Hi there! I understand paying for a teacher is can be hard! Here is a mini-lesson that should get you on your way to being a good singer! These are technique things that you need to learn in order to properly breathe and support your voice. As far as warm-ups go, do the ones you do in choir! Scales on a "la" syllable work well. If you need more actual warm-ups, let me know and I'll hook you up! Here is what I teach my private students in the first few weeks. Work on this stuff and you will notice a difference in your voice soon! Good luck! 🙂

1. Breathing. Make sure you are taking nice deep breaths. To check this, squat or plie during warm-ups. When you breathe in your low ab muscles should drop (due to lowering the center of gravity). Your belly and back will expand! Every breath should feel like that when you sing!

2. Singing posture. Make sure you are standing with your feet shoulder width apart, back/neck/head are aligned, and your chin is not sticking out. When men (and some women) sing high, they unknowingly stick their neck out to "reach" for the high notes. Make sure your head stays straight and your chin is parallel to the ground.

3. Do warm-ups that stretch your cords gradually. Start in your low range and work your way up. Make sure you are changing to your head voice when getting in the upper part of your range. You can stretch your vocal cords by pushing them by half-step higher every day you practice. Whatever you do, listen to your body, and if your throat feels strained, stop!

4. Drop your jaw! Do not sing horizontally (like you're smiling). It adds nasality to your tone. To check yourself put both hands to your face, one finger on the corners of your mouth in a resting position. When you sing (warm-ups or repertoire) do not let the corners of your mouth widen past your fingers!

This topic must be the topic of the week. I think there are two or three others asking the same question. Here is what I told the other two asking the question with some additional info. (go back and look at the others, as there is good advice on all.)

First thing you have to work on, especially when singing high, is that your voice cannot have any tension in it. You must work to sing relaxed. The best way to learn to sing relaxed is through stretching out your body and then breathing exercises.

This is absolutely necessary before you even start to sing.

The exercise I use to develop my high range is to start on the pitch where I can warm up my voice. Using my head voice, I will hit a B, above middle C, and first work to make sure I start cleanly, with an OU sound. If I do not get the attack correct, I work until I am satisfied with my starting note. Then I will sing down the scale in 5ths. You want to make sure you are doing this in Head Voice, not full voice. I will then run this exercise five times, moving down 1/2 step each time. After I run this, I will drop down to a B right below middle C and work to keep the same tone in my middle range. Exact same exercise. I have to work to keep the tonal quality the same here, as I have a tendancy to belt out my comfortable range. Again, I do this down the scale in 1/2 steps. Then go back to your high range. For this I will start back E above middle C and do the same work only going up the scale 1/2 step until I reach the note that my throat starts to clamp down on. I identify the note that is the limit of my upper range and make a consious effort not to go any higher than that note. With that limit note, I then will try singing the scale exercise changing OU to other voicings such as aa ee ii oo uu. If the strain is more than a discomfort, stop and work one note below.

When you start singing in your high range, if you feel any strain what so ever in your throat, don't go any higher. Drop down to the highest note that you can comfortably sing. Work on that range until you are 100% comfortable and slowly work up till you can comfortably hit the notes you want. Remember, though, there is a limit to your range. Pushing to far to fast can damage your throat to a point you'll never get there, so proceed with caution.

Do not POWER your high notes. If you have to scream to hit them, nobody is going to enjoy listening to you singing it. Keep your voice under control at all times, and not only will you sound better, you'll be able to sing much longer, without tiring out.

Also, remember to switch to your head voice, the higher you go. As the notes get higher, the sound wave the create gets shorter and closer together and do not need as much power to generate, so lighten up on the higher notes. Think of it as an upside down cone. Your power should be on the low notes and decrease as you sing higher.

Last word of advice. Listen to yourself sing. The only way to listen to yourself is to record yourself and play it back. When working on a phrase. Record/Listen identify what is working and not working, and fix it. Then record/listen again until it is right. Then proceed up your range.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Breathing Basics for Singing
Normal breathing involves a shallow inhalation and an even exhalation followed by a pause before it all starts again. But when you sing, breath control means taking your breathing off autopilot. You not only need to inhale quickly and exhale slowly as you sing the phrases of a song, but you also need to maintain proper posture.

Breathing in this manner provides you with the breath control that you need to sing efficiently. However, because controlled breathing doesn't come naturally to you, you need to train your body to breathe for singing. Keep reading to walk through the breathing basics.

Discovering your singing breath
The easiest way to find out how you should breathe for singing is simply by feeling it. Being able to visualize and feel the proper way to breathe helps make the process more natural for you, too.

Inhalation refers to air moving into your body — breathing in. Exhalation is when you exhale or blow out the air. You exhale when you speak or sing.
Inhaling to sing
Singing songs requires getting a full breath quickly — a quick inhalation — because the orchestra can't wait five minutes for you to find the air. So knowing how your body feels when you inhale helps you to get air in your body quickly to sing the next phrase. Use the following exercise to explore your own inhalation. Get a feel for how your body should move when you inhale and exhale.

1. Pretend that air is really heavy as you inhale. Visualize it weighing 50 pounds and let it fall low into your body.

2. Let it fall lower than your belly button. Explore this sensation.

3. Then let the breath fall in faster. Still visualize it being heavy but let it fall quickly into your body.

4. You can also fill your lungs as if you were going to blow up a balloon. You will feel your abdomen and lower back expand.

This sensation of quickly filling your lungs with air is how you properly inhale for singing.

Yawning happens all the time when working on breath control. The body gets confused with the different amount of air coming in, and you yawn. Voice students yawn plenty during lessons and are embarrassed at first. Don't worry — it's okay to yawn when you're working on your breathing.
Exhaling to sing
Singing means that you have to control your exhalation. You want to have a sustained and smooth exhalation. This control helps you to sing those demanding high notes and long slow phrases.

To explore exhalation, blow a feather around the room. If you have a spotless house, you'll have to use an imaginary feather.

1. Try to blow the feather really high up in the air and use a long stream of breath to get it to go up.

2. Try not to collapse your chest as you blow the feather.

3. While chasing the feather with your breath, notice what moves in your body as you exhale. You should feel that your abdomen has slowly returned to normal and that your chest has stayed in the same position the whole time.

4. At the end of the exhalation, you should feel the need to immediately inhale again.

Posturing yourself for breathing
Breathing efficiently when you sing is a combination of great posture and skillful inhaling and exhaling. Remember the importance of good posture; it allows you to get a deep, full breath. If you slouch or you're too rigid, your diaphragm locks and prevents you from getting a correct breath for singing. If your breathing and your posture work together as a team, you can improve your singing.

To sing your best, you want to develop good posture while you breathe. When your body is aligned correctly, taking and using an efficient breath is easier.

Your own two hands can help you to maintain great posture while breathing. As you work through the breathing exercises, place one hand on your chest and the other hand on your abs. As you inhale, use your hand to feel whether your chest stays steady; you want it to stay in the same position for both the inhalation and the exhalation. (If your chest rises during inhalation, you create tension in your chest and neck.) With your other hand, feel it moving out with your abs as you inhale and back in toward your body as you exhale.
Positioning your body to feel breath
Different body positions also help you to feel your breath movement. Moving through different positions can help you feel the movement of breath.

Start flat on the floor and gradually work your way up to standing. It's great to work your breath on the floor, but you can't perform on the floor. You have to get up sometime and breathe correctly, so it may as well be right away. By starting out on the floor, you're able to totally focus on breathing and the movements in your body. By gradually working your way up, you can continue exploring the same movement of breath while working your way up to standing. Some singers have trouble finding the right movement for breathing when they stand. When they begin on the floor, they often find a sense of rel.