As a professional singer, honing your craft is essential to standing out in a competitive industry. By focusing on specific elements of singing, you can elevate your performance and captivate your audience. Here are some key areas to practice to improve your singing:

1. Practising Pitch

Pitch accuracy is crucial for delivering a flawless vocal performance. Work on exercises that help you hit the right notes consistently. Use a piano or a pitch pipe to train your ear and improve your pitch control. Starting off with basic scales, going up and down to begin with is great in understanding intervallic movement. You can skip notes to widen the intervals and this will help your muscles to feel different note distances. If you do this in all 12 major keys and then move to minor keys as well, you'll have a great sense of what notes to pitch. If this becomes easy then you can work modally. You can focus on a particular key and choose a chord to use as a pedal sound. If you sing notes from the scale over that chord it will become modal. You can then try different intervals and intervallic combinations to become original with your pitching choices.

2. Practising Timing

Timing is everything in music. Practice with a metronome to develop a strong sense of rhythm and improve your timing. Focus on staying in sync with the beat to enhance your overall performance. Rhythm comes from sub dividing the beat and varying the distances. You can try first singing notes on each beat of the bar - so if there are four beats in a bar then sing on each of the four beats (crotchets). Then you can subdivide to eight beats (quavers) and choose notes that only hit on 8th notes. Then go to sixteenths and further. When you create little patterns and combinations of varying groups you'll be able to be more creative with your rhythm and timing.

3. Working on Breath Control

Breath control is key to sustaining long notes and delivering powerful vocals. Practice diaphragmatic breathing exercises to strengthen your breath support and increase your vocal endurance. Proper breath control can also help you avoid vocal strain. A key element is making sure you stay relaxed whilst singing. Also where your tongue position is counts so be aware of where you're placing that tongue as you sing. If you have good posture or something that keeps your body grounded, this will also help your breath control. 

4. Improving Tone

Your vocal tone is what sets you apart as a singer. Experiment with different vocal techniques to find your unique sound. Work on exercises that help you achieve a rich, resonant tone that resonates with your audience. If you have a wide open mouth this will help with projection and can immediately alter your tone. You can do this by yawning and using that as a starting point. From there you can then change how wide your mouth is and how much air is being projected out to alter your tone.

5. Warming Up Correctly

A proper vocal warm-up is essential before any performance or practice session. Start with gentle vocal exercises to warm up your vocal cords and prevent injury. Focus on relaxing your throat and jaw muscles to ensure a smooth vocal delivery. Warm up with scales, interval jumps, lip trills and more recently products that create restriction like vocal tubes, straws etc.

Once you've worked on your singing, the next step is to put these elements to the test in front of your audience. It's important to have quality backing tracks to compliment your voice and at Acoustic Backs And Tracks we pride ourselves on providing some of the best acoustic backing tracks in the business. Explore our catalogue and find songs that compliment your voice and showcase your talent.

By dedicating time to practice these essential elements of singing, you can elevate your performance and reach new heights as a professional singer. Remember, consistency is key, so make practicing a regular part of your routine. Keep pushing yourself to improve and watch your singing skills soar.