I often get asked how long should I practice singing and what should I practice when I'm
practicing my singing you should and should be able to practice singing all day and as
far as what you should practice you should practice everything that advice sounds snarky
over generalized and frustrating I realize that but let me unpack what I mean we're all
busy people and we're also conditioned to live in this checkbox type mindset oh let
me get all the things that I need to get done today so that I can do the things I want to
do check check check check and the danger of getting too far into that sort of way of
thinking is that we we think more about just getting things done for the sake of getting
them done and not experiencing things and growing in the midst of those experiences
if I were to give you a number like practice singing 30 minutes a day you might say well
in addition to what should I practice for those 30 minutes you might say well what if
I can't make it that long or what if I feel like I can go longer when we start thinking
about an actual time and far as far as a number we miss really the point of actually practicing
and what we can get out of it that leads me to the next comment I made at the very beginning
what should you practice everything those singers that get too caught up in a goals
mindset of like oh I've got to make sure and get my time in today so that I can hit that
certain note or so that I can learn that certain song end up getting into a tunnel visioned
sort of achievement mode that results in Burnout even if you're only practicing for a short
amount of time per day if you're being legalistic and to achievement oriented so that you can
accomplish your goals as a singer the same problem happens that I described earlier when
we were trying to stick to time we forget about the value of experience in the midst
of striving for something we want to work on or improve it really is possible to practice
move in and out of different things and different experiences and experiments with your voice
all day long think of all the ways that you use your voice think of all the ways that
you express yourself throughout the day all of these ways can be used if done mindfully
and considerately can be used to practice your singing your vocalizations and how they
relate to singing every single day I am taking inventory of how I use my voice am I using
range fill Dynamic speaking for example how does it feel when my voice starts to get tired
from talking for longer periods of time what kinds of things do I do to compensate for
the fact my voice is getting tired what happens if I'm in an environment where I need to shout
or I feel like I need to shout what sorts of compensatory things I think that's the
right word am I trying to am I employing without initially thinking about it to make sure that
I don't blow my voice out when I am raising my voice for long periods of time there's
so many opportunities for me to start practicing part of a Melody line experimenting with a
way that I might go in and out of a of a certain line or phrase with regards to a song that
I'm working on in fact those kinds of murmurings and mutterings all day work their way into
almost every cover that I put on YouTube including this example foreign
[Music]
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
going in and out of my head voice like that changing the notes around is very different
than the way Chris Cornell originally sang that really came from me walking around the
house picking stuff up that the kids had left laying around and just sort of halfway thinking
experiencing a different way to sing that line and then when I got to the point in this
song where I was doing it all in one take I felt more comfortable with that playful
way that I approached the line than I did in the moment going for how Cornell sang it
and so it actually brought me a lot of success to pull on how I had just haphazardly or practiced
that line without really saying okay I'm going to sit down for this amount of time and practice
this song most of the time I don't practice songs all the way through I mutter and play
and dance around and do things sort of in little tiny pieces and just become very playfully
familiar with a particular song you can do this sort of all day practicing with songs
but you can also do it with all sorts of exercises and if you'd like some great exercises to
get you started so that you have ways to experientially and freely practice click the link below and
join my free voice course you will absolutely never run out of things to practice if you
join that free course the next time you are tempted to ask what should I practice or how
long should I practice employ this type of mindset that I have shared here practice all
day instead of setting aside a rigorous time that you have to get to and so you can check
off a box and practice everything or anything work on some harsh vocal things little tiny
bits here and there playfully as you're doing other things throughout the day work on singing
high notes work on your belting Voice work on your wonderfully developed comfortable
falsetto or head Voice work on all these things but pepper it in throughout your day throughout
your lifestyle I guarantee you you will be more free and more in love increasingly in
love with your voice if you take this practicing mindset