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How do YOU practice?


Jay1020

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I haven't looked extensively through the forum, though I plan to. This is a question that's been plaguing me for quite some time now. Assume all the warm-ups are done already.

 

How do you guys practice singing songs? I guess these are some more directed questions:

 

1. If you're starting a song fresh, meaning that you've never sang it before, do you familiarize yourself with the lyrics by singing the song over and over?

2. If you've been working on a song for a while, how do you practice to improve?

3. Do you ever get ideas from other singers? Sometimes I'll look at orginals to get a feel for the song, unless I read the lyrics and they touch my heart, then I'll give it a shot myself instead.

4. Do you ever do things like tongue-twisters and the like to improve certain elements of your singing?

 

I only really get to see the polished version of official videos and covers, and I've always wondered how artists spent their time practicing to get to that point. What do you guys think? :cool12:

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We had a few posts about "polished versions" a while back. There is so much audio editing power these days, including live editing, that polished versions can be deceptive. For example, one article talked of polished versions being constructed by recording dozens of takes, chopping them up into hundreds of words, phrases and syllables, and recombining the best parts. Then you have pitch correction (which can be live) and all other manner of timbre fiddling. So, a lot of the practice and technique is actually production skills. :cool:

 

Practice. I find that there are so many parts to practice and I like to separate them.

 

1. Practising LISTENING. Listening carefully to songs and figuring out specifically what I like about the vocals. (It takes a bit more effort than casual listening -- multiple replays of single phrases, for example). Training the ear, in general, is my starting point, although I haven't always been as diligent as I should in combing through entire songs. I listen to what other people say they like (particularly those who share my taste), but I don't let other tastes become a distraction. If I acquire new taste, I let it happen naturally.

 

2. DISCOVERING specific phrases that I would like to sing, but am unable to do so accurately, for whatever reason. This comes from trying to sing my favourite songs, recording myself, and listening carefully and critically to the recording. I archive practice phrases and track my progress.

 

3. EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT! Trying out my own new ideas and insights, other people's ideas, expert's ideas and opinions. There are masses and masses of ideas online. For me, this is the most effective and reliable way of figuring out how to do what I want to do, but don't know how to do. I incorporate what I learn into (2) and track the improvement.

 

4. Once I am satisfied that I am on the right track to finding a safe and correct technique, repetition is the penultimate major step. The main reason for repetition is strengthening of the muscles etc. It is one of the only two significantly repetitive bits of practising, and I find no good reason to rush. I don't believe it is about accelerated bodybuilding. Give the body a year of doing something a particular way, and it will build around that, naturally in its own time anyway, even if there is no dedicated practice regime.

 

5. Juggling. Learning how to combine, control and coordinate the different things that I have learned to do individually. This is the other significantly repetitive step, after (4). To help, I keep a memo file of things I have discovered that work for me. Now, when I find something difficult to sing, I can often jump straight to (4) and (5), because it is usually a matter of me not applying to that specific song something I have already figured out.

 

 

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I haven't looked extensively through the forum, though I plan to. This is a question that's been plaguing me for quite some time now. Assume all the warm-ups are done already.

 

How do you guys practice singing songs? I guess these are some more directed questions:

 

1. If you're starting a song fresh, meaning that you've never sang it before, do you familiarize yourself with the lyrics by singing the song over and over?

2. If you've been working on a song for a while, how do you practice to improve?

3. Do you ever get ideas from other singers? Sometimes I'll look at orginals to get a feel for the song, unless I read the lyrics and they touch my heart, then I'll give it a shot myself instead.

4. Do you ever do things like tongue-twisters and the like to improve certain elements of your singing?

 

I only really get to see the polished version of official videos and covers, and I've always wondered how artists spent their time practicing to get to that point. What do you guys think? :cool12:

 

1. Singing the song a lot is one technique to use. Additionally, while the Internet is a great tool and you can find lyrics easily, don't underestimate the power in actually transcribing the lyrics to a song by ear. For one thing, online lyrics are very often incorrect. For another, the process of writing it out (and I do mean *writing* it out, not typing it) is invaluable for etching the lyrics into your brain. It also forces you to listen to the song a lot more times than you might otherwise.

 

2. I honestly dont spend a lot of time once I have a song down for the most part. But if you are finding yourself struggling try to identify what the issue is. Are you having trouble hitting the notes? Entertain the idea of simply singing it in a different key: bringing a song down a semitone can make a HUGE difference, especially over the course of an entire evening. Out of breath? Try adjusting where you breathe in the song to make sure you have enough wind.

 

3. When I was playing regularly we were always looking for alternative covers of popular songs, usually to "rock it up" a bit.

 

4. Nope LOL

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Thanks guys for the quick response! I'm glad to know that I'm doing most of what you both have outlined. I'd been searching online for a solid regime, but couldn't find anything substantial (well I haven't checked as of late), so I've had to come up with my own protocol, though it could use a major revamp.

 

 

We had a few posts about "polished versions" a while back. There is so much audio editing power these days, including live editing, that polished versions can be deceptive. For example, one article talked of polished versions being constructed by recording dozens of takes, chopping them up into hundreds of words, phrases and syllables, and recombining the best parts. Then you have pitch correction (which can be live) and all other manner of timbre fiddling. So, a lot of the practice and technique is actually production skills. :cool:

 

Practice. I find that there are so many parts to practice and I like to separate them.

 

1. Practising LISTENING. Listening carefully to songs and figuring out specifically what I like about the vocals. (It takes a bit more effort than casual listening -- multiple replays of single phrases, for example). Training the ear, in general, is my starting point, although I haven't always been as diligent as I should in combing through entire songs. I listen to what other people say they like (particularly those who share my taste), but I don't let other tastes become a distraction. If I acquire new taste, I let it happen naturally.

 

2. DISCOVERING specific phrases that I would like to sing, but am unable to do so accurately, for whatever reason. This comes from trying to sing my favourite songs, recording myself, and listening carefully and critically to the recording. I archive practice phrases and track my progress.

 

3. EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT! Trying out my own new ideas and insights, other people's ideas, expert's ideas and opinions. There are masses and masses of ideas online. For me, this is the most effective and reliable way of figuring out how to do what I want to do, but don't know how to do. I incorporate what I learn into (2) and track the improvement.

 

4. Once I am satisfied that I am on the right track to finding a safe and correct technique, repetition is the penultimate major step. The main reason for repetition is strengthening of the muscles etc. It is one of the only two significantly repetitive bits of practising, and I find no good reason to rush. I don't believe it is about accelerated bodybuilding. Give the body a year of doing something a particular way, and it will build around that, naturally in its own time anyway, even if there is no dedicated practice regime.

 

5. Juggling. Learning how to combine, control and coordinate the different things that I have learned to do individually. This is the other significantly repetitive step, after (4). To help, I keep a memo file of things I have discovered that work for me. Now, when I find something difficult to sing, I can often jump straight to (4) and (5), because it is usually a matter of me not applying to that specific song something I have already figured out.

 

 

 

I had only recently heard of things like autotune...and I cringed a little. If I ever used something like that, I would feel like I'm betraying myself and the hard work I've been doing to learn how to sing! That's definitely something I have to realize.

 

I didn't think to archive and compare...that's a really good idea. I record, but I guess I can do it for individual parts, and then combine the result when I'm happy with what I have. Your advice on shading my voice was a real eye opener...it showed me so many more dimensions to my voice that I hadn't considered before, so that was really cool. I find myself experimenting now a lot with my recordings, something I hadn't previously done extensively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Singing the song a lot is one technique to use. Additionally, while the Internet is a great tool and you can find lyrics easily, don't underestimate the power in actually transcribing the lyrics to a song by ear. For one thing, online lyrics are very often incorrect. For another, the process of writing it out (and I do mean *writing* it out, not typing it) is invaluable for etching the lyrics into your brain. It also forces you to listen to the song a lot more times than you might otherwise.

 

2. I honestly dont spend a lot of time once I have a song down for the most part. But if you are finding yourself struggling try to identify what the issue is. Are you having trouble hitting the notes? Entertain the idea of simply singing it in a different key: bringing a song down a semitone can make a HUGE difference, especially over the course of an entire evening. Out of breath? Try adjusting where you breathe in the song to make sure you have enough wind.

 

3. When I was playing regularly we were always looking for alternative covers of popular songs, usually to "rock it up" a bit.

 

4. Nope LOL

 

Thanks for the idea of writing the lyrics down. I 100% agree...I'm a mathie, and when I type out stuff, I don't retain it. I have to write it down, by myself, with no others around, explore what I have, and then ask questions. That helps me remember and retain a lot of information, and I feel that will work well with singing since it is intimately related someway with math.

 

Dude the semitone thing helped me so many times! I'll find a song that I really like, can't quite hit the notes I want to hit, and when I go down a few notes, it sounds so much better! I'm still working on my breathing too. One song I like to practice is "Please Don't Tell Her" by Jason Mraz, and I found that when I get past the chorus and the whistle, I'll run out of breath on the next verse. So I looked at the words carefully and found a spot where I can comfortably get more and sing it cohesively. I've only made one cover, but I'ma start throwing a lot out there just for experience and fun and see what happens.

 

Have any of you used any of the purchasable online? My big issue with getting a vocal coach is timing...I am ultra busy during the day, but I have so much time between like 10p.m. - 4 a.m. LOL. So I thought about maybe buying one and see what happens.

 

 

 

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Exercises for breathing and support, then warm up, then coordination exercises (mostly to keep the tessitura I need for the material I sing), then legato scales and then dynamic range exercises.

 

On singing, I normally pick a repertoire song and a different style song to practice. Yesterday it was Tears of a Mandrake - Edguy and Noel Rosa - Ultimo Desejo. The last one will take a while to sound acceptable by my standards.

 

On each individual song, I memorize melody, lyrics and the interpretation. I have some techniques that I use for that too. On songs which I am familiar with the style, I don't do much else. On songs that are on different styles that I am no so used to sing, I memorize the other voices as well (drums, keys, guitars, etc), I find this gives me more information to sing it in a more fitting way. If necessary look I look into other songs from the same artist, or in a more broad manner, style.

 

On heavy/power metal, which is my work repertoire currently, because there are some technique alternations the singers use and the material is usually demanding, I find it a good idea to study the song on different manners and even break down individual phrases or words to make sure I will use the right approach to the moment. On any kind of material that takes a more technical approach this is a good idea, even if I can "go through" it without doing so, it makes a huge impact on how much stamina I have when singing live.

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Assume all the warm-ups are done already.

 

Great start...some warm ups are better than others for certain styles of songs to get your voice in the right place

 

1. If you're starting a song fresh, meaning that you've never sang it before, do you familiarize yourself with the lyrics by singing the song over and over?

 

Not necessarily singing it over & over but listening to it enough times to commit the lyrics and melody to memory. This can include printing out the lyrics and making notes in certain sections. Sometimes finding the sheet music or working out some of the tricky parts on a piano...often times people sing the melody wrong, so sometimes it's good to slow it down and work the tricky bits out.

 

2. If you've been working on a song for a while, how do you practice to improve?

 

With a singing teacher, then going away and working on it in small sections

 

3. Do you ever get ideas from other singers? Sometimes I'll look at originals to get a feel for the song, unless I read the lyrics and they touch my heart, then I'll give it a shot myself instead.

 

Yes, if you are singing popular songs then they are usually popular for a reason and a compelling vocal is the "money" track as they say so I don't think trying to use the originals phrasing and style is a bad way to start. You can always make it your own afterwards once you've nailed it.

 

4. Do you ever do things like tongue-twisters and the like to improve certain elements of your singing?

 

They can help if you are having trouble with enunciation...NEW2 made a good point about singing a song through on one sound because it lets you just concentrate on the the notes and phrasing without having to contend with the lyrics.

 

Slowing the song down is a good tool if you have some audio software that keeps it the same pitch.

 

I only really get to see the polished version of official videos and covers, and I've always wondered how artists spent their time practicing to get to that point. What do you guys think? :cool12:

 

Artists have vocal coaches , they warm up, in the studio they may have a vocal producer who's job it is to get the best performance from the singer at the session, then they have engineers who will select the mic that sounds best as well as racks full of high end compressors and reverb units.The vocal will be sung many times over , and " comped" by the engineer to get the best bits of all the takes into one track and then it'll probably be tuned before handed over to the mixer. All standard stuff in the modern studio.

 

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