Peter Vox

The Top 10 Tips For Becoming A Better Singer! By Peter Vox

Firstly, I would like to give you a very brief run through about myself, and why I feel that I am qualified to give you the top 10 tips for becoming a better singer.

I have been professionally teaching singers from beginners to professionals and celebrities for the past 26 years, so there is no question I cannot answer as a voice coach.

There is no contemporary genre of music that I have not taught – pop, rock, hip-hop, country, RnB, blues, metal, screaming, jazz, musical theatre – you name it, my students do it all! Numerous students, past and present, have obtained multimillion dollar contracts through major labels and theatre production companies as a result of combining Vox Singing Academy method with their own talent, hard work and dedication.

VSA has now grown from its humble beginnings, we currently have 6 studios based around Melbourne with the best team of singing teachers available. We also have the Ultimate Online Singing Course, which gives amazing quality singing lessons to anyone around the world at a value-packed price.

Now, let’s talk about our top 10 points on how to become the best singer you can be.

10. Keep it fun– whatever you do in your life to make your passion, please make sure that it is fun. Make sure that your singing is enjoyable, and you are doing a genre of music that you thoroughly enjoy. You should not feel like you have to work through the songs for hours to make them sound good – pick songs that make you happy, and make the time fly by! Always ensure that you are having fun yourself when you are singing.

9. Get inspired– so, what’s your favorite genre of music? Go and see your favorite artist live. Be around talented musicians and artistic people in general. Get energized by these people, get pumped up by your singing idols. What will support you in the long term is being inspired and energized all of the time.

8. The 4 P’s:Perfect Practice makes Perfect Performance – you have to make sure you are practising your singing every day. Make sure that you are getting your songs down a 110%, so that you are singing them with ease and correct technique, and having the maximum fun and enjoyment from your singing – because that’s what singing is all about.

7. 7. Sing the song with passion and feeling, like you really mean it and love the song– don’t think about anything else, just focus on what you are singing, the words that you are singing, and the emotions that you are trying to convey in the song. If you are singing with passion and feeling, people are going to believe this, and your voice will move them and resonate with their own experiences. It is the same as if you are speaking with someone on the street, and you know that they are not passionate about something. When people don’t really mean what they say, don’t put their heart into it – you’ll notice. So, sing your truth, with conviction and feeling!

6. Learn all the songs that you are singing to a 110%, inside out, back to front– this just doesn’t mean the lyrics. This also means the melody, the rhythm, the phrasing, the structure, and the light and shade. If you know the song a 110%, you can present it to the best of your abilities, and you’re going to feel confident.

5. Practice your scales– please make sure that you have a good practice regime that you are following every day. This is vitally important to sharpen your skills. It is exactly the same as a professional athlete. If you are a runner, for instance, you’ll be practising your skills and training every day – the same goes for singers. You have to do the scales, as these are going to teach you a multitude of different skills, singing higher/lower, correct breathing, vocal control, strength, stamina, improve your tonal quality, your confidence – and you want to apply those skills directly into your own songs. It is vitally important that you warm up and take care of your voice, and do scales every single day before your singing. This way, you’re going to sound a lot better and be a lot more confident in your abilities. Once you have your scales down, and your voice is operating at its peak – you can take what you are doing on the scales and place it straight into the songs, and be a fantastic singer. So, practice your scales, as well as your songs!

4. Volume variances– light and shade. To be a great singer you’ve got to use different volume variances, light and shades within each song. This is like a color palette for an artist. This separates the average singers from the greats. Go on and listen to your favorite artist – you can hear the different volume variances each great singer is using. This expressive approach is very important to add color, light and shade to the song, so please make sure that you are doing this.

Belting through a whole song at the same volume tires both the singer and the audience – while, on the other hand, gentle crooning with no volume peaks and falls will not keep the listener’s attention and interest.

In our classes, we use volumes variance scales from 1 (quiet) to 4 (loud), and we apply these to all songs – originals and covers alike. VSA teachers work through the songs with these different numbers to indicate how loud the student has to sing at any particular point. It is vitally important that you do this, too.

3. Get yourself a great voice coach, a caring and experienced singing teacher, or a proven online course – even if you are already a fantastic singer, please go out and get yourself the best singing teacher you can find! You can always improve and must always strive to improve. A great online course or teachercan answer all your questions a lot quicker than if you were to ask online or watch endless Youtube tutorials. Or, if you prefer an online course to study at your own pace – a good course can guide you about what to do and where to go with your voice. Getting great help along the way is really important and will save you a lot of time and heartache!

2. Choose the right key for your songs– whether you’d be writing your own songs, or doing covers, choose the right key that is going to suit your vocal range. We don’t want to be doing songs that are too high, where we are straining and struggling for breath, and being pitchy, and not reaching the right notes!

Most beginner vocalists think that “higher is more impressive”, or “deeper is more sensual” – but absolutely any song will sound much better, if you are singing beautifully within your comfortable range. With reasonable effort on highest/lowest notes – but not strained.

So, make sure that the keys you are singing in are suitable for your vocal range, and you feel comfortable with these keys, so that you can present each song to the best of your ability.

1. When you are singing, always remember to sing on pitch and hit the right notes– if you are singing flat or off the notes, even non-musicians and people that haven’t had singing lessons are going to notice this! Especially now – in the era of automatic pitch correction, when every single note on most recordings is processed and tuned – people are used to hearing perfect vocals, and every tiny mistake will stand out like a sore thumb.

This is the cardinal rule of singing – sing the right notes all the time.

I train up all of my singing teachers to make sure that they are always looking out for this number one point and correcting it. Whether that be in scales or songs, we don’t want any of our students to be hitting wrong or flat notes anywhere, at any time.

Hope that this has helped you out, and thank you very much for reading!

by Peter Vox