How to Sing

My process essay from college bound comp

     Obviously I can’t actually tell you how to sing because you have to have at least a little natural singing ability & knowledge of music first.  But singing is a lot more complicated then people think.  Many believe that singing just involves belting out a popular tune on the radio, but it is way more.  Everyone has their own style of singing and music, but there are many basic foundations that apply to all people and genres.  
      First, of course, is breath support because you need air to sing.  You have to learn how to control the flow of the air coming out of your mouth to be sure that you can last for the whole phrase.   You also have to support your voice.  I have learned that singing lessons help a lot, so does good posture. You should stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands at your sides.  If you sit and slouch, you will smush your diaphragm and you wont be able to take a deep breath.  To support your voice, you should also tighten your stomach and push the air out.  When you tighten your abs, don’t pretend you are doing sit-ups or something, because it will make you sound like you’re in a lot of pain and cause you to have bad posture. You have to also be sure to relax and not tense up, because that will make you look funny and be very sore later.
      Second, you have to pay attention to your tone quality.  First of all, you do not sing the way that you talk. Most likely, if you live in Kansas and you sing like you talk, you will sound like a redneck (prime example: bluegrass or country).  You have to use proper diction.  There are 3 main principles of correct diction: Tall vowels, consonants, and pronunciation.  
Using tall vowels means opening your mouth vertically when you sing and “unhinging” your jaw.  When singing “ah” you should drop your jaw so that if you place your fingers right below your ears, you can feel your jawbone “unhinge”.  It is really quite disgusting, but if you feel it, then you are using tall vowels.  A vowel that is commonly sang wrong in country music is “E.”  When you sing “e”, your lips should look half “puckered up” not smiling.  If your teeth are together and you are smiling, it will sound nasally.
      When you sing, you should always focus on the vowel and put the consonant, if there is one, right at the end.  For example, don’t focus on the “s” at the end of “notes” because you will make a hissing sound.  You should spend more time on the “o” instead, using tall vowel position.  Now, it is true that you should mainly focus on the vowel, but you still have to make sure to spit out the consonant at the end.  If you don’t put the “ts” sound there, it will end up sounding like “no” instead of “notes.”
     The next thing on the list is pronunciation.  There are many letters in the English language that we all say wrong.  For example, in Kansas, we say our “Rs” more like a pirate than a British person. In singing, you want to say “heart” more like “haht”, almost eliminating the “r.”  Also, when singing in different languages, you need to study up on the proper pronunciation of words because you could end up looking silly by saying the words wrong.  For example, the vowel “e” in Italian is sang “a” and “i” is pronounced like “e.”  Consonants are a whole different story and I always end up writing the pronunciations above the words my sheet music (with a pencil) to keep all of them straight.
     So if you haven’t caught on already, singing is a lot more than just opening your mouth and making noise.   To sing to your best ability, you must keep thinking breath support, posture, and proper diction.  Happy singing!