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Singings contests are a great motivation for practice. This chapter's strategies and tactics can also be used for improving your chances in contests. Try every one at least twice, and be careful about rejecting any. In competition, you never know. Anything can happen.

Winning singing demands muscular effort, mental effort, and daily workout. It also involves artistic processes. As a competitor you must strive to master the fundamentals, and at the same time make use of intuitive, imaginative, and seemingly random strategies. Do all of the exercises in this handbook, regardless of whether or not you think they'll help. Invent some more as well.

lf you want to seriously compete in contests, you need to train as you would with a sport. The contests are your game.

Train to win. Sing to win.

Keep Competing

Before you start, ask yourself if you really do like singing. if your answer is 'Yes' then ask if yourself you like competition. If you truly like both, you will likely:

1) keep doing it

2) do it better

3) improve faster

4) get the "singer's high"

Your Training Chart

Construct a wall-sized chart of all of the things you need to handle. Go through this handbook and include on the chart all of the section headings. It is equally important that you add your own details and variations.

Building this chart will organize your training. in return, the chart itself will organize your training. Refer to the chart every day so that you always know your next step.

In Chapter 3 we dealt with the time you spend driving your car. The car is a workable practice space, and it probably has a cassette tape player for your practice tape. it also has a radio which is a rich source of songs to sing along with.

We showed you how to create private practice. But for you, this is not necessarily a good idea. it might be better to face the music and have others hear and see you. Friends and relatives con give you helpful information that you could not get on your own. On the other hand, they may not be helpful because they will not be encouraging. Judge for yourself.

1) Thinking about what you do, as you practice.

2) Not thinking about what you do, as you practice.

Divide your practice time equally between the two.

Study Contest Winners and Losers

Go to contests without competing. Take notes. Keep a list of the songs that seem most popular with the audiences. Take note of the winners: how they move, their clothes, their hair, make-up, etc. Note the same things for those who don't win. This will vary from place to place. Just keep at it.

At home, keep an ongoing list of the things that win, and the things that don't. Ask yourself how each can be added to your wall chart.

Really Say The Wards

Actors are taught to say their lines as if they are really telling someone something. Don't just mouth the words. Clearly understand the meaning of the lyrics and communicate it just as you would if you were trying to convince someone of something. Truly 'say' the words to the audience.

Sing in Front of a Mirror

Try different facial expressions and body gestures.

In competition, as with any singing, the track MUST be in the right key for you. The highest notes of the song must be within your strong range. If they are too high, your big notes will be weak, or at least weaker than your capabilities.

You can find out if a song is in a comfortable key simply by singing along with it. If there is no strain, then the key is okay. Out of those songs that are in okay keys, you can choose those most popular with the audiences. And you won't have to have the key changed for the contest.

The disadvantage of this method is that you risk singing it in too low a key. This will result in a loss of power in your high notes (and low notes). Big high notes are the ones that move audiences. You need songs that stretch you on the big notes, but not too much.

This means finding the key that is just right for you. Go to a music store and buy a pitch pipe. This is a round harmonica with twelve holes. in each hole is a reed that vibrates according to a particular note. By each hole is the name of the note.

Next go to the places where you will compete. When a song plays, get its do-re-mi (see Chapter 2). Find 'do' on the pitch pipe. That will tell you which key the song is 'in'.

Find the keys for a number of songs, and especially for two or three that you wont to sing.

Next go to a music store and buy the sheet music for the two or three songs you want to do.

Next, you need to look for the highest notes of the song. Sing through the song and follow it on the song sheet. Find the highest note in the song. Sing it loud end clear. Is it comfortable for you? If the note is too high, causing you to strain to reach it, then you know that key of the sheet music is too high for you. lf the sheet key and the track key are the same, then you know that the track key is also too high.

Next, figure out the key to which you should change the track. Take note: the track key is what is important, not the sheet key. Find the name of the highest note of your song from your pitch pipe. Now sing it. It should be too high for you. Now try a note that is 4 half steps lower, and sing that.  Is the new note comfortable? If it is still too high, try lower notes until you find one that is comfortable.

Now try a note one half step higher than your comfortable note. Is this okay also? If so, try a higher one yet. You need to find the note that stretches your voice a little, but not too much. When you finally settle on the best high note, one that stretches you a little, you need to find how many half steps there are between it and the high note on the track. This is the amount you will have to have the key changed.

Try the same thing again during the next few dogs. After a few days or weeks you will be satisfied with your choice. You hove learned how to get the key. Remember: it is the key on your accompaniment track that is important, not the one on the sheet music. Your 'ear' is the most important guide.

At the contests you may have to have the key of the track raised or lowered a particular number of half steps. When it is your turn to sing, tell the person running the contest to raise or lower it the right amount on the key changer. Make sure this happens.

Remember, if the key is too low, you will not only have to strain on the low notes, but your high notes will not have full power. This means that you will not move the audience as much as you could.

When you get the right key, you are creating the best possible conditions for your singing. This is why professional singers always spend the time to get the key just right.

As you continue to compete, you will get better at choosing because you will learn which songs work best.

There will be songs with notes that are both too low and too high. Choose another song. There are hundreds of songs you can sing. Don't always choose songs simply because you like them. Choose them because they work best for you.

1) Take singing lessons. Choose a teacher who teaches the type of music that you sing.

2) Watch singers on Ti,. Note their mouths, chins, posture, how they move, their hair, make-up, etc.

3) Watch singers perform live.

4) Imitate good lingers when you hear them on the radio, tapes, CDs, etc.

Advanced Daily Routine

1) Physical Exercise

2) Health foods, vitamins end minerals, and Vitamin C

3) Vocal Exercise, 3 different places and times, for a total of 2 hours or more.

4) Expand your Wall Chart.

5) Just Do it! This means not needing a reason to do these things. This is a good way to overcome resistance to practice, performance anxiety, etc.

 

Home Karaoke Equipment

        Accompaniment music tracks are not just for karaoke enthusiasts. There are a number of home karaoke systems. Your practicing will be pleasurable and greatly enhanced. 

Learning basic piano or electronic keyboard will go a long way toward your understanding of music. You can teach yourself on an inexpensive electronic keyboard. Digital processes have made some terrific keyboards auailable to everyone. This brings us to our next section.

Harmony

Harmony is the structure or organization of music. At any moment in a song, there are many things happening all at once. There are all of the instruments, some playing one note at a time. Others, such as guitars and keyboards, are themselves playing many notes at once. There may be background singers, each singing a note of a chord.

The basic units of harmony are chords. Look at your sheet music. Above the music staff you will see symbols like Am, or C7, or F, etc. These are the names of the chords for each moment of the song. The chord is the structure of all of the notes happening at that moment in the song. The name of the chord is written above where its moment occurs. You should, over time, learn what combination of notes each chord is.

Chords can themselves be organized, one after another, in what are called progressions. Every chord progression has a structure, just like a story, with a beginning, middle, and end.

Why are chords and chord progressions important to you? They tell anyone who plays along with you what to play. This is most of what is on the sheet music. Chords and progressions are what make it possible for musician: to plag together, and for you to sing along with them. They are the structure or organization of the music on the tracks.

The keyboard (piano, organ, synthesizer) is a terrific tool for understanding chords, and music in general. Teach yourself, or take some lessons. The basics won't take long.

Chords play an important role in a singing group. The lead singer sings the melody while the background singers sing the chords, one note of a chord for each background singer. Why not form a group? Perhaps a karaoke singing group.

How to Look at the Audience

Read this paragraph and then close your eyes. Imagine the audience as it will look to you when you are singing. How do you look at them? Do you look from side to side? Do you look for supportive faces? Seek those with a smile in their eyes. Sing to those who seem to be enjoying your singing. Don't be afraid to reach out to them.

#1 From The Back of the Crowd

1) Close your eges. Imagine you are sitting in the audience. You are near the back.

2) Now add yourself to the picture. See youseif tmup theretm on the stage singing a big note. Include all of the details, your clothes, hair, posture and mouement, etc.

3) Create the audience applauding for you. Send a lot of mental energy to this image. Do this for a least two minutes.

#2 From the Bock of the Stage

1) Now imagine that you are at the back of the stage observing yourself sing. Look at everything from your new vantage point. You see your bock, and beyond, the audience.

2) Imagine yourself singing a big note. Include all of the details, your clothes, hair, posture, and movement, etc.

3) Create the audience applauding for you. Send a lot of mental energy to this image. Do this for a least two minutes.

#3 From the Spotlight

1) Imagine yourself from the audience's point of view. How are you looking at them? Do you look from side to side? Do you look for supportive faces?

2) Create the audience applauding for you. Send a lot of mental energy to this image. Do this for a least a minute.

3) Visualize winning the contest. Create all of the details. Send a lot of mental energy to this image. Spend as much time on this as you possibly can.

4) What does winning look like? Imagine the waiting time as the judges decide. Try to influence them with your mind. Imagine them checking off your name on their contest sheets; imagine them discussing the results and deciding on you as the winner.

5) Imagine the announcement that you have won. The audience approves. The master of ceremonies or host or hostess gives you your prize. You hove won.

Do not underestimate the power of these creative visualizations. They hove been used by performers for decades because they are helpful at many levels.