What No One Will Tell You But You Need to Hear About Your Singing

To be honest, I came up with the title for post, accidentally deleted all my drafted content associated with it, and returned months later this wonderful title positioned above a 100% blank page. I couldn’t help but think, “Yes Jenny, please do tell us what we need to hear about our singing (that no one else will tell us?!).” I myself was on the edge of my seat!

WHAT DO I NEED TO HEAR ABOUT MY SINGING?

I took a deep breath and remembered this:

The secret lies not in the act of singing, but in the act of preparing to sing.

Many singers dedicate their energy to the actual “singing” part of the process. You may listen to yourself and criticize your pitch accuracy. You may worry about whether you should be using your “chest voice” or your “head voice.” You hear problems with your tone and work mid-phrase to improve it.

Sounds sensible, right? After all, this is singing. Shouldn’t the SINGING be the emphasis?

No, actually. I’ll tell you why:

The problem with this approach is that it’s a band-aid cycle. You’re just reacting to problems you hear and troubleshooting each individual problem one-by-one. (That’s really overwhelming, by the way.) What if you’re focusing on the wrong part of the process? What if you could invest your energy, instead, on the milliseconds that take place before the singing happens? I call this “Vocal Preparation.”

Preparation is everything.

When you hear ‘preparation,’ you may think of an athlete preparing for a game, a student preparing for a test, or a Pastor preparing a sermon. All these are examples of preparation that happens in the days or weeks leading up to an event. You may imagine the rehearsals, materials, or memorization involved in a singer preparing well. But that’s not the kind of preparation I’m talking about today.

This kind of preparation is rapid, silent, and invisible to the untrained eye. Happening within a second or less, it’s almost instantaneous. For this kind of preparation, you don't need lyric sheets or a sound check. All you'll need is good ole' body awareness and coordination, because...

This kind of preparation is a skill you build.

So if we’re not focusing on the singing, what are we focusing on? What happens in the milliseconds before we sing? The inhale. That’s right, friends, we’re gathered here today to talk about your inhale!

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “This post is about BREATHING?! Thanks, Captain Obvious. Every voice teacher out there is talking about breathing.”

BUT. NOT. LIKE. THIS.

Vocal Preparation is much more than “just breathe in your belly.” It starts with that, yes; But what I teach extends so far beyond that, and it changes everything about the vocal tone that follows.

WHAT IS VOCAL PREPARATION?

Vocal Preparation is using the inhale to create the conditions you need to knock it out of the park when you sing! It's perfecting the sound before beat one.

Accurate pitch.

Steady tone.

Long phrases without running out of air.

Volume.

Strength.

What if I told you that you could cultivate all of these things with one action? What if you could set up all the conditions you need for all these results within the same second?

What if you don’t need all the band-aids? What if, instead, all you need to conquer is your inhale?

THIS is what no one will tell you but you need to hear about your singing — it’s actually not about the singing. It’s about how well you prepare to sing. (Good news: it’s so much simpler than anyone has ever made you think.)

It really is possible to conquer your sound before beat 1…

…because it’s all in the preparation.

With vocal preparation you’ll:

1. Take in a diaphragmatic inhale.

2. Lift your soft palate for accurate pitch and a full tone.

3. Drop your jaw for more volume.

4. Open up your rib cage for longer breath management.

5. Wake up your core muscles for stronger singing.

6. Be prepared for an effective exhale that carries the tone.

7. Stay ahead of unwanted tension and prevent common singing problems.

That list sounds like an awful lot of things to doing at once. How is it possible?

The key is to understand that you’re not doing 7 different things at once. Rather, you’re doing one thing that accomplishes 7 benefits at once — a quality inhale.

So imagine having the power to create all these positive conditions simultaneously. Imagine that instead of working on a laundry list of vocal techniques, you only had to master one.

HOW CAN I CREATE VOCAL PREPARATION IN MY SINGING?

A trick that works for many of my voice students is to breathe in like you’re about to yawn — aka the “pre-yawn position.”

When you begin to yawn, it’s natural to breathe low, lift your soft palate, drop your jaw, expand in the rib cage, and use your deep core muscles.

You can experiment with this trick and use it not just before a song begins, but also continue it throughout all of your singing. Over time, this skill will become habitual. You’ll grow in your ability to naturally coordinate it well. And it will create in you an ability to sing in ways you didn't think possible.

My vocal technique course, Singer Set Free, is built to help you master Vocal Preparation, so that you can set your best voice free while also experiencing a simpler way of singing. Episode after episode, I outline different vocal techniques and teach you how to make them a part of your Vocal Preparation. So that at performance time, you won't be thinking about ALL the vocal techniques at once.

You'll only be thinking about one technical thing you need to do well: solid Vocal Preparation during your inhale.

So here’s what no one else tells you about your singing: You don’t have to be bogged down with a traditional box of “singer band-aids.” You can be proactive instead.

You don’t have to juggle a hundred different singing solutions. You can focus your energy on one act that is far more simple and effective: Vocal Preparation. With the right skills in-hand, you’ll set your best voice free and be able to shift your focus to performing and communicating with your audience. Build the right skills so you can focus on making art. That's the important part!

After all, singing should be creative, fun, and expressive — not mechanical or exhausting. It’s time to put the singer band-aids away and set your best voice free.

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Hey, I'm Jenny. I songwrite, perform, and teach. I help singers break through vocal barriers, rock auditions, and become one-take vocalists. I love making great singing easier and more attainable than you thought it could be. This blog is my place to dig into vocal technique and unpack what it takes to connect and communicate honestly with an audience.

Everything about my musicianship and teaching is outside-the-box, instinctive, and fun. That's what makes this such a great place to hang out. I invite you to stay a while, check out my music, and see how this blog can impact your vocal skills and refresh your love for performing.