There are many different aspects of singing that when you put all together give you the means to create your own unique voice. Any serious singer should grasp as many techniques and ideas to help gain their true potential and ensure a long lasting career.

I have developed my own structure of teaching with many methods to enable all my students to find their voice and to take singing to the highest level. These methods cover these various areas:

Breath control and support

Breath control is the most important aspect of singing that all vocalists should learn. You may have heard the terms "belly breathing" or "diaphragmatic breathing". The breathing technique is the same, whatever it is called, there are just many exercises and ways to get the best out of your respiratory system. With the right breath support, you will find that everything you do in singing is a lot less effort and much more controlled.

Vocal range

Every singer is unique and every singer has a slightly different range. You may have heard of "soprano" or "tenor" for example. These are good ways of defining your vocal range but you must realise that still, there will be differences from one tenor to the next. We all have our own natural voice, which are the sections of our voice we find easiest to sing in, however, every vocalist should look at defining and expanding the range, thus making more notes easy to sing, and giving vocalists more options in terms of creating vocal interest.

Vocal breaks

Vocal breaks are areas where vocalist switches from one section of the voice to another (e.g. chest voice to head voice). All vocalists should gain the ability to change from one section to another without the break being obvious or difficult. By using various exercises, the aim is to blend the sections together creating a feeling of the voice, from bottom to top, being seamless.

Power

Within extreme singing, it is very important to have a big strong voice, displaying a great powerful ability. To gain a good powerful voice, you need to have a good grasp of resonation and projection. It's very easy to use your body in a harmful way to create power, usually ending up with damage to the vocal chords or loss of voice. With the right training, powerful vocals are not as physically demanding as you may believe they are and can assure a healthy long lasting career.

Rasp

We all have our own natural voice and some people are born with a raspy tone already, however, I know many vocalists who wish to create this tone. This requires a good understanding of vocal anatomy and the use of the true and false vocal chords. Once you understand where to create the sound without using any force, you can create a great raspy tone and still maintain a healthy voice.

Growling & Screaming

These techniques use the same ideas as creating rasp, however, think of rasp as adding a grit to a note, where as screaming or growling is just pure grit! These two sounds are very similar but using different sections of the voice. Much the same as any other vocal ideas, every vocalist is different, so the sound that will be produced is going to be different for each vocalist. The key for these vocal techniques is to go for it... If you hold back, you won't be using the voice in the right way and you won't get the sound you are wanting. You must let your self go and be relaxed.

Flexibility

Every vocalist should aspire to having a flexible voice. This is the idea that you can jump around your voice quickly with great ease and control.

Stamina

As a prolific performer myself, I know what it is like to need vocal stamina. If you are looking at going on tour or spending some time in the studio, you need to have the ability to keep going. There are various exercises and techniques to help maintain vocal stability and stamina in these contexts.

Warm-up

All vocalists should develop a good warm-up routine. What works for you may not work for someone else so it is important to tailor your warm-up (and cool-down) to suit your specific needs.