Hi everyone, as a vocal conditioning and strengthening coach. I often receive emails, from singers, that are struggling to stay motivated and have become disappointed or frustrated because there voice, is not developing as fast they want it too. These singers often ask me to recommend a good off the shelf “learn to sing programme” that would help them to speed up their vocal development.
Whether your an absolute beginner or a seasoned singer / performer. Every singer will experience some frustration in regards to the time it takes your vocal chords to respond to the proper training exercises before they measurably improve their strength and vocal flexibility.
Fact:
No too voices are built the same, refer to my earlier blog entitled “Can anybody learn to sing?”. The voice is a muscle and in this case the muscles that are responsible for creating pitch, and volume and range are comprised of tiny micro muscle groups. These muscles require specific targeted exercises in order to isolate the correct micro muscles to stimulate improved strength ie: (growth).
If your serious about reducing the time it takes to develop your voice, keep this phrase in mind “The voice is a muscle”. It requires a customised vocal strengthening and conditioning programme to obtain Rapid Vocal Results.
There are some well designed home study singing programmes on the market, but they are catering for a particular segment of singers, and are essentially guaranteed to generate some stunning customer testimonials, but they wont work for severely undersized voices, here’s why!
Singers who are born with well above average thickness and length in there vocal chords, (the lucky 10% of the population) will find that the muscles that make up there voice will respond well to any type of structured vocal exercise programme. In fact these kinds of singers seem to make effortless gains in range and power with out having to really work at it. These singers will experience satisfying vocal gains from any off the shelf learn to sing programme.
The remaining 90% of singers fall into a number of categories, which will quickly determine there genetic potential for their own personal vocal growth.
Remember I said earlier “No too voices are built the same”?
Off the shelf vocal coaching programmes are designed to target singers that have at least average or above average thickness and strength in there vocal chords. This natural strength is required at the onset of training to ensure the right muscles are worked out and the correct technique is performed to stimulate and encourage the desired vocal muscle growth.
Singers who are born with slightly under average vocal chord thickness, length and strength ( 30%), can still obtain significant vocal improvement in there range and vocal power. Remember your vocal growth results are all dependent on how thick your vocal chords are and how much tension your chords can withstand and how much you are able to improve the chords flexibility in-order to stretch to reach higher notes. These types of singers can achieve satisfactory results from a home study vocal exercise programmes but usually require additional one on one coaching to fine tune their vocal technique and ability to correctly isolate the singing muscles to stimulate proper growth and development.
The remaining 60% of beginner or intermediate singers are the focus of this particular blog.
These are the singers that work harder than anybody else, have probably purchased a number of home study learn to sing programmes, but always seem to fall short of achieving real break through’s and improvements to there singing or screaming voice.
These singers ( i will refer to as hard gainers) thats the term given to body builders that lack th e natural size or genetics to quickly build muscle or put on muscle mass, will achieve little or no real vocal improvement through a home study singing programme. Put simply there vocal apparatus lacks the basic minimum strength and flexibility required to perform the exercises properly with out straining (thus they will end up only strengthening the big bulky false muscles that are used incorrectly in singing and receive little or no actual real vocal progress.).
Here’s the NO BS part.
These singers (hard gainers), are born with below average strength and thickness and length of there vocal chords. They could also be subject to medical or breathing disorders that can make singing more of a challenge. Put simply the vocal chords and tendons and ligaments that make up the voice are undersized and or underdeveloped. For these singers there is no quick or easy fix to magically transform an underdeveloped voice into a world class voice.
But before you throw in the towel completely and take up another vocation perhaps knitting? Here’s some ideas on how to reduce the time it takes to develop your singing voice to its full potential!
Find a vocal coach, that can provide you with a thorough vocal diagnostic service. Refer to my blog “The million dollar question, that every new singer wrestles with!”
If your one of those singers out there that purchased an off the shelf singing programme and puts in a lot of study and regular practise but your voice seems to make little or no progress. I humbly suggest that you find yourself a knowledgeable vocal coach and get some skype coaching or face to face coaching instruction to target the problem areas.
Always start with a full vocal diagnostic session, this will help you to gain a clear understanding of what your future vocal growth potential is and the customised vocal gym programme you need to follow to really kick start and stimulate your vocal growth.
As a vocal strength and conditioning coach. I have helped a number of less than gifted singers over the years to achieve there vocal performance goals, through customised vocal training programmes that are designed to target and isolate the underdeveloped vocal chords, tendons, cartilage, and ligaments that make up the voice.
Essentially if your born with below average strength and sized vocal chords, it takes time and patience to re balance the voice, through vocal resistance training and flexibility exercises, this process is combined with neurologically designed exercises to encourage the correct muscle co-ordinations to take place to make singing easier. There are no short cuts but the training programmes are fun, challenging and exceptionally rewarding for my students.
Buying an off the shelf home study programme can help you learn better technique, and provide you with a foundation of the basics but if your serious about obtaining Rapid Vocal Results, find your self a knowledgeable vocal coach that has experience growing undersized voices!
Then be prepared to sweat it out in the vocal gym!
Please feel free to email me to learn more about my Rapid Vocal Results, strengthening and conditioning system.
Better singing everyone.