Get professional voice lessons. Check out these websites for more information:

singingsuccessonline.com
singingvoicelessons.com
expertvillage.com/voice-lessons

E-mail me for a specific critique: [email protected]

Try these techniques, I use them every day in choir and voice lessons.

Breathing:

Place your hands on your diaphragm and breathe out counting to four and breathe in counting to four. Do the same for three, two, then one. This will help you sustain longer notes with a shorter amount of breath. If you don't feel slight pressure from your stomach pushing against your hands, you aren't doing this correctly.

Place your hands on your rib cage and breathe out counting 1 (breathe) 1, 2 (breathe) 1, 2, 3 (breathe)…to 10. By doing this you recognize where your breath support is coming from. If your rib cage does not expand, you are probably using your throat too much and you could damage your voice.

Diction:

Sing scales Do Re Mi…in your comfortable range to a piano in ascending and descending octaves. Over time as your voice gets stronger, you'll be able to stretch your notes on either side of the piano.

Of course La la la always works.

Sing silly words like zingamomma zingamomma zingamomma zingamomma zing zing zing to a piano to sharpen your consonants.

Ah-leh-eh-loo-uh and Mee-meh-maw-moh-moo for vowels.

Humming in the morning also helps warm up the voice.

Always remember to warm up properly 5-10 minutes before singing. Drink lots of water (at room temperature as to not shock nor relax your vocal cords too much) and keep good posture so air can flow through your body and help you sustain stronger notes. Stretch your arms and neck while warming up to release tension in your upper body. Rest your voice for a few days when you are ill or tired. Be confident and have fun! I hope I helped! Best of luck!

If you are taking guitar lessons, then use your guitar to help with singing. Strum a chord and try to sing the notes along with the guitar. If you know scales , pick them out on the guitar and sing them too. Mix it up as well. Sing the scales with short notes and then use very long notes to help increase your sustain.

I have been receiving vocal coaching for about 7 years now, and there are a few big and basic things every singer needs to know.

First, and most importantly is pitch. No matter how good your singing tone may be, if you sound pitchy, no one will want to listen to you. So you'll want to work on your own ear to make sure that when you hear a note, you can sing what you hear accurately. One way to work on it is if you have a piano, play notes and then match the note with your voice. You can go up and down the scale as much as you can (don't try to force your voice to do anything that feels like you are straining or that is painful).

Second, be aware of how much air you use when you sing. This can be a tricky one for beginners because just as breathing too little is bad, too much breathe can be even more dangerous. There was actually an experiment done where they put a camera down a woman's throat or nasal passage ( I forget which), but they were able to film her throat while singing with different amounts of air. When the woman sang with too much air, her vocal chords actually became irritated and reddish, but were just fine when she sang with smaller amounts of air. The best way to find the right amount is top sing an easy song you know and really relax. Don't do anything to your voice, just relax, almost like you are talking, and sing. That really really really easy place is what you want as your starting point.

My third helpful pointer on your journey is to always remember to sing relaxed. You damage your voice the most when you use unnecessary tension. How do you put this into practice? Lets say you decide to sing a song like "Behind These Hazel Eyes" by Kelly Clarkson. ( This song would definitely be a challenge for a beginner.) As you go through the song you will want to be very aware of your whole body, but especially your neck, forehead and jaw (that's where I see tension the most), and just make sure you're not tensing yourself up just to get louder or higher. When you get to those extra high notes, you'll want to let your voice do what it can, as long as it's relaxed– even if that means the notes are really small and quiet. Eventually as your voice matures and gains strength, those notes will grow and sound better.

For more information, check out my vocal coach's website www.mmonevoice.com and go to the learning center link. There you can find articles on everything from breathing to cracking! Good luck!