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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and I’m a professional singer. I’m also a composer and an actress. The thing that you need to know about me, and I think the thing that shaped me a lot, is that I have an international background. I grew up overseas. I had a lot of my childhood in Africa and much of my high school in England, and then I moved to the States. That sort of informed a lot of the decisions and a lot of the influences I’ve had as a musician.

I do a lot of composing for TV and film. Right now, I have a couple of songs out in films, and I’ve composed and sung on many things for the Style Network, NBC, ABC, and Oxygen. I have a background in jazz and blues as a singer, but I do do other styles. And I just love the idea of connecting to lyrics, and writing songs is very therapeutic to me because it gives me a chance to express what I’m thinking about and then to connect it to music. So it’s a very emotional process for me.

I have two albums out. One is called “Not Easy To Forget,” and the most recent one is called “The Other Side.” Both of them can be purchased on iTunes and Amazon.com. You can listen to the album on Pandora, and it’s also done very well on college radio.

When I first started in this business, I was a singer only and never even ever dreamed of writing songs. And now, most of my income is from being a composer and from singing on session work and stuff like that. I was all about the live performance, which I still feel very strongly about, but I do a lot of studio stuff, and that tends to be my bread and butter.

So I think be open minded. The more things you can do that are in your field and the more flexible you are, the more you’ll work. And at the end of the day, to make a living being a musician, that is something that I’m super happy about. I think that’s what it’s about. Are you happy? And if you are and you can make your living doing what you love, then that’s really what it’s all about.

My name’s Anya Singleton, and you can find me at AnyaSingleton.com.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and we’re going to talk about how to sing in a group. So when you’re singing in a group, there’s a lot of different groups that you can be singing in, and you have to change your singing maybe a little bit to determine what kind of group you are singing in. So let me give you an example.

Let’s say that you are in a choir, and there are several people that are singing the same voice part you are. So let’s say that the choir’s broken into soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and you’re an alto, and there’s three other altos, and you guys have all the same music to sing. So you’re going to want to do two things. You’re going to want to blend with the other altos so that you guys sound like one unit together, and then you’re going to want to also blend nicely with the rest of the group, even though you’re singing different notes.

So singing in a choir means that you’re working together with the other people in the group, and you guys are breathing at the same time, you’re using the same dynamics. You’re really working together as a team to make the piece of music become a realization.

Singing in a group, when you’re singing in a band setting, can be very different, because sometimes you have a lead singer, or you have two lead singers, and you have backup vocals. So sometimes there’s what we call give and take, where one singer will sing a line, and another singer will sing a line, and you’re also working with the dynamics of loud instruments, which is going to change how you are able to sing in a group.

So you want to think about what kind of singing am I doing, and what needs to happen. Do I need to sound like the other people in the group, or am I allowed to kind of step out, make it my own thing? And then are there moments where I have to blend with everyone else?

So a good example of that is . . . I’m going to use the Beatles as an example of . . . if you take any of their classic songs, a lot of times, one of . . . you know, Paul or John would trade off a verse, and then everybody would sing together. And even though they’re harmonizing, they’re making sure they’re all on the same page. But when it was their turn to shine, that was their turn to shine.

So while you’re singing in a group, you want to think about: Do I need to sound like everybody else? Do I need to . . . are there moments where I can step out from the group?

But basically, the most important thing about singing in a group is listening, because even if it’s you and you’re the main singer, you’re not going to get very far if you’re not listening to what else is happening onstage. So if you’re in a group, you have to listen to the other singers. You have to listen to the other musicians. And it really becomes about . . . the best people that sing in groups are people that are able to focus on what they are doing and also listen to everything around them.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about how to learn to sing better.

Obviously, I can’t tell you how to sing better because you’re a different person than me, but I can tell you how I learned to sing better. That was basically a combination of finding out what works best for me, in terms of both warm-ups and in terms of what stuff I sing well, and also in terms of confidence. I think what you have to find out is what do you do well and what don’t you do well? What you do there is you setup a situation where you have a win/win, where you know that you do a certain thing well and you feel good about it, and then there are things that are a practice run for you, that you feel it’s something to work on. There are some challenges and there’s things that you know that if you accomplish them, that’s another thing that you can add to your repertoire as a singer.

I think it’s okay to go outside the comfort zone sometimes. It’s important to do that so that you know, “I’m not really . . .” For myself, I’ll use myself as an example; I’m not a classically trained singer, but I actually do some classical exercises sometimes so that I can work on pitch, sustaining notes, and the background of singing. It’s important to do that, and that makes my actual singing, as the type of singing I am, better, because I’ve practiced it. I think that’s basically my tip for singing: Be yourself, know what you do well, and know what you have to work on, but don’t make yourself crazy about it. Set yourself realistic goals.

In terms of practicing, I feel like as a singer, that 30 minutes is a perfect number. That may be different for you; everyone’s different. For me, I feel like 30 minutes is 15 minutes of a really solid warm-up and 15 minutes of working on a song. I would rather do that a few times a day and come back to it than do one long stretch of 1 1/2 hours, because I think that’s physically exhausting and I think it also makes you mentally exhausted. I think pick realistic goals, so you walk away from it and you say, “I’m not super-frustrated, but I didn’t get this one section. I’ll try it again in an hour.”

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and we’re going to talk about how to sing a duet. So, when you’re singing a duet, you want to think about what are you singing about. I think that’s the most important thing. What’s the relationship with the person that you’re singing with? So what’s the song from? If it’s from a show, for example, what’s the relationship that you have to the person that you’re singing with?

So there’s two types of singing that I can think of, and the main thing is you’re singing at an equal level. So it’s a duet where you’re singing with each other. You know, you’re either communicating something to each other, or you’re harmonizing together, and it’s equally presented, meaning you’re the same volume, you’re trying to match each other, you’re breathing at the same time, and the goal of that kind of singing is to really blend well and make sure that you and the person that you’re singing with really sound like you’re like one and the same. You may be singing different notes, but you’re sounding like you’re blending well. And that’s a complimentary way of doing a duet.

And then there’s stuff where you’re the lead singer and somebody is doing back-up singing. And so if you’re a back-up singer in that context, you’re going to want to maybe pull back a little and let the lead vocal be a little louder. So there’s different ways to approach it. I think for most duets, you’re obviously singing with the other person. So I think it’s really down to blending and making sure that you guys match each other and that you’re on the same page, especially if the song is something that you’re singing to the other person.

And so you want to figure out what it means, and then you want to make sure you’re on the same page. And that’s really the key to singing a duet.

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Hi. My name is Anya Singleton. This is how to find your optimum pitch.

What does that mean, first of all? Optimum pitch really deals with where your voice lives. What is the most comfortable place for your voice to live pitch-wise? What I’m going to really discuss here is speaking into singing.

A lot of us tend to speak very differently than we would sing. What that does is puts a lot of wear and tear on your voice. Let’s say that you’re somebody who tends to be very . . . a lot of us tend to be very relaxed in our speech, especially as Americans. We do a lot of, “Yeah. Hey. How are you? What’s going on? Is everything cool?”

That’s not supportive, and it’s also employing very little range or dynamics; it’s very flat, it’s very low-key. Then you go and sing, and you’re going to sing a big belty song with all these great ranging notes. I think what you want to think about is, in your day-to-day, where should you really be talking? Think about it more as, “I should be talking where I sing.”

If you have a belty voice, then you want to think about talking with a little more dynamics in your speech; a little more range in your speech. That will free up your throat and your voice to be ready to sing more easily, rather than coming from one place and expecting to be able to expand to this huge place when you don’t use it every day. I think, think of talking as a warm-up to finding your optimum pitch.

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Hi, I’m Anya Singleton, and here are some tips on singing into a microphone. What you want to think about are two things. The main thing is: What style of music are you singing? If you’re singing and you have a gospel choir behind you, you’re going to need to employ a different technique than if it’s just you and a guitar player in a club. You want to think about that. How many people are in the room? How loud is the band behind you? There are a lot of things to think about.

But basically, the whole key to singing into a microphone is where you put it. A big mistake that a lot of singers make is they put the microphone right up to their mouth. What happens there is you tend to peak out the volume on a microphone, and you also lose a lot of the articulation in your lips. If it’s right against, it’s hard to understand what people are saying. A lot of feedback happens, as well as what we call “pops.” If you have words with P’s in it or B’s, it’ll sort of explode into the microphone.

You want to think about keeping it, you know, I’d say . . . I don’t know. I usually have it about this far away from my mouth. I think that’s maybe about five inches, four inches. You can bring it in when you’re doing a more quiet moment, and remember that you really want to pull it out when you have a bouncy moment because your volume is going to adjust, so you need to adjust along with the volume.

If you think about it as an analogy, I’ll think about guitar playing. If you’re playing a lick on a guitar and you’re doing a song and it’s extremely busy and it starts out very quiet, and then the band kicks in and maybe we can’t hear what you’re playing on the guitar, you’re going to probably turn up your volume a little. It’s the same idea. You want to think about, as you’re getting louder, you’re going to need to control how close you are to the microphone.

That’s sort of the best tip. I would say you want to always have it at a slight angle to your mouth, facing down. When you go into a recording studio, oftentimes the mic is above you, but it is still facing down towards your mouth. Underneath your chin, this way, the sound will fall. It’s going to go past it. It kind of falls flat. So you want to keep it at an angle. People can still see your face, but you want to make sure it’s at an angle so you’re getting the all-the-way-around coverage.

Also, if you’re going to travel with the mic, think about the fact that, if it’s a wireless mic, it’s still in your hand, so that you have it with you. Remember it’s there even if you have a moment where you’re not singing. I see a lot of singers put it down, and it sort of makes a noise. So you want to make sure it’s with you. If you have a cord, you can actually use the cord to your advantage.

It’s really about making sure that you control the volume. Move the mic away if you’re getting loud. Bring it in if it’s quiet, and also make sure that you’re keeping it not right up to your mouth. That way, people can understand what you’re saying, and you’re using it as a tool. Remember, it’s really supposed to just enhance what you’re doing. It’s not supposed to do everything for you. You’re still the singer. It’s just making it so that it’s enhanced.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and this is my friend and accompanist, Matt Gallagher. We’re going to be talking about how to sing using your chest voice.

Super-quickly, I just want to explain what a chest voice is. Using your chest voice means that you’re singing in a lower register. The tricky bit for most women is it’s very easy to make it breathy so that you can’t really hear what you’re singing about or it’s not supported well. The key to this is to really breathe and be connected. You never want to go up into what we call the falsetto or the real high parts of your voice; you want to keep it nice and low, and focused. It also means, when you talk about chest voice, that it’s a richer tone, so there’s warmth to it; it’s really nice to use on certain songs. We’re going to use it on a very basic song that everyone knows, ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was white as snow.

Again, no high, but a lot of nice support; there’s a warmth to it. We did that right in the midrange for most women, that’s a very comfortable place for most people to sing without having to make the switch into the higher part of your voice. That is how I would sing using your chest voice.

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was white as snow.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and this is my friend and accompanist, Matt Gallagher. We’re going to do a couple of vocal exercises to help you improve range.

The important thing, before we start, that you want to stress, is that if you’re doing a vocal exercise and it feels like you’re straining or your voice hurts, then that’s probably a good time for you to stop, take a breath, and come back to it later. It may not be the right range for you or maybe you’re not quite ready to go there yet. You never want to feel like you’re pushing or straining. Here we go. This is a simple vocal exercise to improve range.

The important thing about that, we basically spanned 2 octaves. We started on a low G and ended on a high G The important thing to note there is it’s very tempting to focus on the bottom note and the high note, and you are going to go there mentally because that’s what you’re thinking about, but it’s the middle notes that are the challenging bits. We all try to gloss over that and get through it as quickly as possible. I know I didn’t do it as perfectly, but that’s okay, because you’re making sure that you’re working through in order to get the high note and get the bottom note. That is how you would work on improving vocal range. Basically, making sure you’re listening, again, you’re in tune, you’re not pushing anything.

When you’re doing anything to increase range, it’s about the breathing. You really want to make sure, especially the higher you go, that you’re taking enough breath in and that you’re supporting. You’re breathing from your diaphragm, so no raising your . . . it’s very tempting to raise your shoulders and want to raise your chin, that’s what a lot of people do when they’re trying to hit a high note because you’re projecting up, but all that does is increase tension, both in your neck and your throat. You want to keep those open so that as you get higher, everything’s relaxed and it’s easier for you.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about how to release tension from your throat to prepare for singing.

When you’re a singer, throat tension is the most common enemy of singers. There’s just nothing to do. It gets worse when you’re nervous, and if you’re in a situation where you’re performing in front of people, it’s very hard to control it. A lot of this has to do with working on your breathing. If you’re able to tap into your breathing and you take away a lot of the tensions from the upper part of the body, then you’ll be able to release a lot of the tension in your throat.

A great exercise to release throat tension is a very simple thing that I like to do, it also helps warm up the vocal folds really nicely, and that’s just humming. You can just hum, and try different ranges of humming. The thing that’s nice about it is that it keeps it very low-key for you while also doing a lot of things for your voice.

The biggest thing to remember while you’re humming is that you need to keep your throat open even though your lips are gently touching. If I were to close my throat up, you would see a lot of tension here in my neck and throat. You can see there’s a lot of tension here and the sound gets driven right through your nose, which isn’t very useful as a singer. If I keep it nice and open and I think about it as just being very relaxed, it’s a nice open tone. I can do it in different pitches. You can even do different sirens. The more stuff you can do keeping that gentle hum, keeping the lips gently closed, keeping it nice and open, the less tension you’ll have, because you can’t make a connecting sound very well if you have a lot of tension in your throat. That’s a great tip to release throat tension.

Another one is to actually do a head roll. I like to do these before I do the humming. I drop down and I do a nice, loose roll, and I go all the way around. The key is to make sure you open your mouth and drop the jaw open as you roll back. If you keep the jaw closed, you bring a lot of tension into this part of the throat. You want to keep it nice and loose.

I think also, it’s a side thing, but I think drinking lukewarm or slightly warm beverages is great, too. If you think about it, it’s almost like putting a hot pack on muscles to warm them up. It helps loosen everything up. I think sometimes it’s a really good idea, especially in the wintertime.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about how to get a breathy tone.

When you think about a breathy tone, a lot of people envision Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’. There was a lot of, “Happy birthday to you.” The thing about that is that’s not a supported breathy tone; that’s not going to be something that you can really use to your advantage as a singer. It worked well for her, but I think in order to really use a breathy tone as a singer, you want to think about you’re still supporting with the breath so you can still get the notes out and they sound like you’re really executing them. You want to think about lying back a little bit.

For example, if I’m going to sing a note, and I’m just going to sing it straight . . . I’m just going to pick a note here; just a note. If I want to make it so that it’s breathier but still well-supported, all I’m going to do is I’m going to relax a little bit, open up the throat a little bit more. There’s more breath in it. You can still hear me and you can still tell what it is that I’m saying. I think it’s important when you’re going to use a breathy tone, to also think about why you’re using it. Do you need to use the breathy tone to convey the meaning of a song? Often when you’re using a breathy tone, it’s a choice, it’s a choice to do that, and it’s usually because of what you’re hoping to convey in the song.

If you’re going to use a breathy tone, think about when and where. Also, personally, I feel that if you use it too much, you lose the novelty of using a breathy tone. It’s a great thing to have in your toolbox to pull out, but you want to use it when it’s really going to shine. Think about for using a breathy tone, I think, think about when you want to use it, and make sure that you’re supporting it well so that you’re still audible and it’s still clear, even though you’re bringing in some breath.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. These are tips for singing on stage.

The most important thing to think about when you’re on stage has to do with, what’s your audience? What size is the audience? What kind of a venue are you in? If I’m in a small music club and I want to sing, and I have, let’s say, maybe 50 people sitting out in the audience, I want to reach everybody in the audience but I also want to think about the fact that the venue is smaller. That gives me a little more opportunity to project, but to make it more intimate, keep it controlled within myself. Chances are I won’t have a lot of room to move, so you want to think about every movement you make, what are you going to use it for?

If you are in a big space and you want to think about the fact that you have to get all the way to the back of the house, then what you want to think about is, how do I project without blowing my voice? You can easily do this by using breath control and posture. Basically, you think about the fact that you pick a point. Chances are there’ll be lights off in the distance; you pick a point, make sure you stay focused on that point, and then really direct your energy. This is what works for me; I really direct my energy there. If I’m in an intimate venue, then I can make eye contact with the people that are there because I can actually see their faces. If I’m in a really big venue, you can’t. How do you make them connect to you so they feel like they’re the only person in the room? I feel like a lot of that has to do with being able to project and understand what the material you’re singing about is.

If I was singing a song that was a very intimate ballad, and I was in a small space, then what I would do is I think I would still pick a point, because those are usually to one person, intimate ballads, and I would really address a lot of it there. If I was in a bigger house, I might be able to move and take in a couple of different points. The important thing is to keep your focus clear so people know that you’re talking to someone, and to also make sure that you’re projecting by really keeping the breath supported, controlled, the posture good.

Also, feel free to move. If you’re not in a tiny space and you have all this room, use it. Within reason, use it. I’m going to talk to you here and I’m going to feel free to walk over here. Make yourself comfortable. You want to always think about the fact that you’re almost in your own living room. That’s what I do. I think “I’m in my living room,” so I’m comfortable no matter what size the venue is. I think if you can do that, then when you sing, it’ll be a natural extension of just being in your living room. You’re not nervous, you’re connected, and people in the audience will be able to understand what you’re singing about. Because if you feel comfortable and believe in what you’re singing about, then they’ll believe in what you’re singing about. That’s the most important part about being on stage and singing; you want to be able to connect to the people in your audience.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about some voice techniques for women.

I think the most important thing before you even sing a note is to get your breathing in place, if you’re going to sing. The thing that people struggle with the most is running out of air and straining. If you’re straining, that means you’re not supporting yourself enough, and that’s a very common thing to do.

What I like to do before I even start is do a couple of breathing exercises to get us ready. I know we’re going to address that in another segment, so for right now, let me just give you some things to relax and loosen up a little bit. We’ll be doing a lot of singing a little bit later on.

I think the first thing to do is to get your body relaxed. Do some shoulder rolls. Let your head relax. Do some nice head rolls. The important thing when you’re doing a head roll is to make sure that your shoulder doesn’t travel with it. You want to keep this area nice and loose. Then another thing that I like to do is roll down the spine and roll back up, letting your head be the last thing to come up. What this does is it allows your entire rib cage to relax, and actually, also loosens up your shoulders and your back. When we hold a breath when we’re singing, the most common thing people do is that they pull up with their shoulders and they forget to breathe. This stops you from doing that.

A great thing to do too, is once you’ve got the breathing in place and you feel connected, you can add a hum, and then a siren to loosen up. You can roll down, making sure you’re not tensing up the throat. Then you’re going to roll back up. Perfect. That way, everything is loose, the throat is relaxed. You’ll hear the difference if I do it with a closed throat. You’ll hear . . . You can hear how strained that is and it’s tight. You want to keep it nice and loose. You want to think about even though your lips are closed, that there’s still space inside your mouth so that you can breathe easily. That’s a great way to start preparing for singing. It’s a great way before you even begin the voice techniques, lay down the foundation.

One other thing to think about, and this is mental thing to think about when you’re prepping to sing, and we all do this, it’s easy to put a lot of very high expectations on yourself. Let’s say that you want to learn a specific song and you like how the original person sang it, and you really want to sing like that. Remember, it’s really about pacing yourself, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I think, enjoy the singing .If you do that, you’ll relax a lot more and your singing will be better.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about how to sing alto.

If you’re an alto, the best way to think about it is that you have the lowest female voice. Basically what that means is that you have . . . you live . . . and this can be different depending on the individual. A lot of altos have comfortably a low F, all the way up to an E. That way, they have the whole bottom. A lot of these gorgeous, rich notes on the bottom, they are supported well, and it’s comfortable in their voice.

The thing that you want to think about if you’re truly an alto is that your quality of your voice will be richer. We use the term ‘chest voice’ a lot; it’s that terminology. You want to think about having a fuller, more open tone. The higher you get on the scale, the lighter the tone is. If you’re an alto, there’s a lot of warmth, there’s a lot of resonance. Not that you don’t have that on higher ends of the spectrum, but you will be able to really support a lot of those low notes in a way where they’re audible and they’re beautifully executed.

You’ll know if you’re not an alto if you’re singing along and you’re getting down to an A or a G and it’s becoming too low for you. I think most altos very comfortably can do an A, a G, or an F, and even sometimes lower. Alto singing is a great. I’m thinking of a classic alto singer like Mama Cass from the Mamas and Papas; an old example. Most pop singers today are not altos. She had a really warm, rich voice and was able to really support those bottom notes.

How to sing like an alto is to think about how to really open up the bottom, keep a warm, open tone at the bottom, and think about really supporting and making everything resonate in the lower parts of your voice. Not so much about that you can’t hit the higher notes, because a lot of altos have those notes, but they can really sing the low notes, and a lot of women can’t do that.

If you’re an alto and you want to work on singing like an alto, then you really want to work on focusing on strengthening the bottom notes. Again, supporting your breath is going to be key here.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about how to sing open tones. That means something different depending on what kind of singer you are. Are you an opera singer or you a jazz singer? Basically, what I mean by open tones is being able to keep the throat open so that the tone is pure and it is not fettered by strain or anything like that.

A nice simple exercise for that, we talked about humming and sirens earlier. Those are great because you’re running through the gamut with your voice and relaxing it. I like to do an exercise where I smile it up real big and fake, and you want to keep the cheek bones up really, really high, and then you want to breath in on a K. What that does is that it opens up, it pushes the soft pallet away from the base of the tongue and it opens up the throat. When you do it, you should feel some cool air come in. If you do it correctly, then that will open up the whole throat. If I do that and then approach singing . . . nice and open, no strain through the neck, no strain through the chin. We tend to hold a lot of tension in the jawbone, none of that. We should even be able to do it as we get higher if we’re keeping it nice and open, doing that, I call it a K-stretch. Nice and open, relaxed, even though that’s higher, no strain.

That’s a great exercise to do. It looks a little crazy, but I feel it really works because it forces everything to open up with you thinking so hard about hitting a note. Especially as we get higher, a lot of vocal exercises we do are geared to keep going up and up the scale. Like most of us, you’re going to think, “Oh, my God. I’m getting higher and higher. I’m not going to get to the top of this,” but you will. If you feel like you’re not, stop, do some of those stretches. Open up the throat and you’ll find that getting an open tone is easier.

I think another tip is to think about using open vowel sounds, like an, ‘ah’ or an ‘ooh’. Try to avoid maybe E, that closes the sound in close to the teeth. Those are great, I happen to love E, but I think if you’re looking for open tones, especially if you have a ballad with a lot of long and sustained notes, then that’s the best way to do it. Focus on opening up the throat, being able to sustain the note, and take your time with it.

I think another thing to do, a lot of vocal exercises we do are fast because you want to make sure that you’re in the pitch and you’re moving up the scale. Do it slow, take your time, do half an octave, stop. Do another half, start up here, come down here, move around; just get comfortable with it. Then pretty soon, you’ll be able to do an open tone no matter where you are in your personal scale.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. We’re going to talk about pitch control tips.

The biggest thing about pitch control is breath. If you’re not supported well with the breath, then the pitch will not be sustained. I think that a really easy thing for you to do is to just go to the piano and just pick a note. I’m just picking Middle-C at random, here. I’m just going to work within jumping around from C to C, in octave. What we’re going to do is we’re just going to pick notes. I’m going to home in and just see if I can match the pitch. Then when you get more comfortable, you can make the leap yourself, and then hit the note to see if you’ve actually matched it, so that you are really training your ear to control pitch.

Here’s an example. I’m just going to pick a Middle-C. Then if I go a 1/3 above. I can remember what those notes were. Middle-C and the E above it. I’m really making sure that I’m tuned into those notes. Once you feel more comfortable, then you can do exercises where you jump around, and you muscle memory to remember what it is.

I think, start simply; really make sure you’re in that note. Another good thing to do is you can jump octaves, so that way, you’re really working. I’m going to start a little lower for this one, on an A. Then we can move up. I’m moving up, but I’m jumping octaves. Octaves are tough because you’ve got all of those notes in between, and this way you’re really supporting yourself. I have to sing differently here than I do here. I’m going to have to use more breath the higher up I go.

Just thinking about how you’re using your breath. Keep yourself in a comfortable range for yourself when you’re doing pitch. If you’re singing outside a range, it’s too high/too low, then it’s going to be very difficult to control the pitch.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and this is my accompanist and friend, Matt Gallagher. We’re going to talk about how to warm up your voice. We’re going to do scales; we’re going to try a little bit of humming first on a scale, just to get everything flowing. Then we’re going to expand to some open vowel sounds. We’ll start first with the humming.

The important thing that you want to do, what we’re doing here is we’re going up, what we call a half step, each time. That just enables you to tune in, get the pitch together, make sure that you’re hitting the notes as you’re warming up. Humming is great because it keeps everything warm without stressing the vocal folds. Now we’re going to try it on a little bit of an open vowel sound, which opens up the throat and gets you ready for singing.

You would keep going up the scale. Then if you’re comfortable and you want to warm the lower part of the register, you would come back down. That’s an example of how to warm up your voice while using practice scales, both on humming and also on an open vowel sound.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. This is how you find your vocal range.

That’s a tricky question, because I think a lot of times when you’re first starting out as a singer, let’s say you do something well and people see that you do that well, and they pigeon hole you in that box. I’ll use myself as an example. When I first started singing, because I had a lot of low notes and I can these low Fs and these low Gs, I was told I was an alto; but I’m actually not. As I got older, gone into more projects, started working as a session singer, and writing my own material, I learned; no, actually, I have a whole upper range that I never used.

I think what you have to do is always work on expanding yourselves. You’ve told you are a base baritone, which most guys are. Then you realize when you’re singing along with the radio or you really have an artist you like that has an upper range, that you can hit those notes. I think what you want to do is practice what kind of songs . . . pick songs you like, and practice working on those songs. If you’re really feeling like, “Wow. I used to only hit these low notes, but I really feel comfortable here in the middle.” Maybe your range is different than what you thought it was.

I think, always push yourself, expand yourself, try different things. A lot of not knowing what your range is, I think, has to do with fear. ‘I can’t hit those high notes, I’m not going to be able to do it,’ and you might surprise yourself. Really I think, warm up, again, don’t let yourself get frustrated about it. If you can’t do it right now, it doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to do it, it just means, maybe you need to grow into it.

The 4 major ranges we usually talk about are bass for guys. Bass is a low voice, tenor is the higher voice. For women, alto is the low voice, soprano is the higher voice. Within those there are echelons; you have a deep base voice, then you’d have a base baritone which is the higher range, etc. For women, you have a soprano, a high soprano and a soprano 2, they’re often called; the lower range of the soprano. It’s not only about the range you have note-wise, but how your voice sounds. Is it very light and flute-like? You’re a different soprano than if it’s a little heavier and weightier.

There’s a few different ways to figure it out, but basically at the end of the day, finding your vocal range has to do a lot with, where do you feel comfortable singing? That is where you want to start. Can you work past that? Sure. Start there and that will be the easiest way to find out your vocal range.

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Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and this is my friend and accompanist Matt Gallagher. We’re going to talk about R&B singing techniques.

You can’t really, in a short segment, really talk about the whole scope of R&B singing techniques, but what we can do is we can give you an idea of how to approach it. The biggest thing that defines R&B singing is it’s behind the beat. When we talk about singing, oftentimes, when you’re singing a song like ‘Goodnight, My Someone’, for example, you would sing it right on the beat. You want to lay back a little in R&B singing; you take more time. With the phrasing, you can use more room to breathe and improvise a little. We’re going to do an example, just on humming, just of how you would approach singing an R&B song.

You want to sit a little behind the beat; you want to give it space. As Matt was playing, for example, I didn’t come right in at the beginning. I also used the areas where he took a break to come in and fill in a little. You don’t have to feel married to one note; you can improvise a little bit. It’s really about letting the music breathe. I think that’s the key to R&B singing.

Every R&B singer has a very different approach. If you have a gospel background, it’s going to be a little bit different than if you have a pop/rock background. If you’re a higher voice, if you look at something like Beyonce, she has a higher voice, so her approach is to sing everything in a very high range because she can do it, and she syncopates everything. She’s right on top of the . . . behind the beat, but still, it’s very pulsing. It’s a little bit of a different style than if you were gospel and you were laying into the beat. There’s different styles, depending on what kind of an R&B singer you are.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Anya Singleton, and we’re going to talk about how to pick the right song for your voice. So, first of all I think you have to ask yourself, what kind of voice do you really have? Some people are great at certain singing styles. Some people have a really great bottom range. What do you do well? Really know what your strengths are, and that is going to help you pick the right song for you.

For example, if you use any number of really famous musical theater people, let me use Liza Minnelli as an example, she’s not really a great, great singer in terms of technique, but she’s an incredible actress and she picks songs that are what she does well. She dramatizes a song, she connects to the songs, and she’s able to draw the audience in that way.

If you’re a person who has an incredible high rock belt voice, then you want to showcase that. What it really boils down to is: What are you hoping to accomplish with the song? If you go and audition for something, for example, choose something that you do well. Even if it’s something that it not exactly what they’re looking for, if it’s what showcases your voice best, then that’s what you should choose.

I think picking the right audition piece or the right song for you there’s a lot of factors at play, but basically you want to make sure you feel good doing it, you sound good doing it, and you really feel like it really showcases you in your best light, and that is the only thing about picking the right song for you. I think that’s the most important thing, because if those things are in play, then everything else will fall into place.

Transcript

When you’re talking about breathing in singing, the most important thing to do is to remember to breathe. It’s very easy in the middle of a song, especially if you’re emotionally invested in the song, to forget to breathe, then you get to the big high note and you have nothing left.

Some great exercises to make sure that you’re connected to the breathing is to, I like to do one where we’re actually lying down. What lying down does is it stops you from worrying about supporting your skeleton. We all have a lot of habits that are bad habits that we’ve cultivated over a lifetime of walking around. Whether you’re a person like myself who tends to carry a lot of shoulder tension or you’re a person who tends to put a lot of weight on the front of the feet, you want to think about posture; bringing it back, keeping it relaxed, keeping the chin down further than you would normally keep it.

A lot of us do this; this creates a lot of tension in the throat. If you have yourself standing straight, relaxed, the head is in a neutral position, you’re ready to start the breathing. Then a simple exercise you can start out with is lying flat on your back on the ground, let everything fall away. When you’re lying on the ground, you’ll feel all of the pockets of tension you have. You want to let all of that go. Then you just want to put your hands on your lower abdomen and take some great, deep breaths. I want you to pay attention and notice, and make sure that the top of your chest isn’t moving, too. It should all be coming from down here. If you take a breath in and this happens, then what you’ve done is you’ve taken a shallow breath; not great for singing, increases the tension in your throat, and you won’t have enough to get through.

One big, good breath is worth a lot of little, tiny, shallow breaths. That’s the most important thing that you want to think about when you’re breathing during singing.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. I’m going to talk to you about voice practice basics.

I think the smartest thing to think about when you go to sing is to think about your posture, your breathing, and to think about what you want to accomplish for the day. I think the easiest thing to do is to take a look in a mirror, if you have a mirror in your bedroom, and really look at your posture. The best way to do that is to look sideways. If I’m looking at myself sideways, I’m going to make sure I’m not doing this or doing this. The most common thing that we tend to do as people is to put the weight on the ball of the feet or on the front of the feet, so we either lean back or lean forward. What this does is it throws off your spine. You have to think of it as if you have your spine as a straight line, and if you were to make a little crimp in that and break the flow, then the air gets stuck.

An analogy I like to use is you’re in an elevator, and you think of your mouth as the top floor, and you think of your diaphragm as where you get on the elevator; if you were to crunch it or bring it forward, the air supply would be cut off in the middle. It would be like never being able to get to the top floor. Everybody wants to get to the penthouse, right? You want to think about keeping that nice and locked in.

Once you have your posture together, I think the nice thing to do for yourself is to just let yourself breathe, relax, get ready, and then to do some of the favorite warm-ups that you have. It’s important to note that everyone’s voice is different, and warm-ups are very individualized. I can give you a couple of examples of warm-ups that would work for me, but may not work for you, because you may have a different voice. You’ll get to the point where you have 3 or 4 warm-ups that really work for you, that you know you feel good about; they do the trick. I think the next thing is to really figure out what is the best warm-up for you, and use that when you’re prepping. I think the more you feel good about what you’re about to do and the more connected you are to who you are and to the breath, the better the singing’s going to be for you.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and we’re going to talk about how to connect with your lyrics. This seems like a basic thing, but, actually, a lot of singers kind of miss this step when they’re putting a song together. It’s really easy to think about what to do as a singer, in terms of technique. “All right, this song has this range. There’s these high notes. I want to make sure that I hit these notes, and that they’re beautiful and they’re supported well.” And those things are important, but your song doesn’t matter really so much, I feel, unless you know what the song is about.

So I think the best way to connect to lyrics is to kind of put the singing stuff aside for a second and look at it as a monologue. Take the song, sort of write it out, look at what the words are and pick out keywords that are there. What jumps out at you? What do you feel when you say those words? Okay. How do you feel connected to those words? Because the reality is, if you’re not connected to the song you’re singing, then your audience isn’t connected either. So being a great singer is a lot more than, I think, just singing well. I think it has to do with: How are you conveying the meaning of the song?

So I would take it apart, really look at it as a monologue or as a poem, if that’s easier for you, and then put it back together with the music. Are there certain parts of the song that stand out more to you? You’ll find often that the way a song is written, the lyrics go along with what’s happening in the song.

Let’s say you have a song that is very low key at the beginning, and then it ramps up and there’s this very sort of . . . the tempo changes, and it speeds up, and it gets dynamically much louder. Chances are that’s the climax of the song. That’s where the biggest emotional realization is happening. It’s hand in hand. Just being a great singer is not enough. Thinking about what the song means and being a great singer will be a home run every time.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Anya Singleton. I want to talk about how to take care of your voice; some basic things to do.

The main thing is you should think about how much you’re using your voice. Think about strain; it’s really easy for us to strain our voice. If we go to a party, for example, and it’s loud and the music’s loud, it’s really easy to scream over music. You want to think about in your daily life, how you’re using your voice. That seems like a basic piece of advice, but I’ve learned the hard way that you want to think about every day how you’re using your voice, so that when you go to sing, it’s not a completely new world. Talking and singing are related, so you want to make sure that you’re not blowing your voice out when you’re on your daily life, because you need to use it for singing.

Another thing to think about is that the vocal folds are a muscle. If you think about it, you wouldn’t take . . . if you were going to go for a huge run; you wouldn’t just run outside and start running a marathon. You would actually warm up, you would take the time to stretch, and it’s the same thing with taking care of your voice. Take the time to practice, take the time to warm up; those things are key. It doesn’t have to be long, but it has to be something so that your voice is ready to go and it’s not a shock to the vocal folds.

Other basics are things like trying not to drink an ice-cold drink before you sing. Some people are fine with that; I find that to be jarring. It’s the same thing, I feel, as the analogy that I used earlier of having very cold muscles, and then expecting them to perform at top flight. You really want to make sure everything is warmed up and ready to go.

The last thing is, when you’re taking care of your voice, you want to think about what it is that you want your voice to do. If you’re in an emo/screamo band and you need to scream at the top of your lungs because that’s the kind of music you do, that’s fine, but you’re going to have to come up with a regime that takes care of your voice in a different way than if you’re an opera singer. Customize what’s the best way for you to take care of your voice so that you can use it in a way that it’s going to be available for you, you’ll be able to sustain it, and you’ll still have it even as you get older and things change.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Anya Singleton, and this is my friend and accompanist, Matt Gallagher. We’re going to do a couple of exercises to show you how to sing in tune.

When you talk about how to sing in tune, what does that mean? It basically means making sure that you’re singing what we call ‘within the pitch’ of what you’re singing about. You want to make sure that the note that you’re singing is the correct note so that you can sing the song without sounding like you’re not singing the song correctly. Here we go. We’re going to start on a very simple, what we call ‘half-step exercise’. We’re just going to be going from the first to the second interval.

Good. Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to do something a little more challenging. We’re going to break it out into the chord, and we’re going to do 1, 3, 5, and then back down to the first. That way you have to make the jump from the fifth to the first. It enables you to tune in and listen. Here we go.

That way, by making that jump, I hung on that, what we call ‘fifth’ a little bit longer. That way, I would hold the note out and be able to come right down to the first without sliding into the note. Let me show you an example of sliding into the note, so you know what I mean. That’s where we slide off the pitch into the note. If you’re talking about working and being in tune, you don’t want to do that. You want to keep the note strong and come cleanly down to the note. Let me do a correct example.

Now we’re going to apply it to an actual song. This is a really easy song that you already know, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’; everybody knows it. We’ll just do it very simply, making sure that we’re in tune. What I’m going to do is I’m going to try to take out vibrato. Vibrato is where your note quavers a little. I have a lot of it naturally, so I’m going to pull that out so you can really hear the note.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

That way, we’re really listening to the note without having embellishments and changing it around.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

I’m Anya Singleton, and this is Matt Gallagher. That’s an example of how you would work on singing in tune.