I was sent this by a reader of the blog (thanks Deborah) who wanted to know what I thought of these vocal training techniques – I thought they sounded pretty good, but after trying them out myself – I warn you they can get pretty tiring – and Deborah says that she is expected to do these several times a day by her vocal coach. But they do work, and her voice has improved just in doing these exercises over the last 2 months.
Exercise #1:
Smile hard, squeezing your facial muscles, then push the air through your mouth, saying “UH”. Your lips should form a circle while you’re pushing the air out. You go back and forth, training your muscles to contract from one end of the spectrum to the other one. When you make that UH sound, push the air out with the diaphragm, right under the ribcage, contracting your abs. When you’re taking the air in smiling hard, expand your belly and breathe with this same muscle.
Exercise #2:
Same as #1, but now when you push the air out with the UH sound, you’re going to throw your tongue out. Your lips should form again a circle and your tongue should be in the middle of it. Squeeze the muscle of the tongue hard, throwing it out as far as possible. Always remember to use your diaphragm to push the air out, and to consciously contract the muscles of your mouth and face.
Doing them sporadically throughout the day, you will notice that your voice will become clearer and your resistance will be improved. As you progress, do more sets and reps.
I found that doing these exercise made my voice sound more resonating, and a bit deeper too – I am sure if I did them for a longer time they may actually improve my voice a lot.
Do you do any vocal training exercises? If you do – let us know in the comments below and we can post some of them here.
