Things You'll Need:
- Paper and pen
- Voice recorder
- Mirror
- Rehearsal with an accompanist
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Step 1
Choose a song that is appropriate for your vocal range and style. Start with something relatively easy so that you can focus on the words you are singing and not be too concerned with delivering the music. It's probably obvious that you need to be in good vocal condition, and this can be a large commitment in itself. Please don't try to wing it. But for the purposes of this article, I'll leave these issues aside.
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Step 2
Once you've chosen your song, write out the words, by hand. I don't know why it works, but it does. It will burn the words into your brain.
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Step 3
Once you've got the words in front of you, speak them out loud. Repeat them to yourself throughout the day. Walking down the street, on the subway, on the bus. Turn them into conversational speech. Make sure you understand what the words mean, who you're speaking them to. What your goal is by speaking them. Forget about the melody of the tune. Work phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence. Then find friends to speak them to. Make sure they understand what you're talking about.
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Step 4
Listen, listen, listen to the masters. No matter what kind of singer you are- jazz, cabaret, musical theater, opera-find the masters of that genre and listen. Don't try to copy what they're doing. Just listen for their phrasing and how they're singing the words. Do they make you understand? Do they make you want to listen?
