How to sing louder without trying to

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By Amy Gould
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Article Rating: (9 Ratings)

Many people struggle with singing louder. For various reasons they just don't put out a lot of sound. You can improve your volume and some of the gains in volume can be achieved rather quickly.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Breath support - If you haven't already done so, read my article on breath support. Not having correct breath support will keep you from improving your volume (and overall sound.)
Step 2

piano keyboard

Get it together - Get your vocal chords together. Many people sing with a breathy sound which is very quiet and airy sounding. It does not involve the entire vocal chord, in fact only the edges of the vocal folds are vibrating. It also makes it hard to sing with good breath support.

To work on this sing ha on one note for four beats gradually getting louder. Keep working on increasing your volume each time you sing this exercise. Listen to your voice, if the sound still sounds breathy try getting louder, if it sounds full and beautiful you are probably doing it right, if the sound starts to break up and sound ugly you probably took it too far. Next time you do the exercise don't go quite so loud. Repeat the exercise up one note at a time (on the piano) until you reach the comfortable top of your range ( where the sound is still easy to produce) and then descend one note at a time to the bottom of your range.
Step 3

Work on resonance - Resonance is part of what gives a voice beauty. To begin working on this, hum on one note. It works best if you drop your jaw so that your lips are barely touching and then hum. You may feel a vibration or buzz in your forehead or cheeks. This sensation has been called singing in the mask, because the sensations are felt in a mask like shape on the face.
Step 4

Open it up - If you feel the buzz in your face, then the next step is to try to keep that feeling as you sing. Hum again and this time after a couple of beats take your lips apart to an ah sound. Try to keep the buzz in your face. It will be less noticeable when you sing ah, but it should feel similar. Don't worry if you can't feel a buzz at first, the hum is still pretty effective for helping to sing with resonance.
Step 5

Try to sing a simple song and see if you can feel the buzz as you are singing the words. If you can't feel it on a particular note or phrase go back and hum it and then sing it again. See if you can feel the buzz more after you hum it first.

Comments

RENorton said

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on 10/15/2008 Well-written, with some great tips. Thanks.

AmyGould said

on 9/12/2008 Thank you 2besure! I'll have to look into that. I just published a podcast about improving your sound on my website www.singerspot.com

Susanh said

on 6/13/2008 I'm going to try this! Thank you for a well-written article.

2besure said

on 5/26/2008 Great article. You know Ehow has a video section. Have you thought of making videos on singing techniques. Youtube also offers a way of making money with videos.