Our best advice

• Be mindful of posture, stay upright and relaxed for good breath control
• Use your diaphragm to breathe and use breathing exercises to achieve professional technique
• Familiarise yourself with the different vocal registers and use speak-singing to comfortably hit every note you need to

How to sing better

1. Have good posture

The most important thing when it comes to vocals, especially when you’re starting out, is having good posture. A lot of singing is impacted by breath, lungs, and the throat, which are all most relaxed when you’re stood upright, straight, and can take in good airflow.

Keep your head straight, your chest and shoulders raised comfortably, relax your arms, and let your knees bend slightly. Try to avoid tilting your head up or down as you sing, this can really affect your projection and pitch accuracy.

2. Warm up

A lot of people, most likely beginners will overlook this, but some simple vocal exercises can help open things up. Even just humming and yawn-sighing can help prepare your diaphragm and vocal cords to stretch out.

Keep your mouth slightly open, your tongue relaxed, and your jaw and neck loose and mobile. Tensing these parts up will make reaching the notes you want a real struggle.

3. Find your volume range

It’s advisable to sing somewhere close to your regular talking volume, as this is where you know you’ll sound good.

When performing, you might want to go a little louder to project better, but you might be surprised at how easy it is to find a comfortable vocal range not that much louder than your regular speaking voice with the aid of a microphone.

Find the upper and lower volume ranges of your voice – this is important to sounding good and dynamic as a vocalist. At the upper limit of your voice, your voice might crack or fall flat in pitch. Try to sustain a note and get gradually louder and quieter. The point where your voice starts to waver will be your upper limit.

It may be fine to reach here at points if you want some emotional emphasis but try not to force yourself into it too often or go further, as you could risk injury. If you sing too quietly, you’ll find yourself also struggling to hit the notes, so try to find those confines for yourself.

4. Learn to use the diaphragm

Breathing and breath control is the centre of good vocal technique. Instead of relying on your throat, chest, or shoulders, the diaphragm will help give a stable and powerful projection that makes the most of your breaths.

To engage your diaphragm, you want to use your stomach to breathe: let your stomach expand as you inhale, and contract as you exhale. This will be the opposite of what we’re typically used to, but it’s central to good vocal technique. Learning how to do this comfortably is perhaps the most important aspect of good vocals.

5. Use breathing exercises

There are a lot of useful breathing exercises to help with vocal technique. The first is called the Farinelli Breath. This involves using a metronome set to a comfortable 60 BPM.

Inhale for four breaths, hold the breath for four beats, then, exhale for four beats. After doing a few cycles of this, try to increase the beats to five. Repeat this daily and see how long you can comfortably inhale, hold, and exhale.

Don’t overexert yourself though, if you feel winded, dizzy, or uncomfortable, stop, rest, and try again the next day.

Next, you’ll want to work on taking enough breath in very quickly for fast songs. Try to inhale with your diaphragm very quickly, as if you’re scared, but ensure that you don’t make a sound or gasp as you inhale.

Practise both of these exercises and you’ll be able to sing everything you need to and massively improve your breath control.

6. Train your ears

Unlike many other instruments, the voice doesn’t have fixed pitches; you have to find and hit them yourself. So, to sing well and in key, it’s important to be able to listen to a lot of other vocalists and quickly identify and recreate pitches.

If you play another instrument, this can become a much easier task. If you don’t, humming can be helpful, letting you identify and hit pitches smoothly and sustain them for more stability.

7. Find your different registers

There are a few different vocal registers you can use while singing, and it’s important to learn them all to bring out the versatility in your voice. There are several registers that can let you jump between different techniques or blend together.

The central ones are vocal fry, chest voice, head voice, and whistle voice. These registers all resonate in different places within the body.

The head voice is high but thin, and you can feel the notes vibrate in your head. This is created by long and stretched-out vocal folds. The chest voice is deeper and more powerful and relies on short, thick vocal folds. These two are the central ones, and mixing them can lead to unique and wide-ranging vocals.

Vocal fry and whistle voice are far more specialised but worth learning with more experience. Vocal fry is usually used for heavier styles, like rock and metal, and whistle voice lets you hit some pretty piercingly high notes.

On the other hand, you can also use speak-singing to hit notes comfortably. Knowing all of these will really expand your repertoire and ability to sing.

8. Learn microphone techniques

Good microphone technique is essential to a good vocal performance. Getting the right positioning with handheld dynamic microphones will make your live shows excellent, and understanding some basic recording techniques, like how to set up and work with a quality condenser microphone will make you far more comfortable in the studio.

For live performance, we’d recommend the Sennheiser e845s or Shure SM58. For studio work with condenser microphones, the Shure SM4 mic is great. It features a one-inch brass dual-diaphragm capsule for a clear and accurate sound, while the Interference Shielding Technology blocks any unwanted radio frequency noise. The Lewitt LCT 240 PRO and Rode NT1 5th Gen are also great choices. 

9. Work with a vocal coach

Hiring a vocal coach is indispensable for improving pitch recognition, pitch stability, and getting the hang of your registers. Vocal coaches don’t come cheap, but it’s a very good way to boost your skills, refine your technique, and make progress in leaps and bounds.

10. Don’t push your voice

Singing shouldn’t hurt, and when it does, you should give yourself a break and relax. Pushing yourself to the point that you’re in pain usually indicates that you’re doing something incorrectly in your technique, or that you’ve overdone things. Take care of yourself and your voice, and only push yourself in the challenges you set – not physically!

11. Be genuine

Your voice is yours – for better and worse. Sometimes this might make things difficult when you want to sound like somebody else. This guide won’t make you able to sing like Lady Gaga or Freddie Mercury, and frankly, unless you already sound a little like your vocal inspirations while talking, you probably never will.

Here’s the good news: that’s the cool part! You sound like you and nobody else in the world. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Mean what you sing, put your own emotions and thoughts into it. The notes and words you stress, the way that you change vocal melodies to fit your range, all the things that make you different to your singer idols, that’s you! Embrace it and lean into it.

12. Know how to use your voice

Some of the most popular vocalists in the world haven’t achieved popularity for the range of their voice, but instead for how they used it. In short, when you find the limits of your vocal range, try to understand and accept it as best as possible.

A lot of the qualities in your voice will be inherent. And some of the most popular vocalists in the world hate the sound of their own voice – even to this day – so don’t worry if you don’t like your voice much, it’s probably far better than you think!

If you write your parts using what works for your unique voice, as well as having good technique and songs behind you, you’ll be able to go as far as you want to.

13. Cool down

Don’t forget that your vocal cords and diaphragm are fundamentally like muscle tissue. You wouldn’t work out without cooling back down as your muscles need to relax, and the same applies to singing.

Can anyone learn to sing?

To put a long story short, absolutely anyone can learn to sing! But there are a few things to consider.

What makes a good voice is entirely subjective. The voice is a vulnerable thing to use musically, and it might not be easy to reconcile what you actually sound like with the voice you wish you had, but there are two things to keep in mind: improvement through technique is possible and you need to accept and even lean into the things that make your voice yours if you want to sing well!

Learn breathing techniques and ways of combining vocal registers, test your stability and control on sustained notes, and practise a whole lot, and you’ll surprise yourself with how far you’re able to go!

FAQs

How do I improve my singing voice?

Improving your singing voice involves regular practice and proper technique. Focus on vocal exercises, breathing techniques, and maintaining good posture. Consistency and possibly working with a vocal coach can significantly enhance your vocal abilities over time.

How can I teach myself to sing better?

Teaching yourself to sing better requires dedication to daily practice and learning basic vocal techniques. Utilise online resources, apps, and instructional videos to guide your practice sessions. Record and review your singing to track progress and identify areas for improvement.

How can I sing if my voice is not good?

Singing with a voice that you’re unhappy with can still be enjoyable with the right approach. Start with basic vocal exercises to improve pitch and tone. Focus on breathing techniques and posture to support your voice. With persistence, you can develop your unique singing style.

Final thoughts

So, there we have it – anyone can practise these techniques and learn how to sing better. Whether you’re a singer through and through or you’re a musician looking to pick up an extra skill, we hope our top tips have helped!

Check out our other guides on the blog:

How to Play Guitar – A Guide for Beginners

Piano Notes – A Guide to Learning the Piano and Reading Music

A Comprehensive Guide to Live Sound Mixing