Inside the voice (Chapter 5: Improving singing technique)

Before you start to teach singing technique, it’s important to learn how the different parts of the voice affect the vocal sound. To help you with this, we recommend you read Inside the voice Chapter 2, which tells you all you need to know about the workings of the voice.

Chapter 5 will then help you understand how improving singing technique is about:

• developing efficiency of voicing

• developing isolation and fine control over muscles. 

It also describes how good posture is critical for good singing. If you can draw an imaginary straight line through your ear, shoulder, hip, knee and foot, then you are standing with a good posture. There should be a natural S-shaped curve to your back, requiring minimal muscular effort to stay upright. If your body is out of this alignment, the breathing muscles are hindered and the larynx may be in tension. 

The chapter then outlines a set of exercises to help improve singing technique, covering: 

• posture and breathing

• efficient voicing

• avoiding constriction in the larynx

• exploring tone onsets

• singing with a clear tone

• easing register breaks

• releasing jaw and tongue tension

• exploring resonance

• exercising the soft palate. 

Click the ‘Inside the voice (Chapter 5: Improving singing technique)’ link below to find out more. There are also video demonstrations of many of the technique exercises.