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Introduction

I’m so happy you chose this book! Whether you’re a shower singer or you secretly desire to sing on a stage, this book is for you. The book is full of helpful information covering all aspects of singing, from posture and breathing to vocal health and techniques for increasing your range. Absolutely no experience is necessary! Even if you know zero about singing, you’re going to have a great time exploring your singing voice.

You can’t develop your singing voice overnight; it takes time. Some people are born with a voice ready to sing at the Hollywood Bowl, but most people who like to sing have to work on their voice to prepare it for the first performance. Whichever category you fit into, this book has some valuable information for you.

Exercising the singing voice is the ticket to improving your technique. The exercises in the book are similar to what you may encounter in a voice lesson or a class about singing. By working on exercises, you give your body a chance to figure out exactly how to make the sounds. After you get the technical details cooking, you can apply that information to your songs and sound even better.

You may not have someone there listening to you as you practice, but you find suggestions throughout the book on how to listen to your voice and critique it for yourself so that you can improve every time you practice.

About This Book

Singing For Dummies, 3rd Edition, is designed as a reference guide, not as a tutorial, and includes exercises to help you improve your singing. Flip through and look for parts that interest you. (For that matter, I recommend that you also go through the parts that don’t interest you — who knows what you may discover about your voice?) What’s important to remember is that you don’t have to read this book from cover to cover to improve your singing; look for the topics you need and use both the exercises and the online tracks to develop your best voice.

The online tracks are an important partner to your book. You can find them at www.dummies.com/go/singingfd3e. The exercises work the technical info that you read about in the book. You hear a pattern played for you on the piano, a singer demonstrates the pattern for you, and the pattern is repeated several times for you to sing along. Just singing songs is cool, but you want to work on technique to get your songs to sound great. If you work on the articulation exercises on the tracks and then apply that information and skill to songs, you can sing with great skill and be understood. If you’ve never had lessons, you may not see the benefit of the exercises in the beginning, or they may seem difficult. Keep trying them during your practice sessions, and you may see how quickly the exercises can help you to sing.

Chapter 10 gives you ideas on developing a practice routine to coordinate all the information that you read in the book with what you hear on the online tracks. After you plot out your practice routine, keep the tracks handy so you can choose which tracks to practice. Sing along during your regular practice sessions or in your car as you drive. That’s cool, as long as you pay attention to your driving.

Because many people respond quickly to imagery, I include ways to use imagery to help you improve your singing. Knowing the mechanics works well for some singers, and others prefer knowing what to think about or visualize as they sing. If you want to know what to listen for, I give you that information as well. I also explain the exercises by having you do something physical. Sometimes just feeling the movement in your body gets the idea across. Whatever way you prefer to use, you can find it in this book.

Here are some conventions that I use throughout this book:

 I spell out the vowel sound for you or use symbols found in Webster’s dictionary, because that’s most common to new singers and nonsingers.

 Throughout the book you have opportunities to sing specific vowel sounds. One vowel sound may need a little explanation. I use the shape “a” for the vowel sound in the words cat, hat, or Matt. For the vowel sound in the words father, plaza, or blah, I use “ah.” You can practice these sounds in Chapter 8 so you know what to do when you see them in other places in the book.

 Musical styles continue to change and the terms used to describe the styles also continue to change. If you read the history of pop or rock music, you’ll see a long list of titles to describe each era. I use the term pop-rock for songs that can cross over into both styles. It’s common to see a great song listed on the hit-song list for different styles of music. In Chapter 14 you can read about the sounds used in different styles, but know that pop-rock refers to a song that could fit in either style.

 I use musical examples throughout the book to give you a visual explanation of the exercises on the online tracks. You can read an explanation about musical notation in Chapter 1. There you find information about how the little circles on the page correspond with the notes on the piano and the notes you’ll sing in specific parts of your range.

Foolish Assumptions

Because you’re reading this book, I assume that you have an interest in singing and discovering how to improve your singing. You don’t need any previous knowledge about singing. You can find information for beginners, as well as advanced information for singers who have some experience.

Icons Used in This Book

This icon tells you that a track on the online tracks at www.dummies.com/go/singingfd3e corresponds to the information in the chapter.

This information is so helpful that you should store it in your memory bank.

This icon highlights detailed explanations that you may find really interesting or may just want to skip right over.

The Tip icon emphasizes good advice from someone who has already made the mistake and wants to save you the trouble.

To avoid making a blunder or injuring your voice, pay attention to what these paragraphs have to say.

Beyond This Book

In addition to what you’re reading in the print or e-book, you can check out some extra goodies and reference them when you want, check out the Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com and search for “Singing For Dummies Cheat Sheet.” You can also find the audio files of the example tracks at http://www.dummies.com/go/singingfd3e.

Where to Go from Here

If you have no singing experience, you may want to start with Chapter 1 and work your way through the chapters in order. However, this book is designed to allow you to jump in anywhere you want and start swimming through information that’s completely understandable. If you have some singing experience, choose whatever chapter appeals to you. You may have to refer to other chapters occasionally if you missed a definition, but otherwise, you’re free to roam the chapters at your own pace and in any order. As you work through the exercises in this book, you want to have the basic technical skills of breathing (see Chapter 4) and tone (see Chapters 5 and 6) readily available. If you find yourself struggling, you may want to go straight to Chapter 3 to make sure that you have proper singing posture.