vocal warm up. This is also a good time to focus your mind on the task at hand and tune out distractions.

Vocal Warm Up Exercises


Start with one of the most basic sounds a human can make: humming. Your lips should be closed but loose, and you should feel like you are pushing the sound gently with your stomach. Spend a few minutes feeling comfortable before moving on.

LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents The Voice Idol X Factor!

Next, try lip rolls. Imagine you are trying to make bubbles underwater, or imitating an angry bull. You will need relaxed lips and diaphragmatic breathing to make your lips move freely while making a brbrbr sound. Again, spend some time with this exercise and resist any temptation to rush it. Lastly, we want to use scale singing to begin the transition from making silly noises to producing notes and actually singing. Go through different notes in a relatively easy range, maintaining awareness as to how your vocal chords feel. As they start to feel warmed up, 2002 KellyClarkson slowly expand the range of notes. Eventually, you will want to reach both the high and low 2003 RubenStuddard ends of your known vocal range. 2004 FantasiaBarrino

AmericanIdolWinners
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 CarrieUnderwood TaylorHicks JordinSparks DavidCook KrisAllen LeeDeWyze ScottMcCreary PhillipPhillips YourNameHere

Increasing Vocal Range

In televised competitions, contestants must sing a variety of songs to test their overall mettle. If, after honing your singing fundamentals, you want to increase your range, there are steps you can take to increase your vocal range. Find a piano or keyboard and establish the notes at the highest end of your range. Without forcing anything, play the next higher note and attempt to repeat it with your voice. If that works, try one or two more. Repeat the same practice on the lower end of the range. It is important to balance range exercises at both ends of the comfortable range.

Should You Hire a Personal Coach?


A personal vocal coach can provide personalize attention and customized instruction. He or she also requires a substantial financial commitment; private lessons are often expensive. Such a commitment can be a good thing: you will become invested in your training and, therefore, less likely to avoid practicing. Also consider that you and your coach must work out mutually acceptable schedules, and you will only have access to him or her during these time. Alternatives for folks with more limited budgets and/or a need for more flexibility include joining a church or community choir, online vocal lessons, computer-assisted singing programs, and software tools for ear training. The upfront expense for the training products is higher (though financing is often available), but you end up spending much less per lesson, and you can take them on your own time.
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Improving Your Technique


Speech Level Singing
Train your throat muscles to relax with the Speech Level Singing technique. Your emphasis will be on keeping your larynx steady and in a low position at all notes in your vocal range. This forces you to use your diaphragm to breathe properly.

Alexander Singing Technique


Singing puts a surprising amount of stress on the back, neck, and head. The Alexander Technique helps you focus on how you are using your body. Once you find a balance between your back, neck, and head, you can then balance your whole body. This leads to proper alignment of your resonators (see sidebar on the next page) and a more relaxed approach to singing.
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VocalResonators
Chest TrachealTree Larynx Pharynx OralCavity NasalCavity Sinuses

Singing High Notes


When singing high notes, feel the air go from your belly, through your vocal chords, and on to your head resonatorsthe oral cavity, nasal cavity, and sinuses. Imagine the sound pushing against the top of your head before coming out, merely passing by the vocal chords along the way. When done the right way, you should not feel any strain in your throat.

Singing Falsetto
Falsetto means false voice in Italian, referring to the fact that it is not really your normal voice, but one that is outside of your normal vocal register. When you force the air up from the diaphragm, concentrate on not forcing the throat muscles. The goal is to make your vocal chords vibrate on their outer edges. The sound vibrates on your head and not on your chest: if you place your hand on your chest, you shouldnt feel it vibrate.

Singing Vibrato
To learn how to get a regular, pulsating change of pitch, a good drill is to sing one note that is easy for you while pumping with your hand at a location right under your ribs and immediately above your belly button. Once you get used to this feeling, you can train your diaphragm to sing this way on command.

Developing Perfect Pitch


The ability to recognize the precise frequency or musical note is a skill that the top concert performers have honed. It is a learned skill: almost anyone can develop perfect pitch. To train, repeat the sounds of an instrument; practice at night so your nocturnal subconscious can process the information; and practice one tone repeatedly until you memorize it.
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Show Time!
Preparing Your Act
When choosing a song, consider the fit between what you sing well and what the audience will respond to. Magic happens when a singer is able to bond with the crowd, and the song is an important ingredient to the mix. Also, dont underestimate the importance of stagecraft. Your clothes, hair, movement, and stage presence all factor into how you market yourself to the crowd. Before the performance is the best time to test a new hairdo or shirt and solicit feedback, particularly from people you dont know who can provide an unbiased assessment.

Day of the Performance


All winning performers on TV exude passion and engage with the audience. Summoning your passion from within starts before a performance, requiring focus to get in the zone. Plan to spend quiet time alone before the show meditating and/or visualizing your connection with your audience. Fifteen minutes should be sufficient to achieve the proper mindset.

LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents The Voice Idol X Factor!

Do your best to stay in a positive frame of mind. Thinking negatively drains energy and leads to stage fright. Conversely, positive thoughts lead to confidence and help you engage with the audience. Use your sense of humor as a guide. It is also important to talk as little as possible prior to your performance, in order to maintain the freshness of your voice. Keep your focus on good posture and proper breathing. Perform vocal warm-ups first thing after waking up. Then silently rest your chords all day until another warm up session just prior to the show. From a dietary standpoint, certain foods and drinks can hinder your act, while others can help it. Avoid dairy products, coffee, spicy foods, citrus fruits, carbonated drinks, icy cold foods, and large amounts of alcohol and junk food. Hot tea or hard candy can help your voice. Never eat less than one hour prior to a performance, and stick to fish, vegetables, fruit, rice, meat, and clear liquids.

During the Show


The key to a great performance is engaging with the audience. Your job is to relate the passion you feel for your music to the crowd (and judges). Passion comes from within. Getting it out requires your authentic personality to emerge. Throw in some entertaining banter between songs. Project your confident singing voice to the people in the back row. And dont forget to smile! Youre living your dream!

All images used in this document are licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license. Photo credits go to the following Flickr users: Freedom to Marry, kwalk628, mtanne, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, serena_in_VA, thomaswanhoff. The photos are for illustrative purposes only. None of the artists pictured endorse this guide or this website in any way.

LearnHowToSingBetter.com presents The Voice Idol X Factor!

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