5

How to Practice

YOU’LL BE happy to know that if you keep working with the basic exercises you just learned, you’ll be on the expressway to true vocal liberation, and there are few limits on how fast you can go. Let me also say that meandering is fine. Your pace is entirely up to you. But now that you’ve got your first vocal exercises under your belt, some of you may have concerns that didn’t exist when you were just thinking about your voice. So let’s take a few moments to talk about them.

How Fast Do You Really Want to Go?

This process is driven by you, and what you want will determine how you can best use this book. Keep in mind that the exercises are addictive, and once you begin to get the feeling of chest, middle, and head, it’s such a satisfying discovery that you may want to practice far more than the daily fifteen minutes that I’ve recommended. That’s fine. But remember that there are many ways to travel toward vocal bliss. Here are some that have worked for my students.

The overview approach. Did you manage to get all the way through the preceding chapters without actually trying the exercises? Of course I hope you’ll do more, but I want you to know that just reading this book will help your voice. I often teach large groups—sometimes hundreds of people at a time. In the course of a lecture, I cover some of the basics you’re learning here, and I’ve seen that students who only listen, without trying any exercises at all, are still able to improve their voices as much as 40–50 percent. That means you can expect changes even if all you do is read the book and listen to the audio tracks on the website, without ever opening your mouth. You’ll benefit from learning how your voice works, how to care for your vocal cords, and how to avoid the activities that cause the greatest vocal damage. Then, if you’re willing to make small changes in how you care for and use your instrument, you’ll see gratifying results.

My recommended approach. I encourage you to be realistic about how big a commitment you can make to working with your voice. I feel it’s better to start with small, manageable, and regular bites than to make promises to yourself that you ultimately won’t keep. There’s a kind of destructive guilt that goes along with making extravagant plans at the outset—“I’ll start out with an hour of practice a day, and more on weekends”—and then feeling overwhelmed, falling further and further below the mark you set. It’s easy to give up if you start out by putting yourself in what feels like a pressure cooker. I’d prefer that you start small and let pleasure and satisfaction be the motivation behind upping your practice time along the way.

Here’s the foundation I’d like you to aim for if you’re serious about improving your voice: a vocal warm-up of just ten to twelve minutes, as many days a week as you can. You can squeeze in this little practice session sometime in the morning before you head out to a day filled with speaking or singing. If morning slips away, or you’ve got an evening gig, warm up then.

I’ve made it easy for you to do that by creating a set of complete warm-up tracks for this edition of the book. For singers, audio 48 is the daily warm-up for women, and audio 49 is the warm-up for men. Those two have the most range. The two tracks for speakers are audio 50, for women, and audio 51, for men. It’s fine for you to use any of the warm-ups that feel good to you. If you want to build your confidence by mastering the speakers’ warm-ups before you try the singers’, go for it. If you’re a male singer who wants to stretch, try the female singers’ track. Never strain. Just aim to enjoy yourself and see your voice get stronger.

The pull-out-all-the-stops approach. Every once in a while I meet a student who is so clearly committed that we design a high-powered program. Tony Robbins, the fire-walking motivational speaker, fell into that category.

Tony has a schedule that keeps him hopping from plane to helicopter to submarine, and at the end of our first session together, I wanted to be sure that we could come up with a practice schedule that wouldn’t overwhelm him. I casually suggested that he practice a few times a week for fifteen to twenty minutes, and was about to change the subject when he stopped me. “Roger,” he said, “tell me the straight stuff. Don’t sugarcoat anything. If you think I need to practice every day for ten hours, tell me that.” He said that he wasn’t the kind of person who would do anything halfway, and that improving his voice was a top priority for him. He believed in total immersion and was ready to eat, breathe, and sleep voice if that was what it was going to take.

We agreed to a five-day-a-week program of exercises that he would practice for thirty minutes a day between his lessons with me. Though intensive, it would certainly yield dramatic results, first in his speaking and then in the singing he would like to pursue. This kind of regular and deep focus actively helps the body remember how to shape new sounds, and it speeds up the process of developing strength in all the parts of the body that influence the way you sound. The more you put into learning, the more quickly you’ll achieve the results you want. I hope you’ll think about working up to this kind of commitment—when you’re ready. Experiment with different amounts of practicing and see what’s most satisfying. Above all, remember that you want this to feel a lot more like play than like work. It’s pleasure, not punishment!

For Those Who Want to Speak Better but Not Sing

It’s hard to predict what you’ll want to do with your voice once you’ve experienced middle voice. A good many people who come in intending simply to strengthen their speaking voice decide that they want to broaden their horizons and pursue secret dreams of singing. If you’re keeping your focus tightly on speaking, the most intensive program I can suggest would involve practicing twenty minutes a day three to five days a week, as I initially recommended to Tony. You’d run through the speakers’ warm-up tracks, which you’ll find on audio 50 or 51, and then focus on putting sounds together using the additional material for speakers and presenters that you’ll find in subsequent chapters. That regime is the fastest, most direct route to the most progress and mastery. But remember that you’ll make light-speed advances if you simply use the warm-ups. Ten to twelve minutes two or three times a week should slide easily into even the busiest schedule.

Later in the book I’ll introduce you to some specific speech-correction techniques that I would like you to practice in addition to the general warm-up. They’re aimed at solving common problems such as sounds that are too nasal or gravelly, and you won’t need to use them a lot. They’ll make you aware of what you do, and they’ll point the way out of your bad habits. But keep in mind that almost every problem affecting speakers will be addressed by the warm-up, which requires you to build a rock-solid foundation of vocal technique that will serve as a tune-up for your voice. As you’ll see in the next chapter, the qualities you now have in your voice because of the initial work we’ve started with middle voice are already beginning to transform some of the problem sounds.

Adapting the Program to Your Life

Inevitably, when I’ve outlined the basic program, there’s an enthusiastic nodding of heads, followed by the “Yes, but…” stage when questions, concerns, and objections come up. Let me address some of the most common ones:

OMIGOD! I’m gonna have to make noise. People will know I’m doing this. What can I do?

I’m fully aware that more than a few of you slipped quietly into the house with this book and were thinking of keeping it in your locked briefcase or tucked under something in a drawer or the back of the closet between readings. That’s part of what I think of as the Ugly Duckling syndrome—the fantasy that one day, seemingly out of nowhere, you’ll glide in with your fabulous new voice and all the critics and skeptics in your life will marvel that this proud, trumpeting swan has replaced the familiar old quacker. The transformation, the thinking goes, will be all the more remarkable because no one suspected it was happening. No one knew you cared how you sounded.

Miraculous change is a wonderful fantasy, but the fact is, achieving swandom takes practice—out loud. And really, have you ever thought less of a great performer, or of people who have made a big change in their lives, because you found out that they worked for their success? Most of us applaud effort, and chances are the people around you will hear the changes in your voice and offer you support, not pies in the face. But if embarrassment is threatening to muzzle your practicing before you’ve even begun, here are some remedies my students and I have come up with to ease the discomfort of practicing around other people:

Practice while you’re driving. This morning on the freeway, I glanced over and watched as the woman in the car next to me rushed to apply her makeup every time traffic slowed. I’m sure she would have preferred to be doing it between sips of cappuccino at home—but “stuck in traffic” was the only private time she had this morning, so it had to suffice. If you’re a commuter who drives to work, you have a regular slot in your schedule for warming up your voice. You can use your phone to go to the website for the exercises, and wail away.

Drive away from the house, park the car, and practice. Maybe you’d like to put your full concentration—sans lane changes—into doing the exercises, and you just need a place to rehearse. Some of my students get in the car, drive to a pleasant spot, park, and vocalize. If privacy is what you need to get started, by all means remember that many hours of great practicing have been done in portable, four-wheeled studios.

Sing in the shower. The water’s loud, the door is closed, and the acoustics are good.

Be open to finding practice situations that work for you. Practice at the beach. Practice in the park. Practice in the backyard or in an empty conference room at work before or after hours. Practice while your housemates are out, or when their music is turned up. Practice while the trumpet player next door is practicing. Just be sure you can hear my voice, and yourself, when you keep your dates with me. If you practice with headphones or earphones, leave one ear uncovered so you can hear and judge the sounds you are making.

Tell your friends and family what you’re up to. I realize that this may seem like a last resort, but for many students it’s been a great lesson. I know it was for me. When I moved into a new house several years ago, I was worried that my practicing would disturb the neighbors. I closed the windows and tried to contain the sounds, but I felt I had to say something to the people next door. I told them I was a voice teacher, apologized for bothering them, and promised to hold down the noise level. I was astonished when they said, “It sounds great—make it louder so we can enjoy you.” Don’t assume the worst. We live with the sounds of jets, crying babies, and construction. Vocal exercises, by comparison, can sound almost soothing.

Remember that you’re working on your voice, not taking tuba lessons or sandblasting. The volume level you’ll be trying to attain as you practice is only slightly louder than that of normal, comfortable speaking. I’m not going to be asking you to project your voice to the far side of the block, and for our purposes, you won’t be sitting in your apartment belting out “Over the Rainbow” either. Instead, you’ll be making gentle, pleasing, and even soothing sounds that are easy to listen to.

Beware of Apartment Singing syndrome. One thing to keep at the front of your mind is that you need to let the sounds out instead of doing the mental equivalent of singing or speaking with your hand over your mouth. That leads to what I call Apartment Singing syndrome, the soft, tentative, half-humming vocal style that I hear from so many of my beginning students.

“You nailed me,” my student Terry told me when I stopped her midexercise to ask if she’d been worried about disturbing the neighbors as she practiced. “I close all the windows, turn on the air-conditioning, and sing really softly so no one can hear me.” Unfortunately, both of us were still having trouble hearing her at her lesson—that muffled practice style was becoming a vocal habit.

As I pointed out to Terry, the work we’ll be doing has everything to do with clearing and freeing the channel that the voice flows through, and concerns about making too much noise put a very large stopper in that channel. Terry decided to practice in her car until she felt more confident that her exercises sounded good enough to be heard by other people. It didn’t take her long to realize that her practicing sounded musical, and after a couple of weeks she was able to do exercises in her room without self-consciousness.

Believe me, I’ve heard every conceivable excuse for not practicing, everything from “The dog ate my warm-ups” to “My husband makes fun of me.” And there’s a way around every obstacle. Throw the dog his own bone. Quit practicing in front of your partner for a while. Let yourself have some fun. You can do your vocal exercises anywhere, and in any free moments you have in your schedule.

Is there a best time to practice?

As I’ve been emphasizing, whenever you can practice works for me. But routine is good. The more you build your practice sessions into your regular schedule (for example, right after breakfast, right before bed, on the way to work), the more likely you are to remember to vocalize. By the way, it is possible to sing early in the morning, as long as you have the right technique. Practicing in the morning has advantages—it will warm up your voice for all the communications you’ll have for the rest of the day and night. But I’ll be happy with whenever you can do it. Giving yourself a chance to make practicing a habit will continually provide a reminder of what you’re supposed to sound like and a chance to put your best voice into your awareness. I hope you’ll do it.

It sounds weird, but I get the giggles when I do this.

Sometimes, when students begin to practice, they’re shocked by how entertaining the exercises seem. There’s almost always a moment or two of initial giddiness the first time you hear my slightly out-of-the-ordinary sounds. Don’t fight that giggly feeling! These exercises are supposed to be light, fun, and a bit out of your normal spectrum. They come from out of left field, and because they’re strange and new, they help move you to a place with no preconceived limitations. Enjoy them.

You’re asking me to follow too many notes!

Some of you, because you’re not used to matching your voice with a pitch instrument like the piano, may feel strange singing along. Actually, what you’re doing with an exercise like the octave-and-a-half set is no more difficult than the melody of “Happy Birthday,” but you’ll be concentrating a little harder because you’re trying to match the pitches you hear. That’s a bit more demanding than singing along with the radio, when most of us don’t pay attention to exactly what our voices are doing—but it’s not complicated. After a while, your ears will get used to their new job of noticing when you’re on and when you’re off.

What do I do if I get confused?

Some students—in fact most students—get a sense of what I’m after right away. They listen to an exercise or a sound, try to copy it, and get the immediate satisfaction of being able to follow along easily. But it’s not uncommon to get confused, and at some point it’ll probably happen to you. It sometimes takes repeated listenings to understand the sounds you’re trying to copy—and that’s fine. Play an exercise as many times as you need to, until you feel you really hear it. This “ear training” is the key to being able to copy a sound. Listen until the qualities of the sound are clear to you, then jump in and imitate, following along with the voice on the exercise track.

Learning to listen is the most valuable thing you can do. It will get you unstuck when you’re confused, and it will leapfrog you forward when you use it to fine-tune your voice work. Learning to listen will make you your own best teacher. Starting today, I want you to focus your awareness on the voices around you. Every time you think of it, tune in carefully and listen—to radio announcers, family and office mates, people in front of you at the supermarket checkout stand. What do you like about their voices? What would you have them change? Don’t criticize, but pay attention. Being able to identify the qualities of other people’s voices is an important first step toward being able to listen critically to your own voice. The more you listen, the more you can hear how you sound—and once you can do that, you can adjust the sounds you’re making. Great speakers and singers can correct their voices midphrase, before their audience ever hears a “mistake,” and you can develop that ability too.

Listen-copy-evaluate-adjust is the process you’ll learn to use again and again as we move your voice toward its best and richest sound. And it all begins with listening.

What if I do it all wrong?

It will actually be hard for you to make a “wrong” sound because, as I’ve mentioned, the specific sounds I ask you to make put your mouth, tongue, and throat in particular positions and help you keep them there. The only “wrongs” are strain, pressure, and pain. If you feel them, stop. And don’t worry. You’ll learn what pressure sounds and feels like, what shouting and straining sound and feel like, and what it feels like to take the strain away.

My voice is just going to get better and better, right?

Well, I wish I could just say yes and move on, but actually, it will save you a lot of worry and concern if I let you know that there are a few curves on the road to vocal mastery. Typically, students’ progress unfolds like this:

Stage one. In our first vocal exercises, you learned the basics of connecting with all the parts of your voice. In short order, you should be able to move up and down your range smoothly and without strain. Discovering that you can do this is the first breakthrough. You may go through a stretch of finding the new places in your voice—and then lose them again, but the exercises will keep leading you back.

Stage two. You’ll probably stay at your new level of accomplishment for one to three weeks without sensing anything like the first breakthrough. You may feel that you’re on a plateau, but remember that your speaking and singing have already improved markedly. Keep doing the exercises, and as you do, feel how natural it becomes to use your voice in this way.

Stage three, the setback. Almost inevitably, you’ll go to do your exercises one day, after happily and comfortably doing them for days or weeks, and you’ll feel as though your voice doesn’t know what to do anymore. You may feel you’re lost, or sliding backward. This is completely normal. Sometimes the learning process slows down when you come to new material, and you struggle to put it together with what you’ve already learned. Incorporating a new chunk of information or technique means turning on the part of your brain that is trying to fit together the pieces of what feels like a giant puzzle. It’s clumsy, thinking hard about what you’re doing instead of gliding. A setback may mean that you’re taking in the knowledge you’ll need for the next step forward. I’ll be leading you into new vocal terrain and asking you to follow me by rote, but I’ll also be explaining how you’re making the sounds you do. Setbacks—and plateaus—are processing times, when you move from making sounds with no understanding of how you’re doing it to owning the sounds and knowing them intimately.

A setback may also mean that your voice is just tired. You enthusiastically cheered on your team at a baseball game last night. You had a tearful fight with a loved one. You’ve got a cold. Any of these very human activities can cause your vocal cords to swell—and stop cooperating. This, too, is completely normal. The voice is the most unpredictable instrument on the planet. It’s affected by your health, your thoughts, and the environment. Don’t be alarmed if you feel that on some days your voice has been possessed by unruly spirits. You don’t need an exorcism, you just need patience. Even if you think you sound ridiculous or strange, the exercises work to smooth the rough spots and put you back in control, so let them help you regain your sense of balance.

And remember that what follows is

Stage four, the next breakthrough. As you move out of that first slump, your voice will suddenly seem to have new life. You may wake up one morning feeling great and find that when you start vocalizing, something just clicks in your voice. The very things you struggled with the week before are now… no problem. Your body has become stronger, your brain has shifted gears from puzzlement to “I know how to do this,” and you have a new vocabulary of vocal strengths to weave into new textures.

This pattern of breakthrough, plateau, struggle, and breakthrough is what you’ll experience through the entire learning process. Your body and your mind need time to incorporate what you’re trying to teach them, and if you can remember to practice patiently, knowing that every step is leading you toward the next breakthrough—whether today’s work feels like a step forward or a step backward—you’re on the path of mastery.

What about those setbacks?

I know it’s one thing for me to say “Expect some setbacks” and quite another to be moving more slowly than you’d like to be. When you get stuck, reread the parts of the book that focus on the techniques that are giving you trouble. Listen to my audio examples. And try it again. But be gentle with yourself. If you find that you can’t hear the exercise anymore, can’t feel it, or it hurts—STOP. Give yourself a break, and come back to the exercise either several hours later or the next day. I’m not saying give up. I’m saying give it a rest.

If you find that you’re so negative about your own sounds that you can’t be a fair listener, you need to reschedule your lesson. Don’t wait more than a few days to come back to the material, but be sure that you give yourself enough time to regain a sense of fun and perspective.

Please remember that you cannot fail, even if you think your voice is not changing. If you’re consistently doing the exercises, then your instrument is growing, thickening, and strengthening, and you are gaining control of the sounds it produces.

Can I learn singing without reading music?

Yes. Some of the most successful popular singers and composers have never learned to read music. My guess is that fewer than 15 percent of all top singing stars today know how to read music, and the number is probably even lower than that. Aside from opera singers, who need to follow complex notation, many professional singers at the top rung don’t read music. I teach people how to be musical and to have a musical ear, which is much more important, at the outset, than knowing what the notes look like on a page. You’ll get plenty of practice discriminating among sounds and imitating them, and that’s the skill you’ll need most as a singer. Knowing that you’re hearing a C or a D doesn’t help if you can’t imitate it. Don’t get me wrong. I’d be overjoyed if you decided to learn more about music—like all the math you learned in school, it’s a plus. For our purposes, though, it’s not essential.

Do I have to have perfect pitch to sing?

People with perfect pitch can hear a tone and tell you exactly what note was played. It’s a wonderful ability, but there’s no correlation between having perfect pitch and being able to sing in perfect pitch. Just because you can tell when a note is on and when it’s off doesn’t mean you can automatically produce the note. And knowing that your voice is off doesn’t necessarily help you correct it. If knowing your voice was off were all it took to get it back on track, we’d all have perfect voices. Willingness to listen and make adjustments is a thousand times more valuable to you than having perfect pitch.

All I really want to do is speak better. Can’t I just skip this singing stuff?

I’ve found, over the years, that the part of a student’s brain that asks that question is precisely the part that we need to quiet in order to make fundamental changes in his or her speaking voice. You can’t think your way to a better voice—but you can sing your way there. I sometimes suggest making big shifts in a student’s speaking voice, and it’s natural for people to go into shock. They think, “That’s not my voice. What are you trying to do to me!” But when I say, “Sing this sound,” the mind of the average nonsinger has no frame of reference. All you’re doing is copying me. And as you do it, I can move you onto a different plane, far from the limiting ideas you’ve had about what your voice can do.

I’ll show you how to make specific singing sounds, then ask you to speak with the same kinds of sounds. I call the result speak-singing, and it’s the most effective—and enjoyable—way to improve the speaking voice.

I realize that some of the issues that I’ve described may not come up for you, or may arise late in our work together rather than early. Please consider this chapter a resource throughout the process, and refer back to it when you’ve got questions about how you’re doing or how your path is unfolding. You’ll do fine.