Having a beautiful vocal tone is pretty much the goal of every singer. You want to develop a voice that sends shivers of delight down the audience’s spine. However, many singers struggle with vocal tone issues like sounding nasal or raspy, or having a weak and thin voice that has no power. So when we talk about improving vocal tone these are the things we are trying to fix.

Whether you want to sound clear and resonant like Aretha Franklin or sultry and low like Julie London, there are three steps to achieving the vocal tone of your dreams. In today’s video I’ll take you through a couple of singing exercises that work on all three steps and help you to smooth out your tone and start sounding better, regardless of how long you have been singing for.

I hope you enjoy the video and let me know if it helped you in the comments below.

Nicola xx

Here are more tips on how to make your voice clear for singing

In order to improve your vocal tone you do need to work on three main areas of your singing:

• Your vocal placement (i.e. where you resonate the sound within your body.)
• You need to improve your airflow
• Your muscle strength

However, given that these three things do take time to develop I am going to give you four extra tips that you can use right now to improve your tone regardless of whether you have been singing for five minutes or five years.

1. Decrease your volume and use a microphone instead

This comes tip comes down to muscle strength. If you push your vocals too loud before your muscles are ready, then not only are you going to sound bad, you’ll potentially put your voice at risk of injury.

When it comes to singing you’ve got to think of yourself like an athlete. You wouldn’t go from no training to lifting really heavy weights in one day. If you did, you would injure yourself. It’s the same thing with singing. You need to build up slowly.

However, because we all want to sing the big fun notes, I suggest that for now you decrease your volume which will stop the strain on your vocals and if you want power use a microphone instead.

There is nothing wrong with using microphones in singing because nearly every musical genre requires you to use a microphone at a professional level so you might as well start getting used to using one anyway.

And as your vocal strength increases, so can your volume.

2. Warm up before you sing

This one is a bit of a no brainer. You voice will sound better when its warm and this is the same for beginners right through to professionals. Warming up is a crucial part of singing whether you are just practicing or performing to firstly reduce your chances of injury and secondly to sound better.

Warming up doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming and if you would like me to take you through a vocal warm up I’ve provided one for you HERE.

3. Make sure you are taking in enough air

This is about breathing and airflow. When you’re having fun and singing along to your favourite tune, it is very easy to forget to breathe properly and take in enough air. This is why it’s important to work on your breathing for singing first so that this just becomes habit and you don’t have to think about it.

But for now, if you haven’t done this training , just try to remember to take in a deep breath before you go for any big notes.

4. Open your mouth wider when you sing

Opening your mouth wide when you sing honestly makes an instant difference to the quality of your sound and most singers don’t realise that they are not opening their mouths enough. To test yourself, take a video of yourself on your iPhone or sing in front of the mirror and see just how much you are actually moving your mouth.

As soon as you open your mouth a bit more and drop your jaw it creates more space within your mouth improves your vocal placement and vocal tone sounds better.

So there you have it four tips to help you improve your vocal tone and make your voice clear for singing, even if you’re just starting out.

Now I have a challenge for you: go any try out at least one of these tips for yourself and then come and tell me if you think they helped in the comments below – I really would love to hear from you.

Lots of love,

Nicola xx

Related: Sing Better Instantly! My Top 5 Hacks.