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While it takes years to develop a great vocal technique, there are a few things you can do to get some instant improvement! Use the following notes to formulate new habits.

BAD HABIT: Dulling down the sound with your face-shape
TO CORRECT: Smile! When you smile the upper palette in your mouth takes on more of a domed shape to create a resonant ‘room’ (think of a cathedral). Without the smile, you have more of a ‘flat roof’ which lacks resonance. Smiling dramatically improves tuning (lifting your eyebrows helps, too!).

Do some mirror work at home: it’s always embarrassing singing into a mirror for the first time, but you’ll get used to it: just watch what your mouth is doing. You probably have had no idea that you’re not smiling (or just how miserable you might look when you’re singing!). Try to keep your teeth slightly apart when you sing – to let the sound out! It’s also about visual communication as well as aural. No smile = you look AND sound dull!

BAD HABIT: Your sound is going in the wrong direction
TO CORRECT: Try experimenting with a song where the tune goes up in pitch. Listen to yourself: is the sound going backwards, especially when the notes are getting higher? Aim to place every sound in the front of your mouth, behind your front teeth, and from there, for the sound to travel forward. You can find this place at the front of your mouth by humming – feel where the sound is placed and then to replicate that when you sing.

BAD HABIT: Sloppy tuning including scooping up to notes
TO CORRECT: This happens when you’re not really thinking about the note you’re trying to hit, and not supporting it adequately. We can tend to tense up to try and hit a high note, which will only make it harder! Give it all the help you can: smile, vowel (see below), adequate breath support.

BAD HABIT: Poor diction
TO CORRECT: The most common culprit is no final consonants (and we’re not trying to sound like the Queen of England!). It’s vital that people can understand what you are trying to communicate. Make a new habit to be conscious of (and sound) the final consonants, giving particular attention to t’s and k’s (as in ‘Rock’). Also watch out: worship leaders often drop the volume of their voices when they change from singing to speaking into a microphone.

BAD HABIT: Over-using your lips to form words
TO CORRECT: These are the vowel sounds: EE, EH, AH, AW, OO, UH. Try this exercise: assume a facial position as if you were about to sing (take a breath, smile, teeth slightly apart). Now THINK these sounds one by one in your mind. What is happening? Your tongue is moving! You can sing all the vowels in this face-shape – it’s all in the tongue. There is no need for exaggerated lip movements to formulate words. That will only serve to keep changing the shape of the ‘room’ in your mouth (see the first point), which will mean that your tone/sound quality is constantly changing.

BAD HABIT: Your sound deteriorates
TO CORRECT: Your sound might deteriorate, for example, at the end of a long word/note – it sounds like it’s just ‘petered out’. This happens because you’ve stopped thinking about it. Your brain thinks ‘I’ve done that one now’ and your voice corresponds. Stay mentally committed to it. Think of yourself producing an even ‘band of sound’ and make sure you maintain the ‘bandwidth’ to the end of the word. You’ll find it much easier to begin the next word then, too.

BAD HABIT: No air
TO CORRECT: You’ve probably got too much! Worship singers are notoriously pathetic at only being able to sing two or three words without a breath. Constantly ‘topping up’ actually makes you feel like you have less and less. Practise singing a few extra words at a time. You’ll be surprised at how long you can actually go!