When envisioning a singing career, one of the first steps that beginners take is to find out where to take voice lessons in Atlanta. Whether or not you’re looking for an in-person teacher or an online teacher, there are tons of options through Lessons in Your Home to get you started toward your singing goals, whatever they may be. Along with many expert teachers all across the country, we’re experts in understanding and predicting the mistakes that new singers taking voice lessons in Atlanta make. Every new singer is going to make mistakes, whether when singing alone at home or performing in front of people. However, here are the top 3 mistakes that new singers make that can easily be avoided.
1. Not Practicing Correctly
The mistake of not practicing correctly can encompass a number of different problems. One issue new singers face is simply not working on their actual issues or forgetting what their Atlanta voice teacher told them about their issues. The way to improve your vocal performance is to recognize and isolate your vocal issues and work with your teacher to correct them.
Everyone has bad habits in need of breaking. Without isolating and working on vocal issues, you’ll continue repeating them. For example, if you struggle to achieve those high notes without falsetto, you should practice that every day. Try recording yourself every day, listening for improvement and sharing with your teacher.
The other problems with practicing that new singers often face are breathing incorrectly and not warming up properly. When you’re practicing at home by yourself, it can be easy to get away with these things when your teacher isn’t observing.
The correct way to breathe when singing is called Diaphragmatic Breathing. It’s easy to master in just a few steps:
- Keep the top half of your body completely still.
- Place your hand on your stomach and take a slow inhale through your mouth.
- With your hand still on your belly, allow your breath to expand your stomach.
- When you’re ready, breathe out and let your stomach relax.
Once you’ve mastered proper breathing, warming up and practicing should come a little easier.
2. Singing Too Loud/ Too Soft
In order to make the best use of the voice lessons in Atlanta that you’re taking, it’s crucial to understand what voice type you have. This will help you understand how high or low you can sing. This simple piece of information is vital to understanding what range you’re comfortable in.
Similar to singing in the appropriate range, new singers often make the mistake of singing too loudly or too softly. However, this is a mistake that can easily be avoided. In order to avoid the strain and fatigue that come with “belting” out high notes, practice the following: Pretend that you’re on stage in a small concert hall, and sing at the volume where you could reach the back row without yelling. This helps develop a strong and resonant voice without the downsides of belting.
For singers who tend to sing too softly, the good news is that this is also a mistake that can easily be avoided. When you’re singing too softly, oftentimes, your vocal cords are too thin. Try this exercise to help strengthen your vocal cords: Say the word “one” aloud at a comfortable volume. Then, find a comfortable starting pitch and say “one” on that pitch. Say the numbers one through five on pitch with an ascending 5-tone scale.
3. Incorrect Mouth Positioning
The last big mistake that beginning singers tend to make is to hold their mouths incorrectly. This mistake can either be holding your mouth too wide or holding your mouth too narrow. The good news is that this is an issue that is simple to fix.
If you are currently singing with your mouth too wide, follow these simple steps to help correct the issue:
- Flatten both hands with your fingers in a line together (like you’re going to shake someone’s hand, but your palm is flat and fingers are extended straight).
- Place your flattened hands on either side of your mouth. Your thumbs should be close to your jaw bone, and your pinkies should be touching the outside of your lips (like Kevin McCallister in that famous Home Alone scene!).
- With your hands on your face, sing the phrase without spreading your mouth past your hands.
If singing too narrow is your problem, you’re likely not able to get enough space to make high notes sound natural and relaxed. Work on dropping your jaw anytime you hear yourself sing a note that sounds too tense or squeezed.
To get professional training from a certified instructor and to register for voice lessons in Atlanta, contact Lessons in Your Home today. Our teachers come right to your home for every lesson, plus we offer virtual music lessons, too. Our online music lessons are taught by local music teachers with live lessons tailored to your child!
