There's Singin' - and Then There's Singing Quiz

Answer: Slightly apart

When standing to sing - and it's advisable to always try to sing in that position - the legs and feet should be slightly apart for just enough distance between them to give you a good sense of balance. You do NOT stand with them a mile apart, or with one leg in front of the other (that makes you look as if you're trying to prevent your pants from falling down), or with one pointing to the side, or in a kneeling position. All these incorrect stances interfere with your posture and breathing.

Answer: Relaxed and by your sides

Always relaxed and never, ever clenched. By clenching your hands, you'll begin to clench the rest of your body eventually, and if that happens, you're in trouble. Once again, your breathing will be constricted and you will begin to stress with the high notes. If possible, your arms should also be allowed to hang loosely by your sides, with gestures kept to an absolute minimum, or, preferably, none at all. If you take note of the top singers of classical songs, you'll see that they seldom move their hands and arms around but always keep them relaxed, open and down.

Answer: Relaxed and down

This is very important indeed. Inexperienced singers, unless they're made aware of this fact, will always tighten their shoulders muscles and tend to raise them up as well. This immediately creates the problem of preventing your lungs to filling to their capacity, it constricts your breathing and it prevents the sound from emerging comfortably and pleasantly. One tip when singing is to check your shoulders (in your mind) from time to time. If you have them raised (usually out of nervousness), relax them immediately. You will feel a lot better and your vocal projection will improve.

Answer: In line with your neck and hips

Singers should always keep their head, neck, spine and hips in as straight a vertical line as possible. With those shoulders down and relaxed, you won't believe the difference this will make to your vocal projections. This is because your lungs are not constricted in any way, and you will have a noticeable improvement in their oxygen capacity.

It also enables the sound to emerge far easier than otherwise.

Answer: At right angles to your neck

Also extremely important. And of course, remembering that that neck should be in alignment with your spine as above. Your chin should be at right angles to the rest of your body. Never EVER thrust it forward as talent quest singers tend to do when stretching for a note, and never EVER tuck it in to your neck, as they do when going for a low note. It should always be maintained at that right angle. And while you're at it, never ever look to the ground when singing. That stops the sound from emerging correctly. Finally, never ever suddenly jerk it to one side at the end of a word, imagining this looks very professional to an audience. It doesn't. Instead it will have the effect of strangling the word you are singing, and it will make you look as though you have an uncontrollable tic. You use your tongue and lips to cut off those troublesome T and D sounds at the ends of words instead.

As you see, body positioning is extremely important for the production of comfortable and easy singing. If you maintain these tips every time you sing, after a while you will be doing them automatically. Remember: chin straight, neck, spine and hips aligned, hands relaxed and open, feet slightly apart and shoulders down.

Answer: Controlled but relaxed

The importance of correct breathing cannot be stressed enough during singing. While you're learning to sing correctly, your fully trained teacher should be giving you breathing exercises that will enable you to produce quick staccato notes, or long prolonged ones. You will also be taught how to fill your lungs from the bottom up, the importance of controlling your diaphragm and stomach muscles, how to control the amount and placement of air needed for each note, and where your breath should be placed as it is exhaled. Physiologically speaking, every song is about your breath, and your breathing.

Answer: With the breath behind them

This is why correct and controlled breathing has been stressed during this quiz. Every word you enunciate during singing should emerge with the breath BEHIND it, floating out over the heads of your audience. You will also learn where to direct those individual sounds. That placement is behind your top front teeth. If you try to make the sound emerge from the back of your throat, you will sound strangled, and if you try to produce the breath BEFORE the sound, you will diminish its volume more than considerably. Every single word coming out of your mouth should be placed (with the aid of your breath) as far to the front and as high up as possible. You will learn to do this automatically after constant practice and lessons.

Try this now: Take the word "star" and sing it as high as possible from the back of your throat, shoulders hunched and without taking a breath beforehand. Rather ghastly, yes? Now take a deep breath, keep your shoulders down and straight, and, using your breath behind the sound, direct that word up to the back of your top front teeth, singing it as high as possible. As the "ar" sound is emerging, control the breath coming out behind it. Did you notice the difference? The first time sounds strangled and shrill, the second time, higher, sweeter and richer.

You do exactly the same thing with your low notes - and remember to control and use your stomach muscles. This will come with practice. Another trick you will learn with high and low notes is, just before you sing them, to drop your shoulders and pull your stomach in at the same time. That has the effect of pushing more breath up behind the sound and allowing you to take the note to its full length, holding on to it for as long as the music notation indicates.

Answer: The vowels

Singing is also all about vowels. They're the most important part of every single word you sing. You always, always hang onto the vowel sound, and not the beginning or the ending of a word. With the word "sleep" for example, you attack the "sl" go straight onto the "ee" for the duration of the note, and then crisply finish the "p". Never ever sing that word, for example, as "sleepppppppppp" or "ssssllllllleep". It should always be "sleeeeeep".

Nor do we sing those vowel sounds as we say them in ordinary conversation, particularly the long vowels. Instead, these are sung as follows:

- The long vowel sound "ay" should be sung as "air". It still comes out sounding as "ay". Try singing DAY as "d-air", for example.
- The vowel sound "ee" should be sound with a short "i" sound as in "hit". Try singing WEEP as "w-iii-p".
- The vowel sound "I" as in "buy" should be sung as "ar". Try singing MIGHT as "m-arrr-t".
- The vowel sound "o" as in dough, should be sung as "aw". Trying singing HOME as "h-awww-m".
- The vowel sound "u" as in "you" should be sung as "oo" as in book. Trying singing YOU as y-oo.

One more thing with vowels, as you will be taught, is to maintain a very slight vibrato when singing them. This allows the voice to move very minutely around the note and always return to the centre. This comes with practice. If you try to sing a long vowel without that vibrato, your note will gradually go flat.

Answer: No

Watch any talent quest on television today and you'll see most of the untrained performers jumping around the stage as if their very lives depended upon it, screwing their faces up in agony trying to convey an imagined emotion, and bending their knees and scrunching forward from the waist as if they're about to be to be killed, but with them thinking they're giving a very moving interpretation of the song.

One: You should never move around any performance area when singing. It makes your voice wobble and you will eventually become breathless. Unless a stage direction specifically calls for you to do otherwise, stay on the same spot when you sing. Constantly moving about, unless you're carrying one of those detestable microphones, will send your voice all over the place, so that no one member of an audience will hear the entire song correctly. I say detestable microphones because these have the ability to pick up every single imperfection in a voice. They should only ever be used in a huge hall - and then only after considerable practice. Otherwise, with correct training and practice, your voice, without a mike, should be able to reach every part of smaller rooms.

Two: You should never ever screw your face up when singing or you will choke off your breath production, and you will sound terrible. And look worse. Every song contains its own emotion within its words. Your job is to sing that song as written, following the composer's directions, not try to basically re-write it. Use your eyes expressively to convey feeling. Screwing up your face theatrically makes you look as though your teeth are aching.

Three: bending the knees and scrunching forward from the waist not only looks as though singers are constipated, but, far worse, deprives their lungs of the necessary air they need for the song - and they end up having to take multiple breaths in all the wrong places in the number. You should only ideally take a breath where a comma is indicated in the lyrics.

Answer: Yes, most days

You bet your sweet Beethoven it is. Becoming a trained and competent singer, classical or otherwise, doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of practice and constant scales and breathing exercises on a daily basis. You may be born with a nice voice, but unless you maintain all the steps above, continue to go to your singing lessons, and practice, practice, practice every day, you have cheated, not only yourself, but your audiences as well. It is hard work, very demanding, and at times you'll want to give up - BUT its one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever know. Singing releases happy chemicals in your brains, it fills you with confidence, it gives you excellent posture and enunciation during your everyday life, and you will be giving the gift of joy to the world. YOU will have the ability to make people happy.

Oh - two more things: One - never ever smoke if you wish to perfect your voice. It completely wrecks it, and your teacher, who should always be trained via a conservatorium or by a conservatorium trained teacher, will sack you from his or her studio, and Two - never go on stage without first warming up your voice by singing a few scales and exercises for about fifteen minutes before your performance. It prepares the voice for the performance, loosens it up if you like, just like any athlete warming up and loosening their muscles before a race.