Below, I have described what ideal practice looks like. Ideal practice is not possible all the time. Practicing when you can, in the way that you can, is better than not practicing at all. Make the most of any time you have to practice. If you’re singing in the shower, use that time to do warm ups. If you’re singing in the car, pay attention to your technique while you do it. That being said, here is how students should practice on a regular basis (at least five days a week). All students should practice at least five days a week for the length of their lesson.
The day after your lesson, listen to/watch your lesson recording and take lots of notes, in and out of your music. These notes will be invaluable during your practice sessions all week. Make an extra copy to turn in at your next lesson. Keep a copy of all your lesson notes in your music binder. When you don’t know how to solve a technical problem, go back through your lesson notes to find the answer.
Practice at least five days a week. Do not count the day of your lesson. This can be all at once, or split up into shorter segments throughout the day. When you feel yourself fatiguing, or anything hurting, first, try to adjust your technique. If the pain continues, it is time to step away and take a break.
If you do practice the day of your lesson, do so afterwards and only briefly. Lessons cause a lot of strain on the voice and should not be paired with an intense or lengthy practice session. The day of your lesson is a good time to do “silent practice” – working on the acting, learning your translations, learning notes and rhythms, etc.
Warming up should comprise the first 15-20 minutes of your practice time every day. Warm up time is not simply a chance to warm the voice. It is your time to work on pure technique. Everything you practice during your “warm up” can be applied to everything else you sing, and thus, it is the most valuable part of your practice session. Never skip warming up, even if you only do it for five minutes.
Using your lesson recordings, make a list of all the warm ups we are currently working on in lessons. These have been specifically chosen for you to advance your technical progress and solve any technical issues you might have. Practice them the exact same order and manner as they are done in the lesson. For example, if the exercise requires you to speak the phrase up and down the scale before singing it while moving your hands in a certain way, take the time to do that in your practice time.
Next in your practice session, work on specific parts of songs that you have already learned. Use your lesson notes to identify problem areas in the song. Go straight to those parts and start working on them using the techniques we used in the lesson. When you feel like you have made some progress on these sections, you can try recording yourself singing some or all of the song. Listen to this recording, and take notes on what improved, what you liked, and what you didn’t. Then, use the notes you just made to go back to working on specific problem portions. Record the song again when you feel you’ve made progress. This cycle of “work on details,” “record,” “listen back and take notes” can repeat until the end of your practice session. Or, you can spend the end of your practice session learning new songs as described below.
When working on the acting in a song, if you have already done the written work of finding your objectives, putting in subtext and verbs, etc, then you can use your phone to video record yourself singing the song. Use the same cycle of recording, taking notes, and working on the details as above to make improvements.
Working on your songs as described above is the best possible way to memorize them. By working on them, recording them, and listening to/watching them repeatedly, the song cannot help but sink into your brain. Working on the acting is particularly beneficial for memorization.
Some people have more trouble memorizing songs than others. If you are practicing as described above, and still having trouble with memorization, speak to your teacher about other memorization techniques.
The key to learning songs accurately and quickly is to divide the different elements in a song and tackle them separately. Rather than trying to learn the rhythm, words, notes, dynamics, and articulation simultaneously at the actual speed of the song, slow the song down and work on a couple of these elements at a time.
· Monologue all your songs.
· Speak the words in rhythm, taking a slower tempo if necessary.
· If you are singing a foreign language song, be sure to write in a word for word translation above the text.
o Hint: if a translation rhymes, it is NOT word for word.
o If a translation can be sung, it is NOT word for word.
o Best resource for translations: lieder.net
· Use a piano to plunk out your pitches.
· Sing the pitches in rhythm, on a nonsense syllable like “dee” or “la.” Again, change the tempo if necessary.
· As you become confident, you can add more elements together.
· Speed should come last. Learning fast songs too quickly teaches you to sing the song without proper technique and with excess tension. This results in the need for a lot more technical work in the long run. It is worth taking your time when learning a new piece: it saves you time and effort later.
· “Un-learning” wrong notes and rhythms is much more difficult than learning them the right way the first time. Actually read your music when you learn new songs. Do not just listen to recordings and look at the words. Cover up the words when you are working on new music to ensure you are actually reading the music that is on the page.
· Do the acting work on every song you sing. Write in subtext, verbs, “I’m going to blank by blanking blank,” objectives, tactics, etc.