Maintain Singing Voice

A great teacher, method and practice are vital to a great singing voice, but none of this will free your voice if you have too much vocal and physical tension. This is usually mentioned with most vocal teachers but never truly addressed and dealt with. Almost all potential singers have vocal tension. If you truly understand how the voice works you know that tense muscles will block and inhibit your natural voice.

Tense muscles around the neck are not the muscles for singing and will actually block your voice from working properly and naturally. You need to use the vocal cords encased by the larynx not the outer muscles in the neck yet when we are tense the neck muscles are usually the first muscles to be used. One thing that happens when your using your neck muscles is that the larynx is forced up or down unnaturally which causes the vocal cords to slam shut and over time cause blisters on the vocal cords (nodes). This is caused by strained singing and even yelling.

Your singing voice works the same as your speaking voice with just a few differences. When you speak, unless you yell, you just use the internal instrument: the vocal cords, breath, diaphragm etc. This is the same for singing and should be that easy. So what can you do about it?

Well relaxed singing voice is easier said than done. Breathing exercises can help but learning clear and disciplined focus can improved this problem quickly and free up your voice so that a good technique can work properly. Trained focus on whats important when your singing is crucial. Focus on the lyrics, the melody and the feelings of the song. The focus takes practice but it really works. Your teacher should be able to help you with this and if they can't you may want to look for a teacher that focuses on this as part of their teaching method. When shopping for a good vocal coach, find out if they include performance confidence in their training. It could make all the difference in the world. You can also work on singing relaxation on your own. Find some really good relaxation techniques and start practicing. Focus training is a good technique.Then apply them right into your singing. You may always have some tension while singing but you can greatly reduce it with specific focused relaxation training. After all, you want to enjoy singing and relieving tension will make a big difference to your enjoyment and a better singing voice.