SkillShare The ABC of Singing The Fundamentals of Singing for Complete Beginners

The ABC of Singing - Part 1 - A is for Alignment

This video series is aimed at people who are complete beginners but would like to learn more about singing.

In this video, we go into detail about Alignment. It's an important and often-overlooked aspect of singing. You need to look after your body when you sing, otherwise you aren't going to be able to sing at your best.

It's all about noticing any unnecessary tension you have in your body, and trying to release it.

Part 2: B is for Breathing

In this video, we are covering Breathing. Breathing is so important! It's one of the things which if you don't' get it right, it is pretty-much guaranteed to adversely affect your singing.

One of the things a lot of pupils struggle with is knowing how to do deeper breathing. Some people call this abdominal breathing or diaphragmatic breathing.

The first thing to note: the diaphragm is important for the INHALE ONLY. After that, it's the transversus abdominis (corset muscle) that controls your EXHALE.

The one thing out of that process which pupils find the most difficult is controlling the exhale. Specifically, knowing what it feels like to utilise the corset muscle, being able to manipulate it when needed, and control the utilisation until the end of the sung phrase.

Part 3: C is for Connection

I am going to go some quick and easy exercises which will help you to be more familiar with what it feels like to use your core muscles when singing.

This subject can be confusing, as different genres of music refer to the 'core' and mean different things. In Musical Theatre, it refers to the core muscles but also the alignment of your whole upper body. When I am talking about the core in this video, I mean parts of your anatomy.

This is a guide in how to engage these muscles, to build up your knowledge of how to engage them at will and incorporate that into your singing technique.