How to Strengthen Your Singing Voice

If you want to know how to strengthen your singing voice you have come to the right place. We are going to go through my most popular methods in order to get you singing with more strength and power.

This post is going to be split up into two main sections. Firstly we’re going to learn about what you need to do to get ready to sing. Then we’re going to go through some exercises and techniques that will give you the power you want.

Ready? Let’s go!

Getting Your Body Ready to Sing 

Before you even start trying to sing it’s important to give yourself the best chance. There is no such thing as running before you can walk. And the same is true for your singing.

Stand up Straight 

You need to do is to allow yourself to breathe. As I’m sure you know, we breathe from our lungs which are essentially two big balloons inside of you. When you sing, you expel the air inside your lungs, it passes through your larynx, your vocal cords etc. and then goes out through your mouth and hopefully comes out sounding beautiful!

The first thing you need to do is stand up. Get up off your chair or couch and stand up. You are getting ready to perform so let’s get down to it!

The best way to stand up is to imagine that you have a piece of string attached to the back of your head and is gently pulling you up. The string isn’t around your neck, nope, just on the top of your head.

You should feel that your spine is growing and straightening. You may even feel taller now that you aren’t slouched over. This is normal and is what we are aiming for.

Make Sure You Warm up

I imagine that you have heard this many many times before but still, warming up is the first step for any kind of singing endeavor. There are three different parts of warming up:

Your Voice

This of course is the most basic and fundamental part of your warm up. It should take no more than a couple of minutes though. If you want to go through a detailed warm up the feel free to check out the post I’ve written about it. For now though, just go through some five note scales to get into the singing mode.

Sing quietly at first and feel good about it. The most important thing to do when warming up is to not overdo it. Don’t try and sing too high. Don’t try and sing too low. Don’t try and sing too loud. It’s just a warm up.

• First of all go through some scales with the Ah sound
• Then move on to the other sounds such as Oh, Oiy, Ooh etc.
• Only when you feel that your voice is in pretty good shape move on to the next steps.

Your Body

Warming up your body is important as well. This isn’t about standing up straight and making sure that your body is aligned. Those things are important, but they aren’t part of a warm up. This is more about getting your body ready for the workout of singing with strength. And don’t tell me that singing loudly isn’t difficult. It is. When you can do it and belt properly you’ll feel it in your body. It may not hurt but you do need to be ready for it. Singing and performing definitely takes it out of you. After the adrenaline has dissipated you will feel exhausted if you have given it your all.

I know of many singers that have exercise machines in their dressing rooms that they use before performing. Warming up your body is just as much of the vocal warm up as it is for your voice.

When warming up you can do almost anything.

Run, jog, jumping jacks, stretches. I don’t have any preference just as long as you are doing something to get your body moving.

Your Mind

Another important part of warming up is getting your mind ready to sing. You’ll feel good by working out a little and getting the endorphins going. But you also have to get your mind ready for it. Just as an example; A racing driver goes through the track in his mind with complete clarity, so he knows where every corner is. In fact, some of them know where every single bump in the road is so they know how to react to it.

Although singing isn’t motor racing, this they have in common. Making sure that you know every note, what you have to do to achieve that note and getting yourself ready for it is all part of the preparation. Settle your mind and let the music in so you can let your voice come out in all its glory!

Now that you have warmed up, it’s time to get some real tips on how to strengthen your singing voice:

Singing Down 

Many singers think when they get to higher notes it’s a good idea to move their head to that position as well. In other words, their heads are a control of how high or low they go.

The higher the chin, the higher the note and the lower the chin, the lower the note.

Sorry to break this to you but that is complete rubbish. It’s simply not true.

When you sing, you need to control your air flow. Moving your chin up and down restricts the air coming in and coming out. Therefore it’s important to keep your chin and face level.

What is a good idea though, is to sing down. What this means is that whatever note you are trying to sing, especially if it is a high one, try and sit on it. Imagine you are standing at the top of the stairs and you have to get down to the next one. That next one is your high note. If you can step down on the next note you’ll be able to get there.

It’s important to try and visualize this because the more real you make it, the easier it will be for you to get to grips with the new note that you need to hit.

Build Your Muscles

You don’t have to be an athlete to sing. That’s for sure. However, you do have to have some muscles in order to sing with the strength that you want. All of these muscles are breathing ones. This isn’t so much about breathing correctly. This is about growing the muscles you need.

It’s important to have a strong core to sing with strength. What this means is that you have to be able to control the muscles in the middle of the body. The stronger these are, the more strength you will exude when you sing.

Exercise #1 Pant like a Dog

1. Make sure you are breathing through your stomach
2. Stick your tongue out
3. Breathe in and ensure your tummy comes out
4. Now breathe out
5. Start off slowly with a second for each breathe in and out
6. Pick up the speed until you can go as fast as you can
7. Go a bit faster than that

The point of this is to engage your “singing” muscles and improve their strength. Remember, this is supposed to make you feel some discomfort in your stomach area. If it doesn’t, then you are not doing it correctly.

At first, you will probably only be able to do this for a very short time, perhaps not more than 10 seconds. However, with time, you will be able to increase both the power of the breaths and the time you can do it for.

You may feel light headed if you are doing this for an extended period of time. The reason for this is because you are limiting the amount of oxygen you are breathing in and this causes a form of hypoventilation. Don’t worry about it, you’re not going to faint. However, just be a little aware of it and stop if it gets too much.

Exercise #2 Breath Holding

For this exercise I want you to lie down on the floor or a bed if you can. Concentrate on your breathing and flex your stomach muscles for a few seconds at a time. You will probably have to hold your breath whilst you do this but that is fine. Try and do this 10 times.

Exercise #3 Singing and Holding a Note

1. Take a deep breath
2. Sing a note. Any note. It’s not important which one your choose as long as you can hit it easily
3. Time how long you can do it for
4. Just keep going as long as you can
5. Even when it just becomes a kind of squeak or groan, just keep going.

What this does is forces you to get the maximum out of your breath. Especially at the end when you feel that you have nothing left to give, if you keep pushing through, you will see a pretty rapid improvement.

You should aim to get to at least 30 seconds with this exercise. It will really improve your vocal strength.

Exercise #2 Breath Holding

For this exercise I want you to lie down on the floor or a bed if you can. Concentrate on your breathing and flex your stomach muscles for a few seconds at a time. You will probably have to hold your breath whilst you do this but that is fine. Try and do this 10 times.

Exercise #3 Singing and Holding a Note

1. Take a deep breath
2. Sing a note. Any note. It’s not important which one your choose as long as you can hit it easily
3. Time how long you can do it for
4. Just keep going as long as you can
5. Even when it just becomes a kind of squeak or groan, just keep going.

What this does is forces you to get the maximum out of your breath. Especially at the end when you feel that you have nothing left to give, if you keep pushing through, you will see a pretty rapid improvement.

You should aim to get to at least 30 seconds with this exercise. It will really improve your vocal strength.

Making Sure You Are Singing with Your Stomach

An important element in singing is ensuring you are doing so through your stomach. There is much more space than in your chest which is stopped by your ribcage. Your stomach is like a trampoline in a sense. The more you come at it, the higher you can bounce.

Many people talk about giving your voice support. What on earth does that mean?

Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. It’s all about breathing correctly. If you are breathing through your stomach then your breath will have support. It’s difficult to describe in words but basically, when you are breathing this way you will feel an invisible something that is helping you get your sound out. It’s like a loudspeaker of sorts. The sound is reverberating around your body and building up the strength it needs. Then, when it comes out, it does so with a really big, rich sound that you will be proud of. If you want a more in-depth discussion about it, check out that post.

With Confidence Comes Singing Strength 

An important area of singing with strength is that of confidence. When you have the confidence to let it go you will be uninhibited and really sing with the power that you want. There are some things that you can do to improve confidence even if you are a shy person.

Make Sure You Know the Music

If you are 100% sure of every note, every syllable that you need to sing and you know it backwards and forwards, you will automatically be filled with confidence as you know that you won’t make a mistake.

Visualize the Music

Turn the song into a story with characters that you feel on stage. If it’s a love story then get a picture of the girl and the boy in your head. What color is her hair, does he have a beard or is he clean shaven? Go into every aspect of it. Then, when you are singing, you are focusing on those people and nothing else.

Not only that but you can do the same with the crowd if you are intimidated by them. Imagine them wearing funny clothes, dressed in fancy dress, dressed as Nuns, clowns, or anything else that tickles your fancy. You’d be surprised by just how much this helps you get over your nerves and fills you with confidence.

What Could Go Wrong Anyway

This is especially relevant for those of you who have young children at home. Let’s say that something does go wrong. Did the world come to an end? You can go home at the end of the night, give your children a kiss and know that they love you unconditionally. They are your support network and the place for you to ground yourself.

So what that one song didn’t come out just the way you wanted it to. If you come home to a loving house, everything will be OK. You can always come again. We are always trying to grow and learn something new. So don’t worry and don’t give up!

Don’t Disconnect the Breath 

When you sing the breath goes through your larynx and that is what makes the sound. The sound can also escape though and that gives you that breathy sound. It’s impossible to sing with strength when your breath is disconnected from your vocal cords.

Try to sing with a really breathy tone. You’ll find that you won’t be able to sing very loudly.

Now do the same but make sure you are sing an “nuh.” Just that and nothing more. Try to keep the n for as long as possible. You will feel that you are using your vocal cords and that there is more sound coming out.

Do the same this time just without the n before. Just sing the “uh.” You may feel that this is just a deflated sound.

And it is.

What we need to do is bring the “uh” to become like the “nuh.” This will increase the tone and strength of your voice. You have to just keep practicing this and eventually you will just get it and your voice will be strong and steady throughout every single note that you sing.

In Closing

We have going through a variety of different exercises in how to strengthen your singing voice. Not only in terms of technique but also in terms of the mental aspect. This is something that I cannot stress enough. You cannot be timid when you sing. You have to put yourself out there and sometimes that means in a vulnerable place. Yes, it may be difficult but think of this way. You don’t get to the top of the mountain by climbing down it. The work is hard to get there but the view is from the top!