How to Improve Your Voice Quality for Singing

One important feature of singing is improving your tone and the quality of your voice. If you can sing with tone, your voice will have so much more penetration and both you and your audience will love it. So let’s find out how to improve your voice quality for singing with these 16 tips.

Knowing Your Range – Singing in Your Boundaries

The first thing that you need to know is, “Can I actually sing this song?” This is an important question as there will be many songs that you won’t be able to sing at first. I may have a five-octave range but that’s not all in my normal registers. I’m not going to try and sing a song that doesn’t fit my voice. The reason why you have to know what your range is, is because once you know it, you can measure the song you want to sing and work out if it’s going to fit your range. You can even use the range finder app for it. Save your range, play the song loud enough so that the app can pick it up and you’ll be able to work out if you can sing that song or not.

How to find your range

For an in depth look at finding your range check out the post that I’ve written about it. However, for a quick check I recommend the free app called sing sharp. Use the find your range tool and you’ll know pretty quickly what your range is.

Practice the Song until You Are Completely Confident of It 

Once you are sure that you can actually sing it then it’s time to start working on the actual song. In order to improve your voice quality for singing you must be completely confident of the song that you are trying to sing. You may think that you know it but many times this just isn’t the case. Every song has its own nuances. Perhaps just by a few semitones here and there. However, it’s so important for you to master every single part of the song, every word, every note. The mastering of a song enables you to sing it with complete confidence and put your own twist on it. If you do so, then your tone will increase as you are at one with the actual song.

Singing Clearly – Getting the Enunciation Correct

One of the goals of music is to get your point across. Whether it is purely instrumental, whether it is just a cappella, the song does something to you. It’s supposed to. Music is the language of the soul and you have to just let it out. If the lyrics are garbled and unclear, unfortunately all you hear is a disjointed message. It may be a happy song; it may be a sad song. You may even recognize it. But if the words are not clear then it’s just no good.

You may be asking that what does this have to do with improving your tone. And the answer is that it has everything to do with it. Tone is a lot about crispness and clarity. When the words are clear that is tone.

Clear words = good tone!

Sing with Emotion 

Whilst it is important to sing with emotion it has a further effect as well and that is to improve the tone of your voice. When you are singing with emotion you are putting your whole being into the song. This in turn enhances the tone that you are trying to create. In a sense it is almost backwards because by concentrating on the song and not on the tone, you are actually increasing the tone.

Reading Your Book out Loud 

In order to improve your voice quality you have to get used to using your voice. There are many people who think that they have amazing voices and can sing all day. However, when they get to the karaoke booth for some reason, they can’t even get through the song they are trying to sing. Even two minutes is too long for some of them. Why is this? The reason is because they are never really using their voices. Speaking to a colleague at work, talking to a friend isn’t going to cut it because it is a different form of speech.

When it comes to singing you are using different muscles and if you never exercise them then they will never be able to work for you and get you through the song.

In order to increase those muscles all you have to do to begin with is just to speak. Take a book, any book, but preferably one that you want to actually read, and read it aloud. Read it as if you were trying to give a speech without a microphone. Try and project your voice in a comfortable way, without screaming.

Over time you will be able to increase the time you can do this for as well as improve your power. This will translate into an increased tone when you are actually singing.

Warm Up

Of course, the standard warm up is hugely important before you do any kind of singing. Any warmup is good. Do some scales, arpeggios and some light aerobic exercise to get yourself going. If you want to get a complete warm up though, check out the post and exercises I’ve written about.

Consistency Is the Key – Sing Every Day 

Similar to a warmup, you just have to be in practice to sing with tone. Singing may be natural, but only with constant upkeep will it have the tone that you really want to have. So sing every day. Now, everyone is busy so I’m not going to say that you have to sing for 30 minutes every single day. Professional musicians’ practice for hour after hour every day. In fact, many of them suffer from carpal tunnel because they are always practicing. But that’s all they do. Most of us have day jobs or are in school. But you should try and get some kind of practice in every single day.

There are some days when I’m so busy that all I can do is hum as I walk to where I need to get to. That’s fine too. But really, try and get some serious singing done every day. You will really reap the benefits of it. And, along with reading out loud, you will see improvements pretty quickly.

Sing with Good Posture 

There are mechanics involved in singing and if you get them right, you are going to be starting on the right foot. This in turn gives you a better chance of singing with tone and improving your voice quality. It’s really just about standing up straight. Imagine there is a string attached to the top of the back of your head and is gently pulling you up. This will open your lungs and allow you the maximum amount of air into your lungs. It’s pretty simple really but you would be surprised at the number of people who just slouch and don’t stand up this way. Not only will you be able to sing better, you will be taller as well! ?

Make Sure You Are Breathing Correctly – Strengthening your Diaphragm

In order to improve your voice quality, you must have a strong base. This means being able to breathe in deeply and correctly. Maybe you have heard that it’s important to breathe properly before. It’s something that almost every singing teacher says. But the truth is that it’s one of the most important things you can do in singing.

More than this, if you can master this, you will be well on your way to singing properly, with more tone, for less effort and with more power as well. If you want to know exactly how-to breath properly for singing, check out the post I’ve written about where you will get the steps and exercises needed to give yourself breathe management, control and power.

Getting and Staying Hydrated

It’s important to stay hydrated when you sing. Not only does this lubricate your vocal cords which is hugely imperative for ensuring that you can sing, but also because it allows you to sing for longer and not damage yourself. You should aim to drink a lot. I’m not going to put a specific number here but if you normally drink 2 glasses of water a day, then double it until you are used to it. Just drink and drink. 

In general though, caffeine = bad, water = good, milk= bad, tea = good ?

Sleep like a Baby 

Being a singer means singing at weird hours. One of the reasons I don’t sing a lot in concerts is because I don’t get to sleep until at least 2 in the morning. It’s hard and it’s tiring. I don’t mind being tired, but my voice does. If you are a professional singer, you must sleep enough that you are completely rested when you sing in public. It’s a psychically demanding job and you must be able to be at the top of your game in order to do justice to yourself, the song and your audience.

You should aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep. Eight if you can!

Do Deep Breathing – Relaxing Your Soul 

As I mentioned before, you need to sing from a stable base. However, this is not just in the body but it’s also in the mind. It’s about relaxing and getting rid of the tension that you feel. Not just trying to sing high or low notes but the tension that we have to deal with every day of our lives. By deep breathing you are getting present and concentrating on the what’s happening now.

In order to get rid of tension do some deep breathing. Put on some Zen music, something calming and just concentrate on breathing in and out. This way you will let yourself go and relax into the present. This, along with ensuring you are standing up straight, will give you a great base with which to sing from.

Don’t Sing Too Much 

It’s important to not overstrain yourself. In fact, don’t just overstrain, don’t strain at all! When you get tired or you feel yourself that it’s not quite as easy as it was a few minutes ago, just stop. You will end up hurting yourself and that’s not what any of us want!

Don’t Smoke 

Yes, sorry if you do but it just literally kills your ability to sing properly. Don’t start off on the wrong foot. And that’s it!

Develop Resonance in Your Voice 

In order to improve the quality of your voice you must be able to resonate it around your body. What this means is that you need to turn your body into a place where there is more space for the sound to reverberate around it. The more space there is, the more it will resonate. The more it resonates, the higher the quality of the voice.

In order to create some more space you should raise your soft palate. This is the soft part of the roof of your mouth. If you notice, there are two parts to the top of your mouth. The hard palate and the soft one. You can actually move the soft palate by yawning. When you do this you create more space in your mouth. This in turn creates more tone as you are able to get a better sound out.

Now, this doesn’t apply to all notes. It’s especially helpful when you come to sing higher notes and you shouldn’t really be doing this for lower ones. However, the concept is the same whatever note you are trying to sing.

Aim to enlarge the area that you are singing from. Literally, aim and try to do so. It may seem like a funny thing to do but in actuality this is the way to get better at it. Just thinking that I want to do this in singing is often the way to accomplish it. This is the same with tone, with singing high and with singing low as well as many other different singing things that you will want to do.

Think down for High Notes 

When you sing any note, you want the airflow to be uninterrupted. If you are moving your neck up and down instead of keeping it in a straight line, you are blocking the air flow. That’s why you must keep your head and neck in a neutral, level way. This doesn’t mean that you have to sing like a robot, but it does mean that you have to concentrate on this as well.

After a time this will become second nature to you. However, in the beginning this may be a little uncomfortable.

Whether you are singing high notes or low notes, keep your head in a straight, neutral position to ensure that you get the maximum airflow for your notes.

Track Your Progress 

In order to know how well you are doing it’s important keep track of where you are up to. Record yourself. Listen to it. And repeat. Keep trying and I’m sure you’ll notice an improvement soon.

In Closing

Learning how to improve your voice quality for singing is often a slow process. However, if you follow the steps mentioned here, keep at it and keep a track of where you are at, you will be well on the way to getting the tone that you want. If you have any questions, comments, or anything else to add, let me know below. Till next time!