Home is the place we all like to go to after we’re done with work and maybe sometimes to do something productive like reading but what about learning to sing? Is it even possible?
The best method to practice singing at home is finding the right time and place and having your practice material ready to go. Considering everyone else’s routine will allow you to find peace and concentration while practicing. Having the practice material ready will end in you having a highly effective practice session.
The combination of these things will allow you to not just get better at home but anywhere you’re likely to get time to practice. The sooner we begin to understand this the sooner you’ll start to practice.
Find Time
So, you’re thinking about how you can practice singing at home.
The first thing that needs to be cleared up is that it is possible. Starting with that conviction will allow us to move forward to look for creative ways we can begin to find time around the house.
To that end, I would like to encourage you to read this article in which I talk about how 30 minutes of practice can help. After reading that article you will be convinced that with just 30 minutes of practice, you will see steady gains in your singing and how quickly it starts to affect you.
If you’re sharing your house with others it’s imperative that you inform them that you’re interested in learning how to sing and that you would like 30 minutes of silence and quiet to start your practicing so you could become better.
Now that we have established that 30 minutes is the minimum unit of time we would like to achieve for practice, the next thing we ought to focus on is looking at everyone else’s routine and schedules.
Finding this pocket of time is very important. You need to make sure you are free from distractions and anything else that could potentially bother you.
The best ideal place would be something enclosed to give a sense of focus. A place that isn’t your bedroom would be ideal because you don’t want to associate your bedroom with resting and sleeping at the same time.
A dedicated spot that you only associate practicing with will help you tremendously. But of course, it is not always possible to find an ideal location. So, the hierarchy of importance goes from time and then to a suitable place.
Once you’ve decided on the place and are convinced that it’s time to dedicate at least 30 minutes of your time to it on a daily basis, it’s time to practice.
Time to Practice
Now when you’re sitting down to practice in this particular piece of time that you have allocated to yourself so that you can become better at singing, you need to make sure that you’re free of distractions and that you are able to give your 100% of your concentration to practicing.
You also need to come prepared for your practice session.
So, no guesswork when you’re sitting down to practice. Take a few days off and ready your material and listen to any exercises that you’d like to do, try them out a few times but no joking around when you’re sitting down to practice.
So even if you have 30 minutes to practice, I would suggest taking the 30 minutes out on any given day and trying to explore and gain knowledge about what you ought to practice not practice the same day.
30 minutes of exploring anything can give you enough valuable lessons and knowledge to know what you ought to practice and if that is not something you’re sure of how to get your hands on these lessons then I would like you to read ‘Know What to Practice’ which is upcoming in this article.
A Dedicated Space
Now I understand not everyone is going to have that kind of real estate where they can just sit down and just concentrate on one thing in their house.
So I suggest looking outside.
Practicing Outdoors
Going outdoors can be pretty fun, you won’t be confined by the walls of your house or apartment, and you can find places where you can just sit and practice in peace.
If you’ve done your research and have understood what you ought to practice then it’s going to be much easier to do so when you’re outdoors.
You can, as I said earlier, associate an outdoor place with your practice as well. There is always more room outside than there is inside your room.
Cultivate Discipline
When we are thinking about practicing in general I would suggest that you need to take a small look at how consistent you’ve ever been with something.
I think developing 30 minutes of discipline to do something every day even if you do 5 or 6 days a week and I do suggest one day of rest a week. I think this amount of discipline is very possible even for someone who has not developed it before.
The currency of practice is time and the more quality time you can put in the better you’ll be. So you can imagine having discipline from a former activity like sports is going to come in handy right now.
But if you’ve never developed something like that before I think it is time and you’re going to be a better person for it.
Little Steps
To develop a sense of discipline when it comes to something like this and the best suggestion that I would like to give is to start very small. Very small.
10 minutes of practice. And yes, you need to come prepared.
The reason behind that number is so small is that when you want to reach a place where you’re more consistent rather than knocking out five hours of practice in a single day.
Always remember, when it comes to practice, consistency is way better than one day of high-intensity sessions.
You’ll find more about it in the article mentioned above, 30 minutes of practice.
In the famous book ‘Atomic Habits’ James Clear talks about how it’s important not to show up without a 0. Do something. Even if it is just a fraction of the intended time that you allocated for it.
I believe this is important because you have something to show up for. Even if it is just something that you’d like to get better at eventually. The desire to get better is enough and showing up even if it means just 10 minutes a day speaks volumes about you and your discipline.
There will be days when you won’t feel like doing it, do 5 minutes, but do.
This habit of cultivating discipline turns you into a person who wants to do something. Who wants to show up for something they care about, it’s very rare in life to have such people. These are the foundations upon which strong people are built on.
I personally believe that when people show up for something like practice, they tend to live just a little bit more happily.
Know What to Practice
I believe that there is a method to something that ought to be taught. I also think that there are optimized ways to teach anything. It’s a completely different skill than learning.
The best method for anyone to learn anything these days is through online courses and I have written extensively about this topic for singers in this blog here.
This is going to tie very neatly with your learning to practice singing at home. I have made a dedicated page for every course that you could possibly imagine owning to improve your singing. You can find it right here.
Online courses will essentially give you the knowledge you need to have to become better and equip you with the right mindset along with exercises so that when the time for you to practice finally arrives, you’re ready.
This is what I meant by taking 30 minutes off one day and relaxing what you ought to practice. There is a lot to go through and something you will not master in a month’s time. Though you will see tremendous progress very fast.
How Much to Practice
Of course, we’ve established that 30 minutes of practice is enough to see steady gains and then we discussed how you can cultivate discipline for you to begin and why consistency is more important than single bursts of practice sessions.
But, 30 minutes is also the bare minimum we’re striving for.
Anything more than 30 minutes you do is amazing.
But, going above four hours is something you shouldn’t do. If you can’t practice and improve within four hours, then it’s probably not going to happen in six either.
Now you can see how preparation is really important. If you can prepare what to practice for the next four hours you’ll become really good at a very good pace.
Four Hours Need to Develop
Another thing that you need to understand is that your vocal cords are indeed muscles. You can’t just put them through four hours of practice even if you have the time and space to do so. You need to get to that level eventually.
They will give out if you practice for too long.
You need to build up your stamina just like anything else.
If you’re new and a beginner at this, I would even suggest that you start with building your stamina in singing by starting with 30 minutes and going up in small increments and using the rest of the time to study subjects like music theory, ear training, and even music production.
Know Your Goals
Another thing that you must keep in your mind when you’re first starting out is knowing your goals. If you don’t know what you’re working towards then you’re working towards nothing.
Another reason why you need to have an online course is that it will give you direction in things that you ought to learn. It won’t ever leave you directionless.
Because if you go by yourself to practice anything that you want to then you will quickly find yourself trying to understand and perform something that you’re not quite ready for.
A very good example is singing something high and with clarity. If you’re trying to sing a note in a particular song that requires you to sing high and with clarity but you’ve never spent time improving your range or your breathwork, you will never be able to do it with skill.
You need to practice both of these skills individually and then combine them together to sing well. Online courses can help you with that.
The other side of the spectrum is being aware of what technical skills you’d like to know but even in that scenario, you’d need someone to help you master the basics.
So if you plan to sing pop and rock and would never like to venture into metal or some other genre and would like to stick to less technically demanding skills then that will help you know your end goal as well.
This applies to your understanding and knowledge about how you see yourself as a musician as well, if you see yourself to be a singer for yourself then you know what kind of songs you write and what kind of technical abilities you need to master in order for you to become good at it.
For me, singing wasn’t my first discipline in music. It was the bass guitar, composing, guitar, and then music production. It was only when I started to write my own songs that I started to realize that I needed to sing. So that’s when I picked up singing.
So, as you can imagine, me knowing what I compose like, I need to understand what and how far I need to take my singing, it allows me to dedicate time to it just as much as it is necessary and I definitely don’t need to spend four hours a day practicing to reach where I want to.
The beauty of knowing that you can always expand your skills allows you to rely on the confidence of knowing that as long as you’re willing to practice, you’re capable of becoming better.
Focus on Technique
One of the things that I keep talking about on this website is technique.
Technique is the way that musicians make a sound in music.
You have to realize that technique is quite important for you to master. It won’t come randomly and it’s not something you can neglect.
There can be serious repercussions to developing a bad technique which can directly affect your quality of singing. This is why I seriously think online courses are the way to go because they’re going to show you how to perform a certain technique.
It is through the mastery of technique that you end up mastering music.
The difference between your ability to sing a melody and you being able to play that same melody on the guitar is your mastery of techniques. If you had the same equivalent technique to perform on the guitar, you’d be able to do it.
So, you’re now equipped with the right knowledge to start practicing wherever you wish to do so.