#singing tips

don't think too hard and just do it. your first few covers won't be good and you probably won't post it online, which is ok. find a community of people who will encourage you to keep trying, like on discord. idk what kids do these days. but if im sure of one thing, you guys can be really resilient, so keep at it and figure out if it's right for you. hope that helps!

Also love yours and yoavs music❤️❤️❤️

Thanks for your kind words!

I am gonna make all the vocal coaches mad when I say I’m not crazy about vocal warmups. Rather than warming up with scales and arpeggios, I prefer to warm up for the songs I’m gonna sing *by singing those songs.* Sometimes when I’m drinking water or tea, I’ll hum songs while gargling, which creates negative laryngeal pressure (or something like that lmao) which is very helpful for loosening up. If you don’t like to gargle, or just find it gross and offputting, you can achieve the same effect by humming thru a straw into a bottle of water.

For me, it’s more about vocal health. I don’t smoke cigarettes, I don’t vape, I don’t drink on days I sing, I don’t eat foods that will trigger excessive acidity, and I voraciously consume vocalzone pastilles, throat coat and marshmallow tea, and honey. My main vocal health shortcomings are that I have a tendency to over-eat, my duration and quality of sleep is sub-par (especially on tour), and I don’t drink as much water as I should, though once I’m onstage I generally go through 3-4 water bottles per show. I’m working on that stuff!

ARE YOU/WERE YOU A THEATER KID?

DO YOU FIND IT REALLY HARD TO SING?

DO YOU GET OUT OF BREATH FAST?

It's cause you're sitting.

I'm not fucking with you.

I literally can't sing sitting anymore.

Aw thank you!!

My biggest singing tips (stolen ofc from my vocal instructor bc everything I know I learned from her):

- Don’t reach for high notes. If it hurts, it’s wrong, and stop doing it. If something is slightly high, switch registers (that is stop chest voicing it) and you’ll develop a mix range where you can comfortably sing those notes.

- pitch is the one thing to make sure you train yourself in. Everyone’s voice sounds different, but as long as the notes are clear, all voice types can be good singers!

- take care of vocal health. Drink lots of water and make sure to avoid dairy products, spicy or creamy food, acidic food/beverages or lots of sugar before a time period where you know you’ll be singing (such as recording, auditioning or performing). Those foods can cause reflux or inflammation that make it difficult to sing, and if you aren’t hydrated, you probably won’t like the way your voice sounds.

- warm up before singing something challenging, and make peace with the fact that singing without warming up isn’t ever going to sound very good. For warmup tips, I recommend looking up vocal warmups on YouTube! Plenty of vocal coaches post helpful warmups to use.

- DON’T do anything physically painful. If what you are doing with your voice hurts, stop doing it or you’re going to damage your vocal chords.

- if you’re sick and still need to sing, try to stay away from nasal decongestants. They’re very dehydrating. Try instead expectorants such as mucinex, drinking lots of water, and blowing your nose frequently (but safely) to clear up mucus in your nose if you have to sing while sick.

- chugging a bunch of water before a performance won’t help your voice. It could even have the opposite effect. Instead, steadily consume large quantities of water throughout the day, making sure there’s plenty in your system without chugging it all at once.

Being a singer also makes you hyper aware of your vocal state at all times. For example, I drank a frappuccino earlier today and I can literally feel where my vocal chords are more swollen than normal. After eating something spicy, I can feel the impact on my singing voice without even using it. Before I open my mouth to sing, just by feeling whatever’s going on in my throat, I can predict how it’s going to sound. It’s a weird feeling to get used to and I’m told by my non-singer friends that it is not normal. It also helps me catch sicknesses early, though, because if I feel like my throat is unnaturally swollen ever so slightly in a way that doesn’t align with anything I’ve recently eaten, I know to start taking medicine to chase off the germs before it gets too bad.

I love writing music and I love the lyrics I write but then I attempt to sing it in my fuckass voice and I want to commit war crimes

It's vocal cords. Not chords. You have a pair of string-like structures in your throat, and unless you've mastered overtones you can only make one pitch at a time*