Stage fright manifests itself in many ways leading up to a performance and can really have a  negative effect on your whole life.

The thought of getting up in front of lots of people may make you feel tense and nervous.  You might start doubting your ability and potential. As the gig comes closer that fear may even progress to nausea, panic, and the desire to call the whole thing off.

This level of fear could easily derail your singing career if you don’t address it quickly. Even mild panic and a worry about singing in public can limit your full potential so it’s definitely worth doing something about it as soon as you can.

Did you know that countless people list public speaking as the biggest fear in life? And of course, singing takes that a bit further as you really need to express yourself effortlessly to make it work.

There are many reasons why singers and artists get stage fright and I hope that you can make use of the stage fright tips listed below. These are in no particular order, just find one that works for you and then add more
for total confidence.

STAGE FRIGHT TIPS

Other Singers Too

Remind yourself that many artists also get stage fright and that a little bit before you go on is a healthy thing to keep the edge on your performance.

You’re Not Alone

Remind yourself that many members of the audience also have some levels of apprehension about public speaking and that they’ll show empathy to an artist who is challenging themselves.

Tell yourself that it’s okay to be a bit nervous and that you are on stage to provide a gift to the audience. You are going to sing with your heart to people who want to hear someone sing with their heart.

It’s not judgment day, it’s a day to have fun and entertain people with your unique voice and presence.

Permission To Be Yourself

This tip is a good one that has worked for me…. Give yourself full permission to be yourself on stage! Don’t try to be like one of your idols or anyone elso for that matter as it just won’t work.

The best chance you have to get real recognition as a singer is to be yourself, true and honest. People pick up on that and will support you, making it easier and easier to reduce stage fright and gain a good level of confidence.

Relaxation Techniques Do Work

Learn relaxation techniques. Simply finding a quiet spot and breathing deeply at least ten or twenty times can take the edge of stage fright.

While doing this, think about a really successful performance you’ve had before whether in public or at home with family or friends. Focus on how good it felt and how happy people were. Promise yourself that you want to experience those feelings again and that the upcoming performance is an opportunity.

However you relax, it’s all about relieving tension in your body as that can cause your vocal cords to contract to lead to less than satisfactory singing. So techniques such as breathing, yoga, sitting quietly, and meditation all enable the tension to flow out of your body and as result, your vocal cords will open up.

Interestingly, these relaxation techniques will over time build quiet confidence in you which also enables you to reduce limiting thoughts and increase those amazing positive ones!

Visualize Your Performance

Visualize how the performance is going to be. See yourself getting ready before the performance and then getting up on stage to do your thing. For many vocalists, nailing those first few moments of a song can mean shedding the stage fright and really cutting loose with your singing.

Don’t try and visualise your performance while watching tv or driving your car. Do it in a quiet place with no interuptions. Imagine watching yourself getting ready and then entering the stage. As you do this, notice your feelings and it’ll help you identify what specifically it is that you are really worried about.

Know Yourself and Prepare

Before a performance, be comfortable with your preparation. Often people are nervous because they aren’t prepared enough and seem to be on the back foot.

Know yourself and prepare enough to be confident with the lyrics, music, band, equipment and venue. Some folks prefer to fly by the seats of their pants and that’s cool but others need to have things in place. Think about what your preference is.

Move Around!

When the adrenaline starts pumping levels of stage fright can start peaking. One way to combat this is to do something physical like dancing or exercise. Give the adrenaline an outlet by moving around and turn the rush into a positive burst of energy.

Do You What Works For You

Try lots of different ways and find the one that works best for you. It could something I’ve mentioned above or it could be a certain ritual or thing you do to bring you comfort.

For example, talking the performance through with a particular band member, getting to the venue with a certain amount of time to prepare, carrying a certain lucky charm, talking to the sound engineer about the sound you want, mingling with people in the audience before the show etc.

Here’s another recommendation to help dismantle any stage fright you may have. Check out the Singing Superstar karaoke software and invite
your friends over to go wild singing all your favorites.

Hope you find these stage fright tips useful and I wish you all the best.

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Is it for showing off another fancy technique or reaching a grand crescendo? Possibly that’s the case in opera however in other vocal styles it shouldn’t be used like that.

What is Vibrato?

Vibrato is an oscillation between pitches or a trill. If done correctly it should be a pulsing between pitches that moves more side-to-side than up and down. Pulsing is the keyword here.

For stylish and soulful singing, it’s best to avoid vibrato that goes way up and down in a wobbly way. It should be an even sound and have the sensation of air pulsing across your vocal cords.

Imagine the sensation of a vibrato tightly spinning between the pitches rather than wobbling up and down between them. It’s often hidden or almost hidden to the listener even though they feel the emotion of it.

How to Sing Vibrato Video

In this short video, Brett Manning from the famous Singing Success course shares his professional insights about vibrato. You’ll definitely find it interesting watching him demonstrate and talk about it.

Why Sing Vibrato?

The reason to sing vibrato is to convey that extra ounce of emotion to the performance and touch the hearts of those listening. Subtlety is the key to excellent stylistic vibrato.

When to Use It?

If you listen closely to good vocalists you’ll notice that they use vibrato ever so slightly. It’s like they turn it on at just the right moment to add that perfect amount of feel to a phrase.

Most listeners don’t even realize that they’re doing it and this is how vibrato should be used. Think of it as a way to add color, soul, and emotion to the lyrics rather than vocal acrobatics.

In fact, even if no vibrato is used the phrase should still sound great. When you sing vibrato, it should only be to add color to what already is sounding pretty damn good. Get the picture?

The post How To Sing Vibrato? (For Beginners) appeared first on The Lyrics land.

The chest voice is what you use when speaking normally. Did you know that the way you speak can tell you a lot about your singing voice?

1. Speaking Voice with Sounds

First of all, let’s look at your speaking voice. Start by making a few different sounds such as laughing, yawning, sighing, and so on. When you do this, use a pitch pipe or piano and match the sounds you make to the nearest pitch.

Do the same thing again when speaking in mono-syllables like mm-hmm, aha, uh-huh etc. After doing this a few times, you should be able to find your average pitch for these types of sounds.

2. Speaking Voice with Sentences

Next, say a few sentences with proper words and use the piano or pitch pipe to match what you say to the nearest pitch. If you’re not sure what to say, just read something from a book or magazine. Anything will do. Do this a few times to establish the average pitch for you when you are actually talking properly using sentences.

Ideally, the pitch will be the same as when you were making sounds and using mono-syllables. However, more often than not though, people speak at a lower pitch than what is natural for their voice, which isn’t healthy.

3. Find Your Comfortable Lower Pitch

Now let’s find your lowest pitch when speaking in monosyllables but not so low that you sound gravelly. Sounding gravelly is known as vocal fry which isn’t something you want to do a lot of. As a rule of thumb, your speaking pitch should be around four steps above the vocal fry or gravelly level.

4. Find Your Comfortable Higher Pitch

Read a paragraph aloud from a book or magazine and see how high you can go. Be aware of the pitch where your voice is the most comfortable and where it’s straining.

By now you should be more aware of your singing range and importantly what is comfortable for you and what is a strain.

5. Chest Voice

The way to find your chest voice is as follows.  Put your hand on your upper chest with fingers and thumb on your collarbones.  Using a sound such as ‘hoo’ or ‘hee’, descend from your higher pitch down to your lower pitch. As you do this, you should feel a vibration in your chest as you slide down through your chest voice.

Now that you’ve identified your chest voice, use that pitch as the starting point for the next exercises.

How to Increase Singing Range?

Three techniques to help you increase the vocal range at the lower end:

The first exercise is the fifth slide. Use puckered vibrating lips or a sound such as ‘vaw’ to sing and slide down five steps. For example G-C or so-do. When descending, your mouth should be closed slightly more than at the starting point. For repetitions, start a half-step down each time.

The second exercise involves singing an octave scale up and back. Do this with either puckered vibrating lips or the ‘vaw’ sound. Be sure to open your mouth more when ascending and close it more when descending.

Visualizing is always good so try and imagine your tone is on a road with the low notes near to you and the high notes far away. As you ascend the scale, you could even move your hand or hands towards the notes and then back again.

The third exercise is the arpeggio. Using a vowel sound like ‘oo’ or ‘ah’ and sing do-mi-so-do-so-mi-do. Once you feel comfortable, go a half-step lower and so on.

Doing these vocal exercises regularly will enable to you increase your lower singing range without damaging your voice.

The post Increase Lower Singing Range (5 Steps) appeared first on The Lyrics land.

The post Teach Yourself How To Be A Better Singer appeared first on The Lyrics land.

The singing tips below will no doubt give you an idea to run with. It’s all about practicing hard but keeping things fresh to maintain your enthusiasm.

SINGING TIPS

1) Schedule a Singing Lesson

Fresh objective feedback from a teacher who really wants to help is priceless (if you can handle it). I say that because many people don’t want to hear challenging but constructive comments about their performance. They get defensive and miss a learning opportunity. Really taking proper feedback onboard accelerates the process of becoming a great vocalist.

So even if you’ve taken lots of lessons in the past, it’s possible that you may have picked up some bad vocal habits or who knows what. Pro singers keep up with a few lessons and are open to singing tips so why shouldn’t you?

2) Do Things Differently

I’ve got a guitarist friend who makes it a rule to always play something different whenever he picks up the guitar. Of course, he also has a steady practice method but the first 15 minutes or so is dedicated to doing something completely different and this opens up all sorts of ideas.

So choose new songs, styles of music, different vocal exercises and artists to listen to. Make it an artistic excursion into different territory and you’ll be surprised at what you learn! Remember that freshness in your attitude and style translates into freshness in your performance.

3) Take Notice of Your Body When Singing

More often than not, great singers are very aware of how they are singing in terms of their posture, breath support and tone placement. Think about these things when you are practicing so they become second nature when you are performing in front of others. Take notice of any tension in your body, particularly in your face and neck, as this will affect your sound and how you come across to others.

4) Loosen Up and Relax

To remove any tension you may have, start vocal sessions with simple relaxation and stretching exercises. You may have heard of the “rag doll” exercise which is great for making you feel supple, relaxed and ready. Stand with your feet apart (about hip-width), bend forward from your hips and let your upper body, head and arms dangle loosely. Shake your head and arms a little and then just dangle. This will help get rid of any tense feelings and maybe shake the blues away!

5) Physical Exercise is Good

So what’s this got to do with singing? Well if you’ve ever performed your heart out for 2-3 hours, you’d know that it can be pretty tiring! And if you’re the lead singer giving it everything you’ve got then a certain level of fitness is important. Now we’re not talking about appearing in a swimsuit calendar but we are talking about being able to move and perform without losing your breath.

So what do you like to do? Is it walking, swimming, cycling or going to the gym? Whatever it is, start doing it again or do more if you feel you need to.

6) Start Jamming with People

This is where it gets hot and where you really start to create with people. You’ll be surprised at what comes out of you when you’re jamming. New ideas will just happen, great arrangements will be born and your singing confidence will spike. Remember, practicing all the fundamentals at home is very important but at the end of the day, singing is about grooving and entertaining people! So put any doubts to one side and go for it.

SUMMARY

You may be thinking that some of this advice doesn’t involve any singing at all. Well, it all boils down to the fact that you as a vocalist are the instrument. And all instruments need to be kept in good working order if they are going to last any length of time. Hope these singing tips help.

Take action now and sign up for a complementary singing guide below. There are so many vocal tips that you are bound to learn something new!

Maybe singing has been your thing for a while but you’re thinking there’s still room to improve. You are probably right as there’s always something to get better at.

The singing tips below will no doubt give you an idea to run with. It’s all about practicing hard but keeping things fresh to maintain your enthusiasm.

The post 6 Best Fundamental Singing Tips (For Beginners) appeared first on The Lyrics land.