Recommended Physical Exercises for Singers

Whether you sing on live appearances or any practice sessions, you want to maintain stamina, flexibility, and concentration, which are some needed elements of a successful singing performance. You could certainly perform well with just committing to vocal practices, but you could gain more benefits by regularly engaging in physical exercises. Different physical exercises, if done properly, can target areas of your singing practice, like maintaining breath support, correcting posture, and sustaining focus. They also help singers develop mental endurance as singers cope with and overcome stress in discipline of practicing and performing. As you gather your elements, here are some recommended physical exercises for your vocal health:

• Jumping rope: If you can never find time to work out or gym membership is too expensive, get yourself a jumping rope. With this one, you can bring it everywhere and jump for  five to ten minutes each time. Regular rope-jumping helps with building breath control and upper body strength.
• Jogging: This one helps you maintain proper pacing and posture if done properly overtime. When you are doing a regular jog on a straight path, pay careful attention to your arms. Keep them as loose as possible in order to prevent them from locking up, which can lead you to be out of breath.
• Calisthenics: Including push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups, various exercises in this area can improve your agility, balance, and coordination. In order to achieve this, watch for tension in your neck and shoulders because it will affect your voice. Therefore, you want to make necessary adjustments between your hands as you do push-ups, and your lower back as you perform sit-ups, for example.
• Swimming: As it is necessary for singers to drink enough water, it provides free flowing therapy for anyone including those that are not even good at it. For those who are concerned or have problems with ear infection and sinuses, they should wear nose and ear plugs in order to take advantage of great stimulation around their body. For example, swimming under water for a prolong period helps you build endurance in your lungs.
• Yoga: Starters would need to take classes or have 1 on 1 sessions in order to take advantage of exercises that can energize and relax your body at the same time. Once you are proficient with practices that incorporate such things like variety of body poses, shoulders' works, and breath-works, you can apply those in your personal routine. Routine yoga practices offer some useful benefits like increasing breath control, preventing illness, and decreasing stage fright.

Like vocal exercises, you want to start from warming up to proceeding gradually. Bear in mind that any physical exercises that you adopt in your fitness regimen need to focus on helping you to become a better singer. A singing teacher or a vocal coach like Brett Manning in Singing Success can always help you achieve this along with a physical trainer or a yoga teacher. Any coach will also likely to advice you against overtraining since it will increase the risk of bodily injury that would also affect your vocal health. For your vocal health and your well being, remember to warm up and start slowly, then have a period of rest and relaxation after all the activities. 

Remedying Voice Loss - Few Tips on Restoring Your Singing Voice

Losing your voice is considered disastrous whenever you have to prepare for an upcoming gig. Generally unavoidable, voice lost is caused by variable factors including infection caused by common cold virus, strain on vocal cords caused by excessive yelling, and reflux caused by stomach acid. For more on possible causes, refer to the post on Few Things that Could Harm Your Singing Voice. Fortunately, there are always remedies, but you cannot rely on any as quick fix. In any situation, whether you have an upcoming performance or periods of rest, here are some tips on restoring your singing voice:

• Rest without whisper: Having more rest is not only necessary to recover from sickness, fatigue or any ailments, but it also lets your vocal cords to recover from any damage. During this time, you should refrain from using your voice, including avoiding any conversation, skipping vocal practice, and whispering. Whispering can be as worse as shouting, but if you have to talk, do so normally and briefly.
• Hydrate to lubricate: Drinking plenty of room-temperature water is good enough to consistently lubricate your throat and water can flush any unwanted toxin out of your system. Additionally, you can treat yourself to some herbal tea and fruit juices. While they might be helpful, you want to watch for and avoid drinks that can cause acid reflux.
• Eat with care: Just like drinks, you also want to avoid or minimize spicy food intake, since it can not only cause acid reflux, but can also burn your throat, which makes it difficult to sing higher notes. Minimizing the effects of discomfort food, avoid going to bed not long after you have your dinner or avoid eating late entirely. For more about healthy consumption and healthy diet, check out Important Nutrition to Maintain Vocal Health.
• Relax with therapy: While you are resting at home, get yourself a bowl and fill it with hot water. Then sit back and relax as you breathe the steam out of that bowl. Another relaxing therapy is taking a hot shower, which is also a good opportunity to soothe your vocal cords.
• Warm up gently: If you have to prepare for an upcoming show, gently warm up your voice by doing simple humming and lip rolls. When you find your voice weakening or tightening, take a break and repeat the process again without forcing yourself. Then, an hour before the performance, practice the simple vocal exercises again by gradually running through the scales.

Whichever remedies you rely on, it generally takes time for you to recover your vocal strength. For certain vocal health issues, you may want to consult a specialized doctor (ENT) just to be sure. Consulting with a vocal coach/singing teacher like Brett Manning in Singing Success is considered the best source since he/she can relay an experience of having to perform under sickness. If your voice is not cooperating with you even after simple vocal exercises, it's better to call off your appointment right away. Then, get yourself comfortable and recover with a twist. 

Few Things that Could Harm Your Singing Voice

Almost every singer would experience any vocal ailments whether it's due to abuse or misuse, exposure to climate variances, certain food & drinks, or other factors. Vocal ailments like hoarseness, laryngitis, and vocal nodules are unfortunately part of your learning process to become a better singer. As long as you try to improve your vocal range, perform in many gigs, or practice any routines, you will somehow experience some vocal discomfort. Like anything else, this can certainly be prevented. Going along with the idea of prevention, let's take a look at few things that could harm your singing voice:

• Alcoholic beverages: Alcohol is a type of drugs that will impact your judgment, if it is not consumed in moderation. Just like the case of driving under its influence, too much of it can numb your senses and it will contribute to the bleeding of your vocal cords. Therefore, an advice of any vocal teachers still hold: Never drink alcohol before any singing performances or you'll be reckless and sorry.
• Cough cough: Coughing is unavoidable when you are sick or have a cold, but too much of it will contribute to damaging effect if you don't treat it promptly. Treating it, get an over the counter cough suppressant and take it with some water to soothe your throat. You may also want to consult with an experienced vocal coach about an effective cough treatment.
• Relief medication: Relying on aspirin, antihistamines, and other over the counter products to relief allergies, bodily aches or cold can easily cause dryness and other damage on your throat. Instead, consult with a doctor or a vocal coach for a better alternative in anticipation of a singing performance. Otherwise, it is best to keep yourself and your voice a rest.
• Acid reflux: This refers to the back flow of stomach contents up to the esophagus or throat, which can often leave bitter taste in your mouth. It would make it difficult for you to hit high notes as you might have to cope with other discomfort like hoarseness, frequent coughing, and persistent throat clearing. Treating it requires changes in lifestyle and avoidance of food and drink that might cause heartburn and difficulty in swallowing, such as caffeine, spicy food, and dairy products.
• Loud shout: Shouting as a cheer or to get an attention in a basketball match is different than screaming or yelling in singing, but either one can hurt your vocal cords. The former should be avoided as much as possible and if you really need to get someone's attention from a distance, just use non-verbal cues like clapping, waving, or whistling. The latter requires practicing some techniques like making a scratchy sound, raising and lowering pitches repeatedly, and flexing your diaphragm.

The list is not exhaustive, but you should be well aware that too much of everything can generally be detrimental to your vocal health. Protecting it simply requires avoidance or moderation of certain consumption. Also, knowing and practicing proper singing techniques can lessen the damage to your vocal cords. Additionally, a doctor and a vocal coach like Brett Manning in Singing Success can offer advice on how to cope with any vocal discomfort. Whenever possible, they would advice that it's best to rest than to force it. 

Important Nutrition to Maintain Vocal Health

Water and plants are two elements of nature that should cover the basics of nutrition. This does not mean that aspiring singers should all become vegetarians. Even if you are a vegetarian, you still need proteins, vitamins, and fat, which most people can easily get from meat and poultry. Whether you eat meat or just veggies, proper nutrition with above elements is vital for your development as a better and stronger singer. So, let's take a look at some elements of important nutrition that can help you to maintain vocal health:

• Water: Not many of us can follow the general recommendation of drinking 8-10 glasses every day, but you want to at least drink enough to hydrate your throat consistently. It depends on how much you utilize your voice other than singing. Other than water, drinking various herbal teas, fresh fruit-juices and any non-alcoholic & non-caffeinated beverages will help protect your vocal folds.
  

Simple Tips to Maintain Vocal Health During Summer Months

High temperatures/humidity during summer months won't deter anyone from participating in outdoor concerts/festivals or going on extended travel. Even with lots of joy and excitement, your health may be vulnerable due to variabilities of air quality, pollutants, and other environmental elements. Your body has to adjust to any environmental variabilities like room air conditioning, sun, and wind. Whether indoor or outdoor, any aspiring singers should not only practice to improve their vocal range, but should also exercise to maintain their vocal health. The following are some simple tips to help you maintain vocal health during summer months:

• Eat healthy diet: Avoid the perception that you have to spend more money on preparing a healthy diet. Preparing food from scratch and eating more fresh fruits & vegetables actually can save you more. Consuming healthy or balanced diets helps you avoid fatigue, increase stamina, and recover from stress quickly among many benefits.
• Drink plenty of water: You don't need to follow general recommendation of drinking 8-10 glasses a day. It depends on your summer activities and whether or not the heat exposure makes you rely more on water intake. Drinking at least few glasses of water can not only hydrate your throat, but it can also assist your body's immune system and fend off any hoarseness or scratchiness in your voice.
• Exercise regularly: Not having enough time in your daily lives should never be an excuse for not exercising regularly. You can always do simple exercises like walking, jogging and practicing yoga. Exercising regularly will give you benefits like improving your mood, preventing diseases and illnesses, and managing your overall health.
• Rest easily: You may try to work harder by having a very loaded schedule to meet ends meet. Whether engaging in any summer activities, working at two jobs, or having lots of important things going on in your life, you should not underestimate the importance of rest. Having proper and enough rest will cool down your stuffy head, cure any vocal ailments, and boost your immune system.
• Take natural supplements: Getting used to following healthy routines like above, you don't need to be concerned about other things. Taking additional supplements like vitamins, protein, and herbs should be useful in promoting and boosting your health. In regards to maintaining vocal health, recommended supplements involve balm (to soothe and relieve soreness in the muscles), essential oil (to cool and refresh your body), and Prime Again (to combat cold and allergies).

You can certainly find other healthy tips on maintaining vocal health through Brett Manning's Singing Success. Brett Manning and other vocal coaches are there to assist you with not only improving your singing voice, but also maintaining your vocal health. Due to differences and variabilities in each season, you should follow any healthy tips all year long. Once you get into routines of exercising regularly, maintaining healthy diets, or resting easily, things will be easier during summer months. You will appreciate your healthy body and a solid voice. 

How to Sing in Key? Lifting Up Your Singing Potential

There are few simple tricks that can help you learn to sing on pitch. They complement this post. There are also other posts about mastering various aspects of vocal techniques.

Like many singers who have auditioned in American Idol or other talent shows, you have not been able to sing in tune with or without a musical instrument. You might have been going too high or too low on interpreting notes. This could be due to the lack of singing practice, which leads to possible lack of knowing proper techniques, lack of learning one's own voice, and lack of practicing different voice exercises. For further reading on the above topics, check out Vocal Exercises for Singers, Improving Vocal Range, and Additional Tips to Singing Better. They can lead you to figure out how to sing in key.

Visit Brett Manning's Singing Success. Ask other members in online forum. Sign up to learn with a vocal coach who can help you with figuring out how to sing in key. 

In order to dig deeper on how to sing in key, you simply need to routinely practice your voice. Also there are some important tips mentioned in other posts that will be discussed here again. The following will provide some ideas on how to sing in key:

• Recording and playback: If you haven't done this, pick up a voice recorder and a microphone. You can also sing with a piano (if you have one) and record yourself. Listening to a recording of your voice is a simple step towards learning what is not right and how you would improve it.
• Breathing and relaxation: This should go along routinely when you perform any vocal exercises/warm ups. You should make an effort to breath constantly before, in between, and after each exercise. To help you breath and relax better, take some yoga classes where you can also learn some relaxation techniques.
• Vocal ranges and pitches: It is somehow necessary for you to learn about chest voice, mixed voice, head voice, relative pitch, and perfect pitch. They are basically the skills for you to master different notes and to become a better listener/interpreter. You can learn them yourself or take a voice class.

Sing with Confidence. In order to get there, you need to master the skills suggested. If you need help, visit Singing Success today and sign up for a lesson.

Figuring out how to sing in key is also figuring out how serious you are with singing. In order to lift up your singing potential, you should do what have been suggested in other posts and ideas above. Going along with all ideas and suggestions, you should consider taking vocal/singing class traditionally or online. A vocal coach and your classmates in a singing class can provide better support and help you learn better. You may also learn better through video demonstrations if you choose to take online vocal lessons.

Additional Tips to Singing Better

There is a revised version of this post. Click Here for tips on how to sing better from experts and vocal coaches. Also, learn to sing better with helpful tools.

Among all tips to singing better, the very simple one is to just keep practicing. But you still need to be efficient in your singing practice, or you would be wasting your time. Many proper techniques and tips to singing have been covered in other posts. Just read and scroll through Vocal Exercises for Singers, Improving Vocal Range, and Improving Singing Voice with Online Vocal Lessons. Here are some additional tips to singing:

• Sing from the diaphragm: It is highly recommended that you practice yoga to facilitate breathing into the belly. It will take some practice to develop the diaphragm muscles to the full potential of balancing the air flow and vocal tone release. Overtime, you will sing effortlessly.
• Come out with style: Professional singers and vocal teachers will tell you to come up with your own unique style. While your idols may inspire you, your style needs to have the dynamics of ups and downs. This means that not only you develop skills that cover your potential range, but you also develop your artistry.
  How to Become a Singer With a Unique Voice -- powered by eHow.com
• Master different areas of voice: You need to play around with low, middle, and high areas of your voice. In other words, it is imperative that you master chest, head, and mixed voice. Without elaborating on each term, mastering them is a key to developing an artistry in your voice.
• Think before you jump: What story would you like to tell your audience and how do you plan to show it? With other possible questions, you should study your songs first and your planned performance. Then when you go out there to tell different stories, you would know how to execute your signature style.
  Stage Presence Tips: Planning -- powered by eHow.com
• Try something different: You don't want to get too comfortable with familiar routines just because it is too difficult to master certain exercises or notes. You need to switch things up a bit, manipulate notes or exercises, and go for them. If one does not work, get some criticism and feedback from other aspiring singers and vocal teachers.

Many tips to singing presented doesn't stop here. You can try some of these tips here and other posts, but it is more efficient if you have a partner or a vocal coach. Another tip that you can do is posting a video of your singing voice in online social media like Youtube and MySpace. Ask for any criticism, comments and feedback. Review them for your singing success.

Improve Singing Voice with Online Vocal Lessons

Competing in a talent show, performing on Broadway musical, or just singing better requires you to focus on specific areas in order to improve singing voice. Unless you are very proficient in doing it yourself, a vocal coach either through traditional classroom instructions or online vocal lessons will help you learn better. With online vocal lessons, there is no time/deadline pressure. That is a big advantage over taking a traditional vocal/singing class. You can also get plenty of assistance and feedback from an online community of aspiring singers.

Visit Brett Manning's Singing Success now. Learn about the site and its tools. Sign up for lessons that can improve singing voice. 

Do It Yourself First

You should always have at least a voice recorder, a notebook (or notepad on your computer), and a microphone handy for every singing practice. Then, you need to develop certain routines that would facilitate your singing practice and your quest to improve singing voice. Some routines should involve:

• Vocal exercises (warm ups): It could be lip buzzing, humming or other exercises. Just focus on one or two that you are comfortable with. Then gradually move into a difficult one.
• Proper techniques: When practicing different notes, avoid straining your vocal cords to avoid the potential of hurting your voice. Other areas of importance are posture and breathing. They will go along together as you monitor your breath.
• Healthy habits: As it is necessary to do your warm up or vocal exercises, you should also do some regular exercises for your overall health. Some recommended exercises involve yoga (for the sake of breathing and muscle relaxation), sit-ups (for the sake of your diaphragm muscles), and swimming (for the sake of stamina). Going along with physical exercises and your vocal practice, it is necessary to drink plenty of water each day.

If you need help with developing routines and do not want a deadline pressure, find some online help. Sign up at Singing Success. Learn about the site and utilize its tools. 


Taking Online Vocal Lessons

Listen to your recordings and take notes. Assess whether you are in tune with the music, whether you are breathing correctly, and whether you struggle to reach certain notes. These and other assessment you might have are points you should consider when choosing an online singing program. Other things to consider involve:

• Vocal coaches: You may need to connect with more than 1 vocal coach. Find out from others about their success rate, their teaching style, and their specialty. Certainly, you want to be able to learn with coaches you are comfortable with.
• Online forum: This is useful for finding out anything about a singing program, a coach, and your difficulties. You should make use of this tool to get some help and feedback about your singing potential. Bear in mind that when using this online forum, you should avoid any discussion unrelated to singing.
  
• Video lessons: Learning from a video demonstration is more effective rather than just reading and memorizing texts. You can go back to and watch any repeatedly. It is also possible that video lessons involve webcam sessions.

Visit Brett Manning's Singing Success. Check out its online forum and make yourself at home. Sign up for video lessons.

Online vocal lessons allow you to learn at your own pace. Consider it as an investment to protect a good asset, which is your voice. Make sure that you utilize any tools provided in order to maximize your success in improving your singing voice.

Recommended Routine to Improving Vocal Range

Having difficulty reaching certain notes is very common as you practice your singing ability. Singers like Taylor Swift, John Mayer, and Hayley Williams may inspire you to do better. If you want to be successful like them, one of singing practice you should do is improving your vocal range. You should not think of improving vocal range as a separate time consuming practice. It should go along nicely with any warm up/vocal exercises.

Interested in video lessons that can help you with improving vocal range? Sign up now at Singing Success and get some coaching. 


Just like when you do any warm ups or vocal exercises, you should utilize things like empty spaces, headphone, and voice recorder. Also, you do not need to force your vocal cords or simply you do not need to force yourself to master a difficult note. Improving vocal range should come naturally overtime by just following some simple and recommended guidelines below:

• Exercise your breathing: Prior to doing any warm up exercises, try to breathe in while pushing your stomach out five times. Then start with singing the lowest comfortable note. When moving to higher notes, increase breath intake gradually and try to sing without straining your voice.
• Practice singing scales: Pick songs that have both higher and lower pitch. You could sing them while you do your breathing and warm up exercises. Practicing higher to lower notes and in between will make you familiar with chest and head voice.
• Learn to sing lower: If you have difficulty singing lower notes, just relax. Just remember to breathe in slowly as you access your chest voice. As you practice, you will learn vibration in your notes.
• Sing higher notes: Like singing lower, you should not force yourself too hard if you have problem with higher notes. Start practicing your head voice by singing vowel sounds like short a or e sound. As you feel vibration at the back of your noise, you want to avoid having the vowels to sound nasally.
  
  How To Sing High Notes on Howcast
• Record, listen and learn : At least once in a while, you should record your practice efforts. Listen to areas that could use some improvement. Always try to relax and not force yourself so you don't practice for nothing.

Try to do the above exercises yourself first. If you want help with improving vocal range, visit Brett Manning's Singing Success. Consider learning from a vocal coach. 

If you haven't done this, look for a huge empty space. You don't need to scream. Also, find places that let people sing and hear other people sing. You will be able to get some feedback and hear how others do it. After all, improving vocal range does not have to be very difficult.

Few Simple Vocal Exercises You Should Practice for Your Singing Success

There is a revised version of this post. Click Here to check out Vocal Exercises for Singers plus two additional ones. Also check out other posts, tips, and tools on vocal mastery and musicianship.

Before coming up on a stage, singers will certainly need to prepare well for a successful performance. Not only that well prepared singers memorize notes and lyrics to songs, but they also need to do some routine vocal exercises to improve their singing.

Improve your singing by getting familiar with variety of vocal exercises for singers.

Singing on stage is like running on a marathon. Runners put a lot of strain and tension around their leg muscles after prolong periods. They need warm up exercises as part of their preparation to stretch out their leg muscles. If not, they will get tired easily or be prone to injury. In the case for singers, routine vocal exercises help with stretching out diaphragm muscles in preparation for any prolong singing activity.

There are many different techniques to vocal exercises for singers. They require some practice. Here are some recommended ones:

• Humming: Usually done with closed lips, singers can utter any sound like hmmm..., mmmm..., and ngng.... They should experience buzzing sensation during this time. Regularly practicing this helps with stretching their vocal cords, adjusting the voice to various pitch ranges as needed, and avoiding unnecessary damage to the voice.
• Nays: The word 'nay' should be practiced by keeping the tongue resting on the back of bottom front row teeth. It is somehow associated with the word 'nasty' since singers need to keep it sounding that way. Overtime, this exercise helps singers developing solid vocal cord closure, producing a balanced sounding tone, and developing a smooth connection between chest voice and head voice.
  
• Lip trill: Singers would practice the bubble sound that typically comes out during swimming or underwater. Also known as brbrbr... exercise, singers would blow air out from the lips and let their lips vibrating to the air supply in a relaxed manner. Mastering this brbrbr... exercise helps singers developing better diction when singing, relieving some pressure off vocal cords for easier and safer warm ups, and warming up their diaphragm and its surrounding muscles for better breath control and support.

Check out Singing Success for help with mastering above exercises and discovering other types of vocal exercises for singers.

Prior to practicing any warm ups or vocal exercises, any aspiring singers should not overlook any simple steps that can facilitate their practice. They will in turn become part of the routine for rehearsing a successful performance. Here are some of them:

• Maintain proper posture with relaxed shoulders when standing up
• Breath slowly during natural pauses
• Sing one note and hold it as long as possible
• Sing ma, me, mi, mo, mu to improve diction (an example of singing phrases)
• Record efforts, learn different sounding notes, and repeat steps

Visit Brett Manning's Singing Success and get connected with professional vocal coaches. They will help you master any of the above steps or other exercises. They might assist you in discovering the right vocal exercises not discussed here.

There are lots of vocal exercises for singers, but it doesn't mean that you have to master 100 of them. If you are serious of becoming a successful singer, you cannot skip the routine of warming up or practicing any vocal exercises. Mastering them on your own may be challenging and time consuming. A vocal coach either through a traditional class or online support can assist you in your vocal development. Through online support, you can learn at your own pace, which may be beneficial for your singing success.