Singing Is Exercise

In my previous posts, I mentioned how singing is exercise. I don't mean that it's similar to exercise. I mean that it actually IS exercise. This post will explain how singing is a workout and why that's good.

The Nature of Sound

Producing sound requires a source of vibration. All acoustic instruments work this way, including the voice. A guitar sound requires a string vibration. A drum sound requires a drumhead vibration. A clarinet sound requires a reed vibration. For vocals, the sound comes from vibration in the vocal cords. You can FEEL these sound vibrations as well as hear them. That means the world of music lives much closer to the world of physics than many people may think.

Sound is physical.

Sound vibrations are a physical reaction. In music, that reaction may come from air flowing over a flat surface or the impact of a stick, pick, or finger. Because all sound comes from a physical action, we can use physical means to create the sounds we want.

Sound resonates.

When sound resonates, the vibrations, or waves, that create the sound bounce off of hard surfaces, sometimes creating additional sounds. Resonance creates echoes and can have huge effects on our perception of sound.

Physical shapes affect resonance.

The rigidity and shape of the surfaces that soundwaves impact will directly affect the resonance produced. More rigid surfaces reflect more sound and cause greater resonance. Softer surfaces absorb more sound and, therefore, reduce resonance. This resonance effect is why singing in the shower sounds louder than screaming into a pillow.

The shapes created by the surfaces also affect the sound. Tube, cone, and funnel shapes act as natural amplifiers, generating more and more resonance as the sound bounces through. That's why brass and woodwind instruments have that shape.

Other shapes can dissipate or muffle resonance, reducing the volume of the sound. You can see this concept in on-stage sound baffling or the pyramid shapes that cover sound-reducing wall foam.

Your voice is just a sound your body makes.

The goal of singing is to get your voice to make the sounds you want it to on demand. As mentioned above, that sound originates when air causes vibrations in your larynx as it blows by your vocal cords. You can develop some control over the flexibility of your vocal cords, which can affect how your voice sounds. You can develop even more control over how that sound resonates through your body, directly impacting the sound of your singing voice.

The shapes inside your body also affect resonance.

As described above, the surfaces and shapes that sound impacts can strongly affect the sound's resonance. That remains true within the tiny chambers of your body. Try making a buzzy humming sound in your mouth, then make a buzzy humming sound in your nose. If you can do that, you will notice they each have a distinct sound and feel.

If you struggled to get your hum to move from your mouth to your nose, don't worry. We will cover this in our first lesson.

You can change the shapes inside your body with muscle control.

You have many small chambers inside your head. Your sinuses run through cavities in your skull. You can use the small muscles in your head to direct the sound into these cavities, where they will amplify your resonance.

You can also use the muscle that makes up the walls of these chambers to change the shape and rigidity of the chamber, which gives you the ability to craft your tone and control pitch.

Using your muscles to get the desired sounds takes feeling, control, and strength.

While I talk a lot about muscles, please note that a singing workout is closer to yoga than powerlifting. You strengthen your singing muscles to hold and control shapes with solid finesse and enduring control, not to flex like the Hulk.

The muscles that create and shape the resonance chambers in your head need the strength to remain in place while air and sound waves blast past them.

You develop the muscle control you need through exercise.

Like getting better at any skill or sport, improving your singing takes regular exercise. To develop the strength your singing muscles need and your ability to feel and control them requires spending time working them out. They need to be stretched and flexed into the desired shapes so often that you can do it on command across a wide variety of tones and pitches.

Much of my vocal coaching focuses on guiding you through these exercises like a personal trainer would guide you through a workout at a gym.

Vocal training mirrors athletics training. We will have warm-ups before every practice and performance. These warm-ups prepare your vocal muscles for a workout while they also help you reaffirm your feel and control, giving you the confidence you need to perform your best and continue improving. We will also have more intensive exercises to expand your range or target specific weak points in your progress. A vocal performance can feel similar to an athletic performance. As someone who has experienced both, I can tell you that—show day feels almost exactly like game day.

Vocal warmups and exercises also work on another huge aspect that sports and singing have in common: cardio.

Air fuels singing.

Much like woodwind instruments, vocals require a steady air supply to generate sound. Managing your air supply is a big part of vocals. Air management includes learning when and how to breathe for optimal vocals, developing a strong resonance chamber to get the most out of the air you use, and maintaining strong lungs to give you the most air possible.

Developing stronger, larger, and more efficient lungs also requires exercise.

Vocal exercises can help you learn how to control your breathing through more conscious use of your diaphragm, the muscle that controls your lungs and your breathing. Vocal coaching will help you strengthen your diaphragm and gain more control over the force of your breathing.

Along with vocal exercises, most cardiovascular workouts that get you breathing heavily will help strengthen your lungs and can improve your vocal stamina.

Just as training helps athletes get better, it also helps singers improve.

Physical training improves muscle strength, flexibility, agility, and durability. This principle applies regardless of which muscles you target. So, while powerlifters and long-distance runners need two extremely different types of skills, training helps them both improve. Singing works the same way, it just has a different goal.

Instead of trying to be the strongest or the fastest, singers try to master control over the sounds they make with their voices. This is still a physical goal that takes regular training of all the muscles that make that control happen.

Proper training also prevents injury and setbacks.

Along with the performance benefits, training with the proper guidance can help you keep your muscles limber and strong, which can help prevent injuries that can delay or derail your progress.

Vocalists attempting to improve without coaching often develop bad habits. Those bad habits can lead to poor technique which can limit progress and even injuries to the vocal cords. Bad habits will inhibit your progress further because you will need to fight them and break them as you develop your new technique.

I highly recommend all aspiring vocalists get guided vocal coaching as soon as possible to prevent these bad habits from forming in the first place.

Get the coaching you need to develop your voice properly through vocal lessons.

Sign up for vocal lessons today. I have both online and in-person time slots available now.

As described above, vocal coaching works best when received with regularity, so I'm offering 4 vocal lessons for $100. Plus, the first consultation is always FREE. So, that's five sessions for just $100.

Strengthen your presence by amplifying your vocal control. Sign up now!

Thanks for reading. In my next post, I'll discuss singing with emotion and address the misconception that you either have it or you don't. Yes, singing with emotion can be learned. 

Find out how in the next post. Thanks again, and please like, subscribe, and or share to help me spread the word so more people get the opportunity to develop their voices.