Common Problems for Singers

Singing is an enjoyable pastime for many people who not only enjoy it but want to improve theirability to do it. Unfortunately there are some major difficulties when it comes to working on andimproving your singing voice. We're going to look at them now.

Number one is you can't directly observe your voice. When you hear God the beautiful voice or thelady with the beautiful voice you can't go and look and say, "Oh I see what she's doing." And whenyou have problems yourself or you're doing great you can't go, "Oh I know what I'm doing."

The voice is all based on feel. Even the world's greatest teacher is telling you, "I think I'm opening upthis. I think I'm getting this." And then he listens to you and he says, "I think you're doing this wrongor you're doing that right." And because it's not directly observable, it's hard to control and it's hardto imagine.

And the second point the difficulty for vocalists that's with that is because you can't see it, singing islargely made up of habits. You have been using your voice since the day you were born. Unlike aguitar player, unlike a trumpet player somebody said 'let's learn this' and the guy sits down and heworks on different parts.

You've always used your voice. You use it every day, you're going to use it tonight, you're going touse it in the morning and because it's made up of habits you can't see it and you use it all the time,when you start trying to change things in your voice sometimes...

a) Either they seem uncomfortable and unnatural because they're working against your habit.If you sing in a particular way and you're trying to fix it and you're trying to do thingsdifferently it's going to feel unusual, unnatural.

b) It's a habit - you've got to create a new habit. In other words you've got to pursue it longterm not just a new piece of information. If I was trying to play the guitar and my teachertold me "Oh put your thumb behind the neck", I could see that constantly "Hey look mythumb's not behind the neck." But with the voice someone might tell you to open up,support the diaphragm. You've got to remember to do that without being able to seeanything. You just have to go, "No I'm not supporting".

So these are common problems for singers all over the world. There are observation problems whichcan make singing a tricky skill to learn and improve.

The key is to develop a greater awareness of your voice and what it is doing, to the extent where it isalmost like you can see it. You must use your mind to imagine what is going on with your voice asyou are using it.

Don't make guesses. Learn what happens to your voice when you are making different sounds anduse this information to develop an understanding of your voice, how it works and how to improve it.