How To Sing Better

Hi, I'm Sonia Jones. I'm a professional singing teacher and I'm going to give you tips and advice on how to sing. Now, how to sing better.

Well, of course, the first thing you have to do is have the basic knowledge of singing, have a voice and practice. So, if you can't afford singing lessons, then try and get a keyboard. It's always great to train your ear by playing some piano or sing along to a backing track, try and record yourself so you listen back even if it's only a little cassette player, or you know, on your iPhone, or whatever.

It's just best always to listen to yourself back because you'll really learn a lot like that. And look at the shapes I've given in this series, the mouth shapes. Mirror work is very important.

So, a lot of people come to me and I say, sing “Aah” and they go “Ah” and I say, how on earth can anything come out of that mouth? If you look at any of the great divas or any great singers, you've got to go “Aaaaah.” You've got to open your mouth, and for the “Eeee,” bring it forward. Don't do that very sideways singing, so E sounds, and the same with O, control your voice.

It's doing the minor keys and everything, so it's very important to try and practice, put in everything together so your breathing technique which I would remind you is filling the back up and breathing from as low as possible underneath your belly button. Fill in your back so it gives you a nice open space here and try to remember not to sing from your throat if you're singing an alto part. Fill it here.

Fill the body, and then if you're singing a higher part, and the tip if you can't get off your throat, it's a mental thing. If you can't get off your throat, use your tongue. So, take the tip of your tongue and put it on the roof of your mouth and you see here the sound, coming from all around here especially for nearly everything, from opera, gospel, pop, it's got a great sound.

Every good singer, you know, like if you look at Beyonce or any of the great singers, you'll see that they use their cheek, the cheek muscles. They don't sing from the throat. And another tip is definitely to try and record yourself and watch yourself in the mirror and you will hear the difference. .