Introducing our new singing tutorial series – Vocals in Focus! It’s long been our dream at Sing2Music to provide advice, insight, lessons and other resources for singers like you, that will help take your vocal performances to new heights.
We’ve partnered with professional vocal coach, Jono McNeil (The Voice UK, The Voice Kids), who has extensive industry experience training professional singers. He brings an incredible depth of knowledge to this new series that will help you to unlock the potential in your own singing voice. Learn more about Jono here.
In this first episode, Jono speaks to the question that every vocalist has asked themselves at some point on their singing journey, “Why is my vocal performance lacking energy?”
Think about the voices that you’ve been attracted to in your lifetime. The best singers seem to have a vibrancy and presence to their voice that makes them stand out from the rest. We need to prioritise getting this energy into our own vocal performances!
What are those things that get in the way of a great energetic voice though? Often due to anxieties about certain parts of the voice, our fight or flight reflexes will kick in. What if we were to remove these reflexes that cause barriers in the voice? These barriers might include tension in the tongue, jaw, abdomen or upper torso. They tense up to brace us against a “threat” or “danger”, but our job in our vocal training is to create awareness around these tensions and work with the body to let them go.
The first step is realising that the voice naturally wants to sing and sometimes we just need to get out of the way!
In your training, be gentle and take your time. Maybe sing a short phrase or a small scale as a good starting point, all the time being aware of the different parts of the body that might be getting in the way. If you’re patient and take your time with this, your voice will begin to change, or rather, be revealed! We’re getting the body to work with us, rather than against us and the result is an energetic tone that really will sound great.
Watch the video to hear Jono explain these concepts in more detail and instruct you in how to release tension from your body.
