Improve Your Singing Technique For Recording Vocals

TALENT25 Feb 2020

Top 3 Secrets To Sound Like a Pro

Recording your vocals adequately is the key to get a good mix. Vocals tell a story and bring the emotional part into the music arrange, this is why incredible and solid vocals will make a difference in your recordings, also having a clear sound with a compact technique contributes to a better engagement with your public.

In this article we’ll give you some tips to improve your singing technique, since vocal performance is something that people consider more than anything else so you can sound like a total pro (because, trust us… if listeners don’t connect with your sound, you’ll lose them immediately).

So here we go, these are our 3 advices to improve your singing technique for recording vocals:

Breathing Support
This is the most important thing to consider since voice is all air. You have to learn how to breathe properly in order to develop a rock-solid technique that will never leave you. If you know how to breathe, you’ll be able to sing.

First of all, practice breathing slow, silently and deep through your nose. Relax your shoulders down, and don’t raise your chest, all business must stay deep down below. Now, take that deep breath in and hold it for five seconds.

Exhale sloooooooowly with an S sound until all air is gone, if you couldn’t hold the exhaling for more than 30 seconds then your lung capacity is low and there’s work to do. Your goal must be to reach 1 minute while exhaling. Once you master this, try the 10-5-30 exercise.

The 10-5-30 exercise consists on inhaling air through your nose for 10 seconds and retain it for 5 seconds, then exhale and try to reach (at lease) 30 seconds.
Muscle Coordination
Because singing is also a sport, you should use and engage some muscles here and there. The famous and so known diaphragm, yes… old-school die-hard teachers and fans would always be like “use the diaphragm” but here’s the 411: the diaphragm is not isolated, it also gets help from the psoas, the abdominal wall and your core.

Now, pay attention because this is tricky; now that you’re a breathing pro and you’re able to exhale air out of your lungs for two minutes straight you must coordinate your muscle activity with the breathing cycle. You surely did notice how your lower part of the torso expands when you inhale and contracts when exhaling, well the next thing to master is keeping that roundness when you’re exhaling the air, yes that’s hard and it takes a lot of concentration but don’t worry, you can do it!

Try this exercise: put your hands on your waist and breath in, you’ll notice how your ribs pushed your hands out. Next thing to do is to exhale but keeping that opening in your ribs by pushing your diaphragm out, engaging your abs and releasing your core, this is a counter force you’re doing in order to coordinate all these muscles and not use your throat at all so you won’t injure your voice.
Articulate
This is the cherry on top of the ice cream, as simple as it sounds, articulate every single word you’re singing like you’re chewing them. A correct articulation results on a better understanding of the lyrics and hence the comprehension of the message that is intended to be sent to the audience. Because again: if people can’t understand what you’re saying, you’ll lose them and the articulation (believe it or not) is what makes you sound professional.

A great way to practice articulation is reading tongue twisters, this will help you to free your jaw and relax your tongue. You could also take public speaking and speech courses to improve this skill and have more resources from this quality.

So, this is it for today. We hope these tips are helpful for you to improve your vocal technique, now get in that recording booth and start your recordings using these little secrets to sound like a professional, don’t forget to leave feedback and share also your knowledge and experiences with us, see you next time!