How to Do Vocal Exercises

You want to make the most out of your voice and have an even tone from the top to the bottom of your range. Regular daily exercises will help you achieve this. Please read "How to Prepare Your Body for Singing" and "How to Do Breathing Exercises" before doing these exercises.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Vocal Exercise

1. Say "le" and "la" out loud, with the vowels pronounced in the Italian manner (say "le" rather than "lay-ee" and "la" rather than "la-uh").

2. Join the vowels "a" and "e" together with the "l" in an arc of sound, flicking your tongue briskly to make the "l" sound as short as possible.

3. Practice this exercise for a few minutes.

4. Say the Italian vowel sounds a, e, i, o, u, prefixed by the lip consonant "m".

5. Pronounce these sounds in the following fashion: "ma" as the "a" in father; "me" as the "a" in gate; "mi" as in machine; "mo" as the "o" in more; "mu" as the "oo" in school.

6. To produce the right "m" sound, spring your lips apart to allow the vowel sound to flow and be projected.

7. Keep the flow of your breath constant throughout the exercise.

Vocalizing

1. Sing the melody of a familiar song, using the Italian vowels from above instead of actually singing the lyrics. This is called vocalizing.

2. Here is one: Somewhere over the rainbow/Way up high/There's a land that I heard of/Once in a lullaby/Somewhere over the rainbow/Skies are blue/And the dreams that you dare to dream/Really do come true.

3. Vocalize this song on "la" and "ma," keeping a steady flow of breath.

4. Memorize the lyrics.

5. Finally, sing the song using the actual lyrics. Try not to look at the words; pretend that you are looking at an audience in front of you instead.

Tips & Warnings

• Italian vowels are constantly used in singing. Familiarize yourself with Italian pronunciation.

• Improving your pronunciation of consonants (l, m, p, t, d, f, g, n, s, v, z) will help to exercise your tongue. For instance, instead of using the whole length of your tongue to produce the "l," just curl the tip of your tongue backward. It really makes it easier to say it.

• Listen to recordings of the songs you like to sing, but try not to imitate the singers, as much as you might like their particular renditions. Imitating may be fun for a while, but if you are serious about learning to sing, it will eventually just strain your voice instead of bringing out its full potential.