Building a Practice Routine

Building a practice routine is one of the greatest things you can do for your singing. If this is new to you, it can seem super intimidating. Where do I even start? What do I do? How do I know if it’s right? How long do I need to practice? These thoughts are all totally normal and I’m here to help!

First things first: scheduling your plan. A great goal to start with is 20 minutes 2x/week. I know that can sound tiny but it is so much better than trying to promise ourselves we’re going to practice for more and then never get to it. Our brains can focus really well on new tasks for about 20 minutes, then they need a distraction. If you are going to go over 20 minutes, give yourself a 5 minute water break before jumping back in. So, pick your two days and put your 20 minutes in the calendar.

Next, we need to figure out what to work on. Practicing is more about intention than it is about repetition. Take a minute before you start to think about what you want to work on. Check out the options below and jump in! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Singing Practice

• technical

  • tongue/jaw isolation (ie. “yayayayayaya” without moving jaw)

  • tongue/larynx isolation (ie. relaxed “hamburger” tongue sticking out of mouth while humming melody)

  • singing with consistent airflow (ie. hum or lip trill and focus on how smooth you can make the breath)

• song learning

  • Sing with the original recording and pay attention to parts you don’t feel you know well, then go back and sing those parts in isolation from the full song.

  • memorize it, working backwards: Start the song on the last section, sing through looking at the words, then try it without looking. Repeat until you have the full section memorized. Then, start on the section before that, singing and looking at the words for that section, then continue to the newly memorized bit and see if it is still memorized. Continue to repeat and re-memorize until you are ready to add in the next previous section, and so on.

  • Practice with a karaoke track and make sure all parts feel secure. If a section is not secure, go back to the original and practice it in context before trying to sing with accompaniment alone.

Listening

• Spend some time on Spotify, youtube, etc listening with a particular focus (ie. tongue tension, jaw tension, consistent air movement, tone color, tightness, brightness, specific qualities you like or dislike) and write down notes on anything that you notice. It will feel really simple and obvious at first, but will quickly get more comfortable and your brain will start to notice tons of specific details as you get more experience.

• Listen to a bunch of different singers sing the same song. Make a list of things you like/dislike/notice in comparison/contrast.

Dramatic

• journal as your character

• Think about where your character is when they sing. Where did they just come from? Is someone else there? Where are they going next?

• Read your text like a monologue or poem

• Write your emotion arc above pivotal moments

• Write text in your own words.

Diction & Translation

• word for word translation

• idiomatic translation

• third line translation (your words)

• practice repeating after a native speaker