HOW TO SING: THE BASICS

Learn To Sing. Singer, songwriter and singing teacher Jules Rendell takes us through the basics of singing technique to
help you make the most of your voice.
Jules Rendell is a professional singer and songwriter with classical training from the Royal Northern College of Music. As
a singing teacher, she trains beginners and professionals alike in a range of styles from pop to classical, soul, jazz and
rock. Here she will cover the basics of good singing technique, to help you make the most of your voice.

STEP 1: POSTURE
When you sing, your body is your instrument, so your posture can make a difference to the sound you produce. Stand feet
shoulder-width apart, slightly turned out, with your weight more on the balls of your feet. Your legs should be very slightly
bent - don't lock your knees. Your shoulders should rest back and down. Keep your chin down with the back of the neck
long, making sure the front of your neck and your throat is relaxed.
STEP 2: BREATHING
When singing, sound is made by pushing air through your vocal chords which makes them vibrate. Increase the capacity
of your lungs by expanding your ribs using the intercostal muscles (between the ribs). Don't think about taking in air, rather
focus on expanding your ribs and you will take in air automatically. When you start to sing, support your ribs by holding in
your abdominal muscles.
STEP 3: WARM UP
Before you start singing, you need to warm up your voice like an athlete warms up before a competition. Here are three
exercises to do this:
STEP 4: LIP ROLLS
You're going to make a "brrr" sound by relaxing your lips and singing through them. Starting at a comfortable pitch, using a
small range and expanding your ribs between each repetition, ascend semitone by semitone and go as high as you can.
STEP 5: VOWEL SOUNDS
Making the phonetic sounds A, E, I, O, U, sing a slightly more complex scale. Again repeat up the octave. Keep your jaw
relaxed and your mouth open.
STEP 6: "MI" SOUNDS
This time use a full scale, using the sound "mi". This will help you get into your higher register. Take quick breaths
between each exercise. This will help to strengthen your intercostal muscles.
STEP 7: PERFORMANCE
Having a nice voice is one thing, communicating the meaning of a song is quite another. Make sure you annunciate your
words appropriately, pronouncing consonants clearly and energetically. Also use your face to communicate the meaning of
the words. Think about what the song means and allow those feelings to show in your facial expressions.

HOW TO ELIMINATE THE NASAL SOUND WHEN SINGING

That nasal twang may represent a fine country western song but it doesn't work for everyone, so singing teacher Sonia
Jones demonstrates some techniques to eliminate sounding nasal as you sing your favorite ballad or pop song.
How to eliminate the nasal sound when singing: The most important thing is not to sing through your nose. The holes in
your nose are too small so the sound is too thin and it gives that "Aaaahhhh" and I don't like it. So, any good singing
teacher will tell you not to sing through your nose.
So, try using the placements instead, so it's "Aaaahhhh" which are the cheeks and you've got all this space and then a
nicer sound comes out, because the mouth has got a much bigger hole then the nose. So, it's "Aaaahhhh" instead of
"Aaaahhhh." A lot of students, when they come to me, do sing through their noses, and it's because they think it sounds
poppy, and that's how the Americans sing, and they're trying to copy, and, which, where in fact, if you think of the
American and Canadian accents, they talk from there, the roof of their mouth, not through their nose, so sometimes my
pupils do get confused and I get rid of the nasal sound immediately.
And this is a mental thing and I get my pupils to go look in the mirror and put their finger in their mouth and go,
"Aaaahhhh," so they're singing from the roof of the mouth instead of "Aaaahhh," which is quite a horrible sound. And that's
how to eliminate the nasal sound when singing. .

HOW TO SING VIBRATO

If you want to sing like a star, you might want to try out these basics.
Hi, I'm Sonia Jones. I'm a professional singing teacher and I'm going to give you tips and advice on how to sing. This is
how to sing vibrato and Abel is going to demonstrate this for us.
No sliding when you hit the note. Hit the note straight, okay. This is a technique Beyonc uses quite a lot and it for the
ends of lines and it's that controlled.
You want this, throwing your voice forward and backward, forward and backward, and it's quite a technique you have to
work your muscles to get that and I'll show you how to do that in a second. Now, the next thing I want to show you is how
to use your diaphragm and of course, you've got to exercise your muscles and I think the best way to do that is by singing
arpeggios and I'll demonstrate that now. It's very important when you're doing these arpeggios to find a little muscle here
and, do that acapella for me, so you're working the muscle.
So, you're working the muscle here so you strengthen. .

HOW TO SING BASS

In this video, you're given the chance to hear a good bass voice and to learn the techniques to improve that quality of
singing.
Hi, I'm Sonia Jones. I'm a professional singing teacher and I'm going to give you tips and advice on how to sing. Okay, this
is how to sing bass.
Obviously, it depends on the range of the vocalist. But if you have a good bass voice, this is how to improve it. So, Abel is
going to demonstrate this with me again.
Basically, we're using this placement coming into your body so the body takes all the work in the diaphragm, and we've
got all this big area here for the note to vibrate. So, the lower we go, the more we need to pull it down to our body, okay.
Bring it down.
And that's mentally quite challenging because singing is all up here. It's using your knowledge to where to put the notes.
Just like on any other instrument, you have to know how to play the piano, you have to know the chords to play the guitar.
It's the same with your vocals. So, by putting your bass and pulling it down as far as you can, then that's how you get a
better bass sound. .

HOW TO TRAIN A HIGH TENOR VOICE

Singing opera can be tough if you've got a bass or baritone voice, but that doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to the
lower end of the scale. This video shows you how to train your voice to tenor, using just a few simple exercises. So, even
though grabbing those high notes may seem impossible at first, with a little hard work, you too can sing like Pavarotti.
I'm going to talk to you now about how to train a voice to sing tenor. Tenor is the highest male voice that goes bass, then
baritone, which is what I am, then tenor at the top. The ability to sing highest is obviously crucial to being a tenor.
And there are lots of little exercises you can try to find out whether you actually are one. But now, I'm going to talk to you
about a couple of issues which are specific to training a tenor voice. One quality that is really characteristic for tenor voice
is something called imposto, it's an Italian term that refers to that kind of ting or buzz that a lot of singers have.
Tenors really rely on this sound. It comes from accessing the resonance in the nasal cavity. A really good exercise to do
this is this one.

So, you start on an NG sound, an "ing" sound, and slide all the way up to the high note, and then release. If you do that
and you maintain your support all the way through, you should find that you have a full-bodied sound that you open up to,
but you'll keep that nasal buzz. Another key thing that tenors need to learn how to do is to sing in the "head voice".
The "head voice" is that light part of the voice that lies in between the "chest voice" and the "falsetto" sound; sounds a bit
like this. A good exercise for accessing this is this. So, making a very light sound, you slide up and down a fifth.
Make sure you always slide between the notes. It's a way of maintaining the connection between the middle of your voice
and the next place, the "head voice" that you're trying to get into. As you get higher up in the voice, you'll hit the
"passaggio" which is the break where the two voices meet.
What you'll want to happen when you get to this point is the larynx will want to rise. You'll want to keep that nice and
relaxed to maintain the freedom in the sound. It'll feel like it's wanting to narrow, but don't worry, go with that and you
should emerge out to the other side into this really light, airy, spacious "head voice".
Negotiating the "passaggio" is a really key issue to singing tenor. Tenors spend a lot of time in this register. It's not just
about getting to the high note.
It's also about how you negotiate the space in between. To do this efficiently, you need to slightly modify the space at the
back of the throat, where the pharynx is. The easiest way to think about that is going from a kind of open "ah" shape, to
singing "o" at the back of the throat.
So, going - so I want you to do this little exercise, the same one we did before, but with a bit more sound behind it. Now, at
that pitch, we can keep the sound open, but as we get higher, we need to start applying this modification. So, take that
exercise up, step by step.
When I get to that high note, I need to change the space at the back, and I basically go from singing "ah" at the bottom, to
singing "o" at the top. That's how to sing in the "passaggio". .

HOW TO SING HIGH NOTES

It takes practice and not forgetting the essentials of singing if you want to reach the high notes. This lesson guides you
through singing those high notes with ease.
Hi, I'm Sonia Jones. I'm a professional singing teacher and I'm going to give you tips and advice on how to sing. This is a
basic way how to sing high notes and not sing from your throat.
So, for singers should stop singing from their throat, it's basically good to use the tongue. So, we got this heee so we
use this placement here instead of haa and you see how haa erupts on the vocal chords. So, we're going to go, so
demonstrate for me and stretch to the high notes.
So, stretch this, this is the higher placement. Stretch some more. Look in the mirror on your mouth.
Bigger mouth. Stretch on the top now and so on. It's another thing to practice.
To hit high notes as well, it's very important to get the right shape in the mouth and the tongue is a very important part of
singing. So, if you sing ah, it's to come from here and to pull up, the higher you go, imaging the note is - try the top C for
me. Keep it up there and watch my hand.
(Jodi, try top C for me, okay.) Now, hold it up and that's controlling the note and it's all in the head, knowing your
instrument, really.