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"Practice makes perfect." These words get repeated ad nauseum by teachers only to trigger the rolling eyes of students everywhere. Nobody likes to practice. I am a teacher and I hate to practice. My problem, like everyone else, is that I don't sing very well when I skip the foundational work. Believe me; I've explored every possible short cut and detour imaginable. Some tricks work in limited circumstances; which tends to lead people down a path of limited gains. The unaddressed compromises, though, always seem to show up at the worst possible times. The music business is tough enough without adding doubts about your ability to sing.
Sorry, but to achieve consistent, predictable, results in any activity you've got to reinforce the fundamental skills until they become reflexive. Translation: practice. What's not true is that this process has to take over your life. Countless hours spent reinforcing the same bad technique will simply insure you spend your days in mediocre-vile. What makes a difference is specific isolation of muscle behaviors. Identify the bad and encourage the good. Show the body an easier way to do what you want and it will adapt quickly. Be perfect in your repetitions of form and function and you will be inspired by the results. Think of it as target practice.
It's easy to congratulate yourself when your arrow pierces the center of a target. Bull's eye! Even when you miss you can measure how far off you were and make an adjustment. It's not so easy to monitor progress when working on your voice. Singing is a combination of multiple targets and none are as obvious as the concentric circles used in archery. Pitch, tone, projection, range, rhythm, and negotiating those dastardly break points all vie for attention and focus. It's overwhelming to pay attention to each and every issue. Luckily, you don't have to micro-manage. All vocal related activities are based on reflex behaviors. They also influence one another. So improvement in one area usually yields improvement in others.
The biggest problem with target practice for the voice is perception. It's one thing to think you're in pitch and it's another to know. Since the trained ears of a teacher can't be there to guide you when practicing at home, there are some handy gadgets you can use to insure you reinforce correct behaviors. A very useful tool for building pitch accuracy is the chromatic type tuners normally used by guitarists. Korg makes a good one (pictured below) that has a built in microphone and plays tones as well as shows the pitch you're singing on a digital readout. It's quite enlightening (or should I say down right horrifying) when first singing into the device. A needle will sway left and right as you waver sharp and flat. A green light comes on to indicate an accurate pitch. Bull's eye!
Once you develop the coordination to keep the green light on while sustaining a single note, move on to scales. The tuner will follow your melody so you can monitor and adjust as needed. Take it slow and don't be alarmed if you're all over the place. Our ears are far more forgiving then the electronics within the tuner. In fact, perfectly placed pitches often sound unemotional. When a singer is just a hair flat it's usually perceived by a listener as being more soulful. Conversely, put a vocal line a little above the target pitch and it will be heard as intellectual or edgy. Neither of these observations means it's cool to sing sharp or flat. What it means is that true pitch control will allow you to add more feel and attitude to anything you sing. I have added the Korg tuner to my on-line store. So you're just a few clicks away from some positive practicing. Keep that green light on!
Another useful gadget is a good ol' fashion metronome. Singers are notorious for having a lousy sense of time. We tend to come in early and hang over too long. No other musician gets away with such a lack of discipline. Just like pitch, once you learn to control entrances and endings you can use time to add feel to your singing. Coming in a split second late is a great way to give your lyrics more heart and soul. Singing this way makes it seem like the words are popping into your head on the spot. The emotional pull is undeniable. Again, there is a big difference between coming in late because you have no control and singing behind the beat. Use a metronome to gain an appreciation for tempo and duration when practicing. It doesn't have to be a traditional time keeper; a drum machine or sequencer will do the job just as well.
Another target singers often miss when practicing is volume. Even the most talented vocalists exhibit very little control when it comes to dynamics. Compressors and limiters were invented for this very reason. Developing a moving microphone technique is not a good solution. Pulling back the mic when you're belting out a high note isn't fooling anyone. Volume changes the quality of sound, especially the voice, no matter where the microphone is. Just think of a snare drum. When you whack it yet turn its volume down in the mix of a recording it still sounds like it was hit hard. Ever wonder why the microphones on instruments don't have to be pulled back during loud parts? That's because the parts are supposed to be loud. For singers, it should be the lyrics that dictate which notes are loud or soft, not the difficulty of the pitch. To gain control over the volume of your voice, make it a target issue when you practice.
A great tool for monitoring volume is a sound pressure gauge; commonly know as a dB meter. Radio Shack makes a good one. Like a tuner, when you sing into this gadget a digital readout indicates your actual volume level. Again, it's amazing how different the reality can be from our perception. Since our ears are not very good at registering very small changes in volume, our vocal coordination naturally lacks this control. Using the meter allows your eyes to drive the activity; you'll see when you're getting louder rather than hear it. This heightened awareness provides a much needed guide for the reflexes. Your goal when practicing with a dB meter is to change pitch while maintaining a consistent volume.
Since sound pressure meters can be fairly expensive, a good alternative is a VU meter. These are the little light bars on your recording gear that dance up and down to indicate sound levels. Make sure you turn off your compressors and limiters, and then sing into a microphone while watching these indicator lights. Keeping them at the same height means you're under control. While none of these target pursuits lead directly to Grammy nominations, they do provide tangible feedback for reinforcing efficient habits. In the end, it is your trust of vocal reflexes that will free your mind to explore the emotions of a song. Show time is no time to manage the mechanics of your instrument. The real target when performing is your listeners. To focus on them requires you already have command of your voice. That's where the practice comes in. Once you trust your skills, every song can be a bull's eye.
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