Practice
Hone your Skills with Aimed Practice
In this area we strive to offer a selection of lyrics to practice, that concentrate on the consideration of physical properties, on the overall level of development of the craft, and on specific singing techniques.
Lyrics are paired with selected recordings for you to sing along. You may start each song from the beginning or from any segment, and you can jump to other segments during playback. This way you will be able to repeat any passages you would like to practice.
We also added an article about the general structure of a vocal practice session and a selection of warm up exercises to prepare the voice for the task.
Get a quick overview of the current practice sections:
All vocalists have a vocal range that can be classified in categories which describe the natural ability of the voice. Beside tone, intensity, timbre, and other physical attributes the so called tessitura will help the singer to make the right song choice.
The idea is to represent a range of notes that is easy to cover, feels comfortable, and can be hit without voice strain for the vocalist. Beside the vocal range tessitura also describes the volume of the sound produced between lowest and highest note.
Knowing your voice type will strengthen your ability to choose the songs that make you shine and it will help to avoid risking your health as a singer.
Select lyrics by vocal range.
Although the tonic pitch of a musical key does not give any information about the lowest or highest note in a song, the choice of songs with a specific tonic pitch can still be beneficial for some singers.
Oftentimes but not always one or more melodies within a song may start or end on the tonic pitch. If a vocalist can deliver that note in a rich, strong, and compelling tonal quality that makes the audience want to hear more, then the song choice by tonic pitch may lead to the discovery of suitable songs for the singer.
Don't forget that your voice always should feel natural and comfortable for all notes used in a performance. We think that from an educational point of view the choice of the tonic pitch is more effective than choosing a song by musical key or scale, because the scale (which is a system of notes or tones) can be transposed to any tonic pitch.
Select lyrics by tonic pitch.
The song lyrics on Lead Vocals are paired with media which you can play alongside your practice. Media containing sung lead vocals are categorized by gender, so that you can find additional inspiration through a gender selection.
For media containing the performance of multiple vocalists we have added groups called duets, backings, and choir. Here you can find songs with multiple female and/or male vocalists. Artists and/or supportive singers may sing in turns or share parts of the lyric together. Feel free to invite a friend to practice one of these songs!
Select lyrics by gender.
The classification of the lyrics by difficulty shall give an orientation on the complexity of a vocal performance, and function as on overall guide of what to expect.
The placement of song lyrics into these categories is rather intuitive, and therefore we ask to consider the information with caution. It is ok to have an own opinion.
The current segments of difficulty are beginner, intermediate and advanced. As a beginner the vocalist mainly focuses on pitch, tempo, and clearness of the words. The intermediate has mastered these skills and is exploring a variety of different vocal effects and singing styles. The advanced segment shall contain performances with more complex and greatly developed vocal technique and style.
It is to mention that the classification of artist performances into these categories does not imply the quality of a recording in any way. In fact all of our media is carefully chosen by hand and representing our love in music.
Select lyrics by difficulty.
Whereas timbral stands for the characteristic quality of a sound which helps us to distinguish one sound from another, the creation of one distinguished sound needs a technique that allows the vocalist to reproduce that sound.
With the timbral technique we define the different characteristics of singing by the ability of reproducing the sound in referral to the method used.
Though there are a number of different vocal techniques known, we have focused on the ones used in the vocal performances provided here. Our current timbral techniques include melodic and recitative singing, rapping, whispering, screaming and growling.
Select lyrics by timbral technique.
