I used to sing with October Thorns, you can check out our stuff at MP3.com as well as monkey finger-toes.
I took a few lessons and have read a few books but most of this comes from about 15 years of experience and fucking up until I got it right. These excersises worked really well for me.
Good luck!
Vocals:
One key element to singing correctly is relaxation. There should be not tension in any part of the body. A good way to know what this feels like is to force a yawn. When youre done your mouth, throat and face will feel loose. Remember that feeling and try to get that same feeling when you sing. The tongue should lie against the back of your bottom teeth with no tension in it. You should feel no tightness in the back of your throat, your nasal passages or your shoulders.
Try to think of singing as a series of pure tones that are only momentarily interrupted by consonants. These consonants should be flicked into the tonal flow without interrupting the pure sound for more than an instant.
The voice resonates in three major centers- the chest, throat and face or mask. Different pitches have different ratios of where they are in these tone centers. Try to keep as many of these centers resonating and air passages as free as possible. Force yourself to sound like a pompous opera singer and then you can pick and choose which parts of that tone are useful.
These main vowel sounds are where you should start-
AH EH IH OH OOH, basically aeiou.
Completely relax yourself , yawn and let out an AH. This should be your own personal tone, where your body naturally resonates. This is the standard AUM or God tone and has been used for thousands of years in Eastern meditation for relaxation and for clearing the mind and spirit. Pretty advanced for a singing lesson but its valid. Try to relax and feel where the note vibrates in your chest, throat and nasal passages.
Breathing. Its very important to have good breath support under your notes. A solid pressure from a good breath will help maintain pitch and tone and take tension away from the throat. Many times when we run out breath we can still keep singing by wringing the last few puffs from our empty lungs. When you feel the energy for your singing rise from your belly up into your chest and throat, you arent getting enough breath support. Learn to take quick deep breaths that extend your belly (where the diaphragm is). This is like a small bellows that pulls down and pushes the belly out while drawing the lungs full of air. Allow the rib cage and chest to slightly rise but DO NOT let the shoulders or neck get involved, remain loose and calm. Also remember not to overdo it and take HUGE gulps of air. Just a nice full medium breath.
Go through the vowels slowly and then add consonants one by one remembering not to linger on them, just flick them into the tone and return the whole mechanism to that open path immediately. This gets you in shape to sing complicated words without getting all tongue-twisted.
AH EH IH OH OOH
ME MA MEH MEE MY MA MOO
TOE TA TAE TEE TA TOE TOO
LO LA LAY LEE LA LO LOO
NO NA NAY NEE NA NO NOO
KO KA KAY KEE KA KO KOO
The key is relaxation! So relax Godammit!
Seriously remember that all successful people make their endeavors appear effortless. Same thing goes for vocals. You will be great singers when you feel no stress and it doesnt hurt and what you do doesnt cause you to loose your voice.
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