Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Maintaining a singer's lifestyle
• Part 2 of 3: Controlling your breathing
• Part 3 of 3: Training your voice
• Tips

Would you like to have a singing voice like Christina Aguilera or Kelly Clarkson from American Idol? To become a great singer, you will have to take good care of your body both during and after singing. With practice, hard work and lifestyle changes, you too can develop a beautiful singing voice.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Maintaining a singer's lifestyle

1. Provide systemic hydration. You probably learned in the past that your voice originates in the larynx, also known as the larynx. The larynx contains a number of muscles, the "vocal cords" that are covered by mucous membrane (epithelium). In order for the vocal cords to vibrate properly and to produce a clear voice, you will have to keep this mucous membrane well moist. Systemic hydration means that you provide all tissues of your body with a healthy amount of moisture.
   • Long-term hydration is much more important than short-term hydration, so filling up with water the day before a performance makes little sense.
   • Drink at least 8 glasses of pure water - no tea or soft drinks - every day.
   • Avoid drinks that dehydrate you, such as anything with alcohol or caffeine.
   • Drink extra water to offset alcohol or caffeine.
   • Avoid all types of carbonated drinks, even those that don't contain caffeine, if you experience regurgitation.
2. Get hydration from the outside. In addition to maintaining your fluid balance through sufficient drinking, you can also keep the vocal cords moist and healthy through external means.
   • Drink 8 glasses of water in sips throughout the day instead of large amounts at once. This ensures you of external hydration.
   • Chew gum and suck hard candies to keep your salivary glands busy.
   • Occasionally swallow some saliva to clean your throat without scraping, which is very bad for your vocal cords.
   • Make sure your environment also stays moist. If you live in a dry climate, you can buy an inhaler for steam at a drug store, or hold a wet cloth over your mouth and nose for a few minutes.
3. Rest your voice regularly. You may love to sing, but if you want to do it right, you will need to rest from time to time. Just as athletes rest a muscle group the day before they start training that muscle group again, you need to rest the muscles that produce your voice to avoid harming them by overloading them.
   • If you are practicing or performing 3 days in a row, take a day off.
   • If you're practicing or performing for 3 days in a row, take two days off.
   • Avoid speaking as much as possible if you have a rigorous singing schedule. Watch this from day to day.
4. Do not smoke. Inhaling smoke, whether this is because you smoke yourself or secondhand smoke, dries out the trunk tires. Smoking can also reduce the production of saliva (important for keeping your throat moist) and increase regurgitation, which can irritate the throat. The main effects, however, are decreased lung capacity and function and increased coughing.
5. Have a healthy lifestyle. Your body is your instrument, so you will have to take good care of it. There is a correlation between obesity and poor breathing control, one of the most important skills a singer will need to master, so don't overweight by sticking to a healthy diet and lifestyle.
   • Avoid dairy products that cause excess mucus production, causing you to scrape your throat.
   • Avoid excessive caffeine or alcohol, both of which dehydrate your body.
   • Eat enough protein / protein to handle the training of your vocal cords, which will be depleted by using your voice regularly.
   • Exercise regularly to maintain your weight and improve your lung capacity and breathing control.

Part 2 of 3: Controlling your breathing

1. Understand how breathing works. The most important muscle to be aware of is the diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle that extends across the bottom of your rib cage. The contraction of the diaphragm (inhaling) pushes the stomach and intestines down to make room for air, and it lowers the air pressure in your chest, allowing air to flow into your lungs. You exhale by simply relaxing the diaphragm again, allowing air to flow out of your lungs naturally.You can also keep your diaphragm under tension, against the stomach and intestines, to control the extent to which you exhale. The latter method is very important for singing.
2. Be aware of your breathing. For more control over your breathing, you will need to be fully tuned in to the inhalation and exhalation. Find a quiet place, free from distractions, where you can sit for a few minutes each day, and just focus on how the inhaling and exhaling feel.
3. Practice withdrawing your breath into your body. Many people breathe very shallowly, which does not help breathing, so you will need to learn how to breathe in a way that will make the most of your lung capacity.
   • Take a slow, deep breath, feeling the air descend through your mouth and throat into your body. Imagine that the air is very, very heavy.
   • Visualize pushing the air all the way down to below your navel before exhaling.
   • As you continue with the reps, inhale faster and faster. Keep imagining that the air is heavy and push it down to the bottom of your stomach. Feel your abs and lower back expand.
   • Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. When you inhale, make sure the hand on your stomach moves more than the one on your chest - you should hear the air push deep into your body, not superficially into your chest.
4. Practice holding air in your body. After taking a deep breath and pushing the air down into your body, try to hold the air in your body and gain more control over it, without making it uncomfortable. Try to extend its duration further and further.
   • Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, making sure to draw the air into your stomach as you did in the previous exercise. Try to hold on for a count of 7 and then exhale.
   • Repeat this several times.
   • Over time, try to hold your breath longer without it feeling uncomfortable.
5. Practice exhaling. Exhalation exercises are very important to produce stable notes; if you do not have enough control, your voice may deviate while you are singing.
   • Inhale deeply through your mouth and push the air towards your stomach.
   • Instead of letting the air flow out again at its own natural pace, keep the diaphragm contracted so that you can control the amount of exhalation.
   • Take 8 seconds to let all the air out of your lungs.
   • When you are done exhaling, tighten your abdominal muscles to force the rest of the air out of your lungs.
   • One of the most important parts of improving breathing is making sure we exhale completely.

Part 3 of 3: Training your voice

1. Do vocal warm-ups before you sing. You also do not go running before you have done some stretching, because otherwise you will injure your leg muscles; the same principles apply to the muscles you use for singing. Before you seriously strain the vocal cords, your voice will have to be warmed up first, so that you don't overload it.
   • Humming is a great way to make singing in full easier. Before you start singing it is important to hum some scales.
   • Vibrating your lip warms up the muscles involved in exhaling and prepares them for the controlled breathing needed for singing. Keep your lips pressed together and squeeze air through to make a sound like you're cold: brrrrrrrrr !. Go along your scales in this way.
2. Practice your scales. While singing songs is your ultimate goal, you should practice on the standard scales every day. This gives you control over your voice and makes it easier to intonate and move adjacent and further apart notes with ease.
   • Listen to YouTube videos to make sure you hit the right pitch for the notes you need to sing.
   • Practice singing scales in ranges higher and lower than what you can easily achieve to increase your vocal range.
3. Do pitch hitting exercises. These exercises, such as step chanting of intervals, help to move easily between notes without getting out of tune. An interval is the distance between two notes and there are many different exercises you can do to train your voice for this. The seven major intervals are major second, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, major sixth, major seventh, and the pure octave. Examples of exercises for these intervals are easy to find online.
4. Record yourself singing. Sometimes it's hard to hear what we actually sound like when we're singing. Record yourself singing scales, practicing intonation, and singing your favorite songs to hear what this actually sounds like. You can't get better if you can't hear what you're doing wrong!

Tips

• Have fun! When auditioning or performing, choose songs that you like and know well.
• Never drink cold water before singing. It will shock your vocal cords and make you sound awful. Try room temperature water, but warm tea is best.
• Don't be afraid of your own voice. If you think you can't hit a note, give it a try anyway. You never know!
• When you get started singing words, articulate! The clearer your pronunciation, the better you will sound.