How to Practise

Practice is a way to rehearse and embed the habits that you wish to retain for your singing. Your brain is reinforcing the chosen pathways and allowing neglected habits to fade from memory. The most important thing is effective, mindful repetition.

Everyone will have a different way to practise. If you know what works well for you, and you’ve been doing it that way successfully, then this information may or may not be useful. If you struggle to find the time, or the will, or the space to practice – remember that the brain will be learning in many environments, not just in the practice room. Begin with manageable chunks – try 5 minutes and then stop. If you can practice for 5 minutes twice a day – that’s even better. Then try 10 minutes and see if you can maintain it. Only increase the time you spend if you’re really wanting to do more.

For the ideal practise you should go through each one of these stages. It is advisable not to skip any of them, although you can choose to spend as long as you like in each one. Establishing a routine for this helps you to be mindful of the process as well as enabling you to build patterns of good habitual usage.

And finally – you will be rehearsing and practising your singing every time you think about it: whenever you listen to good singing, when you are in a choir or band rehearsal, and when your songs go round in your head.

Set up your mind

Focus on practising singing without any other distractions. Effective practice can be boring and repetitive, so it is important that you remain mindful of your actions.

Align your body

Remember balanced posture, use tension and release methods to achieve this. Practise singing standing up. If you are sitting at the piano to learn notes this is a different sort of learning process; technical practice is the reinforcement of good habits and is more effective when standing or moving around.

Remember to breathe

Use breathing exercises that can work well for you with any part of the body moving while you do them. Think about release and connection. Nothing is ever held at any time; the system, although stable, is always poised for action.

Warm up your larynx

This is gentle warming-up, not to be confused with technical exercises. It could include quiet sliding through the range, buzzing and humming.

Technical exercises

These are exercises for agility, articulation and resonance. They will include whatever your teacher is working on with you currently.

Familiar repertoire

Use a piece you know you sing well to remind your body how to do it, establishing good habitual patterns.

New repertoire

Now you are ready to learn and work on new repertoire.

Know when to stop

When things are going well, it is tempting to ‘ride the crest of the wave’ and to carry on and on with singing. Plan ahead when you will take a break and stick to this regardless. You can always come back later to continue your practice – see Vocal Health Guidelines

Warm down

Bring your larynx back to a more relaxed state ready for speaking, by buzzing or humming gently down to your lowest pitch range.