Similar to a guitar player plucking one note and then building it into a chord, learning how to harmonize will create that rich, full sound when you’re singing with a group or a choir.  Think of it this way: imagine a “band” made up of just one lone clarinet player.  It might be a good solo, but add in the low tubas and high flutes, and presto – it’s a whole new experience for the listener.

Singing harmonies, however, can be tricky.  Lead lines may come easy to beginner singers, but excelling at harmonies requires an understanding of note relationships and chord formations. Finding a great voice teacher, therefore, is a must if you really want to improve.

As you get started, check out these tips from the Eclectic Musician blog, another great resource for singers:

1. Put on some music and start experimenting with your voice. Harmony is, essentially, multiple pitches at once. One way to proceed is to put on a favorite song and start singing whatever comes to you. Try some high notes, low notes, long tones and short tones. By definition if you are not singing the melody (i.e., the tune) you are singing harmony.

2. If you are having trouble breaking away from the melody, drop the words. Listen to the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”. During the first verse, it’s just Paul singing alone. In the second verse, on the word “minute,” the other guys come in singing “ahhhhh.” Think about how much easier it is to just pick a note and stick with it, rather than come up with a distinct harmony line! Still, it’s completely legit. You can add aaahs and la la las to just about anything to practice.

3. Learn existing harmony parts. If you have the opportunity to sing in a choir, you will learn a specific harmony part to sing against the melody (unless your part actually is the melody). This is a great way to experience how singing harmony is supposed to feel, and develop the independence to stick to your part even when someone else is singing a different part.

Also, seek out the harmony parts in the music you listen to. You might start with call-and-response type songs (if you’re not Gladys Knight, you’re a Pip – can you pick out your part?) and then try out some closer harmonies where two or more parts are moving together in the same rhythm. If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong – pick stuff you really like.

Continue reading the article for additional tips here.

Readers, what do you think? What tips have you learned when it comes to learning harmony?  Share them with the community – stop by our Facebook page and leave a comment!

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Even if you’re technically just standing still, in reality your whole body is working when you’re singing.  Your muscles are active from your head to toes as you stand straight and tall.  Your blood is pumping and your abdominal muscles are definitely engaged as you inhale and exhale.  Basically, your entire body is your instrument! Pretty cool to think about.

We love these recommendations from the Finding My Singing Voice blog – consider adding these unconventional “warm-ups” to your routine:

1. Drink water – Most singers already know how essential proper hydration is, but just the act of swallowing is beneficial, too.
2. Drink hot tea – For singers with allergies, tea can help to wash down phlegm and clear the nasal passages. Other hot drinks will also work, but watch out for too much caffeine – it can dry the vocal cords. Tea has additional health benefits (it’s loaded with antioxidants) and half the caffeine (or less) of coffee.
3. Yawn – Yawning is the ultimate throat and palate stretch!
4. Stretch – Singing involves the whole body, and unnecessary tension anywhere can have a negative effect on the voice. A good side stretch can help open up the ribcage and free up your breath. (See also: Can Yoga Help You Sing Better?)
5. Meditate – Mindfulness meditation is the practice of focusing the mind, usually by observing the breath and disengaging from thoughts. It’s a great way to calm anxious nerves and tame self-criticism.

Now it’s your turn – what other activities or routines do you practice to get ready for a performance?  Head on over to our Facebook page and share them!

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If you don’t master the art of proper breathing, it will haunt you throughout all of your lessons, practice sessions and performances.  This is one skill that you can’t fake!

The most important step is learning which muscle movements are associated with singing.  Your voice teacher can show you how to monitor yourself and recognize the difference between shallow and deep breathing.  Outside of your lessons, here are 3 steps to remember for correct diaphragm singing:

1 – Breathing exercises. Even as you practice singing every day, you must practice breathing for at least ten minutes. Sit on a rug on the floor with legs folded, your hands resting lightly on your knees. Inhale slowly until you feel the air reaching your stomach expanding it . Hold the breath as you count to ten in your mind. Then exhale as slowly as you inhaled. This exercise is a must for any aspiring singer.

2 – Check breathing while singing. Keep your palm on your solar plexus (abdomen) when you start singing simple scales. If you are breathing properly then you will feel your palm being propelled outward with your stomach movement. This can help you get control over your voice and improve your singing technique.

3 -  Sing with an open mouth. Just as we realize the need to take deep breaths, we should also allow air to flow out freely while singing. So it is important to sing with your mouth open and your throat muscles relaxed. This helps with proper diction, voice throwing and volume control.

For additional tips and information, we recommend this SingingLikePros.com article. Looking for music lessons? Search for a voice teacher near you and learn more about the TakeLessons program!

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While many conductors see vocal warm-up exercises as just that – warm-ups – Shaw saw it as precious time to sharpen singers’ techniques and work on acting as an ensemble.  For Shaw, warm-ups should be both effective and relevant.

Chorus America has a great article about Shaw’s technique (along with some great audio clips) that is definitely worth the read.  Below are some of the highlights from the article, explaining some of the exercises Shaw used:

1. Vowel Unification: A single pitch, sung in unison (or octaves) on the nonsense syllable, “noo.”  Begin on a moderately low pitch, such as E, and move down by semitones. This exercise allows the singers to concentrate on nothing more than basic vowel unification and tuning.

2.  Divisi Textures: Two, three, then four pitches sung on “loo” or “noo,” creating a whole tone cluster. Singers may also sing on “nee” or “naw” or move from “nee” to “aw.”  This exercise is useful for determining balance issues in two-, three-, and four-part divisi textures. In addition, the dissonance created by the cluster pitches is preferable to more consonant intervals because one can more readily determine if one voice part is overbalancing the other voice parts.

3. Intonation: Beginning on a moderately low pitch such as E, move up a semitone in 16 pulsed unison pitches (effectively dividing the semitone into 16 separate notes, with each sung almost imperceptibly higher than the last). For even more intensive ear training, a minor third relationship between lower and upper voices may be used.

4. Changes in Acoustics: Beginning with a unison pitch on “noo” or “nee,” change vowels rapidly ad lib while slowly turning 360 degrees. This forces the singer to listen acutely in order to maintain a consistent pitch as the acoustics in the room change.

5. Tone Color: Begin with unison pitch on “nee” with an overly bright vowel. Crescendo and darken the vowel. Do the exercise again, beginning with a tone that is too dark, gradually brightening the vowel during the crescendo.

Readers, what other strategies do you use for your vocal warm-up exercises? Leave a comment below or head on over to our Facebook page! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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Allergy symptoms can vary person to person, but common woes include itchy, puffy eyes, sinus issues, a scratchy throat, and an itchy upper palate (roof of your mouth).  If you suffer from severe allergies, it’s best to go to an allergy specialist to help you combat the symptoms (make sure to mention that you’re a singer).  But even if your symptoms aren’t severe, they can still be frustrating when you need to practice or if you have a performance coming up.

So what’s a singer to do?  Here are a few great tips from ForeverSinging.com that may help:

Take Medicine
If you are having trouble with your allergies, or perceive that you will have trouble with allergies in the future, be proactive! Start taking allergy medicine as soon as you feel an attack coming along.  Allergy medicines dry up your sinuses, allowing you to sing without have to worry about mucous covering your vocal cords and hindering you from singing to your full potential.

Precautionary Warning: Drink plenty of water after taking the medicine. Not drinking water after taking allergy medicine can be just as bad as singing with allergies. If you find that medicine dries you out too much, you may want to forgo the medicine route and use a more organic medicinal approach to relieving allergies, such as taking Vitamin C pills.

Drink Herbal Teas
Herbal teas have a wonderful way of clearing out your throat of any excess mucous. Add a touch of honey to your favorite herbal tea to enhance the experience. Teas can soothe your vocal cords and allow you to approach singing without a fear of cracking or breaking.

Take A Shower
If all else fails, take a long and hot shower. This will get your sinuses flowing and hopefully release all the excess drainage from your system. Drink some water after the shower (or even your favorite herbal tea) to remove any leftover drainage on your vocal cords.

Proper training and breathing exercises can also help, so don’t be afraid to speak with your voice teacher to get additional ideas! Of course, if you’re really feeling the strain, take a day off. The voice is an incredibly delicate instrument, and unnecessary stress may cause problems that will follow you for the rest of your life.  As the saying goes, it’s much better to be safe than sorry.

Readers, what tips do you have?  Share with the community – stop by our Facebook page and leave a comment! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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One common beginner strategy for singers in particular is to practice recognizing intervals, or the pitch difference between one note and another.  And by associating them with common songs, you’ll find it easier and faster to learn them.  Here’s how to remember a few of the essential intervals:

Major Intervals
- Major 2nd: Silent Night
- Major 3rd: When the Saints Go Marching In
- Perfect 4th: Amazing Grace
- Perfect 5th: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Major 6th: NBC theme
- Major 7th: Somewhere Over the Rainbow (1st and 3rd notes)
- Perfect 8th (octave): Somewhere Over the Rainbow (first 2 notes)

Minor Intervals
- Minor 2nd: Jaws theme
- Minor 3rd: Greensleeves
- Minor 6th: The Entertainer (3rd and 4th notes)
- Minor 7th: Star Trek theme

As you practice, sing each interval and really internalize the difference.  As simple as it sounds, actively listening is one of the most important parts of learning to sing.  Alternately, listen to someone else sing the interval and see if you can determine it on your own.  You can also practice the notes using solfege syllables, or do, re, mi, etc. (think of the Sound of Music song!).  As always, practice makes perfect, and working with a trained voice teacher can help you pinpoint where you might be struggling, and how to best help you learn.

How do you practice intervals?  Where do you struggle the most?  Post a comment below, or head over to our Facebook page and join the conversation! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive daily updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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Thinking about auditioning for a show like

There are many of us out there that dream of making it big as a singer. The great thing about the day and age we live in is that your life can be changed in a second and your dreams can come true. With shows like American Idol, The X Factor and The Voice, more singers than ever are closer to being heard by a nation. With that in mind, there is a lot of work and preparation needed to get to that point.

This past weekend I auditioned for The Voice at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Overall, the experience was fantastic. I waited in line only about an hour and a half, and then literally walked in, sang and left. Though I sadly did not get a callback, I did leave with a better understanding of the process and what to expect from a television competition.

I went into the audition with a teacher’s mindset; how can I better prepare my students for an audition of this caliber? Here is what I learned from my time in Los Angeles:

1. Seek advice and training – Taking singing lessons will definitely help you be ahead of the game in these types of auditions. Having natural talent is fantastic, but if you rely solely on natural talents you may find that your overall performance is lacking. Find a good voice instructor and let them guide you to your goals.

2. Go in with your best – Make sure you sing the best part of your best song. Often times you will only get one verse and one chorus to show exactly how amazing your voice is. With that in mind, make sure you do your research. You have something special about your voice and you need to find a song that best shows that off.

3. Know the show - As with any television audition, it is essential that you know something about the show. Do your research and look at the songs people are singing. Do any of those songs fit into your range? Could you rock that song better than someone on the show? What are they wearing? Use the show as a resource to prepare you for the audition.

4. Come with your “A Game” – Though you may have to wait in line for some time, you need to be ready to go at any second. Make sure that you drink lots of water, do some humming and keep your voice warm, especially if you will be waiting in line outside. Do everything you can to be well-rested before the audition. This is your opportunity to shine!

5. The Voice is literally looking for “The Voice” - This may seem obvious, but when you go into the audition you are told that there is something particular that they are listening for. While they don’t tell you what that exact type of voice is, you do get some insight into the fact that you may be phenomenal but still not the “right” voice for the show.

Singing is becoming a bigger deal in the television world and as you prepare yourself for your auditions make sure you remember how amazing you are. It’s all too easy to let your nerves get the best of you. With that being said, get up, practice and get out there! You are the only thing coming between your reality and your dreams. You have it within you to be great, so let’s see it!

Bryan B. teaches singing, theatrical Broadway singing, opera voice, music performance, acting and music theory in San Diego, CA.  He is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, (NATS), the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA)

Sign up for lessons with Bryan or one of our other certified instructors here.  Questions?  Comments?  Share your thoughts below, or check out our Facebook page and join the discussion!

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Still not convinced? Here are some additional benefits of including scales in your vocal warm-ups, as noted on SingingPros.com:

1. Scales For Strength and Stability
Use scales to help increase the strength and stability of your voice,  one note at a time.  Choose the most comfortable note for you to maintain, take a breath and sing the one note.  Hold it for as long as possible and keep it as steady as you can.  Do this a few times, and then move up or down the scale doing the same thing for each note.  If you have problems with a note, make sure you remember which one, and practice it more often to help it equal the other notes.

2. Scales to Improve Diction
The singing exercises that improve your diction, or the ease in which one pronounces words correctly, are also usually simple scales, but incorporate more mouth movement.  As your voice moves up and down the scales, your mouth moves to make similar sounds.  Some diction scales may include small little verbal exercises such as, ‘My mother made me mash my M & M’s.’  For this particular example, you would increase in scale to the word “mash” and then go back down.  The similarity is in the M’s that are being repeated throughout the exercise.

3. Scales for Flexibility
There is only one way to really increase the flexibility in a voice or to maintain the flexibility that you do have.  This is a form of ‘jumping’ scale that can assist your voice in brief staccato notes that jump around.  For instance, if you were to sing ‘la-la-la-la’ and every note you sang you skipped one, increasing then decreasing over a series of 8 notes, you would hit every note in your scale.  The next time you do this, you could start with a slightly higher or lower pitch.  Doing this throughout your vocal range will keep flexibility in your voice, and is actually quite enjoyable to do and hear.

What warm-up exercises do you like the most?  Sound off on our Facebook page and join the discussion! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive daily updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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As most musicians know, truly learning a piece of music requires more than just recognizing the notes and lyrics on the page.  As a singer, your job is to know the phrasing and structure of the song inside and out, and also communicate the emotions to the audience using your attitude, expressions and movements.  This may be easy for a well-versed singer, but if you’re a beginner still learning proper breathing and posture, it can seem a bit overwhelming.  Don’t worry – here’s a great list of the 6 steps to learning a song, as originally posted on Performance-High.net:

1) Learning lyrics, melody, phrasing and structure
This means just knowing “when to sing” and “what to sing” to get through the song start to finish successfully, even if you have to think about it.

2) Internalizing lyrics, melody, phrasing and structure
Know how it all goes without even thinking about it.

3) Fine-tuning:  pitch, when to take a breath, enunciation, etc.
Most songs offer some kind of new challenge.  Even when you know how it goes, depending on where you are as a singer you may still need to fine-tune pitch entrances, runs, fast passages, enunciation, or where to take a breath.

4) Interpretation
Dynamics.  Attitude.  Vocal texture.  Emotional expression.  What are you going to do to make this song interesting and expressive?

5) Performance
Does the song merit movement?  Interaction with band members?  Emphasis of hits or breaks?  Is there a solo where you’ll step back as lead singer and let the focus be elsewhere?

6) Ownership
After you’ve performed a song live for a certain amount of time, it finally “gels.”  You figure out how to sing all of it in your style, you get inside of it, you relax into it, it becomes “yours.”  That takes time, and also requires the previous steps.

What other tips can you think of that have helped you master a song?  Leave a comment below and share with the community! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive daily updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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She was truly one of a kind, and she inspired – and will continue to inspire – many singers and artists.  And while you may or may not have Whitney’s amazing vocal range, taking a moment to evaluate your own range is one important lesson we can learn from her.  What if you can’t quite hit a certain note?  Well, the beauty of being a singer is the ability to adjust a song as needed, without the complicated process of transposing the notes on paper.  Since a song’s key plays directly into the energy of the song, as well as your ability to sing it well, it may make or break your next performance!

Here are a few questions to ask when choosing a key to sing in:

What are the lowest and highest notes in the song?
Determine the song’s range.  Make sure to fit the song within that range.  If the song’s range is larger than your range, you might be able to change the melody a bit to rein in the notes that are outside your range. Make sure that when you sing the lowest note, you aren’t pushing at all.  And make sure that you don’t have to strain to sing the highest note. When you think you’ve picked the right key, make sure to try at least one whole step up and down in each direction, to be sure.

What is the song’s genre?
Sultry jazz with a small combo?  You can probably afford to place the song nearly as low as you can comfortably sing it, if you want to, because you don’t need much volume.  Pop?  If you are singing a Christina Aguilera cover, you might want to go high.  Rock?  Put it wherever you can sing the loudest – unless you are part of that rare rock band that actually plays at a medium volume.

What will the performance volume likely be?
This depends partly on the genre, but also on the musicians themselves, as well as the sound engineer, room acoustics and other factors.  But if it’s loud rock music, you might as well forget your lower half octave or so (unless it’s very strong), because your lower notes may not be powerful enough to be heard at all in a loud setting, and you don’t want to push on them!

On the other hand, if the performance volume is extremely low – such as in an intimate restaurant – you may not want to choose songs that take you up into a higher range if you have any trouble controlling your volume, or if you sound at all strident, in that range.

Do you need to mask any technical challenges?
Sing the song in the key you think you want to sing it in.  Does it present any technical challenges for you, such as flipping back and forth over a break you haven’t yet smoothed out completely?  Does it tempt you to get caught in a forced chest voice, or sing in a weak range?  If so, you can either: (1) Use this key and this song as a great exercise for addressing these technical challenges, or (2) change the key to avoid the problem.

It all comes down to this:  How do you sound?
The single best thing you can do is record yourself singing in each key you’re considering, and see how you sound.  As a vocalist, you should record and listen to yourself as often as possible.  You have the only instrument in the band which you hear completely differently than everyone else, because of resonance in your head.  You need to hear yourself as the rest of the world hears you, not as you hear your voice bouncing around in your cranium.

Singers – what other tips can you share for aspiring performers?  Leave a comment below! Like these posts?  Sign up to receive daily updates right to your inbox!  Click here to subscribe.

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