From: Dr Colin D Reed
To: vocalist
Subject: RE: how do I sing louder?
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Gerry wrote:
>I am a keen amateur soloist aged forty and a consistant comment about my =
>singing is that it could be louder. My teacher thinks my voice is an =
>average size and so do I, but when I try to sing louder my voice tires =
>and I am not happy with the sound I am making. Another problem is that =
>I loose too much breath when singing loudly.=20


It sounds as if you're equating more breath with more volume. If you try to
push through too much breath you will just tire your cords. You should always
sing with a "warm, moist" breath. You can feel this by putting the back of
your hand in front of your mouth. As you increase the volume, this breath
should stay the same. There are many people on this list with a greater
pedagogical knowledge than me who can properly explain what happens when you
sing louder. What is more difficult is doing it from a practical point of
view. I have found that my own voice has increased in size and volume
tremendously over the past year, and I know when I'm singing well because it
sounds very resonant without any apparent effort. There have been specific
hurdles to do with my asthma that I have overcome in this time. They probably
wouldn't be as relevent to you as you probably don't have the same breathing
problems. I have found that the most important part of singing comes from
freedom of the breath, and I have recently started to discover the reflex
breath that my teacher often talks about. You can really fill your lungs
without trying, and the important thing is that it is silent. If you have
tension, or other breathing problems you will probably have a more audible
inhalation. The quieter and lower this inhalation, then the better placed you
are to start.

Having just read over this post, I realise it rambles a bit, because I didn't
really know what I was going to write before I started. I am going to try to
sort some of these ideas into a logical order sometime, and maybe put them on
my website. My teacher has said that he wants to do a website about this type
of thing, but finding the time may be difficult.

If you want anymore information, please contact me. I don't live that far
away from you either.

Regards

Colin

Colin Reed, Tenor
Newark, UK
Tel: +44 1636 706158
Mobile: +44 973 952447