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Build your voice up—and bring the house down!
Some people are born with naturally beautiful voices, but even the best can get better by applying training that can make a performance truly soar. Singing Exercises For Dummies shows you how to do just that. Following the drills and exercises found both in the book and online examples, you'll be able to refine your technique; develop consistency, power, and endurance; and increase your vocal range so you can achieve a voice that stands out from (and always wows) the crowd!
Professional singing coach and respected performer Pamelia S. Phillips is your friendly tutor and guide, starting you out with warm-ups and instructions on correct posture before leading you melodically through the intricacies of scales, chords, rhythm, pitch, tone, and much, much more.
Whether you're studying under a tutor or are working to your own plan, Singing Exercises For Dummies will have you quickly scaling up the ladder to vocal perfection—and even more!
P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you'’re probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Singing Exercises For Dummies (9781118281086). The book you see here should'n’t be considered a new or updated product. But if you'’re in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We’'re always writing about new topics!
Pamelia S. Phillips, DMA (New York) is the Professional Program Director and Chair of Voice and Music at CAP21 (Collaborative Arts Project 21) in New York. A seasoned performer, her appearances range from contemporary American Opera premieres to guest performances with major symphonies. Pam has taught extensively at such institutions as Wagner College and Arizona State University. She earned her Bachelor of Music Education from Arkansas State University, and her Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Arizona State.
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 1
What You’re Not to Read 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book is Organized 3
Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing 3
Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety 3
Part 3: Working Out Your Range 3
Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique 4
Part 5: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 5
Part 1: Preparing Your Body for Practicing 7
Chapter 1: Warming Up for Singing 9
Preparing Your Instrument: Stretching Out from Head to Toe 9
Opening and Positioning the Lower Body 10
Connecting your feet to the floor 10
Balancing on the ankles and knees 12
Distributing weight in the legs and hips 12
Positioning the Upper Body for Easy Movement 13
Lengthening your spine 13
Releasing the shoulders 14
Balancing the head and neck 15
Managing the arms and hands 16
Putting It All Together with a Vocal Warm-Up 16
Chapter 2: Practicing Breathing Exercises 19
Moving the Breathing Muscles for Singing 19
Opening the ribs 20
Releasing the abs 21
Moving the sides 21
Releasing into the hips 22
Take It In: Shaping Inhalation 22
Controlling the movement of your ribs 23
Adding suspension to develop coordination 23
Opening the torso for quick inhalation 24
Let It Out: Controlling Exhalation 25
Developing muscle coordination 25
Isolating muscles for extra-long phrases 27
Singing Practice Exercises with Long and Short Phrases 28
Practicing short phrases 28
Practicing longer phrases 29
Testing your breath control 30
Songs for Extending Breath Control 31
Chapter 3: Shaping the Tongue and Lips for Vowels 33
Coordinating the Tongue and Lips for Back Vowels 33
Shifting the arch around for ooh and ah 34
Altering your lip shape for oh and ah 35
Tackling the tricky vowels aw and OOh 36
Singing through the five back vowels 37
Positioning the Tongue for Front Vowels 38
Dropping the arch between ee and ih 39
Moving between ee and ay 40
Distinguishing between ee and eh 40
Comparing eh and a 41
Singing through the five front vowels 42
Alternating between Front and Back Vowels 43
Presenting the Middle Vowel, Uh 43
Singing Combination Vowels 44
Songs for Singing Vowels Precisely 46
Chapter 4: Articulating Consonants Accurately 47
Touching on the Tip Consonants 48
Exploring the voiced consonants L, N, and D 48
Distinguishing between voiced D and unvoiced T 49
Sounding out the voiced R 50
Singing unvoiced S and voiced Z 51
Moving the tip of the tongue to the teeth for TH 52
Singing through the consonants L, N, D, T, S, Z, and TH 53
Arching Back for Soft Palate Consonants 54
Practicing voiced G, unvoiced K, and voiced NG 54
Singing through the consonants K, G, and NG 56
Working on Lip Consonants 56
Practicing voiced consonants W and M 57
Alternating between voiced B and unvoiced P 58
Moving only the bottom lip for F and V 58
Singing through W, M, P, B, F, and V 59
Consonant Combos: Moving the Lips and Tongue 59
Puckering for voiced J and unvoiced CH 60
Moving air through SH and ZH 61
Singing through the consonants J, CH, SH, and ZH 61
Songs for Singing Various Consonants 62
Part 2: Making Your Music Magical with Variety 63
Chapter 5: Singing Precise Intervals for Musical Accuracy 65
Recognizing the Most Common Intervals 65
Major intervals 66
Minor intervals 67
Perfect intervals 68
Hearing the Small Intervals 68
Minor and major seconds: m2 and M2 68
Minor and major thirds: m3 and M3 69
Seconds and thirds in action 70
Finding Perfect Intervals 71
Identifying perfect intervals: P4 and P5 72
Working in unison: P8 73
Singing perfect intervals 73
Comparing the Larger Intervals 74
Minor and major sixths: m6 and M6 75
Minor and major sevenths: m7 and M7 75
Singing sixths and sevenths 76
Discovering Chromatics 77
Raising the pitch with sharps 77
Lowering the pitch with flats 78
Canceling an accidental 78
Working on Scales 79
Building scales with triads 79
Singing major scales 80
Singing minor scales 81
Practice Piece: “Singing All the Intervals” 83
Songs for Practicing Large Intervals 84
Chapter 6: You’ve Got Rhythm: Conquering Rhythmic Notation and Tempo 85
Rhythm Basics: Notes and Rests 85
The whole note 86
The half note 87
The quarter note 88
The eighth note 89
The sixteenth note 90
The corresponding rests 91
Practice piece: “The Rhythm Song” 92
Exploring Advanced Rhythms 93
Joining notes together with triplets 93
Adding more notes with dotted rhythms 94
Emphasizing the weaker beats with syncopation 95
Practice piece: “Checking Out Rhythm” 96
Managing Rhythm at Any Tempo 97
Songs for Working on Rhythm 98
Chapter 7: Adding Diversity with Dynamics, Articulation Marks, and More 99
Singing Dynamically 99
Reading the markings 100
Making a smooth crescendo 100
Gradually singing softer with a decrescendo 101
Mastering dynamic contrast 102
Articulating What’s Written 103
Connecting notes 104
Making a note short and sweet 104
Knowing when to let go 105
Practice Piece: “I Sing Out!” 105
Improvising to Give Songs Your Own Unique Stamp 107
Adding more words 107
Changing the rhythm 107
Altering the melody 107
Varying the tone 108
Songs for Improving Your Musical Diversity 108
Part 3: Working Out Your Range 109
Chapter 8: Checking Out Chest Voice 111
Getting Familiar with Chest Voice 111
Exploring the sounds of chest voice 112
Varying the heaviness in your chest voice 112
Strengthening your chest voice 114
Modifying vowels in chest voice 115
Practice Piece: “Finding My Chest Voice” 116
Songs That Work Out Your Chest Voice 118
Chapter 9: Soaring into Head Voice and Falsetto 119
Figuring Out Falsetto 119
Working out your falsetto 120
Taking falsetto down 121
Exploring various vowels in falsetto 122
Songs for singing in falsetto 122
Discovering Your Head Voice 123
Getting a feel for head voice 123
Exploring high resonance in head voice 124
Singing through consonants in head voice 125
Positioning Your Larynx for Fuller Head Voice Sounds 126
Stabilizing the larynx 126
Monitoring your larynx while singing 128
Managing many high phrases 129
Developing Your Head Voice Range 130
Creating spinning tone 131
Sustaining notes in your head voice 132
Songs for broadening your head voice range 133
Practice Piece: “A Bejeweled Love Song” 134
Chapter 10: Mixing Up Your Sound with Middle Voice 135
Discovering Your Middle Voice 135
Distinguishing male and female middle voice 136
Getting to know your middle voice 136
Strengthening your middle voice 137
Finding clear vowels in middle voice 138
Songs that work out the middle voice 140
Combining Registers with Mix 140
Knowing when to use a mix 141
Rolling into a mix 141
Changing around the mix 142
Songs that require a mix 143
Exploring Your Mix with a Few Practice Pieces 144
For the guys 144
For the gals 146
Chapter 11: Coordinating Register Transitions 149
Moving Smoothly between Registers 149
Dropping into chest voice 150
Changing back and forth from chest voice to middle voice 151
Climbing from middle voice to head voice 152
Leaping to and from Falsetto 153
Singing from falsetto into chest voice 153
Changing from chest voice to falsetto 154
Rolling back and forth from chest voice to falsetto 155
Refining Your Smooth Transitions 156
Shifting from middle voice to chest voice 156
Shifting from middle voice to head voice 157
Practice Piece: “Marching Forth” 158
Songs That Require Register Transitions 159
Part 4: Advancing Your Singing Technique 161
Chapter 12: Developing Your Vocal Tone 163
Touching on Tone Basics 163
Practicing the onset of tone 163
Opening the space to change the tone 165
Releasing tension to enhance tone 167
Coordinating breath to improve tone 167
Eliminating intonation issues 167
Creating Echoing Tone with Resonance 168
Finding your resonance 168
Using vowels to explore resonance 169
Varying where tone resonates in your body 170
Choosing the right resonance for a song 171
Varying Tone with Vibrato 171
Discovering vibrato 172
Changing between vibrato and straight tone 173
Practice Piece: “Changing Tone” 174
Songs for Developing Your Tone 176
Chapter 13: Expanding Your Vocal Agility 177
Exploring the Art of the Quick Breath 177
Catching your breath quickly in fast songs 178
Taking a quick breath 178
Howdy, Neighbor! Working on Stepwise Motion 179
Giving up control to get a feeling for agility 180
Stepping up the pace 180
Turning around on the tonic 182
Running to the top of the scale 183
Mastering Thirds 184
Singing every other step of the scale 184
Gaining momentum 186
Taking Musical Leaps with Larger Intervals 188
Starting on the top 188
Jumping up (or down) an octave 189
Practice Piece: “A Joyful Noise” 190
Songs for Flaunting Your Agility 191
Chapter 14: Belting It Out with Exercises from Beginner to Advanced 193
Getting Started with Belting Basics 194
Feeling belt transitions in the voice 194
Making a plan to develop your belt 195
Resonating All the Way to the Back Row 195
Chatting It Up 196
Buzzing your words on various pitches 197
Speaking chatty sounds on specific pitches 197
Working on your speaking range 198
Using different phrases to expand your speaking range 199
Developing Stamina for Belting 199
Comparing Belt and Mix 200
Changing from mix to belt on one note 201
Songs that move from mix to belt 201
Belting Your Face Off 202
Applying your belt sounds to a tune 202
Increasing your belt range 203
Developing vocal stamina 204
Testing Out Your Belt Sounds with Practice Pieces 205
“Don’t You Tell Me No Lie” 205
“It’s Time” 207
Cooling Down Your Voice after Belting 208
Songs for Beginner Belters Looking to Try Out Their Technique 208
Songs for Advanced Belters Looking for a Challenge 209
Part 5: The Part of Tens 211
Chapter 15: Ten Tips for Practicing Like a Pro 213
Set Aside Time to Focus on Singing 213
Plan What to Practice 214
Use the Exercises in This Book 214
Record Your Practice Sessions 215
Track Your Progress 215
Cool Down after Practicing 216
Know When to Rest 216
Get to Know Your Song and Your Story 217
Prepare for the Performance 218
Find Help from a Voice Teacher 218
Chapter 16: Ten Questions Singers Ask Frequently 219
What Style of Music is Right for My Voice? 219
When is a Song out of My Range? 219
Am I Tone Deaf or Just Singing Out of Tune? 220
How Do I Blend with Other Singers? 221
How Do I Blend My Voice with Instruments? 221
What’s the Best Way to Develop Vocal Endurance? 222
How Can I Maintain Proper Singing Posture While Playing an Instrument? 222
When (And What) Should I Eat before a Performance? 223
How Do I Get Over Stage Fright? 223
What Do I Have to Do to Keep My Voice Healthy? 224
Appendix: About the Website 225
Listening to the Audio Tracks 225
Customer Care 228
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