Vocal Coaching
I am often asked to teach voice lessons for church members. While they are willing to pay for these lessons, I just do not have the time to teach lessons on a regular basis. I often do agree to work with someone for a little while just to give them time to decide if they really want to pay to take lessons from a voice teacher. Music lessons are not cheap, typically $25-40 for a half hour private instruction. Lessons through a college or a specialty music school can cost even more. While many parents are willing to spend this much for their children, they often are wasting their money because their children do not spend the necessary time at home practicing.
Unlike a classroom setting where some practice time is built into the lesson plans such as in mathematics, music lessons are not meant to be a time of practice for your child. This was an expensive lesson for me to learn. In High School I drove 90 miles to the University of Southern Mississippi each week to take trumpet lessons from one of the professors. I had not practiced that previous week, but I did not want to cancel my lesson. After less then 10 minutes into my hour long lesson, the professor told me that we were done for the day. I looked at him with confusion. After all, I was paying for an hour lesson, I drove an hour and a half to get there, and I would drive another hour and a half home. How could he only spend 10 minutes with me and tell me to leave. My instructor looked me in the eyes and said, you are wasting my time and your time if you do not practice before your lessons. I was also told that if I ever came without being prepared again he would drop me as a student.
In general, about an hour a day needs to be set aside for practice. 15 minutes of that would include warm-ups, 30 minutes of actual practice, and 15 minutes for a cool-down time. Obviously your instructor will determine the actual length of practice time for each student.
Vocal Training Tools
While seeking voice lessons from a qualified vocal coach is the best route, there are many tools that can be used at home for self instruction. If you are working with a vocal coach, ask them about these and other resources before using them on your own.
- I would strongly recommend the Vocal Coach website for some practical information and products.
- Every singer should have a copy of Vocal Ease by Dave Williamson. This vocal exercise CD is excellent for teaching breathing, sweeps, pronunciation, accuracy of pitch, lip limbering, head tone, etc.
- Music Made Easy is a great free source for learning to read music. I have found that often times vocal students are weak music readers.
- Before purchasing music to sing, you need to establish the correct range. There is a free YouTube video for Finding Your Vocal Range that can help you get started. Avoid songs that are well outside of your range at first. Trained singers can work to stretch their range with vocal techniques that will not damage their vocal chords, but beginners should never attempt this or risk permanent damage.
- The most common vocal book is the Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias collection by Schirmer.
- I would also recommend a collection of Stephen Foster folk songs
- Every singer needs to have a pitch app for their iPad or other OS device with mic. Erol Singers Studio Voice Lessons has some really good ratings and does more than simple pitch training.
Warm-Up Routine
One of my favorite breathing exercises is to put a small piece of paper (about 2"x2") against a flat wall (avoid walls with any texture) and try to hold the paper against the wall with only your breath. Generally people use up all of their air very quickly at first and must learn how to control the amount of air that they expel in order to keep the paper on the wall. As a trumpet instructor, I would use a $5 bill and tell the student if they could keep it against the wall for one (1) minute they could have the money. Few ever succeeded. Breath control is absolutely essential to great singing.
You can check the strength of your diaphragm by putting your fists directly below your rib cage and in the small of your back as you breathe. Ask someone to do that for you and then try to force their fists out without lifting your shoulders. If you do this you will know you are breathing with the correct muscle. If you have not been breathing properly, you will get light-headed and could possibly pass out from strenuous breathing exercises.
After breathing exercises, spend about 10-15 minutes vocalizing using the Vocal Ease CD mentioned above or with simple scales, sirens, yawns, sipp-hisses, sweeps, oogahs etc. Many vocalese exercises can also be found online for free. Nothing vocally difficult or range stretching at the beginning. You can build to those once warmed-up vocally.
Cool-Down Routine
It is important that you do not skip the warm-up or cool-down exercises as part of your practice times. If you are short on time that day, spend at least 5 minutes on breathing, 5 minutes on vocalese exercises before practicing and then spend at lease 5 minutes on vocalese cool-downs and 5 minutes on breathing again after your practice. This means that you must plan on a minimum of 20 minutes just for the warm-ups and cool-downs. Add to that 15-30 minutes minimum for actual practice time on techniques, vocal control, pronunciation, phrasing, mouth shaping, memorization, etc.
There is no guaranteed method to becoming a fabulous singer, but you will never make it there without giving due diligence to practicing your art. Even if you have no visions of grandeur and only want to be able to sing solos in your church, or perhaps you have a natural talent. Remember that God expects us to give Him our best in all things. Failure to build up your talents through practice will not honor God. Shortcuts are never a worthy offering for God.
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