Let’s learn to sing! Specially beginners do not get it easy when singing. There is so much to consider. You do and do – and yet you appear not to be on the spot. Nothing gets better, or at least not fast enough.
That’s why today I introduce you to 4 fundamental skills that will make your vocals sound better immediately. These tools are especially suitable for beginners. Singing techniques for beginners.
Contents
Learn how to sing for beginners: 1st ability is to sing legato
The biggest difference beginners in singing do not yet know: singing is not speaking. Both are produced in the larynx. The sound that comes out of the larynx, however, is treated differently.
When singing, the pitch and the connection between the words are different than when speaking. Both determine whether you sing legato or not.
What is Legato?
Legato means “bound” in Italian. It means that consecutive sounds should sound without interruption.
You have to change the duration of the notes and thereby the connection between the words. When speaking the sounds are very short. When singing you have to endure it long. How long? As long as the note value dictates. You may also have noticed that non-legato singing, which was more chanting than real singing.
What is the connections between the words ?
When talking, the connection between words tends to be choppy. You will find many so-called word eruptions (cuts or pauses between or within words). As a native speaker, you do not worry about it. In English, there are many more links between the words when speaking.
An example: “On my own pretending he’s beside me”. Please pronounce it like a big, gnawed chewing gum: “onmyownpretendinghesbesideme”. So you do not talk anymore “on (pause) my (pause) own”, but “oooo-nmaaaa-ioooo-un”. And instead of “pre- (pause) -tend- (pause) -ing (pause) he’s (pause) be- (pause) -side (pause) me” do you speak “priiii-teeee-nnndiiii-nnghiiii-sbiiii-saaaai- dmmmiiii “. That’s exactly what you have to do when singing.
A legato connection within and between words depends on how fast you handle the consonants. When singing you keep the vowels long and sing the consonants short .
How to train Legato
You need:
- stable breathing
- accurate hearing or a recording device with playback function
- concentration
- Patience while relearning
You practice:
- only the vowels sing
- Practice connections between consonant and consonant
- slowly
- 5 minutes per practice unit
Learn how to sing for beginners: 2nd ability is to sing the right notes
Singing differs from speech in another point: the pitch . There are two rules for this:
- When singing, you have to hit the pitch exactly, otherwise you will sound crooked.
- The pitch you hit must be stable. If you start singing a long note and end up on a different note, you do not do that. Sometimes the problem is breathing; but sometimes also at an untrained hearing.
Of course, in addition to the general intonation , it is important that you also sing the right notes for the song.
So if you want to sound better right now, you have to work on your intonation. First and foremost, you have to be able to hit the notes exactly – generally in auditioning and singing, but also in a song. If that works, you can practice the sounds .
How to train intonation
You need:
- a piano or a piano app
- a tuner or a tuner app
- a bit of music theory knowledge (halftones, whole tones, the basic intervals, the common scales)
- accurate hearing or a recording device with playback function
- concentration
- patience
You practice:
- Sing single notes that you give yourself on the piano
- Check individual tones with the tuner
- Intervals sing
- Scales sing
- 10 minutes per practice unit with full concentration
Learn how to sing for beginners: 3rd ability is to sing with dynamics
Surely you have ever heard a singer who has touched your heart with his singing. In the first moment you noticed the great sound of his voice or the text with which you could identify yourself. The least noticeable is the dynamics.
What is dynamics?
Dynamics are volume.
It can take place at uniform levels, in sliding transitions or abrupt changes. The uniform levels mean that all sounds are the same over a longer period of time. The basic volumes are piano (quiet), mezzoforte (medium-loud or normal) and forte (loud). Sliding transitions can be achieved with crescendo (becoming louder) and decrescendo (becoming quieter). Abrupt changes are accents, so sudden changes in volume for mostly a single tone.
By the way, vocalists regulate the volume by breathing, not muscle power in the throat. The neck should remain loose while singing – no tendons that stand out and no rough, hoarse feeling after singing! If your breathing is stable and you support well, you can sing bigger differences in dynamics.
Working on your dynamic range is important for two reasons and both are related to our environment.
For one thing, we are used to a very uniform sound from radio, television and studio albums. You can hardly find songs whose volume differs significantly from the other songs. Record companies want it that way and let it mix that way.
On the other hand, the love of technology is thwarting our calculations. Microphones can only cover a medium-sized dynamic range, without the sound engineer working up a sweat. The more consistent a singer sings, the easier it is for him to work.
Both of these factors mean that today singers hardly dare to sing with dynamism – or simply have not learned it. Unplugged vocals are gaining enormous emotional depth through different volumes. Think: When do you sing without a microphone? Unless you’re a professional singer (Chapeau, that you’re interested in this article), it’s always. At home, while having a barbecue with friends, in singing lessons, in the car, singing in before a performance. All these are great reasons to work on your dynamics.
How to train dynamics
You need:
- accurate hearing or a recording device with playback function
- concentration
- patience
You practice:
- Single tones in the 3 basic volumes piano, mezzoforte and forte sing
- sing a light melody in the base volumes
- sing a section of your song in the base volumes
- sing transitions in a song
- 5-10 minutes per exercise unit
4. Ability: sing with sense of rhythm
The fourth tool to immediately sound better as a beginner singer is the rhythm. How good or bad a singer is, is shown by whether he keeps the tempo consistently and sings the notes in the right rhythm.
Rhythm is a combination of the ability to beat comply and within this uniform grid the notes to sing at the right time , that is the rhythm.
What is beat?
The Beat , also basic beat , pulse or meter called, is the division of time into equal sections. The distance between the beats is determined by the tempo. With a fast song, beat beats follow each other faster, while a slow song spends more time between beats.
Take the second hand of a watch. He divides the time into even 1-second packets. Every song has this uniform tick. The pulse is the basis for several musicians to perform together. Each of them feels the beat or hears it inside.
And then what is rhythm?
This builds up on the beat. Rhythm is the arrangement of different lengths of sound on the grid of beats. Not every sound is the same length. Some sounds are exactly one beat long. Some sounds are sustained and get 2, 3, or 4 beats. Other sounds are much faster than the beat. This combination of different note values makes the rhythm.
In children’s songs, the rhythms are often very simple. In “All my ducklings” you already find the essential rhythms: quarter notes (“all my”, “swim on the”, “head in the”, “tail in the”), half notes (“duckling”, “water”) and whole notes (“See”, “Höh”). If I place the beat below the text in the form of dots, you immediately see which words you have to endure for a long time and which ones are exactly one beat long.
Working on the beat is a thousand times more important than working on the rhythm. Because your beat fluctuates, you can do the most amazing rhythmic tricks and still sound lousy. If you can keep the beat stable, of course, work on the rhythm follows. Beat and rhythm together make up the sense of rhythm .
How to train rhythm feeling
You need:
- a metronome
- Songs on a CD / Spotify / Youtube
- a bit of music theory knowledge (note values, pauses, time signatures)
- Notes of your song
- accurate hearing or a recording device with playback function
- concentration
- patience
You practice:
- find the beat of any song and clap along
- clap the beat, then pause the song and continue to keep the beat at the correct tempo without any musical support
- clap the correct rhythm of a single beat from your song
- clap the rhythm of a section from this song correctly
- 5-10 minutes per exercise unit
For rhythm training, I recommend the “Rhythm Coach” by Richard Felt.
Conclusion
The 4 skills that make singers sound better right now are legato singing, intonation, dynamics and sense of rhythm. Beginners will need to train these skills. For that, I’ve given you exactly what you need for a successful workout and what you have to do. For advanced singers, this is certainly a small refresher course – perfect for summer recreation.
Check our review article on Singorama to learn how to sing.
