voice therapy by song

[Erin Kay Howell]

Anyone have any suggestions for practicing ones voice with singing? Specific songs that challenge your range/pitch?

[RedFox]

I actually picked up singstar for the PS3.  The original game, the abba version, and the two mics (all used) cost me about $25 US.  Lots of songs and it judges your pitch.. plus you can get instant feedback on how you sound.

As for what songs.. whatever you like.  You can sing male or female roles in a female voice.  Or switch back and forth and work on your range.

[RosieD]

I started by singing along to Tori Amos which hurt quite a lot for about 3 months. After that I moved on to Cerys Mathews and it was like starting from scratch. Three months later I was Ok singing along with Cerys and had not been mis-gendered on the phone for weeks.

Singing was all I really wanted to do for voice training as I have always enjoyed it and would have found exercises incredibly dull. Luckily it seems to have done the trick.

My biggest tip would be not to ever overwork your voice. Start at really low volumes and stop as soon as it starts hurting - which was only around 90 seconds when I started. Increased volume and vocal stamina will come with timeand it really is much better to sing a little and often than completely monster your voice then not be able to speakthe nnext day.

Rosie, X.