A Simple Guide to Preparing Voice for Studio Recording Sessions

If you’re planning on going in for a recording session anytime soon, you’ll want to prepare the voice for the song you’re going to record. It breaks my heart to see people rushing to recording studios unprepared. You’re making a record for crying out loud! You want it to be good, right? So put in some time and effort to perfecting your voice for the song you intend to record. This article will guide you through the simplest and most effective steps to getting that voice ready for your studio recording session.

Now let’s assume you already know what you’re going to record; and that you’ve been rehearsing the song over and over again and perhaps you’ve already memorized the lyrics. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that isn’t quite enough. To deliver a song in a manner that best suits the mood and style of the song will take much more than just committing lyrics and melody to memory. (In fact, I would highly recommend that you READ your song in the recording booth. Just make sure you’ve laminated the paper it’s written on so the microphone doesn’t pick up the sound of shuffling paper. Reading helps you focus and minimizes error). I will explain in more detail in a moment, but before I do, let me ask you one question. Do you run out of breath when you sing? If you do, then let me show you how to put an end to that with correct breathing technique.

Correct breathing is vital for good singing. Imagine the note as a kite, resting on a stream of air – if there’s no air it can’t fly. In that same way, correct breathing supports your singing and enables you to hit any note you want, as loudly or as softly as you want, without hurting your voice. When we do not have enough air coming out to carry the note, it will waver and fall. Even worse, without good breathing technique, we may start to put pressure on our throats, which can cause great damage to the voice. But when you breathe correctly, everything you sing will feel and sound so much easier.

Open your mouth very slowly—the same way you do when you yawn—and breathe into your abdominal area. When you’re full, simply exhale with a hiss until you’re completely deflated. Do this several times and then try to use the same breathing technique to inhale for the next note when you sing. Take baby steps. Sing a-cappella and slow down your song to create spaces between notes to breathe. You can always speed this up later to your desired tempo when you’ve mastered the breathing technique. If you practice breathing this way, for long enough, breathing to sing gets easier – especially when you need lots of air to support your singing.  My next pointer is about training your voice.

For the purpose of this article, I will recommend that you do something very simple and basic—especially when you’ve never done voice training before. The arpeggios exercise is simple to do, extremely versatile and highly effective. Do the arpeggios combination exercises at least once a day. There are numerous ways of doing this. Using the lip bubble, tongue trill and humming as your basic system, you will very quickly transform your voice so that you get to broaden your range and to navigate with ease within your range. As a rule, make sure that just before you head out to the recording studio on the day, do your breathing exercise and a combination of arpeggios first.

IN CONCLUSION: Combine your breathing exercises with the arpeggio scales to train your voice. This will improve your voice and have you delivering tight notes sung with complete ease in the recording studio. I’ve recorded numerous breathing exercises on video, including arpeggio exercises with tongue trills, lip bubbles and humming. Run a search for “breathing exercise” and “arpeggios exercise” on this blog to locate videos and free mp3 download to the arpeggios piano track. 

Thanks for dropping by!

JOETT

Vocal Coach
Private Singing Lessons