Singing can feel like lifting and struggling to find your way out of a tangled mess of netting that somehow got wrapped around your body. The more you strain against the netting, the less progress you make toward freedom.

Usually this type of singing challenge begins way back in time with an idea – one you are not aware of – that singing is hard work. The strain and struggle you think are supposed to help free the voice. It never works, though, does it?

Singing is the most natural of all musical instruments. What if you were to start with the idea that singing is simple and not something extra-ordinary?

‘But that can’t be right! It’s too easy!!’ That’s the exclamation I hear most often from students. How we get from strain and struggle to ‘too easy’ is through speech. Speaking on musical pitch instead of going to what I call the singie place.

The singie place isn’t really a place, but a way of approaching singing. When you think about singing, you feel that you must do certain things physically – whether you’re aware of them or not – to produce singing. You push and shove and struggle and strain to sing which actually does the opposite of what you want. All that unnatural use of muscle means that you will continue to strain and struggle.

Begin with speech and you will not go to the singie place. You speak quite naturally, right? You don’t pick up the phone and think about your inhale before you say hello. Nor do you strain to get the right pitch to say hello. No stage fright or any unnatural use of your voice, just a straight out hello.

You speak on pitch in normal conversation, you just don’t think of it that way. Your pitch is determined by how you feel about saying hello. If you think it’s a job offer coming through as opposed to your best friend, you might say hello differently. Be aware of the pitch of your speech.

When you speak on pitch you are using the same brain to body connection for singing as you do for speech. It’s natural, it’s not twisted in any way, just a normal use of the instrument.

You can find much more information on no more strain and struggle on SingerQuickFix.com. For more in-depth training and understanding of how your singing can become ‘too easy’, go to SingLikeYouSpeak.com.

About the author

Sally Morgan is a professional vocal trainer with over 30 years of experience. Sally is also the creator and author of SingLikeYouSpeak(TM)!

• Blog

View Sally's Profile      Subscribe via RSS