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Hi Peter. I would strongly recommend a good teacher. I used a professional Soprano in France via Skype for 30 Euros an hour a year or two back. I'm determined to start having lessons again, but I've been busy with BIAB and choir. I've started late and used teachers a lot. I can send you her details if you like. The important thing is to find a good one and that usually means a classical/successful singer.

Another piece of advice I would give is to sing without headphones if possible. Hard as it is to know that people might be listening! I find you tend to under sing with headphones.

Know your range, Baritone or Tenor, learn about breathing, posture etc.

I've added some of my personal notes after this snippet.

This is an interesting piece that my sister sent me translated from French. It's fairly technical, but this is what I mean by a professional teacher! (The Cantonese references are cos we both worked in Hong Kong!)

Nasals etc

"Marie Caroline mentioned that she had had trouble explaining nasals and tongue position etc to you so I thought I’d run through what I know she must have been trying to explain.

A useful technique for getting high notes is to hum the notes first and then sing them nasally. This means using the ng sound that we get in “singing” (occurring in the middle and at the end of the word) as the initial consonant. Since the air is escaping through the nose, while the vocal chords are vibrating, it is a voiced consonant (but not a stop like /b/ /g/ or /d/) and so you can hear your voice. Try singing the first two notes of “I know that my redeemer liveth” on just /ng/.

Once you can get this ok, you can then try starting on ng and then releasing the tongue so a vowel follows eg sing the Cantonese word “ngoh”. Following the ng, the vowel emerges well placed and the larynx remains low where it should be. Once you can sing the high notes starting with Ng, then it is far easier to sing them starting with other consonants such as la, ba, da, ma etc.
MC was trying to explain how you place your tongue to produce the ng sound. Basically, you are using the back part of the tongue raised and touching the soft palate (back part of the roof of the mouth) to block the airflow. (Whereas for da you are using the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge) . Then after temporarily blocking the air flow, you lower the back part of the tongue, and out comes a beautiful sound. You move NOTHING else in your mouth apart from the tongue.

The other thing I have worked on with MC is “focusing” on the point somewhere above the nose in the forehead where the pure sound resonates in order to “Fix” the position of the voice. This may not be a problem for you, but it is something I have trouble with. Once the voice is fixed in the right position it has a beautiful rich mellow sound which in French can be described as timbree – but you may well produce this effect naturally."


My Singing Practice Routine - which I have failed to follow


1. Exhaling from the mouth and nose (Big Bear) x 5

Keep legs very firm and heavy. Try to keep the chest open. Don’t look down. Eyes forward. Move your arms and body around as you exhale

2. Relaxation exercises with tongue etc.

3. Sing phrase legato (C E D F E G F D C)

Move up from middle to top or range. Move down to bottom of range. (Keep legs very firm and heavy. Try to keep the chest open. Don’t look down. Eyes forward. Open jaw. Relax Face

4. Starting on G ‘a’ (puff, puff), ‘e’ (puff, puff), ‘i’ (puff, puff), ‘o’ (puff, puff), ‘u’ (puff, puff), G slur down to C and up to G (Blowing Candles – Diaphragm mover)

5. ‘a’ with tongue as far out as possible and pulling it back in after each sound. C, E, G, E, C. Move up a semitone at a time. Then repeat C, E, G, E, C with tongue back inside mouth but not moving.

Feel the diaphragm being pulled when tongue is extended. Do exercise slowly to be sure diaphragm is connected to the tongue.

6. With tongue out as far as possible and swinging from side to side C, D, E, F, G. Move up a semi-tone at a time. Repeat with tongue in but not moving.

Make sure the back of the tongue does not move by using diaphragm. A very subtle movement.

Working on Songs


1. Check timing and mark the beats on the sheet music
2. Write in breathing spots
3. Say words of song in correct rhythm.
4. Say words with lots of breathy air. Like a ghost
5. Sing tune with lip trill
6. Sing tune with vowels
Mark jumps with SOLFAGE. Sing song with SOLFAGE?
7. Check timing and beats
8. Check breathing is in correct spots
9. Think about vowels and consonants in words