When you first begin to build your singing technique, you often get the fastest and best results when you work with the different parts of your voice in isolation. This means being given various technical exercises by a well-qualified teacher in order to find the necessary muscle coordination. The goal is for you to produces a free, healthy and powerful vocal sound. Often times, these exercises will sound pretty strange to the untrained ear; yet, it is usually very necessary to work like this in order to more quickly and efficiently fulfill the goal of singing in a “full-voiced” sound.
Often during these early training periods you can misunderstand the purpose for working these “unfinished” sounds. You may not always see the “big picture;” you might not realize that this is a very temporary phase in your vocal development. It is essential for you to refrain from making a lot of decisions about your voice during these early phases of development, because it can be quite difficult to perceive how the odd sounds you are being asked to make could ever be something you would ever use in singing.
A good teacher will always reemphasize what is actually happening, and reassure you that what you are doing is actually quite powerful for your voice in the long run. A good teacher will also demonstrate to you how these odd sounds are actually a part of a full voiced sound by moving from isolation to balance, back and forth, so you can get a clear example of what your ultimate goal is. This audible demonstration of what is happening can make all the difference in the world.
When working with a teacher, you should feel safe and free to question what the purposes of the exercises are and to ask for demonstrations of how these sounds apply to a more usable and professional sound. These types of demonstrations can help you to feel much more enthusiastic about making all these weird noises.
Once you become excited about the process, you will find that you tend practice with much more frequency and motivation and then are able to move beyond the unfinished sounds quite rapidly. However, if you are not convinced of the efficacy of the exercises that you are being asked to practice, you may be half-hearted in your attempts to practice these sounds at home, and thus may never gain much from them.
If you are a beginner and are working with some odd sounds, take heart. Some of the most legendary voices in history have gone through the very thing you are going through right now. The more you embrace the process and enjoy it, the more quickly your voice will develop and the sooner you can move on to singing what you really want to sing.
