As a voice teacher I care about vocal health and singing the healthiest you can to preserve the life of your voice in whatever vocal calling of singing genre you have.  There is a fine line between a scream and a sing. I’ve actually heard that line crossed many times and each time I do it makes my own vocal chords cringe with muscular empathy for the person who does it.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love a good heavy medal voice, but one that it supported by muscles in the abdomen rather then one that is riding on raw vocal chords.  This doesn’t contain itself just to heavy medal.  I have heard many a tenor and soprano cross the line from sing to scream when going for a high note they are not supporting. Ouch.  Or someone who is to high out of their tessitura and ends up yelling a whole song.

It is actually a minor adjustment to go from sing to scream and that’s why the nuance of it can be so difficult to master especially when you are standing out there on stage.  It is simply taking the tension out of the chords and putting it low into your musculature for body support.

Let me explain to you technically what a scream does to your chords.  It takes them and just rubs them together in  an awful form of friction which is the opposite of how the vocal chords are intended to be used for good singing.

If you feel the scream in your throat then you are not supporting it and you ARE doing damage to your own voice.  The more you do it the more likely you are to develop vocal nodules which are essentially blisters that come up from too much friction on your vocal chords.  This can cause eventual permanent vocal damage if not treated properly with vocal rest, healthy vocalizing, and or yucky surgery.

Now, there is the question, how can you prevent the unsupported scream in a singing situation?  You need proper vocal support in your body.  The higher you go in the voice the lower that you need to be accessing muscle support from in your body.  So think of singing your higher notes with your feet or even from the “imaginary” roots in the ground under your feet.  Access the earth to get you through a tough passage.

When we are nervous our muscle support system can fall apart due to our shallow breathing.  You need to remember to breath and to breath low.  (My Voice Lessons To GO v.1 Vocalize and Breath has a long section of breathing exercises to help you master this).  What may have been beautiful singing in your house can completely go “screamy” in a performance with shallow unconnected breathing.  We see this happening a lot on the American Idol auditions.  People walking in saying I don’t know what happened I didn’t sound like that at home.  And it may be true, but no one cares.  You need to be able to deliver consistently no matter the audition or performance.

Some keep on singing instead of screaming tips:

If you are in a band:

Remember you have a microphone and an amp- so use it.  You should not have to be constantly screaming over your band to be heard, rather turn them down and turn yourself up so that there is a better balance. People want to hear your words no matter how good your guitarist is.  Give yourself a break by making this possible with the proper balance of amplification.

Don’t over rehearse the night before.  If you use up all of your healthy singing the night before and go to long you may inflame your chords a bit.  This will throw you off in your performance.  If your chords are a bit swollen it can throw off your whole technique which can push you to push or scream.- Not good.  I Iike to prevent a rehearsal the day before when possible so that the voice can remain fresh for the performance.  If it is not possible to prevent the rehearsal then mark your way through it.  Save the gusto for the performance.

Use moniters on stage.  Make sure you can hear yourself.  I think that this is a really important.  There is a strange phenomenon that occurs on stage when you are singing with other instruments or singers.  You don’t always here yourself in real time since acoustically the sound goes out and bounces back to your ears.  If possible, make sure there are monitors on stage that you can hear and only listen to them.

When singing unplugged:

If the acoustics are bad in a room don’t try and over compensate by over singing. Memorize the sensation of singing freely and do that no matter what the room does or does not give back to you.  People will hear your push as a push , if your do it, so don’t.

If your acoustic accompaniment is playing too loud, rather then try and sing over them give them a visual sign to hold back (in a friendly way).  Make sure when possible to do a sound check with them as well, not just rockand roll singers need this.  Every piano is different.  Every room creates a different acoustic experience. Check the balance before hand so that you are comfortable with what you are putting out there.

Remember that you audience will absorb the sound.  Literally.  Just like carpets and drapes do.   So filling a room with people will change your balance, don’t be thrown by it.  Still, sing naturally.

You can’t be the judge.  What you hear on stage may not be what the audience hears.  Just because you are standing near an open piano that is blasting in your ear or a baritone who is resonating for days, it doesn’t mean that your voice is not pinging through to the last seat in the house.  Trust your voice and your training. Sing healthy and naturally no matter what.  Remember, if you push to be louder you will just sound pushed and throw of your technique.  Who knows, if you stick to your good technique the loud baritone may come across negatively as someone trying to sing over you.  Always give an honest performance of your own voice.

Certain music requires a certain amount of “scream”.  What you can do to sustain that is to balance it with healthy vocal work outside of that.  Use your scream only when necessary, don’t practice it in rehearsals- just save it for the performances, and for God’s Sake- SUPPORT YOUR VOICE WITH MORE THEN YOUR VOCAL CHORDS !  Your are singing because you love it.  SO think always about how to sustain your ability to do it well.

Sing well people!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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Ah, Ey, Ee, Oh, Oo and variations there after.  These are the vowels that you have to sing through to get the words out of your mouth.  I don’t know if you have ever noticed during your vocal warm ups that some vowels come out more smoothly, brilliantly, or more beautiful than others.

It is very important that you give attention in your vocal warm ups to good vowel work.  That means that you need to practice singing different vowels on their own to help improve each one’s own release and sound.  It is very easy to ignore a more difficult vowel by only singing your through your favorite ones.  But, doing sowill only prolong your improvement of a lacking vowel.

I created Pure Vowels (the third volume of Voice Lessons To Go) for just that reason.  It is divided specifically into different vowel studies through vocalizes.  For example you will have 5 exercises on an “ahh”, then 5 on on an “oo” etc…   

I think this CD is a great tool for “beautifying” all the vowels that you sing.  It forces you to stop and work on each of them individually.  The better your vowels, the prettier the line of your voice, which will make you that much more incredible to listen to.  Also, the more ownership you have of every sound you release as a singer, the more control you will have at giving a solid performance every time.  This will help to make you a great singer that you can count on, as opposed to one who is a crap shoot.

Remember when you are trying to achieve the “perfect” vowel release the vowel should feel like a full circle of resonance in the sound.  It should have a point in front, a height at the top, space in its back, and a deep low connect of support.  Just a frontal sound or height is not enough, you want the full circle of sound.  This may be an imagery which is hard at first for you to grab onto, but think about it next time you go to sing.

Also, the best advice I can give on achieving a great vowel is matching it to your speaking vowel.  Say the vowel and then sing it.  When you say it notice where it sits in your mouth and head, and then reenact that when you sing.  All should be the same when you sing; the tongue position, where the vowel hits the palette in your mouth, and your lip position.

Think of singing as a natural extension of your speech.  This will help you every time.

Sing well!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for myVocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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As I have watched American Idol for some added blog inspiration this season, I am really feeling for the singers during their judgement from the panelists.  It brings back a lot of memories for me as a singer when it comes to receiving conflicting advice from your mentors.  It can be extremely confusing to the “green” and even not so “green” singer.  What do you take to heart, what do you learn from, and what do you ignore?

When 4 people are giving you conflicting advice, or even 2 people what do you do?

It is a very hard position to be in as a singer because we want so much to please the people in charge.  We need the job, we want to keep the job, and we have to get the next job.  Think of all the pressure and opinions one singing gig may have:  your teacher, any opposing teachers on your technique, your conductor, your coach, your pianist, your band members, or director, or choreographer, your producer, your agent, your parent, your boyfriend, the music critic, the audience…

Everyone has an opinion on how you should sing and what you should do to make yourself better.  Whether they are talking about your technique, your song choice, your fach (vocal category), your personal style, or your genre of choice.

This is a really tough position to be in.  For example on American Idol last night Randy told Katie Stevens that she was singing perfectly in her R&B genre while Simon Cowell said she was a country singer.  This is a young girl who is very talented who needs to find her way receiving conflicting advice by two highly acclaimed professionals.  How is she supposed to deal with that?

That is a lot of pressure.  All you can do singers is pick a few people to trust who have a great record of experience that you respect and listen to them.  Then take it all in and listen to your gut.  The truth is, it is you standing up there, being judged.  You need to feel 100% true to how you are presenting what you’ve got inside from the truest voice to the most honest emotions conveyed.  You have to be happy with your outfit and your own hair style.  You need to feel connected to your song choice and cozy in your genre selection.

At the end of the day, when the lights come down, the answer is in your gut and instinct. Use a few wise people to help guide you to that true place.  You are the one to receive the acclaim or critique of your performance no matter who told you to do what.  So own your decisions and choices, but make sure you do so with a professional positive attitude.

-I can guarantee you that you will be judged for them.

Sing well people!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

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Watching Idol last night – third episode of Hollywood week, I was inspired to write after watching Jessica Furney’s rejection from the judges along with her plea to them.  She had lost her voice from over singing during the group rehearsals and had to battle that throughout the competition.  As a result she pleaded with the judges to keep her saying that she didn’t have a fair opportunity to show herself since she was battling with her voice and it was not fair to compare her to others who weren’t dealing with that.

Well, whether I felt her plea to them was too dramatic or not, I do feel for her.  It is one thing to be rejected after showing your best performance, at least then you know they made a choice after seeing the best you.  But to have to perform sub par and then to be rejected leaves you filled with regret and frustration, if only they saw what I can really do…

I would imagine that if they were crazed about her from the beginning they would have found a way to keep her fighting vocal strain or not, but it still has got to be a harsh reality for her when she looks back at that group rehearsal and the strain “she allowed ” to be put onto her voice.

Did I say “she allowed” the strain to be put on her voice?  - (that’s pretty harsh Ariella Vaccarino the empathetic voice teacher that you are…)

Maybe it is harsh but it is true.  We need to protect ourselves as singers.  No one will do it for us, no one knows our limitations except us.  It is so important singers that you save the juice for the right moment. Like any athlete, we can only use our correct muscles for so long before we strain and thus compromise them.  Singing has its limitations, you as a good singer need to learn to feel them and to listen to them, no matter the circumstance.

“Marking“ is a term that we use when not singing out.  Some people are better at it than others.  Essentially you sing down the octave, or with half a voice, or speak gently in tempo to mark the vocals while learning the harmonies, dance moves, blocking, or trying to memorize lyrics. I am not referring to whispering which is very harsh on the voice, rather, gentle singing- no powerhouse sound.

This is what you need to do in a situation when you are repeating a song to get through a rehearsal. Especially when you have a lot of important solo singing coming up.  I am not saying you should be marking your chior rehearsals.  If you are rehearsing to work on the sound then by all means sing.  But, when a performance is pending you have to be protective and only give when the judges are listening.

I am sure that was a hard thing to do for the singers during group rehearsals on American Idol- they want to be impressing everyone around them, make their mark, stand out to be filmed etc… but, like Jessica Furley, they needed to weigh the whole week of singing- not just the moment of singing.

As a professional singer, you need to learn how to “mark”, but like everything, it takes practice.  If you don’t do it right you could strain your voice.  So practice it every once in a while by singing light, half voiced, with no pressure on any muscles when learning or going through your own music.

I feel for Jessica Furney because she will never have peace in her mind that she was rejected for a fair reason-”if only they knew what I could really do...”  That will play in her mind for a long time- a really horrible feeling that I am sure most of us performers have had.  Hopefully she will find a way to take the experience as a positive for all her exposer and be dignified about the results.

written by:  Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To GO (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Need help with your own voice?  Sign up for Your Vocal Assessment through my site to get professional feedback on your own voice.  Send me a link to or mp3 of your voice with your questions and I will get right back to you with my Assessment.

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You may find as a singer, you tend to favor a particular vowel in your daily singing warm up routine.  Such as Ahh, or eee.  There is probably one or two of the vowels that seems to work best freeing your voice up the fastest so you use it all the time to get your voice into that good spot.  I definitly know that I do that.  Even me  ”the big voice teacher” favors an ee vowel, there, I said it!

When I was younger I used to favor the “Ahh”, but over the years have turned to the trusty “ee”.  Well, even I should be careful with this.  I have been singing through my book of vocalizes, “Vocalize!” these past few weeks to prepare my voice for an upcoming concert, and I have been forcing myself to “face all the vowels”.

My third volume of Voice Lessons To Go entitled Pure vowels is a great resource for developing all your vowels seperately.  I have been singing through all the exercises in volume 3 from start to finish and I have noticed such an improvement on every vowel.  The first day, my favorite vowel, “ee”, was great, but I wasn’t pleased with the placement of my “ey” or “i”.  But i kept doing it everyday.  Working with the sound, mouth positioning, placement in my resonance playing with the forms of the vowels, adding a little “aww” in my “ahh”, and everyday I noticed I was getting better faster.

The only way to improve your weaker vowels is to work on them, not run from them.  Always start with speaking the vowel to help you find the natural speech point to work from.  You want your singing to sound natural like extended speech. Make sure you practice warming up your singing voice on all the different vowels regularly.  You never know when you may be standing in an audition and be asked to site read a new piece on an “ahh”.  If you haven’t worked your “ahh” out you could be really uncomfortable.

Also, if you are not used to practicing all your vowels.  Don’t start just before a performance.  Do your regular warm ups before you have to sing so that you don’t throw off your voice by trying something different.  The time to work on this is a normal warm up.  Remember, on all my CDs for Voice Lessons To GO, you can always try different vowels with the piano accompaniment for variety.

Now, FACE ALL YOUR VOWELS SINGERS!

written by: Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons TO GO (singing lessons on CD), and author of Vocalize!

Need a professional opinion of your voice before your next audition?- Sign up for Vocal Assessment.  You send me a link or mp3 of your voice with your questions and I get right back to you with my Assessment!

As an American woman, I come from a group of people who speak a language with “lazy lips”.  I mean no critisism to my people when I say this, it is just a fact.    In general, Americans barely use their lips to aid in pronunciation when speaking.  Think about the French.  When you watch them speak their lips (mainly referring to the upper) are moving like crazy back and forth between their oohs like a little pucker, probably part of the reason we find the French irresistable when they do speak to us.

What they are doing is engaging the muscles on their upper lip to create a good diction.  As a result they develop the upper part of their musculature in their mouth and face.  Americans just don’t have this.  So as a singing exercise on your next vocal warmup, www.voicelessonstogo.com (my singing lessons CDs), I ask you to engage your upper lip.  Use it to come forward for your “ooh”.  This is a resource of strenth in your face that will help you in creating a rounder more flushed out sound in your vowels and ultimately your voice, giving more definition to each individual trait of each individual vowel.  I also find that it helps to get the sound out more “in front of your face”, and out of your throat.

Start off by exaggerating the whole process.  Sing though the exercises in a mirror and make sure your lips are moving to create the vowels.   Each vowel should have its own particular look.  Mimick the french in some fake french speak and see how it feels and looks.  Then try and transfer that same feeling into English.  Take note of each vowel and its shape in the mirror.  Find the shape in your face that creates the ultimate sounding version of each vowel.  Then put it into your Vocal exercises.  Exaggerate your lips at first singing a Vocalize that uses more than one vowel so that you can practice changing from one vowel to the other. This should really wake up your face and engage the musculature in your sound production.

Now I am in no way suggesting that you be making strange faces when singing through a song, just engage your upper lip.  Getting to that point though, after years of “lazy English speak”, may take some strange faces in the mirror to find it during your singing warm-ups!

Now think French and go use your upper lip!

written by:  Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go- singing lessons on CD, and author of Vocalize!

Need a professional ear to assess your Voice?-  sign up for a Vocal Assessment on my site www.voicelessonstogo.com- you send me your voice and questions, and I get back to you with my assessment and advice within the week!

www.voicelessonstogo.com

The Importance of being a physically fit singer.

While you all know the importance of healthy singing warm ups like Voice Lessons TO GO, and building stamina vocally in a regular practice schedule for your singing, it is also important to keep our bodies in good physical shape as singers.  This is for a variety of reasons:

1. The obvious, you will look better and be more attractive to people you want to be hiring, casting and booking you.  This will also give you more confidence when you step out in front of people which we could all use to get us through performing.

2. The stronger you are in your body the more stamina you will have as a singer.  The stronger your legs are to support your abdominal muscles which support your laryngal muscles, the freer your vocal mechanism will be to create beautiful flowing sounds without strain, or fatigue.

3.  You never know what you may be asked to do while singing on stage, whether it be dancing, walking around a set (up and down stairs), jumping around in a band etc…  The stronger, and healthier you are as a person the easier you will find it to do these things as a singer. – I saw The Pussy Cat Dolls in concert and was absolutely amazed at the shape they were in.  They were practically doing cardio aerobics the whole concert in their damce moves as they sang and never once did they sound out of breath.  There are few singers that can claim that.  Whether you like their music or not, the fact that these women were not lipsinking and still singing well through all of there moves was crazy amazing.

4. Breath Control-  Doing cardio such as swimming, increases your breathing stamina which is so important in good singing.  In other words as you increase your breath support you will be able to sustain notes and phrases longer.  Taking less breaths during phrases will give you more control over your choices in singing lines and will make you sound more professional. (another reason not to smoke as a singer)

So think about it this year as you follow through with your new years resolutions.  If you are serious about singing, here is one more reason to tend to your physical body and get in shape.  Your breath support will thank you!!

written by: Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

www.voicelessonstogo.com

New Years Resolution:  Start a regular singing warm up regiment with Voice Lessons To Go!

Hello singers!  We all can get into those slumps by the end of the year with ourselves, whether it be our exercise, good eating, organization, or even our — regular singing routine.

Well, here I am, to give you a friendly singing teachers nudge to get you back into a great healthy singing routine just in time for new years.  If you follow this regularly, you should be humming sweetly very soon!

As I always blog, teach, and talk about, being a good singer is akin to being a good athlete.  Your healthy singing voice is contingent on the correct muscles in your body being in shape to support your larynx so that your voice can sail freely through the air without any undue stress on your vocal chords from incorrect muscle use.  Finding the path to the perfect support system in your singing is a daily task and can easily be thrown off without proper attention.   The key to maintaining healthy proper singing is a good healthy vocal warm up done regularly.

Voice Lessons TO GO www.voicelessonstogo.com offers you four of those healthy singing warm-ups on CD for your use anytime, anywhere.  So there is no excuse!!

How to start back in on a healthy Your practice schedule:

Remember, if your practice regiment has been shut down for a bit, you need to ease back into a regular singing schedule to protect your voice- just like you would re-enter any sport.  Start slow, warm-up (vocalize) every time before you sing.  You can add a little bit more to your range, practice time, and challange as your stamina naturally increases.

NEVER PUSH OR STRAIN THE VOICE.

You can alter my four cds; Vocalize and Breath, Do Re Mi Ear and Pitch Training, Pure Vowels, or Stamina to vary your warm-ups on different days, or work with one at a time for a few weeks until you feel you have some mastery.   Now get to that ipod, piano, or stereo and start singing!

written by:

Ariella Vaccarino- creator of Voice Lessons TO GO (singing lessons on CD), and author of Vocalize!

Welcome holiday singers and shoppers! Just a reminder as to what great products and services you can get for you or your singing friends on www.voicelessonstogo.com.  Please pass this on to anyone you know who’s looking for some unique gift ideas!!  Thank you so much- Ariella

The series of Voice Lessons To Go- singing lessons on CD in four volumes- great stocking stuffers!

v.1- Vocalize and Breath- a basic thorough singing warm-up with breathing exercises and singing advice.                                                                                                                                            on sale for $14.99

v.2- Do Re Mi  Ear and Pitch Training- filled with vocal exercises using solfege (do re mi).  It will improve your musicianship and sence of pitch, concentrating on singing different types of scales and chords.                                                                                                                               on sale for $14.99

v.3- Pure Vowels- compiled of vocalizes separated by ah, ey, ee, oh, and i.                  on sale for $14.99

v.4- Stamina- a group of vocal exercises designing to challenge and strengthen any singer’s abilities.

on sale for $14.99

The Box Set-  All four volumes of Voice Lessons To Go included (your best deal), a variety to keep you inspired and growing as a singer.                                                                                      on sale for $49.99

Vocalize!- The sheet music of all four CDs to play and or teach from!   $24.99

Your Vocal Assessments-  This is the most unique of all the gifts.  This is available in a gift certificate or straight.  Available in a variety of levels and packages.  You send me your voice, (mp3, link to youtube, whatever…) and I get back to you with my vocal assessment right away.  Whether you are just curious to hear what a professional teacher thinks of your voice, you want to study with me, or you need feedback to prepare for a big audition.  Prices range from $9.99-39.99 depending on the level of Assessment you are                                                                                                                         looking for.

Private lessons at Ariella’s studio in Los Angeles, California. – if you are interested in studying privately with Ariella, she is available to teach by the hour at her studio upon her discretion.  Lessons are $125 per                                                                                                                                  hour

Private lessons via the internet-  Ariella is available for private vocal lessons by the half hour via Skype or Google Talk Lessons are 65$ per half hour.  You must consult with Ariella directly to set up appointments and schedules at ariella@voicelessonstogo.com  This means you could live in china and still study with Ariella live through the internet!  Contact Ariella for gift certificates for this as well.

Thanks for thinking of Voice Lessons To Go when doing your holiday shopping!

- Happy holidays-

Ariella Vaccarino www.voicelessonstogo.com

It may take more to just a vocal warm up to prepare you for your performance or audition.  Think of your body as a machine.  Each machine is a little different and works best under its own specific conditions.

Warming up with Voice Lessons To GO is a great start for your “vocal warm-up’, but there is more you can do to get everything working its best.   Develop a routine that works for you by trial an error so you have something you can count on.

Here are some ideas try a few out and see what works for you:

1. Do a physical warm up before your sing- yoga, walking, biking, swimming are all great for getting the muscles warm and the breath engaged.  If you are physically warmed-up before you do your vocal warm-up you all ready have a head start on your singing.  Your body will be there to support your singing.

2. Do breathing exercises:  Whether as a result of a physical warm -up such as swimming or just 15 minutes of breathing exercises (I have great ones on volume 1 Vocalize & Breath of Voice Lessons To Go. The sooner you get your diaphragm coordinating with your breath the faster you will sing better, as well as develop more stamina and power.

3. Take a hot shower- this helps to break up built up phlegm, open up nasal passages and your sining resonators.

4. Humming and yawn sighs-  These are great “pre-vocal-warm-ups”.  Keep them light ans easy, just to wake things up.  Great to do in the shower since your acoustics will be favorable so you will be less likely to push.

5. Find a warm-up song that fits your voice like a glove. – After you do your vocal warm-up, sing through some pieces that really work for your voice everytime, so that you can “set the standard” for your practice ahead.  Your song selection for this may not be obvious.  For example I am a lyric coloratura the highest type of soprano, yet I often warm-up with an aria from Carmen which is for a lower voice.  It seems to set my middle voice solid so that my regular songs float freer.  Sometimes I do the opposite and sing my hardest aria, queen of the night, right after the mezzo aria because it “shocks” my system into working since it is so hard.  This is a very individual decision, but really can be a great lead into practice.  Warming-up should not just be my CDs or your own vocalizes, it should include a transition song into songs.

6. Drink something warm with honey- I love Roibos tea!  There is no caffeine and it and it is smooth with the honey, not necessary but a good ritual for me.  It helps keep all my vocal muscles calm.

7.  Listen- play some recordings of singers who sing well to open your mind to singing well to.  We learn by listening.  Hearing someone with great placement can have a great influence on your own voice.  (make sure they are good singers!)  Good songs, and good singing are two different things.  Make sure you pick the ladder for this one.

8. Play through your music- sometimes I just play the piano parts through on my pieces to get into the piece and familiarize myself with the other aspects of it, other than my vocal part.  I think it really helps my to get comfortable with being part of the work.  We have to remember that a sing has many elements and we are only the singing element.

9. Speak your lines-  Get the lyrics into your body as speech.  This will really help your diction and vocal placement.  Remember singing is extended speech- it should sound natural and easy like you are speaking.

10.   Give yourself time-  A good vocal warm-up takes some time.  Some people need longer than others.  Some performances and styles need more time as well.  Prepare some time for yourself to sing properly.  When you try and push through a practice, often you end up doing just that, pushing.  there is no pushing allowed in good , healthy singing.

I hope some of these ideas inspire or help you.  I would love your feedback on anything you do for your best warm-up!

Ariella Vaccarino

www.voicelessonstogo.com

creator of Voice Lessons To Go- singing lessons on CD, and author of Vocalize!