With Ariana Grande's musical performance in the latest, "Wicked For Good," or even in the very first "Wicked", it's hard not to want to boost your vocal skills and sing along melodiously too. While listening to music and singing does feel like letting go and letting loose, the main aspect of being a good musician is being able to control your voice. If you are a singer, you may be looking for a way to boost your vocal skills.

Boasting your vocal skills could mean improving your musical technique as well as expanding your singing range. Starting your vocal journey in South Africa could be one way to boost your vocal skills. If you are a more advanced singer, you can also consider boosting your vocal skills and becoming a better singer. Although most of your tips will come through when you take vocal lessons in your area, there are some core skills that you need to grasp to ensure that your vocal ability improves and stays top-notch.

Ask any singer, and they will tell you that your singing voice is very different from your speaking voice, and much more effort needs to be put into caring for your singing voice.

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How to Care for Your Voice

Vocal exercises are the analogy of a runner who stretches before running a race.

Roger Love

Just like a racer has to take the mandatory step of stretching before running a race, so too does a singer need to train his or her voice before taking the plunge and singing away. There are a few crucial steps you need to keep in mind should you want to treat your voice like a gem, just like any professional singer would. If you want to boost your vocal skills, you need to work on a few habits that will build and strengthen your vocal cords.

Warm-up Before Singing

From basic lip thrills, tightening lips, to simple humming, you can perform these warm-ups to get the blood to flow to your vocal folds to get them to work well again. A quick and easy five to ten-minute warm-up is enough to get you started and to prepare you to sing better.

Hydration is Essential

With better hydration, you can keep your vocal folds and cords great. When caring for your vocal cords, you need to drink water at room temperature often to ensure that your voice doesn't dry out and to keep your throat moist.

Make Sure to Rest Your Voice

girls singing into wireless microphone while her teacher sits on sofa playing guitar
You can find a coach suited to your level and preferred style. - Image: Gustavo Fring

An essential part of caring for your voice is resting your voice to avoid unnecessary strain. Just like a runner won't be able to run very well with a strained ankle, a singer won't be able to sing well with a strained voice.

Achieve Vocal Strength Without Volume

An important aspect of caring for your voice as a singer is ensuring that you are not overusing your voice or being too loud. Increasing your voice or loud singing does not mean hitting those high notes. Sounding good starts with having the right vocal technique and being able to focus on your breathing while singing. A qualified vocal coach will ensure that you develop the right singing technique so you can continue practising at home.

Respecting Your Voice

Since the voice is a singer's main tool, it is important to ensure that you respect your voice as best as possible. This means ensuring you get enough rest, stay clear of stress, and avoid caffeine and smoking at all costs. Respecting your voice is vital when you wish to put your voice and vocal cords through more than one singing lesson. The same is true for any of the jobs that require you to use your voice.

young woman in deep contemplation wearing headphones and holding a pencil to her lips
Is there an age limit to learning to sing? No! - Image: Pavel Danilyuk

It doesn't matter how young or old you start your singing journey. It matters that you remain devoted and focused on blossoming as a singer. Seek inspiration from singers like Maria Callas, who pursued musical education in Greece when she was 13 years old. She went on to become a famous singer in Italy later on. To get your voice ready to hit the right notes, start by warming up your voice.

Considering Some Voice Warm Ups

When I do my vocal warm-ups everyone calls me a dolphin because I do stupid siren noises.

Ella Henderson

When you just start singing, a falsetto may not be instantly possible. Falsetto is commonly perfected when the thin edges of the vocal cords vibrate as opposed to the entire vocal cord vibrating, as you would do in normal singing. Nevertheless, when you just start singing, you can perfect some common warming-up techniques that most singers try out from time to time. If even Ella Henderson does vocal warm-ups, there is no reason why you shouldn't work on your warm-up techniques.

Sip on some water and try out these warm-up techniques:

Lip thrills: Blowing air through relaxed lips to ensure they vibrate. This reduces tension in your throat, too.

Humming: Humming gently brings in the voice while still resulting in forward placement and resonance. A protruding jaw is not necessary for this warm-up. The jaws can be relaxed, and the vibrations can be felt on the lips and tongue.

Sirens: Sirens happen when you glide from your lowest comfortable note to your highest vowel. This warming-up exercise helps you to master your vocal range.

Articulation drills: To perform an articulation drill, focus on warming up your tongue and jaw. Try tongue twisters while singing "la-la-la". With this move, attempt jaw loosening techniques too.

Straw phonation: Another technique to try is singing through a narrow straw. This promotes air flow while also reducing some pressure from the vocal folds.

The "NG" sing technique: Another warm-up is to sing the word "sing" while holding the "ng" at the end and then sliding to a mid note. Finally, open the "ng" into a vowel-like sound.

You can try out these easy five-minute warming-up techniques as well:

While not all warm-ups and vocal exercises are hard and you can try them out on your own, you do need to rope in a professional singing coach to make learning all the more difficult singing techniques far easier.

What You Will Learn from Voice Lessons?

The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all.

Arvo Part
music_video
Mezzo Forte

Mezzo Forte is an Italian term that means moderately loud and is abbreviated as "mf" in sheet music.


When you decide to take vocal and singing lessons in your area, you will first be introduced to some important terms like mezzo forte, falsetto, and legato. Knowing certain musical terms from the onset is essential as your professional singing coach will make mention of these terms.

queue_music
Legato

Legato is a musical term for a smooth transition where notes flow into each other effortlessly without any silence.

Learning important musical terms is only part of what you can expect when you start taking vocal lessons with one of our extraordinary vocal tutors. More than just teaching you how to get those higher singing notes just right, a vocal instructor assists you by transforming your voice completely. From vocal training, you can expect to learn:

Healthy techniques that will assist you in protecting your voice. From learning correct breathing techniques to resonance, a singing coach ensures that you don't strain or overexert your voice in any way.
Breath power. With warm-ups and other healthy singing techniques, a professional singer can help students with ways to manage air flow and stability while singing long phrases. This will ensure that singers remain confident.
Expanding your vocal range: Most students, whether beginner or more advanced, join singing lessons to explore their full singing range in a safe way. During singing classes, you can even learn how to blend notes.
Working on your tone: Another core focus area of singing lessons is adjusting your resonance and reassessing your vowel placement. During musical lessons, you work on your tone as well.
Enhancing your pitch: The more musical lessons you take, the better your pitch will become. You will work on your harmonies and intonation, which are essential when it comes to pitch development.
Improving your confidence: One of the main aspects of singing lessons is the ability to be more confident when singing and performing for an audience. A singing tutor will help you to become more confident in your singing ability.

When you take voice lessons, you will work with your vocal coach to reach those high notes, low notes, and switch effortlessly from high to low notes. Your vocal tutor will also guide you in terms of ear training and really listening to how you sound. By taking these lessons, you will also gain control of your voice. The best thing you will learn from singing lessons is that your voice is your best musical instrument.

Where to Find Vocal Coaching Lessons?

If you are interested in finding vocal coaching lessons, a good place to start is the Superprof site, where you can book a voice lesson with a tutor suited to your goals.

On Superprof, there are
173

vocal coaches available

With so many tutors, you should find the right tutor to take face-to-face or online lessons with, including voice lessons online. You can decide if you just want to take singing classes alone or if you want to try out mezzo piano lessons as well. You can surely work on your vocal skills with the right tutor whom you feel comfortable with. Make sure to click on the right tutor profile on the Superprof site.

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Laila Abramjee

Laila is an enthusiastic English educator and a fun-filled freelance writer. She has accomplished her dream of getting her first book published and has managed to write over 1 000 000 words since beginning her freelance career. In her free time, she is a travel blogger who explores all South Africa has to offer.