Finally a simple guide and a decent process to go through to learn a song inside out! Today s lesson is crucial for you if you want to take your singing career any further. If you wish to perform on TV or Broadway, do musical theatre or sing as part of a choir. All of these require learning new songs and quite possibly moving out of a genre or style you are familiar with. So take this opportunity to give yourself a head start on the rest of the competition and read on to get this fantastic guide cemented in your head!
This is where the rubber hits the road, can you make an audience believe this is your song?
Sometimes you can tell when a singer doesn’t know a song very well as they don’t hit all the notes, or they change the notes and go down when they are meant to go up. This can be seen sometimes in American idol when a singer picks a classic song which we as the audience know well but they as the singer don’t. To avoid this, go through the steps we have outlined here.
Now, you will sing the song at least five times, each time focusing on a different aspect of the song.
1. Sound out (i.e., hum or sing) each note, paying no attention to rhythm or lyrics.
2. After you feel like you have a good grasp on each interval, sound out the notes again, this time following the correct rhythm. Emphasize the downbeats at first to make sure you get the correct rhythm. Repeat until you feel you know the notes completely.
3. Armed with a good grasp of the notes and rhythm, sing the notes using the sound “ah.” Visualize elongating your “ah” sound throughout the phrase; see your starting note and end note, and making your breath continuously smooth and flowing. Make sure to focus your breath.
4. Sing only the vowel sounds of the song. Make sure that your mouth is in a relaxed oval shape.
5. Now, you are ready to sing the full lyrics, consonants included.
As you sing, you should focus on any problem areas that you might have. These may include:
Articulation, intervals, and breathing
Any places where your voice wants to break. You should be able to sing the entire range required by the song in a smooth and unbroken manner. If some notes are a stretch, try changing the key of the song into a range that suits your voice.
Use the steps you have learned so far to sight sing two or three songs.. Don’t worry about style or personalizing the songs yet, until you have mastered the technical side of the music.
Coming Up...
Wow!, thats almost every single aspect you could ever need to know when learning a song. Now get ready for the icing on the cake…. The finishing touches to a performance can take it to a whole new level and have your audience either wanting more or heading for the door. Keep a look out for the last lesson in this mini series “making a song your own’, on adding Dynamics and Style.
Another Singorama Success Story!
Louise
Hertfordshire, U.K
My name is Louise Dorson I live in Hertfordshire in the Uk and I'm doing my university degree in performing arts, it requires that I use singing a lot so when I purchased singorama I'd hoped it would help me improve myself since I couldn't afford professional lessons. What I got was a package I found so useful that I still use it today, not only did it help me work on pitching my notes correctly and learning my range more it helped me with notation and being able to understand the music I learn form. There are lots of courses online where you can find singing training but this is the one I chose and would definitely recommend to people. You get to play games to help with your learning and you can even record yourself to see how you're improving. I thought I knew things about my voice but Singorama actually helped me to understand things more, to learn what was important and I was really pleased to try what it suggested. I'm a classical singer and it helped me... I found you can always use more help and with Singorama you get a fun confidence boost at the same time. It rocks!
Seriously now, pitching and problems staying on pitch are some of, if not the most important aspects when performing live or recording in a studio. Thankfully we don’t leave you high and dry in this area. Check out Singorama 2.0 for spefically designed exercises and audio examples to help train and strengthen your voice and forever eliminate those pitching woes!
