You must have had many friends give you various singing pointers in the karaoke that supposedly will make you sing better and have a more powerful voice, but have you ever wondered how many of these pointers are real, or whether they are just hearsay? What starts off as an incorrect observation can quickly become a false “fact” about singing that is widely accepted! (just because it sounds familiar to us..)
This 2-part series, by Intune Music Director, Aaron Matthew Lim, will give you more insight to singing and provide you with professional advice to improve your vocals!
Aaron is the Director and Master Vocal Trainer at Intune Music, and has 17 years of teaching experience. He specializes in Voice and Performance, helping his students achieve significant breakthroughs in their singing either by way of extending their vocal ranges, or guiding them to have greater mastery over their vocal control and tonality. Aaron is the 1st and only Certified Master Teacher in Estill Voice Training in Singapore, certified by Estill Voice International in 2016.
Myth #1: Singing is ALL about Breath Support! Control your diaphragm and you control your voice!
Singing is certainly not just about breath support, but it is more about how we use our entire vocal setup to produce the sound that we want. Our diaphragm is only just ONE aspect of our singing, and we have so many other parts of our vocal anatomy that we can train, for example our larynx, our vocal folds, our tongue and many more! However, many singers tend to obsess about breath and forget about the rest. Remember that it is a whole system, and not just ALL about breath.
Myth #2: A loud and high sound can only be made with more breath.
Loud and high sounds can surprisingly be made with very little breath. What is more important is knowing the right technique and the right vocal muscles to engage so that we can produce these sounds with ease of effort, rather than over-blowing the vocal folds with excessive breath that could potentially cause harm to our voice.
Myth #3: Drinking honey water will help to moisturize our vocal folds and make us sing better!
When we drink water, it goes into our food pipe (oesophagus). However, our vocal folds are housed in our windpipe (trachea). Hence, honey water will never actually get to come into contact with our vocal folds at all! The benefits of that honey water will not reach our vocal folds until 4 hours later after digestion! Water is generally good for our throat though, and staying well hydrated is important for maintaining our vocal system.
Myth #4: When we sing, our throat muscles have to be totally relaxed. All effort in the throat is wrong!
A lot of beginner singers tend to think that all throat muscular effort is bad for singing. However, without any throat muscle effort, we will be unable to produce the strong tones in singing, and certainly be unable to do any form of high intensity singing. The next time you watch good singers sing, notice what they are doing with their throats, and you may just find that throat muscles are not relaxed.
Myth #5: If I keep singing off key, I must be tone deaf!
It is quite rare for us to be totally tone deaf, because that means that we cannot differentiate between high or low notes, and we sing with a single monotonous note throughout! However, it is quite common for us to sing off key, and there are many reasons why you might sing that way (for example, the note may be out of your singing range, or you might not be able to hear the required note). So, give yourself a chance to learn the key for the song, before you decide that you are tone deaf!
From Musicianbrain.com of 33,223 online respondents