Everyone loves to sing in the shower, in the car, while cleaning at home alone, but it’s another matter entirely to get up on stage in front of a crowd and spill your soul in a song. These singing tips will help beat stage fright:

1. Be prepared.

Nothing will substitute for the time you spend in voice lessons and practicing your repertoire to ensure that each phrase is firmly committed to memory and that technically difficult sections become second nature. When you “own” your performance piece, you are free to let loose and have fun because you will not need to worry about forgetting a section or stumbling through a challenging passage.

2. Do not aim for perfection.

Mistakes happen. If you fumble on stage, just pick up and keep going; chances are half the audience won’t even notice, and if they do they will forget by the end of the song if you continue. Do not let yourself get upset, whether still on stage or in the wings after your performance, if you make a mistake. After all, nobody is perfect! Simply be acknowledge that you gave it your all–what more can you ask of yourself?

3. Know that your audience is supportive.

The people in the audience did not come to the performance to laugh at you or criticize you; they came for an evening of entertainment. They know it’s difficult to get up on stage (that’s why they’re watching you instead of doing it themselves!), and they want you to succeed. Be grateful they came to see you (if there’s no one in the audience, you might as well be in the shower, right?). Give them a welcoming smile as you enter and think, “Hello! It’s wonderful to see you here tonight–thank you for coming!” Accept their applause as their vote of confidence in you, and afterwards accept the cheers with a gracious bow. Interacting with the audience in this way, rather than trying to ignore them, will enhance your performance experience.

4. Take a moment of quiet time before you go on stage to breathe deeply and focus your full attention on the song. Do not let the whirl of backstage activities affect your inner calm.

5. Fake it.

If you feel nervous, pretend you are a confident, very talented singer who loves to be in front of a crowd. After enough pretending, that is who you will become!

6. Remember why you love to sing.

Perhaps you’ve chosen a song that especially moves you that you want to share with the audience. Perhaps you love the freedom you feel when you open your mouth and belt. Perhaps there are some feelings inside of you that you cannot express without music. Whatever the case, carry your love of music and singing with you to the stage, and the song will carry you through the performance.

Though performing in front of an audience seems intimidating, these tips will help you become a Singing Success!

Improving tone quality is a fundamental quest for all singers and something that often does not come naturally.  The most important thing to understand upfront is that tone quality is a literal reflection of your resonating cavities when expressing vowels.  It’s obvious, but needs to be said – you don’t have much tone quality when singing consonants, right?

So, as you’d expect, virtually all aspects of improving tone quality involve exercises on vowels!

Some of the first things to do is attempt to identify the areas of tone quality that you want to improve.  This may be difficult to describe, but try anyway.   Ask friends to listen to your voice and try comparing your voice with pop singers you admire… what’s different about your voice and theirs?

If you can’t identify the specific qualities you want to improve, then don’t worry!  Just work on all the vowels and you’ll be covered.

Here’s what to do:

1. Make a list of all the vowels
2. Pull out your favorite vocal scales
3. Practice singing vowels on a fixed pitch and with scales

You will notice that your tone quality will likely vary based on the location of the pitch within your vocal range.  For example, on the vowel “ah” you might notice the tone sort of swallows to the back of your throat when you’re on lower notes and might become more “tin-ee” on higher notes.  Your voice will vary of course.

The quickest and most efficient way to improve vocal tone quality is to get Singing Success.

Singing Success

The process for increasing your vocal range is simple and straight-forward, though requires some daily investment and upkeep, just like hitting the gym to reign in those thighs or keep a tight six-pack.

The exercises for increasing range are much like working out at the gym.  You gradually increase your range by pushing (in a soft way) yourself a little further each day.  If you go to fast, you can hurt your vocal chords, so don’t do that!

So, the idea is to use vocal exercises or voice scales and gradually sing them higher and higher.  The same is partially true for lower notes, but that’s another subject.  It’s not often that folks seek a lower range – most singers want to improve their high end (okay, you Basses – I know you’re out there and want to be able to sustain a low C, but you’re pretty rare and moving the lower range is a bit more difficult).

The other thing to keep in mind is that you must use a “soft” approach while trying to increase your range and this is typically best done using lip trills and tongue trills.

You can do this on your own, without buying a product.  However, you’ll need to be very diligent and it’s a bit of effort.

There’s another way – buy a great program that has all the tips and techniques worked out in an easy “sing along” format.

The quickest, most efficient road to increasing your vocal range is to get Singing Success.

Singing Success