Five Tips for Better Vocal Practice

by Pamela B. Gaston
Professor of voice at the University of Memphis, Tennessee
pgaston@memphis.edu

From Teaching Music, December 2003. Copyright (c) 2003 by MENC: The National Association for Music Education. Reprinted with permission.

Regular practice is essential for improvement in most activities involving muscle memory. Athletes, dancers, and musicians must commit to daily practice sessions, but with tight schedules and big demands to show improvement, they need to use practice time effectively. A few musicians overdo practice: Russian pianist Alexander Scriabin strained his right hand practicing Liszt’s Don Juan fantasy, and the German composer Robert Schumann devoted seven hours a day to rehearsing, eventually injuring his middle finger.
Most singers, however, never cross the line into obsessive rehearsal habits. Singers are more likely to make practice a hit-or-miss endeavor, with little concentration going into the time given to prepare for performances.

Although the bulk of your work may be with larger groups of singers, every vocal teacher works with individuals at some point. The contestant who’s working on a piece for a festival, a child with a vocal problem, or a private student—any of these may require help in practicing effectively. When they practice on their own, most vocal students begin with the first piece of music they see, start at the first note, and sing to the last note with as little disruption as possible. However, there is a more effective way to master music. Teach your students how to decide what they want to accomplish, break music into components, and create productive routines to achieve their goals.

Have your singers consider these five elements when practicing any music:

1. Warm up the whole body, not just the voice.

2. Practice with a purpose.

3. Don’t waste time on what students already know.

4. Stay organized.

5. Form habits by doing things in order.

1. Warm up the whole body, not just the voice.

This is essential to make sure all technical aspects of singing are working. Singers depend on breathing for good phrasing and tone. Stretching muscles and getting the feel of the flow of the breath can help practice the repetition of correct technique instead of mistakes. The warm-up routine should be fixed in the student’s mind so habit consistently controls technique. Muscles have memory, and once a correct position or response is learned, it becomes easier to duplicate a good sound.

You can assign additional exercises to address a student’s specific vocal problems or challenges in the repertoire being worked on. A number of exercise or vocalise books have a specific purpose for each exercise. Singers should start with warm-ups in the middle of the voice and in a limited range. A five-tone ascending and descending pattern is a good example of a beginning warm-up. Sometimes a single-note exercise can be used as well. As the voice becomes accustomed to singing, students can move on to more involved exercises incorporating arpeggios and wider scale patterns. They should start practicing at a mezzo forte dynamic level, and later progress to singing softly. Most singers become too tense when singing at soft levels, and this dynamic level is best saved for after the voice is fully warmed up.

2. Practice with a purpose.

Each practice session should have a goal. One day, a student can work on breath control, the next day, on articulation or language. Everything doesn’t have to be perfected at once. Some things can wait until the next practice session so students don’t feel pressured to work on too many different facets of singing at the same time.

Some students may find it helpful to keep a practice log. I suggest that students also record in this log how well they accomplish each goal they are working on that day. This goal may be set by the student, or by the student and teacher in consultation. Some days, a certain skill level is attained 100 percent; other days, it may be only 25 percent mastered. Areas where the singer consistently falls short of the goal may need to be reexamined and broken into components for practice. A passage may need to be practiced without words. A difficult rhythm may need to be clapped and then the text recited in rhythm. Sometimes a small portion of the music can be assigned for mastery.

Practice Hints for Your Students

• Practice daily whether you feel like it or not.
• Relax and warm up before practicing.
• Focus on the goals you want to accomplish.
• Have a pattern of practice that helps you use time efficiently.
• Don’t waste time on what you already know.
• Try learning difficult passages backward, starting with the last note, then the last two, then the last three, etc.
• Take occasional “shakeout” breaks so you don’t become too tired.
• Stay organized and focused.
• Enjoy your progress!

3. Don’t waste time on what students already know.

Have students go immediately to the section of a piece where the demands are greatest. Cadenzas, runs, and chromatic work often improve dramatically with slow practice. I suggest learning difficult passages backward; that is, have your student start with the last note of the phrase and sing it several times with a good, full tone. Then, the last two notes several times, then the last three notes, and so on. After reaching the first note of the passage, the student finds that the phrase becomes easier as he or she progresses through it, since the later notes have had more practice than the earlier and are more familiar. Often, the difficult phrase is memorized by the end of this drill.

Before practicing solo sections of a larger work (an oratorio or opera, for instance), mark entrances in the score. Find the first entrance, and, at the end of that section, write down the page or measure number of the next entrance on the score. Skip to that place and repeat this process. Singers will then be able to quickly flip through the score and practice all the music they are responsible for without wasting time hunting for it. Of course, the student should eventually become familiar with the entire score.

4. Stay organized.

When finishing up a practice, have students file music back in order. Suggest they keep a folder or small case for their technique books and related tools like pencils. Too much time is wasted trying to locate lost or misplaced items. A small metronome is a valuable tool for singers and can fit into a small case easily. Also useful are a dictionary of music terms and foreign language dictionaries in pocket-size editions.

5. Form habits by doing things in order.

Everything is smoother and takes less time when a student knows what to expect. Have your students practice a set amount of time each week, no matter what. Many will present excuses, but resist the urge to skip practice “just this once.” One day turns into two days and then a week of missed practice. Suggest to students that they don’t have to feel inspired to work on music—they just need to do it anyway. Let students know they are craftspeople who need to put in a certain amount of work whether they feel like it or not.

The best musicians not only have the gift, but they apply themselves to their art regularly and form good habits that serve them for a lifetime. The discipline it takes for productive practice is good training for other tasks in life and will pay off in many ways in the future.