Establishing Your Vocal Regimen At Home

Cari Cole

Practicing your vocal exercises at home on a regular basis makes the difference in how fast your voice improves. Singing is coordination between air and muscles. How well you coordinate the air and muscles of the voice, determines whether you are reaching your true ability as a singer or not. The only way to get there is to practice and to practice regularly.

A singer's regimen is best likened to the regimen of an athlete. Imagine an athlete who practices once a week, twice a week, three times a week? Then imagine an athlete who practices five to six days a week? Who is going to be the better athlete? I know it sounds simple and you agree with me, but I'm sure you will also agree that establishing a new discipline in one's life is not easy. Here are some tips to establishing and improving your vocal regimen.

Our voice studio is a bit unique from others in that we present a full system for building the voice as well as breathing, warm up and cool down. The voice building is the "nuts and bolts" of your training as it builds the breath, tone and range of the basic instrument in the first few years.

Here is a plan I encourage to my students that works beautifully when applied. Start your practice with three times a week for the first two weeks, then add a day for the next few weeks and in a month you are starting your five day a week regimen of voice building.

The Plan

Five days a week:
Vocalize, here's the order and outline of your practice: (approx. 1 hour & 15 min.)

1. Breathing exercises - 10 minutes

2. Stretching and self massage exercises - 5 minutes

3. Warm ups - lip trills and Mah's - 8 minutes

4. Master Vocal Exercises #1-38 - 50 minutes

OR
if you want to add a Fundamental Exercise of the week, then try this program:

1. Breathing exercises - 10 minutes

2. Stretching and self massage exercises - 5 minutes

3. Master Vocal Exercises #1-30 - 40 minutes

4. Fundamental exercise - 15 minutes

Here are a few examples of a shorter practice:

1. For one hour: go directly to the Master Vocal Exercises from the breathing exercise.

2. For 45 minutes: Breathing, stretching, Master Vocal Exercises #1-25

3. For 30 minutes: Breathing exercise followed by #1-20 of the Masters

The most important thing in practice, is "more days" versus "longer sessions". It is preferable to practice 5 days for 30 minutes than 3 days for one hour. Especially in the first two or three years of building your vocal instrument.