How to train your voice to sing beautifully: exercises at home

September 30, 2019
Life style
Suleimanova Svetlana

How to train your voice at home? This is quite possible, but most people believe that singing is a gift from nature. Either we were born with it or we weren't. However, this is not at all true. Yes, genetics affects musical ear, voice, timbre, and so on, but a good voice is a skill that can be learned and mastered, like the others.

What exercises to use for voice training? Let's look at this in our article.

Voice training

We need to start with the basics. Let's explore voice training exercises and also get acquainted with professional tips to help improve your singing. Here they are:

1. Warm up the ligaments. This will help prevent injury. When a person sings, his vocal cords constantly vibrate. Therefore, before the process itself, you need to warm them up, just like the muscles before training. To do this, you need to inhale and exhale through your mouth for 2 minutes.

2. Drink water often. This advice is useful not only for those losing weight, but also for singers. When singing, your throat dries out faster than when talking. If you drink a lot of water, your ligaments become “lubricated”, like a mechanism in a car.

3. Take the correct posture. We think that singing is only influenced by the vocal cords. This is wrong. The diaphragm also takes part in this. To sing beautifully, you need the right posture. You need to pull your shoulders back a little, straighten your chest as much as possible, and keep your body straight. In this case, it is necessary to relax the muscles.

4. Record your voice. What is it for? When a person hears his voice in a recording, he can more easily determine what is wrong in order to identify his weak points and not repeat mistakes in the future.

5. How to train your voice for singing? Play your favorite musical compositions more often. To do this, it is better to choose one genre and not change it. This way you can practice and learn the basics of singing. In addition, this activity always lifts your spirits.

How to become a famous singer

Depends on your choice.

You can become famous on the stage or in the opera. These are two opposite paths.

Speaking very

simplified: pop is about marketing, images and payback, opera is about talent and daily twelve-hour voice training. You'll have to plow anyway.

If these paths do not suit you, you can go into jazz music, folk music and other less popular directions, but there is less popularity and recognition there.

How to become a famous pop singer

Popularity on the stage is not so much a question of voice as of “show effect”.

The perception of an artist on the stage very much depends on his image, image, presentation. If you properly work out the repertoire and other aspects, it is quite possible to get on the stage with an average voice.

This does not mean that you can not give a damn about a naturally developed voice. But if it is not there, the chances of popularity remain. True, you will have to make more efforts or make the repertoire very narrow and stay within its framework.

Another question is that the stage needs good production. A good voice in opera will break through on its own. Hundreds of people fight for the attention of listeners on the stage, so both high-quality content and advertising are needed to attract attention.

In total, a beginner in vocals on the stage needs:

Develop to a “minimum pop level”;
Come up with and think over an image;
Match the image;
Find a good production company (a recording studio and people who will design and promote your image on social networks and the Internet).

To become popular, you will need to reach a wide audience. This requires financial investments. To receive finance, the artist needs:

Adjust the image so that it resonates better with listeners;
Develop a voice and repertoire for connoisseurs;
Selling your creativity is more expensive and in larger quantities.

Lana del Rey - her success is largely ensured by the wealth of her parents, and the competent steps of the production team.
Stress resistance is very important at all stages of creative promotion. Marketing is a delicate matter, and when it comes to the battle of wallets, it is generally stormy. A quiet life can only be expected with popularity like Imagine Dragons, but even there the publisher will put pressure on the singer to release more songs at the peak of his popularity.

How to become a famous opera singer

It is both simpler and more difficult here.

Opera does not depend on the mass audience. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about sales, payback, artist’s popularity charts, etc.

Opera is looking for the best voices. Everyone works hard for professional development. Even those with very good voices continue to develop them.

Luciano Pavarotti, famous Italian opera singer who achieved popularity thanks to his talent and daily training

Voice training is so frequent, persistent and powerful that people change physically. Look at opera singers. These are voluminous people, with large lungs and a stretched diaphragm.

To be popular in opera you need a very good voice and constant development. Performers without them will be swept away by more talented and more hardworking ones.

Go for it. Look for singing friends, look for teachers, study hard, re-read our article - and you will definitely succeed.

Exercises for voice and speech development

We found out how to start learning to sing. Now let's talk about diction. To sing beautifully, you need to train your voice for speech. You can do the exercises yourself at home. The words in songs can be difficult and intricate, but you need to move from line to line smoothly, without stuttering. To learn this, you need to do the following exercises for voice training and correct beautiful speech:

As you begin, pay attention to the position of the organs in your mouth. The tongue should not be too raised, and the lips should not be spread wide. Keep an eye on this while singing and talking.
Practice words with repeating sounds. Try to have them at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of words. The sounds being practiced must be paired. For example, the combinations “p-b”, “g-k”, “z-s”. You can also combine sounds with vowels, for example, “dbi-dbe-dba” or “gzi-gze-gza.”
Practice sounds to such an extent that you pronounce them very clearly and quickly.
Practice pronouncing tongue twisters. Forget all the ones you are already good at. Purposefully look for new ones, pronouncing them with different intonations.

These exercises for voice and speech will help you at the beginning of your creative journey

How to start singing

To start singing, you need to decide on a place, start learning vocals and develop your singing skills.

We will tell you how to choose a school and give easy exercises for voice development that will suit everyone. Read on!

Where to study vocals

To learn vocals, you need to find a good teacher. You can go to a private school, you can go to a music school.

We recommend single teachers with extensive experience and good reviews, or practicing school founders. The latter are usually the most expensive, but they often give the best results.

If you are not ready to invest in training, it doesn’t matter. At first, the teacher may be a familiar vocalist without the skills of a teacher.

Even this option is much better than independent attempts, because due to the structural features of the hearing aid, a person physically cannot develop independently.

We just don't hear our real voice. We perceive it not only by hearing - sound vibrations are transmitted through our body to the inner ear, and we hear ourselves distorted. You always need someone from the outside listening to the artist. Hearing and correcting. Olga Vikentyeva, vocal teacher

If you just want to learn how to sing beautifully, after the first months of lessons you will be able to practice on your own. These exercises will not be as effective, but with them you will not lose the skill.

In any case, you need to start with a mentor who has at least a minimal understanding of singing. And, if you don’t have a microphone for thirty to forty thousand rubles, it’s better not to study remotely, but in the studio - otherwise the microphone will spoil the sound and there will be no point in outside observation.

How to learn vocals and develop singing skills

To develop the skill further, you need to practice and exercise regularly. The more varied the practice, the better results you will get.

There is an important caveat - the skill of singing depends more on hearing and the ability to hear oneself, so exercises and advice lead more to the development of hearing.

High-quality and varied music helps a lot. Diversify your playlist, keep track of the tunes.
Hum. Any random melodies. Which ones you will hear, even from TV commercials. Take it and hum it. And so from morning to evening.
Playing a musical instrument helps a lot. Anything. They learn to hear notes well, and this leads to better voice control. If you play and sing at the same time, it will be good practice.
Olga Vikentyeva, vocal teacher

The recommendation for exercises is supplemented by another expert, Elena Ermakova, a teacher with twenty-five years of experience:

It is important that a person not only listens, but also hears and analyzes. So that for any melody he hears, he thinks, “How will this help me diversify my repertoire, what will I take into my vocal arsenal?” This is a universal technique, but it is most useful for those who are planning to build a singing career.
Elena Ermakova

Ear for music

Why develop it? Without an ear for music, it is impossible to grasp the motive or sing the correct verse or chorus. That is why it is necessary to develop hearing. Here are some exercises that will help with this:

You will need a musical instrument or an appropriate application on your phone. With its help, you need to reproduce: “do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do”, while singing them, trying to hit the notes. Play scales from the very beginning to the end, and then in reverse order: “do-si-la-sol-fa-mi-re-do.” In one approach, this action needs to be done about 30 times in order to remember and feel each note.
An exercise called "Echo". It is suitable not only for adults, but also for children. Listen to the song and then try to reproduce it yourself. Do it out loud. You can learn line by line. Repeat not only the words correctly, but also the motive. Don't move on to the next one until you get the previous one right. This is done in order to hit each note clearly and correctly.
Musical notation. Learn to read notes, compare their sound with the melody of the song. Then this will help the ear for music begin to develop faster, and the reproduction of sounds will become more meaningful and understandable.
Sing intervals. To complete this exercise you will need a musical instrument. An interval is the distance between two notes. For example, “do-re”, “do-mi”, “do-fa”, “do-sol”, “do-la”, “do-si”. Climb up the note “steps” and then go down them.
Singing adjacent notes, for example, “do-re”, “do-si-do”.
Studying the classics. When we strive to succeed at something, we become more interested in that subject. Interest in the classics will arise just when learning the basics of singing. It happens that a complex chord is much easier to remember if you memorize the motive in which it is contained.

Proper oral hygiene

Every person’s morning should begin with brushing their teeth and tongue. But if he is faced with the task of improving his voice, then this must be done with special care.

In the morning, it is imperative to get rid of excess saliva and mucus in the oral cavity, which accumulate during the night and interfere with the ability to clearly pronounce sounds. This is why your voice may sound hoarse or squeaky after waking up.

Improving your speech and its sound will be much more effective if in the morning you not only brush your teeth, but also treat the surface of your tongue.

Beautiful voice

How to train your voice? This question is often asked by those who want to learn to sing on their own. Once you have learned to speak clearly and quickly, you should move on to singing exercises. At the same time, the voice itself will become lower, the range will expand, and the pronunciation will improve several times. The main thing is that before starting exercises to develop your voice, record how it sounds in the first lesson, and after several weeks of training, compare it with what it sounds like. You need to do the following:

Stand in front of the mirror and begin to pronounce vowel sounds in the sequence “ee-a-a-o-u”, stretching out each of them until you can’t breathe. Why this particular sequence? The fact is that this exercise begins with the sound “i”, which has the highest frequency. All other sounds follow as this indicator decreases. Each sound has a unique feature. For example, “and” when stretching will cause you to feel a slight vibration of the skin when you put your hands on your head.
Now activate your diaphragm by making the sound “m” with your mouth closed three times a day. At the same time, it must be pulled out as if it were a vowel (“mm-mm-mm”). Pronounce the sound quietly the first time, then a little louder, and then very loudly, so that the vocal cords tense. If after exercise the next day they hurt, then next time you need to pronounce the sounds less loudly, reducing the range of sound.
The sound “r” gives the voice an assertive sound, energy and strength. Prepare for the exercise by raising the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and making the “r” sound. You should get some kind of growl. After this, begin to pronounce this sound expressively and with different intonations in the words “role”, “steering wheel”, “ruble”, “ring”, “snout”, “risk”, “lynx”, “rhythm”, “product”, “ cheese", "cook", "frost". Use words in which the sound is in different parts of the word and is also repeated, for example, “terrace”.
Exercise "Tarzan". You must do it without fail if you are interested in how to train your voice. It is an effective completion of the tasks we described above. You need to do exercise number 1, making sounds in the same sequence, but at the same time you need to hit yourself on the chest with your fists (just not too hard, so as not to harm yourself).

All exercises will give a more effective effect if performed in the morning. In addition, you will be charged with positive energy for the whole day, and your breathing will be easy.

To make your voice pleasant

The following exercises will make your voice more harmonious.

Three smiles

This exercise is performed in the same way as the previous one, but observing the rule of three smiles. Smile with your mouth, forehead and imagine a smile in the solar plexus area. After this, begin to exhale with sound. Just 5 minutes a day - and your voice will begin to sound more pleasant and trusting.

Yoga exercise

This training is practiced by Indian yogis to achieve a deep and beautiful voice.

Position: standing, feet shoulder-width apart. First, take a few calm breaths and exhalations, then take a deep breath and exhale sharply with the sound “ha-a.” The exhalation should be as full and loud as possible. In this case, the body can be slightly moved forward.

Long syllables

Take a deep breath, and as you exhale, say protractedly “bom-m”, “bim-m”, “bon-n”. Draw out the last sounds as long as possible. Ideally, vibration should occur in the area of the upper lip and nose.

A similar exercise can be done with the syllables “mo-mo”, “mi-mi”, “mu-mu”, “me-me”. But in this case, first pronounce them briefly, and only then protractedly.

Both exercises are best done every morning for 10 minutes. They will not only make your voice more pleasant, but will also help strengthen your vocal cords.

Long tongue

Stick out your tongue. First, point it down as far as possible, trying to reach your chin. Maintaining this position, tilt your head down. Then stretch your tongue upward, trying to reach the tip of your nose. At the same time, raise your head as high as possible.

How to increase your vocal range

This indicator changes for each person throughout his life. It is possible to expand it until the age of 9, but it is useless, since children are just developing their vocal cords. After 10-12 years, you can start exercising, because at this age the chest expands and the voice becomes more mature. You may have noticed this in your children or remember it happening to you yourself. How to train your voice to increase its range? To do this, you can use the following exercises:

Start with a simple chant. Please note that each person has his own primary zone. This is the range in which he is comfortable singing and speaking. Start chanting from this zone. Your singing should be light and free, without tension. Breathing should be taken after moving to each link. Work your way up gradually to the highest notes and then start moving down. Make sure your voice is natural. Notice how it changes in different parts of the chant, after which notes does it become completely different? Notice when the voice goes over the chest. Are you comfortable singing in this tessitura? If so, then this is the lowest part of your range.
How to train a beautiful voice? Choose a chant in the octave range and sing it only on vowel sounds, for example, on the syllables “la”, “yu”, “mu”. It is in the upper notes that this chant will help expand the range.
You can choose a song with big jumps and a wide range, like “Ave Maria.” Start in a tessitura that is comfortable for you. This will also help expand it. In addition, you will learn the limits of your capabilities.
Sing in one manner, but at the same time make leaps from top to bottom by sixth. It may be difficult at first, but after a few weeks of hard work, everything will work out.

These tips will help to significantly expand the range of your voice, and you will be able to sing any composition beautifully.

Use natural resonators

A resonator is a natural cavity in the body that reflects and amplifies the sound of the voice when it enters it. The main resonators are located in the area from the solar plexus to the crown and are divided into upper and lower. Chest resonators are used for low sound, and head resonators for high sound.

To understand how this works, do this exercise:

Take a good breath.
With your lips closed, but your lower jaw lowered as much as possible, make the sound “mmm”.
Make a fist with your right hand and start lightly tapping your chest to create vibration.
Try to direct the sound to where you feel the vibration.

The same can be done with the upper head resonators and high sound, only you need to tap not with your fist, but with your fingertips.

How to learn to speak beautifully

Now let's turn your attention to the main voice. It, like singing, also needs to be trained. There are special exercises for this. They will help you understand how to train your voice to speak beautifully. You need to do the following:

Find a random tongue twister on the Internet and say it so that only the consonants are heard. Do the same with vowels. They should be drawn out, but at the same time dull.
Say the same tongue twister, but now in a completely different tone, intonation and voice. Listen to your words. Try to determine the epicenter of your own voice, to understand in what tone it sounds more natural. Do the exercise again, but adding, for example, tilting your head in any direction.
Read the tongue twister, placing your tongue on your lips, changing the pronunciation of vowels.
Try reading some text in one breath. Exhale. Next, inhale through your nose in the passages where you need to pause.

After these exercises, read the text in a normal voice. Try to feel the difference before and after exercise.

Treatment

In case of hoarseness, vocal rest is required. You can't talk at all, especially in a whisper. Such speech strains the ligaments more than trying to speak loudly.

Recommendations for voice restoration:

Drink plenty of warm drinks to moisturize the ligaments and remove toxins released by the cold pathogen.
Herbal infusions - chamomile and thyme help reduce inflammation, and ginger tea relieves hoarseness.
Humidifying the air prevents the ligaments from drying out, which speeds up the return to normal voice.

If hoarseness appears against the background of an acute respiratory viral infection, you can use drugs for symptomatic treatment. They will help you recover faster and regain the ability to speak normally.

Medicines:

Antibiotics are necessary for acute laryngitis and high temperature from 38.5°C for longer than 3-5 days, as well as for tuberculosis infection.
Anti-inflammatory sprays - Hexoral, Cameton and others reduce the severity of inflammation.
Lozenges for resorption - Falimint, Strepsils and the like have an enveloping effect on the ligaments, relieving pain.

If you follow all the recommendations and follow the prescribed treatment, your voice can be restored in 3-4 days. Other remedies - cognac, raw eggs or hot beer - give a quick but temporary effect. It will last for an hour or two, after which the cords will feel even worse, and the voice may disappear completely.

Dear patients! Remember that only a qualified doctor can make an accurate diagnosis, determine the causes and nature of the disease, and prescribe effective treatment. You can make an appointment with our specialists or call a doctor at home by calling 8-(4822)-33-00-33

Be healthy and happy!

Advice from professionals

One singer was asked how he achieved such a beautiful sound in his voice. “How did I train my quiet and slurred voice?” - he asked again and talked about the exercises that helped him with this. It turns out that you need to do this:

the essence of this exercise is to open your mouth and begin to move your jaw in different directions;
lean in any direction, pronouncing vowel sounds and stretching them out, then rise carefully and smoothly, then start leaning again, but in the other direction;
to stretch your tongue, move it quickly for about 3 minutes, but it should not protrude from your mouth;
open your mouth, stick out your tongue, then lift its tip and touch each tooth.

Exercises to improve diction

If we talk about how to make your voice feminine and beautiful, then you can’t do without exercises to improve diction.

Diction exercises should be performed daily. The complex is small but very effective:

The chin is lowered to the chest. Slowly move your lower jaw to the right/left. Movements should be smooth.
Stand up straight with your head down to your chest. First move your jaw forward, then move it back as far as possible.
Place your hands on your chest. Bend forward slowly while pronouncing the sound “U” in a low voice.
The lips are stretched in a wide forced smile, the teeth are unclenched, the facial muscles are relaxed. Move your tongue from the right corner of your mouth to the left and vice versa.
Stick your tongue out of your mouth. Move it along the outer surface of the upper row of teeth first, then the lower one.
Stick your tongue out of your mouth. Try shaping it into a bowl.
Hold a pencil between your teeth. Try reading the text out loud, pronouncing the words and sounds as clearly as possible. This exercise must be performed daily for 15 minutes.
Read texts out loud. First quickly, then slowly, in a quiet voice, and then loudly.
Engage in recitation of poetry, combining this process with walking around the room. It is important to ensure that your breathing does not become interrupted. It is imperative to maintain intonation pauses.

What to do if your speech is slurred

A slight speech impediment can be observed in people who have problems with the articulatory apparatus. Pathologies can be congenital or acquired. They cause people to swallow individual sounds and entire syllables during conversations, making them difficult to understand. In many cases, the defect can be eliminated with the help of special exercises:

say long words with many vowels several times a day;
recite poems out loud. At the same time, watch the rhythm.

These exercises will help correct slurred speech, and others will begin to understand you.

Articulation exercises (tongue twisters, facial gymnastics)

Supplying air with the abdominal muscles is important, but the work of the articulatory apparatus is no less important. The articulatory apparatus includes the organs involved in the formation of sounds: the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx. For clear pronunciation of sounds and correct sound (don’t forget that the oral cavity is a resonator), it is important to correctly position the articulatory apparatus. Do not pinch your throat, position your tongue correctly, control the soft palate, etc. Articulation exercises help with this - exercises for the tongue, facial muscles, soft palate. To practice clear pronunciation, use tongue twisters. Correct pronunciation is clear, fluid, and active.

How to Improve Speech Clarity

If during a conversation you often have to repeat the same words, and the interlocutor does not understand you, then we can conclude that your speech is unclear. This needs to be fixed. Here are exercises that will help you:

You can't rush during a conversation. Control your breathing. When you take a breath, start speaking. Exhale slowly while doing this. Then breathing will occur in unison with speech. This will cause you to take your time.
Take your time when speaking. During public speaking, many people speak quickly and haltingly. To prevent this from happening, take a short break and calm down. Then continue the conversation.
Swallow excess saliva in your mouth. Its remnants prevent us from pronouncing the letters “k” and “s”. It is important to remember that you should not swallow saliva in the middle of a sentence, as it will come out unsaid.
Think about everything you want to say. Clearly spoken words are as important as the message you want to convey to people.
Rehearse. If you have to give a speech, anxiety may prevent you from saying what you intended. You may also begin to speak confusingly, jumping from one topic to another. Rehearsing will help you overcome these difficulties.
Repeat those words that seem difficult to you. Learn to pronounce them correctly. Then you won’t have an “accidental” reservation in the company.

Is it possible to learn to sing from scratch at home?

Where to start learning

The main thing in this matter is not to harm yourself. Remember that in order to have a good voice, you should practice a lot and diligently, and not wait for quick results. The ligaments need training, and cannot immediately be ready to perform the most complex parts. You may know a lot about how to sing correctly, but if you don't start with practice, then all this theory will mean nothing.

You should start with chanting - do not immediately take the upper or lower notes, you will conquer them later, after chanting in the middle range.

Special vocal cord exercises for singing

Regular repetition of these exercises has a positive effect on ligament training:

imagine gargling without throwing your head up - instead, slowly turn it from side to side. Make these sounds until you have enough breath to do so.
take a deep breath with your mouth, and as you exhale, hum, while at the same time tapping your nostrils with the pads of your index fingers.
tap your upper lip with your fingertips, while making sounds: “would-would-would” (as long as your breath is enough).
now tap the pad of your finger on your lower lip, similarly saying “ze-ze-ze” or “you-you-you.”
A regular yawn can also be classified as an exercise. Yawning is the easiest way for a performer to relax the neck and diaphragm. To induce a yawn, simply actively imagine it, open your mouth wide and inhale.
A slight cough will also be useful. You should imagine yourself gradually squeezing air out of your throat, thereby activating the muscles of your abdomen, as well as the lower part of your chest - exactly those that are recommended to be used when singing.
perform a slight vibration of your lips. Slightly clench your mouth and blow out air while humming a song (while keeping your lips closed). It is important that the throat remains relaxed. Move from low notes to high notes and back again.
If you want to “warm up” your voice, then singing with your mouth closed will be very useful. This exercise can be done at any time - while taking a shower, preparing lunch, and so on.

Vocal lessons for beginners

Now in almost any city there are many schools that will help you develop your voice and become a professional singer. If you still can’t decide to start lessons with a teacher, then there are online lessons for you, taught by experienced vocalists. Undoubtedly, from them you will be able to learn a lot of interesting things for yourself and discover all your singing talents.

Constant training will help you develop a beautiful and pleasant voice.

If you practice regularly, it will help you develop a strong and beautiful voice. At the same time, it is important not to forget to take care of the ligaments! A small and light massage will help you do this. Start by applying light pressure to the throat area with your thumb. By massaging your throat while singing, you will put much less stress on the ligaments. A similar action can be done during a long workout.

Songs for voice development

In general, you can sing any song you like and know well, but, of course, it is important to do this in unison with the performer. You can turn on some musical composition while singing along with the singer. It will be good if you record this lesson. Then, listening to the resulting recording, try to determine in what moments you had shortcomings.

Common mistakes

When learning to sing at home, people often make the following mistakes:

They try to repeat the performance of the song in the same way as famous singers do. There is no need to do this, you are not parodists. Above we looked at how to train a beautiful voice. Expand its range, perfect your ear for music. However, sing in your own voice.
Classes are conducted on a case-by-case basis. This problem occurs frequently. If you study one day a week for 3 hours, you will not achieve significant success. If you practice 5 times a week for an hour, the results will be much better.
Psychological constraint. You won't succeed if you always think you're doing something wrong.