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How do I practice correctly and get rid of bad habits?

Hi there,
There is something I noticed about myself when I do the exercises or sing in general.

1. There are many times where I would get unnecessary tension and a burning sensation around my throat and palate area when I sing or do exercises. I believe they are from the bad habits I picked up singing through the years without training. How do I get rid of the habits?

2. When doing the lip bubbles exercises ( or any exercises for that matter), do I have to do them the Ron Anderson way (only way I can describe it)? Making the sound hollow (almost drooping sound) and doing it from the front/mask area of the face to avoid the first passaggio?

3.There are times no matter how much pressure or support I 'TRY' to give on my diaphragm, I can't relieve tension or "open" up when singing high or belting. There will be times where I feel open but at the same time I dont feel completely free of tension.

4. Most importantly, Through the years, I think I developed a problem of "copying" other singers, sometimes I will be able to sing F4~F#4 with ease with a lower tone voice that is belting, but sometimes I won't be able to reach it when singing a particular song due to my bad habit of having a certain "tone" with a song, caused by using another type of voice. So in conclusion, I feel like I don't know what true singing tone is and no matter how I hard I try to sing a song in what I think is my voice, It comes out horribly in pitch,tone,etc, UNLESS I sing it the way the original singer sounds and that causes bad technique and pain.

I am slowly losing confidence in my goal to make it as a singer..

Comments

  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    @dk_

    We need to See/Hear a demo. We don't know what your bad habits are.

    The way to practice is to practice correct singing techniques and avoid bad habits.

    You should not be experiencing a burning sensation or excessive tension in your palate.

    There is no such thing as Zero tension when singing. It is the MANAGEMENT of the tension that naturally occurs that you need to learn to do.

    You can't even lift a finger or an arm without tensioning a muscle.

    You should not overtension, or have excessive stress when singing.

    You have lumped a lot of questions together here, but we need demos to see and hear what you are talking about in order to offer suggestions.

    All the Best.

    Bob
  • davo165davo165 Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 62
    Be careful u arnt using too much tension in abs, support can be weird
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    A burning sensation makes me wonder if you have an issue with acid reflux. That would cause a burning sensation in the palate and throat, and is not caused by your singing, but by acid reflux.
  • dk_dk_ Member Posts: 32
    I will upload a demo of singing a part of a song / exercise as soon as possible.
    I do suffer from acid reflux sometimes however it doesn't really feel like acid reflux.
    It feels more of the excessive air is straining/bringing tension my vocal chords or somewhere around soft palate.
    Now, I don't know if that is what it is but only what it FEELS like, and it only happens sometimes and randomly. More often on lip bubbles than anything else. and when singing higher pitch and tone songs softly.
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Just as a note, if you are using excessive air, then you may have issues with insufficient support. Support is used to reduce the pressure you place on your cords.
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