- Singing should be a smooth, relaxed process of vibrating and shaping the air you push from your lungs
- Singing starts by opening your mouth to prepare to produce the starting vowel or consonant you wish to sing
- The throat and oral cavity should be open and the vocal fold should be relaxed, as if you are just about to yawn
- Use the muscles in the diaphragm, abdomen and lower back to produce a consistent stream of air out of your lungs by engaging them smoothly and building to full pressure
- Fix the pitch you want to sing in your mind and then engage your vocal fold to produce it with as little neck muscle tightness as possible
- Listen carefully to tune the pitch and tone as you sing
- Use dynamics to give life to melodic lines and emphasis to lyrics
- Use vocal ornamentation like slides, slurs and vibrato sparingly and only as required to properly interpret the song
Pitch:
- A sung pitch is the frequency that the vocal fold vibrates the air passing through it
- Singing on pitch requires both constant listening and good muscle control of the vocal fold in the larynx
- Singing well together requires careful attention to both your voice and the voices of the other people in the group to either match pitches or to harmonize
- The range of pitches that a person's vocal fold will produce is primarily a function of their natural length and thickness
- The vocal range is flexible and can be improved through practice, but there is still a limit based on physiology that cannot be avoided
- Sometimes at the high end of the vocal range, a note may be sung either in chest or head voice and it may take some experimentation to determine how to sing those notes comfortably in a particular phrase
