Do These Two Things Right to Sing Any Style or Genre of Music Like a Pro

There are two types of singing styles: classical and contemporary.

Classical singing style started hundreds of years ago in churches and opera productions. It is what people normally call “operatic singing”.

Contemporary singing style is the more conversational kind of singing we hear in modern music such as pop, rock, jazz and so on. This is the singing style that we will be talking about in this article.

How the Voice Works

My lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music always said classical singing and contemporary singing are similar but different. The voice works the same way whether you sing in the classical or contemporary style, but the vocal setup is different for each style.

For example, our body works the same way when we are playing basketball or tennis. Our legs and arms work the same way whether we play basketball or tennis, but the movements and how we use our arms and legs are different. In tennis, we swing the racquet to hit the ball. In basketball, we flick our wrist to shoot the ball.

Back to singing, we breathe air into our lungs then use the air to vibrate the vocal folds to make different pitches. Our throat and mouth are amplifiers for our voice because of the space inside. Our vocal tract helps us get different vocal tone colors. We shape our vocal tract by moving our mouth, soft palate and larynx (voice box).

We manage our breath and shape our vocal tract a little differently in classical singing compared to contemporary singing.

Build a Strong Foundation For Singing

Through lots of trial and error, voice teachers and singers from the classical singing period discovered that having an ‘open throat’ can maximize vocal resonance and increase vocal endurance. This was important because they did not have microphones back then and singers needed to project their voice without hurting it.

As mentioned, the voice works the same way whether we sing in the classical or contemporary style. You need to have an open throat even when you are singing in the contemporary style. To dig deeper, it does not matter what genre of contemporary music you want to sing (e.g. R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop, Musical Theatre, Rock, Metal etc), your voice works the same way for the different genres of music. You may change your vocal tone or the way you deliver the phrases or you may rap more than you sing, but the principles of vocal production remain the same.

Having an Open Throat

Here are the five techniques to get an open throat:

1. Have more space in your mouth
2. Lift your soft palate
3. Lower and stabilize your larynx (voice box)
4. Widen your vocal tract
5. Move your articulators (lips, tongue, jaw) the right way

The space inside of our throat and mouth is called “pharyngeal space”. This space can be changed - you can make the space inside your throat and mouth smaller or bigger by moving your articulators, larynx and soft palate. This is how you make different tone colors/timbre with your voice. This is how you get more projection.



If you would like more information on the 5 techniques of open throat, download my free ebook.

Let me give you an example on how to adapt the techniques above to different genres of music.

I will use lifting the soft palate as an example.


In pop music, you generally want to lift your soft palate almost all the way up so you get a full, rounded vocal tone.

In country music and musical theatre, nasal twang is commonly used. It makes singers sound like they are singing from their nose. To perform nasal twang, you need to lift your soft palate only about halfway up (but you still need to lift it). If your soft palate is completely down, then you will just sound nasal (instead of nasal twangy).

Having Proper Breathing Technique

When singing, you must keep your rib cage expanded because this is how you can control your airflow better and have more vocal endurance and breath capacity.

Diaphragm (red muscle) attached to the rib cage

Your diaphragm is connected to your rib cage on both ends. The diaphragm rises to push air out of your lungs when you are singing. By keeping your rib cage expanded, you make the diaphragm come up more slowly. This gives you more control over your airflow.

You do not want to use your belly too much when you are singing. A lot of people think that is correct breath support but it is not, because moving your belly excessively will make you lose air quickly.

Conclusion

You can sing in any genre of contemporary music you like as long as you have an open throat and solid breathing technique. You can do simple vocal exercises and still see excellent results if you train with these principles in mind.