The Mechanics Of Your Voice
Every note in a person’s range is like a different floor of a building. In order for the elevator to stop at the right spot, those floors have to be built and marked out, clearly separating one from another, otherwise the elevator will stop between floors, and hence, the note you sing will be either sharp or flat.

The way to build these floors properly in the first place is through the practice of scales and various arpeggio exercises. Consistent scale practice means that if you ever accidently hit a bad note, you will be able to swiftly and smoothly adjust the note to the right pitch without anyone noticing.

The engine room that powers you vocal “elevator” is your lungs. Most people when they breathe only inhale oxygen into the top third of lungs. But in order to be able to sing long phrases, we need to develop our air capacity by practicing special exercises. These exercises help expand the amount of air we can take into our lungs whilst simultaneously strengthening the muscles that provide structural support.

Your internal and external abdominal muscles and your diaphragm are crucial in supporting your lungs as they expel the air in a controlled manner. Without them, the air would escape in a splatter of inconsistent sound. One of the most difficult things to learn in singing is how to tense these muscles whilst relaxing the external muscles of your throat. It’s kind of like learning to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time.

Your throat and neck muscles act like the tracks or beams that your vocal “elevator” goes up and down on. If these muscles are locked or tense in any way it makes it difficult for the elevator to travel smoothly, and that tension is then heard in the resultant sound as it is projected.

The last aspect of the vocal mechanics has to do with the shaping of sound into recognizable words and phrases. We all know how to speak, just like we all know how to breathe. But again here, the name of the game is trying to develop our efficiency and technique. How we pronounce our vowels and consonants, our diction and “topping and tailing” (how we start and end notes) all come under this heading.

At first, seeing and hearing about the larynx, vocal folds, soft and hard palates, diaphragm and resonance areas can seem a little daunting and off putting, and singing scales and arpeggios can definitely sometimes feel boring and repetitive. But at the end of it, the results are more than worth it. A little bit of work can bring a world of results. Your voice has the potential to bring not just you, but so many others as well so much joy and happiness, and that’s a gift you will be able to take with you for ever.

Singing and Your Emotions
A lot of people find it very difficult to sing when they’re feeling down and out. It’s as though when they lose they’re spark and enthusiasm, they lose their voice as well. One of my goals is to retrain your brain to associate singing with feelings of happiness, calmness, relaxation and confidence. So that whenever you’re having a bad day, singing will actually act as a release from negative emotions you are feeling.

The way that I do this is by taking the student through short meditations. The aim is to take them to a peaceful place in their minds, and then get them to imagine that they are singing and that all of the calmness and release they are feeling is because that is the way singing makes them feel. After a short meditation, the student is asked to write down a few positive affirmations about their own voices. For example;

You might think it all sounds like a lot of bollocks, but research has proven time and time again, the power of the mind. In a recent study it was shown that more than ninety percent of the world’s most successful athletes and businessman all used creative visualization techniques. That being, that they visualized in their minds their success in a particular endeavour before they actually achieved it.

I have seen the results first hand with many of my students, and it is nothing short of amazing. Confidence is such an integral part of singing, and having belief in your voice and your abilities is just as important. If you don’t believe you can sing a certain note or phrase that has been giving you trouble, you won’t be able to sing it. You have to believe you can do it first.

Think about the greatest singers of the last forty years who have moved you the most. The names that usually come to mind are Van Morrison, Lennon and McCartney, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklyn and Deborah Harry. Very few of these of these singers are what you would call “technically proficient”, but what they all have in common is the passion, the feeling and the confidence with which they sing. Robbie Williams isn’t even close to being the best singer in the world, but he believes he is, and while you’re watching him you find yourself believing he is too.

Have you always wanted to learn how to sing, but were too embarrassed to get lessons?

Does your family tell you that “…you sound like a cat being strangled!” whenever you try to sing along to your favourite songs on the radio?

Would you like to be able to sing your children or grandchildren off to sleep with a lullaby?