To have a powerful voice is not achieved by forcing your throat to get the sound out, neither does it come from shouting. A powerful voice is the result of a relaxed body and allowing the best sound to come out. Thus, voice projection does not need you to exert effort.
To help you achieve that, here are 3 exercises to help you experience that. This will build a solid foundation for you to work on your voice.
1. Sighing
I’ve talked about sighing in this video. Here you’ll get a brief overview.
Tension prevents you from projecting a powerful voice. Sighing helps you release the tension and relax your body.
Sighing also tells you how much effort you need in voice projection. When you sigh, you don’t exert effort. It’s the same for voice projection. When you exert effort, you waste unnecessary energy, while when you are relaxed, you renew your energy and get your body in the best state for a powerful voice.
Remember that when you sigh, it’s a joyful “sigh”, not a depressed “sigh”. Sigh more often and sigh before you practise any other voice training exercises to prepare your body for an effortless voice projection.
2. Humming
It doesn’t matter whether you can sing. We all can hum. You’ve probably done that when you are doing chores, like cooking or washing dishes, except that you hate washing dishes.
Humming helps you warm up your muscles and voice, therefore the best time to hum is in the morning. Of course you can hum whenever you can.
Humming can also help you generate resonance as it opens the voice projection channel and make the vibrations in the body richer.
Humming also lifts up your mood. Studies show that humming can reduce stress and make you feel more calm. Interesting huh. The major reason is that humming will increase oxygen in your blood and make you feel relaxed. So, are you still worried about not being able to sing?
3. Lip Fluttering
See the demonstration in this video.
Lip fluttering is an exercise that can help you relax your facial muscles and warm up your voice. It also implies the key points in voice projection, that is, to be relaxed, no exerting effort and releasing your breath. It is indeed a simple yet powerful exercise.
If you have difficulty making your lips flutter, watch the video to find the solution.
