Dear Singers,

Today, I want to talk about one key ingredient you would need to be a better singer. This ingredient is necessary for a solid foundation for good singing.

To spark up this talk, let me say this from a general perspective. To be a better singer, you have to get some certain things right – foundational stuffs. There’s no two ways about it. Get your foundation right, your singing becomes great! These foundation would include appropriate posture, proper breathing and breath management/control, great tone colour and body awareness etc. Well, for today, I shall dwell on body posture.

POSTURE

Posture is literally the way in which someone holds his or her body especially when standing. Having appropriate posture when singing is very vital. That is because, among many reasons, good body posture allows our body and voice to be relaxed and become tension-free when singing.

This would mean that an imbalance in body posture can adversely affect the way in which the larynx and vocal folds functions to produce sound. The end product is poor vocal production.

I can categorically tell you that, poor posture anywhere in the body as a singer can lead to excess tension and lack of flexibility in the muscles of breathing and voice. You need to practice the art of proper posture when singing, if your desire great vocal production.

As a way of helping you to achieve good body posture, let me give you some exercises and posture drills, guaranteed to help you improve your posture.

Lets try this:
a. Stand up as straight as possible with spine stretched tall and head forward.
b. Raise arms horizontal with palms down (keep them relaxed).
c. Balance your weight evenly when standing
d. Keep the shoulder levels relaxed and in a slightly forward sloping position.
e. One foot should be slightly ahead of the other with weight balanced forward on the balls of both feet.
f. Unlock the knees and keep them flexible
g. Tuck the pelvis under and slightly forward
h. Notice the extra stretch that occurs in the ribs? The chest is now very wide, separated and high with lots of space between the bottom of the ribs and waist line.
i. Pull the back of the next against an imaginary wall.
j. Now put a smile on your face and walk around the room.

You may want to retake the posture drill as often as possible to get better results.

Let me say this that. Practicing and attaining good posture will surely make a noticeable difference in your overall voice quality. As noted earlier, it makes your muscles less tensed and relax, thereby leading to better singing.

So I challenge you to master correct singing posture. When you do, you will notice a significant improvement in the quality of your voice and you will be better prepared to begin work on the next key ingredient of vocal production (coming soon).

So remember, a singer is one who looks and sound natural. Be one!

Enjoy!

Do you know your vocal register?

The vocal register is classified into 6 major groups (you may see less or more classifications somewhere else).

• The chest register or chest voice
• The head voice
• The mixed voice
• The falsetto
• The whistle voice
• The vocal fry

Music Director

I am Music Estate’s Music Director