Episode 350: How To Set Your Singing Practice Up For Success
Do your singing practice sessions always feel like a big let down? You went into the practice session with all kinds of high hopes and commitment and dedication - but it's really frustrating when you aren't sure what to do next and you aren't even sure if you sound good.
Your singing practice sessions - they are personal - and it can be really difficult to try to figure out what to do next or think practically when you just feel like you want your singing to get better fast...and it isn't
On today's episode, I'm going to share some practical resources that you not only need, but DESERVE, in order to make your practice sessions successful.
Links
Episode 349: How To Design Your Perfect Vocal Warm-Up
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
- You spend so much time trying to make your singing better - have you ever considered how to make your practice easier and more effective?
- 7 FREE Resources that will not only support your singing practice, but encourage creative practice sessions.
Full Transcript
Do your singing practice sessions always feel like a big letdown? You went into the practice session with all kinds of hopes and commitment and dedication, but now it got really frustrating because you don't like how you sound and you aren't sure what to do next. And you're not even sure if you are meant to do this, or maybe your practice sessions, like don't even exist.
You know that you're supposed to be practicing to get better because that just makes sense. Right. But you aren't even sure what to do. Now you're singing practice sessions. They are personal and it can be really difficult to try to figure out what to do next or. Think practically when you just feel like you want your singing to get better fast, and it isn't.
So on today's episode, I'm going to share some practical resources that you not only need, but deserve in order to make your practice sessions more successful. Welcome to the Star Singer Podcast, taking singers from overthinking and overwhelmed to loving your voice and singing. yourself and the way that you sing.
I'm Tiffany van Bokstel. And in the last 17 years, I've taught one on one lessons to as many as 50 singers a week. That's thousands of voice lessons. And I'm so excited to share what works. because singing is simple, you're just over complicating it. So let's get started.
All right. So the first thing that you can do to set your practice sessions up for success is to have an awesome warmup. And last week we spent an entire episode talking about warming up and outlining your practice goals. That was episode 349. One of the other things we talked about is also having vocal warm ups, vocal exercises that not only warm up your voice, but they're helping you to practice the concepts and the muscle memory that you need in order to just become a better singer.
So don't forget to grab my free Foundations of Singing Higher course, which is honestly just Foundations of Singing. In general, I'm going to leave that link for you inside the show notes, and that's going to be a really great thing where you can just push play, listen to the coaching on there, and do those proven vocal exercises that I've literally used with hundreds of singers.
They work, they're magic, and they're going to work for you too. So this is going to be a great addition to the But do listen to that episode because it's going to go much more in depth into Designing a perfect warm up because that's really one of the first things that sets up the training, the training session for success.
Alright, so now let's go into some resources that you deserve to have in your practice session. And a lot of these, I think when we list them out, they might sound like no brainers, But I've been working with singers for a really long time and, you know, sometimes they'll come to their voice lesson and they won't have these things and I'm like, how are you even practicing without these, these resources, without these tools?
So that's really what today is going to be about and you don't want to miss it. So first of all, let's talk about having a lyric sheet in front of you. So this is going to be, you know, after you do your warmup and you're starting singing your song, a lyric sheet can be a really effective resource. If you are working on memorizing, right?
It can also be an effective resource if you're trying to figure out where to breathe and to create phrasing. It can also be really useful if you are circling and moving to the important words, because I teach singers that When you move to the important words, you can shape the phrase in a way that makes it easier to breathe, easier to control your pitch, and easier to control your tone.
And it's more effective for the meaning of the song. And when you have a lyric sheet in front of you, even if you're memorized, you can do this more effectively because you're learning in a visual way. And you can go ahead and circle those words, or you can make any markings that you need to. Other creative ways that we've used lyric sheets inside voice lessons or inside practice sessions is, for example, when a song is like really fast, I was working on a really fast song the other day with one of the singers that I work with.
It was by Legron. I can't remember the name of the song, but it was super fast, like almost rap like. And it was like, It was just so fast that what we decided to do was to go to YouTube and use YouTube to slow the song down a little bit because YouTube has a feature where you can actually slow the song down.
So we slowed the song down to like 0. 7 speed or something like that and that was enough where it didn't distort the pitch and we could work on But the problem was that this particular YouTube video didn't have the lyrics up. And so having a lyric sheet or, um, yeah, it was just really useful. The other thing is a lot of people use their phones for things like YouTube.
And when you use your phone for YouTube, then you don't have your phone for a lyric sheet. So printing out a physical copy, Of this can be really, really useful. I've also used a lyric sheet inside of practice sessions to do emotion mapping, which is where we really start to develop the performance. And we write down emotion words for each stanza.
And when you're working on a song, no matter if you're memorized or not, when you're rehearsing a specific part, you don't really want to burn brain calories on having to try to memorize it. So having a lyric sheet there for you can be super duper helpful. All right, in addition to this, if you happen to have the sheet music, like maybe you're singing in a choir or maybe you're singing in a church worship band that happens to use sheet music, this can be really helpful too.
Even if you don't have any experience reading sheet music, you can at least get the reference. On sheet music there's things like measure numbers and a lot of measure numbers can be divided into rehearsal sections which have a measure number inside of it. And that can be a really good place to kind of separate your practice and to group the song into parts.
It can also be really useful if you're rehearsing with a group or a band and you can start to watch the notes as they go up and down. And even if you don't understand how to completely read music, the sheet music can be a really good visual aid if you're trying to memorize the piece, if you're trying to get used to it.
It's just seeing something is a really effective way of learning it. And since you're singing it, you're hearing it. Now you get to read it as well. This can be really useful. So sheet music kind of goes along with that lyric sheet. And the one thing about sheet music that can be really helpful too, is sometimes when you're in a band or you're in a group, or especially a choir, There are multiple parts to sing, and you might not know which part you're singing simply by listening to it.
Well, if you have the sheet music, you can get together with your band leader or your band or your church worship leader and say like, Hey, which line am I singing? And they can go through and highlight that for you. So you can follow along with the line that you're supposed to be learning. And that can be very, very helpful as well.
Alright, let's get on to accompaniment. So, accompaniment is The accompaniment. It's the music that's playing behind you that's supporting your performance. An accompaniment can take many forms. Maybe you are accompanying yourself. You're playing piano and you're singing. Maybe someone else is playing guitar for you as you're singing.
Maybe you have a karaoke track that you're singing with there. These are all forms of accompaniment, but whatever it is, you want to make sure that it is supportive for you. For example, some karaoke tracks are just bad, right? You know what I'm talking about? The sound quality just sounds really lame and some karaoke tracks even have the melody line like Like shadowing in the background or playing over your voice and this can cover up your voice accompaniment is meant to Collaborate with your voice.
So we have things like the piano and your voice coming together to make this awesome performance The piano isn't supposed to be covering up your voice It's supposed to be highlighting it and you and the piano are supposed to be going together So when you are choosing a karaoke track, for example, because I feel like this is the one that you might have least control over when you play for yourself, that's.
One of the best case scenarios, because you have complete control, but now you're focusing on playing an instrument and singing at the same time. And that can take a lot of practice in order to get comfortable with it. So sometimes one of the best ways to start is if you know a fantastic piano player or a fantastic guitar player, and a really good guitar player and a really good piano player can follow you, especially if you're doing a good job being a leader, as a singer.
And this can be honestly one of the most supportive ways to perform because you know, they've got your back. You're creating a beautiful song together in real time. And it's awesome. Sometimes we don't have these resources on hand. And so a karaoke track or an instrumental track is honestly the best way to do this, but there are limits to it.
For example, it's not going to follow you in a way you kind of have to follow it, which isn't ideal for singers. But a karaoke track can provide a lot more support than you just singing acapella without any music at all. It can feel a lot more comfortable to have a track to follow along with and, and sing with, but you want to make sure the track is supportive.
If there are multiple karaoke tracks as options in YouTube or wherever you get your karaoke, Or your instrumental tracks. Choose one that you like. You know, you might find one and you're like, Oh, this tempo is a little fast. Well, try a different one. And again, it's, it's not a perfect option. But you have the option of trying different tracks and finding the one that will be supportive for you.
Sometimes you just sing with a track and you're like, yeah, this one feels really good. And sometimes you do it and you're like, eh, eh, this just, not, it just doesn't sound right. And you're not quite sure why. And that's not important, but you do need to try out a couple of them and find the one that'll be most supportive for you.
Overall, this is going to really help your skills as a singer. And knowing all of this about accompaniment has probably changed your perspective. Because if you're singing with a track and you're like, man, I just suck. I can't follow this. Like why? Oh, it just does. It just sounds bad. It must be me. Well, what if it's not you?
What if it's just that the track isn't supportive for what you're doing and you need to find another one, right? Give yourself resources that are going to make you feel comfortable and confident as a singer. Not take away as a singer. Okay, another thing that can be really helpful and really supportive I find this especially if you're singing in a choir or you're singing in a church group or you're singing in a band if you can get someone to play your melody line on the piano or play your melody line on the guitar just Isolated so that you know what it is that you're singing That you want to sing.
I've worked with a lot of singers who, you know, the band will just be like, here's the original song and you happen to be a female, let's say, and the original song is a man singing and your band has decided to change the key. And they're just like, yeah, go practice it. And then, yeah, come, come to, come to rehearsal and we'll, we'll sing it together.
Now, I mean, That's fine. If you're at a certain level, you could probably do that, but especially when you're changing keys That can be really hard on muscle memory. I mean, I've been singing for a really long time. I'm an excellent musician I read music, you know, I've done a lot of backup singing a lot of harmony singing and Still sometimes when a song is transposed when we move to a different key Especially if you've heard that song many, many times before on the radio or that sort of thing.
There's a sort of muscle memory that happens in your ears and in your body. And when that song is moved to a different key, there might be something about it where it just doesn't feel right at first. And I've even had situations where I'm like, I can't, I can't even find that note like that. And I have to go back to the original and figure out, you know, what syllable, Oh, that one starts on me.
Okay. Now we're in this key. I'm going to find where me is and we're going to start singing on that note. You know, and that was with a lot of experience. Sometimes my voice was just like, where is this? And I had to go back and use my brain to find where that note started. But a lot of singers don't have, you know, if you don't have that ability, Okay.
That's totally cool. You know, I've been studying for 20 years. I have a degree in vocal performance and a degree in music education. And so I had to learn music theory and I have the skills to figure this out. But if you don't have the skills to figure it out, it can be really frustrating. And you might think, man, I just, I'm a bad singer, but you're not, it can be really, really challenging.
So when you're in a situation where someone. Someone changes the key. It can be really helpful to have them play that melody line in the new key so that your voice can start to work out in that key. And you can start to develop the new muscle memory that you need, because it's going to feel weird to you.
It's going to sound weird to you. And that's totally normal. And you deserve a resource where you can practice on your own. Before you come together as a band, before you come together as a choir, right? Maybe you don't meet read choral music, but you've been asked to sing second soprano in your church's choir And that second soprano harmony can be pretty tricky sometimes i'm not gonna lie Or any any harmony or even the melody line if it's not something that you're used to ask the director Hey, could you play this on the piano for me and give me this resource?
That's what I do for the singers in my voice lessons whenever they have a choral piece or Whenever they're singing a solo You know, sometimes, especially if it's on sheet music or especially if they're singing a harmony line, they might need, or if they're singing in a foreign language, a melody line can be super, super helpful.
So give yourselves, give yourself the resources that you need. Okay. Last thing I'm going to talk about is to make sure that this is not, this is not a requirement, but it's kind of a requirement. You should have a Bluetooth speaker that can play volumes that are louder than your phone, right? Because as singers, when we sing, we are incredibly efficient.
And if you're singing quiet, we've talked about how that limits your voice a lot. And so if you're singing, you know, let's say with this karaoke track on your phone or that, that piano track that your choir director gave you to practice your part and you're singing on your phone and you're trying to hear it and you're also trying to sing it and you're putting it up to your ear, but it's not getting loud enough.
And so you're holding your voice back. That's not good. That teaches you to hold your voice back. It teaches you to really, you know, follow instead of lead. And it just, it's not as helpful as it could be If you were able to turn the volume up just a little bit. So I highly recommend getting a Bluetooth speaker or some, you know, they're not even that expensive nowadays where you can just crank it up to a volume where you feel like you can simultaneously sing comfortably loud and hear it at the same time.
This is honestly one of the biggest things that you could do as a beginning singer or even, you know, an expert singer, intermediate singer, whatever level you are at. But I can foresee this being the most helpful for, you know, a beginning level singer, someone who's trying to get comfortable singing louder.
You can't sing louder. Well, you can, but most singers will not sing louder if they can't hear that they're doing it correctly, or if they don't know the melody. Or if they're trying to follow the music, they're just, you're going to hold your voice back to try to hear the music and sing with the song or sing with the track.
So one of the most important things that you can do is get yourself a Bluetooth speaker and play it at a volume that you are comfortable with. All right. I know these resources are. going to be super helpful for you, you deserve them. So the next time you come across one of these situations that we talked about, think how can I support myself?
How can I ask for the resources that I need? And me being a vocal coach, I give and I tell you the resources that you're probably going to need and I help you and I supply them and you know it's my job to be thinking about the things that can really, really support you. As you're training and a lot of people that you work with musicians and bands, choir directors, worship leaders, they're either not going to have the time.
Or they're not going to have the foresight to just offer you the resources that you deserve. And so don't be afraid to ask for these things. Don't be afraid to take initiative and print out the lyrics and bring them or whatever you need to do. Okay. It's your job to set yourself up for success. All right.
I'll leave you with that and we'll see you next time.
