Looking After Your Instrument

My main aims throughout this module were to improve my singing, learn to control my voice through sustaining my breathing and knowing my own range and abilities. In the past I've predominantly tackled songs from a musical theatre genre as that's my background, with my choir I was classed as a 'mezzo soprano' however I sometimes took the alto line and at a push could handle soprano pieces.

My downfall is that I've never really learnt or been trained to sing professionally, I open my mouth and pray for the best. 

In class we learnt some basic breathing exercises which would allow us to monitor our breathing whilst singing. We began by simply producing noise, as a class we lay on the floor and made a sound as we exhaled. We also experimented with some more structured exercises, such as sustaining our breath for a number of beats. Practicing these exercises outside the rehearsal room means we will increase our breath capacity, enabling us to hold notes for longer.

I consider my voice my main instrument and therefore it is important to condition it but also to look after it. I watched several tutorials on YouTube which covered warm ups and how to access your voice, "Professional Vocal WarmUp 1 - Opening Up The Voice" - Eric Arceneaux. (2013),

 

is the first in a series of videos by Mr Arceneaux which teach beginners some basic vocal techniques, which I found very helpful. I also discovered "Sing Wise", a website on which Karyn O'Connor, a vocal technique instructor, writes what she advises to maintain a healthy voice, she writes in more specific detail about warming up, staying hydrated, sleeping enough, not smoking, carbonated/caffeinated drinks and certain foods, all of which she claims can affect your voice.