How to kick-start your singing

If you find yourself reading this you’re probably someone who loves to sing, but maybe it’s been a while since you sang regularly OR you’ve never had any kind of lessons/instruction before and perhaps you’re looking for some new information about how to explore your voice. I’d love to help to set you up with some tips and tools to kick-start your vocal journey afresh!

Raise your hand if singing is one of your favorite things to do (🙋🏼‍♀️ me raising my hand). It can help me express myself, get through a hard day, find a way to connect with others, and just find more joy in life. But sometimes there are factors that can get in the way of us connecting more fully with our voices. Maybe we’ve gotten into a mindset that doesn’t encourage us a lot around our voice. Perhaps the environment that we’re in doesn’t allow us to sing the way we would like to. And sometimes our voice and the rest of our body feels somewhat out of sync. Let’s look at three ways that you can set your singing up for a win.

1. Inspiration

Half of the time we open our mouths to sing, it’s because we’re simply in the mood to do it! Singing at it’s best feels really good, and it is, in fact, really good for us. There are studies that show that singing can relieve stress by lowering the amount of cortisol in our bodies, help us fight off infection by boosting our immune system, improve our lung function, and even increase our pain threshold through the release of endorphins. It’s no wonder we enjoy singing so much!

But let’s be real, even for all of it’s benefits (both scientific and soulful), most of us don’t get to go around singing every day. We might sneak in a song in the shower or on our drive to work, but sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be time. So how do we get ourselves motivated to tap back into this thing that is so good for us? I think it’s time to start with a little inspiration.

Inspiration is defined as :the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. So how can we mentally stimulate ourselves to sing? Well, let’s brainstorm—what kind of music do you like to listen to? Are there any particular singers who you love to listen to the most? And better yet, are there any singers/bands/etc that have you singing along almost every single time? When is the last time you allowed yourself to sing one of your favorite songs all the way through without stopping? Are there negative thoughts that you have about your voice? What would it look like to name those thoughts and trade them for some positive ones? I find that it can help me to write down these questions and check in with myself every now and then if I’m finding my motivation lacking. Don’t just wait for that inspiration to fall when you can create it yourself!

So we’ve taken some time to get inspired…what comes next? What happens when we’re filled up with all this singing inspiration and we don’t have a place that feels good to sing? Let’s talk “location”.

2. Location

What makes a good location for singing? Well that all depends—on the kind of singing you want to do, what you hope to get out of that location, and what your comfort level is with hearing your voice at different volumes. If you’re just starting out and you’re nervous about other people hearing you sing, then it’s probably going to be important that you find a time/space where you feel you are safe to relax into your singing voice without fear of others being around to hear you. If you aren’t able to avoid being around others (a la an apartment or household where sound travels easily), then you may want to look into some simple sound proofing options to help dampen the sound in the room.  What’s most important is that you have a planned time/ space that you can go to to practice your singing that encourages you to sing freely with as little anxiety as possible.

So we’ve built up our inspiration, we’ve made room with our location, how about a little hydration? 🤓 Ok, I know it’s cheesy, but I wanted y’all to have a rhyme…

3. Hydration (aka the State of your Body’s Nation)

Last and certainly not least in getting ourselves set up to sing is to check in with our body! We can have everything else ready to go and if we have neglected the fact that our voice is a connected part of our physical make up, we can create more trouble for ourselves than we need. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but I’ll sing it from the rooftops--water is your friend! Staying hydrated through drinking water is going to be one of the best ways to help your voice. If you really want to take it up a notch, consider investing in a steamer or nebulizer that will help to hydrate your voice through the external surface of your vocal folds (it’s also super relaxing…why not take you and your voice to the spa?) What you’re voice’s next best friend after water? SLEEP. Getting a balanced amount of sleep so that your voice and body combined can get the proper amount of rest will help your entire system to function better and ensure you don’t push your voice past it’s limit due to fatigue.

Investing time and energy in your voice is a process—and the fact that you would read through something like this shows you’re already showing up for the work! I hope this encourages you to find one next right step to make room for your voice and connect with your creativity 😊

Interested in taking the leap into voice lessons with a coach who will work with you on your specific goals? Why not book a FREE 30 minute call with me to explore lessons and resource options?

Happy Singing!