Great, I Can Do the Voice Exercises. Now what?

Does this sound like you?...  

"I’ve been singing along with the exercises, and I can do them and it’s all good, but I just feel that I don’t GET it. I don’t see how doing these scale-based and word-based exercises (ya, ha, ee, etc) will get me to where I want to be. I feel like I'm waiting for some sort of explanation as to what this is meant to achieve [...]  So… why did I do what I just did? And what am I supposed to do now?"

Yes, there's a big difference between doing singing exercises, and actually singing a song.  Sometimes the transition requires some work, sometimes it just "happens".

Think about learning to ride a bike with training wheels.

The training wheels kept you upright.  They were a natural correction device, bringing you back in line whenever you tipped too far.  And the more you rode, the better you learned to ride, and the less you needed the training wheels. 

 In the same way, voice exercises make singing easier by encouraging you to sing correctly.  They keep you on a narrow path.  They help you to sing correctly, so you can let your muscles form memory of what that feels like.  

But, back to the bike analogy:  You weren't just mindlessly riding along, logging time on the bike.  You were observing, focusing, experimenting.  You were trying to ride "for real" - little by little, slowly. You can do this, too, with voice.   

You can transition from singing with training wheels, to singing "for real".   

Here's how:  

1) Match up a song where you're having some sort of issue, to an exercise that deals with that issue.  

2) Work on the exercise until you're doing it right. Notice how it feels in your body. 

3) Sing the song using the syllable(s) from the exercise, instead of the lyrics of the song. Just sing "nay nay nay" or "mum mum mum" or whatever the exercise tells you to do. Focus on making the song feel like the exercise felt.

4) Take one word or syllable of the song, and change the exercise to use that syllable or word. See if you can still do the exercise.

5) Sing a line of the song now, keeping in mind how it should feel and sound.  Take your time.

6) Finally work up to doing the entire song using what you learned.