The new year often brings resolutions for our health, social lives, professional lives, and many other areas. Here at AVS, we’d like to share some new years resolutions that our vocal coaches made! Click below to read our Ten New Years Resolutions for Singers!
1. Drink More Water
Did you know that it can take up to an hour for water make it all the way to your vocal folds? If there’s only one resolution you take away from this list, let it be this one. In addition to helping your voice stay flexible, durable, and reliable, drinking a healthy amount of water has numerous health benefits.
2. Taking note of Vocal Health
Vocal hygiene isn’t one-size-fits-all. One of the best ways to care for your voice is simply to pay attention. Are you feeling dry and in need of more water? Do certain foods irritate your voice? Are you raising your voice unnecessarily throughout the day?
Small observations like these can make a big difference in long-term vocal health.
3. Create a Sustainable Practice Routine
As with all forms of craft, regular study and practice yields the best results. The more frequent, the better. However, life an get busy, and we understandably can’t devote every waking second to our vocal abilities. The balance to strike is to find a practice routine that you can keep up with. if that’s every day, wonderful! if its once a week, also wonderful. As long as you can stick to it, you’ll notice your abilities improving. Ask your teachers for suggestions or check out our youtube channel for self-guided routines.
4. Listen to a Wider Variety of Singers
We can all be found guilty of finding our musical niche and sticking to it, but that may be holding our singing back. Its important expose yourself to new styles of singing, as you may discover a new way to sing an old favourite, or a new technique that helps you hit that one note you haven’t quite been able to hit.
5. Try Your Hand at Songwriting
You may be thinking, “How will songwriting help my vocal abilities?” To answer your question, songwriting can help us find our unique vocal style! As singers, we often (both consciously and unconsciously) imitate the original singer’s voice when we sing covers. While you don’t have to perform or record them, writing your own songs could help you put your unique twist on your favourites! Our instructors are always happy to help get you started or brainstorm ideas.
6. Go to More Live Performances
From DIY shows in Allston, to Opera at the BSO, watching others perform can help us learn what makes a good or bad performance and allow us to learn from other performers mistakes and successes. Its also an essential aspect of being part of a music community. If you do’t go to see other people perform, why should they come and see you perform? Our studios are steps away from some of the most famous venues in Boston. It’s easy to catch a show right after your lesson. Make it a musical night!
7. Sing with Other People
Music is an inherently shared activity. Why limit yourself by staying solo? By singing with others, you’ll learn so much about collaboration, teamwork, and many other aspects of music and singing that would be impossible on your own. You can join us in one of our Piano For the Vocalist group classes if you are looking for your own musical community!
8. Learn an Instrument
Learning an instrument allows us vocalists to bring not only accompany ourselves, but opens up a whole new way of understanding music. When you play an instrument, you end up learning more about rhythm and harmony, not just melody. If you’re interested in learning more about piano, click here to sign up for our next Piano for the Vocalist lesson on January 11th.
9. Delve into Music Theory
While music theory can feel like scary subject to tackle, it definitely does’t have to be. Understanding music theory can unlock a whole new way of perceiving and processing music! There are countless resources out there to get you started on your music theory journey! View our Sing Theory videos for some ways to get started.
1o. Remember to Find Joy in Singing
With all the effort we put into developing our voice, we can often lose sight of the reason we started this journey: We love to sing! whether its singing a song without worrying about technique, singing some harmonies with some friends, our just humming to ourselves, try to find ways to keep your love of singing fresh! At Arabella’s Voice Studio, we’re firm believers that singing is for everyone. Here, we don’t just help you “find” your voice – we celebrate the one that’s already within you. When you find your voice, you find confidence, and when you find confidence, you can sing with more joy than ever before!