How to Project Your Voice when You're Singing

Last Updated: May 2, 2022 References Approved

Learning how to project your voice when you sing actually makes singing easier. It’s also better for your voice, and it can make your singing sound more beautiful. The best part? It’s not hard to learn! You'll notice a difference just by making simple changes to the way you sing and doing some basic vocal exercises, and below we'll walk you through how to get started.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Projecting Power to Your Voice

1
Make sure you have good posture. If you don't, you won't physically be able to project. Stand up straight and keep your back and shoulders straight but relaxed.
- A great way to perfect your posture is to imagine you’re a marionette puppet on stage and that a string is holding you upright by the top of your head by a puppet master.^{[1]
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  Research source} Your posture will be perfect but in a much more relaxed way.
- Maintain straight posture, but do it in a way that it doesn’t place too much tension onto your body. You want your focus to be on singing, not on how uncomfortable your body feels in that position.^{[2]
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Spread your feet out about shoulder width apart. This is where most of your power will come from. You can stand in a relaxed position where your feet are a few inches apart and one foot is slightly in front of the other.

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3
Sing from the diaphragm. Singing from the throat can feel like second nature to an untrained singer, but it is actually the worst thing you can do for your vocal cords and is not the best way to try to project.
- Support your voice through breath control. Pull breath from your diaphragm and abdomen muscles by breathing slowly and deeply into your belly. Regulate the amount of breath you use by releasing the breath in a controlled way versus exhaling quickly with force.
- While you sing, imagine that your mouth is a resonator guitar. Unlike typical acoustic guitars where the sound comes from the top of the guitar, sound leaves the resonator guitar through the bridge to the resonator, one or more of the spun metal cones.^{[3]
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  Research source} A resonator uses vibrations to project along the guitar’s mouth. Replicate that effect and pull your singing voice to the areas around your mouth where you feel the sound vibrating to project while you sing.
4
Practice placing your voice. Vocal placement is important for vocal projection and is essential to learning how to put your voice in the “forward” position it needs to be in for optimal projection.
- Find this by practicing humming exercises. Hum at the end of “mmm” sounds. This will help you feel vibrations and resonance in your face near your mouth and nasal area.^{[4]
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- Don’t pay attention to how you hear yourself in your head, instead focus on this area to learn where your voice will come from. This creates less force when you sing.
5
Sing towards your audience. Facing the audience directly, versus turning your back towards them, while you sing makes it easier for you to be heard. Stand at an angle to ensure that your voice is heard as loudly and clearly as possible.^{[5]
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- Place your focus on the back of the auditorium or the room to help the sound of your voice carry by giving its range a focal point.^{[6]
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- Pick a person or an object in the crowd to help center your focus even further. Having someone in the audience to sing to is a helpful tactic in honing your focus. Choosing a tangible object as a focal point while you sing is equally effective.^{[7]
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Preventing Vocal Strain

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Place yourself on vocal rest. It might seem counterproductive since a lot of emphasis is placed on warming up your vocals as much as possible before performances, but resting your voice is actually very important. Save conversation and excessive singing for after a performance to prepare your voice properly.^{[8]
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- Although vocal rest can be done before performances to rest the voice and remedy vocals that have been over-practiced, vocal rest is also useful after performances as well.^{[9]
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- Put yourself on vocal rest at least one full day per week, especially if you perform regularly and/or sing aggressively.^{[10]
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- If you have laryngitis, you should put yourself on vocal rest for a few days so you have time to heal.
2
Warm your voice up. Warming up your voice not only acts as vocal prep, but also acts as a vocal preserver as well. Do a couple scales so your voice will be able to handle the singing to come.
- Warm ups should gradually build in intensity. Start gently and build slowly to volumes, efforts, and ranges of higher intensity.^{[11]
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- When the voice is warmed up, start with less vocally challenging songs to sing. That way you give your voice time to continue to warm up and stretch before moving on to more vocally demanding material.^{[12]
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Cool your voice down. Just like warm ups are crucial to preserve the vocal cords before singing and performing, cooling down your voice afterwards is equally important. Cool down by doing gentle voice sounds and sighs to relax and de-stress your voice post-performance.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Keeping Your Voice Healthy for Projecting

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Keep yourself hydrated to keep your instrument at its best. Wake yourself up each morning with hot water with lemon. Carry a bottle of water around with you to rehydrate your throat as much as possible. Drink at least 64 ounces of water each day and avoid beverages that dry the vocals, like caffeinated drinks and alcohol.^{[13]
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- Drinking herb tea with lemon or honey daily can help maintain your vocal capabilities.
- Dry throat can also be prevented with the help of sleeping with a vaporizer or humidifier that adds moisture in the air.
2
Clear up coughs and infections quickly. Coughing is how your body naturally rids itself of germs during times of infection, but it proves to shred your vocals. Take a cough suppressant or an herbal throat tea to help suppress coughs and relieve your throat.
3
Refrain from yelling loudly or excessive talking for long periods of time. Vocal strain and hurting your cords can happen in noisy environments. While it’s not necessary to avoid every concert, pub, or sporting event, just protect your singing voice by decreasing your volume and the length of time you spend using your voice.
4
Keep your jaw relaxed and loose. Projecting when you sing can potentially strain your vocals if not done correctly. Make sure that your throat and jaw are relaxed as you sing to reduce the possibility of strain.
- A tight throat is similar to the way your muscles constrict when you swallow. A loose, relaxed throat is how your throat feels when you yawn. Notice how even if you project a loud sound in that instance, it does not strain your vocals whatsoever. That’s the place you need to sing with.
- Practice vocal warm ups in front of the mirror to monitor and observe throat movements when you sing certain notes, especially with higher notes.

Expert Q&A
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Question

How do you stop your voice from shaking when singing?

Amy Chapman, MA
Voice Coach
Amy Chapman MA, CCC-SLP is a vocal therapist and singing voice specialist. Amy is a licensed and board certified speech & language pathologist who has dedicated her career to helping professionals improve and optimize their voice. Amy has lectured on voice optimization, speech, vocal health, and voice rehabilitation at universities across California, including UCLA, USC, Chapman University, Cal Poly Pomona, CSUF, CSULA. Amy is trained in Lee Silverman Voice Therapy, Estill, LMRVT, and is a part of the American Speech and Hearing Association.

Amy Chapman, MA

Voice Coach

Expert Answer

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By stabilizing your breath and body. Taking a deep breath in your ribs and holding your rib cage out can help stabilize your breath and therefore stabilize your voice.
Question

How do you project your voice on stage?

Amy Chapman, MA
Voice Coach
Amy Chapman MA, CCC-SLP is a vocal therapist and singing voice specialist. Amy is a licensed and board certified speech & language pathologist who has dedicated her career to helping professionals improve and optimize their voice. Amy has lectured on voice optimization, speech, vocal health, and voice rehabilitation at universities across California, including UCLA, USC, Chapman University, Cal Poly Pomona, CSUF, CSULA. Amy is trained in Lee Silverman Voice Therapy, Estill, LMRVT, and is a part of the American Speech and Hearing Association.

Amy Chapman, MA

Voice Coach

Expert Answer

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If your vocal cords are in good condition, a good way to project your voice is making sure that you're properly supporting your voice with breath and posture, and making sure that you're using proper breath control. If you are feeling sick, those aren't good times to use your voice loudly.
Question

I can't seem to get my jaw relaxed. Any tips?

Community Answer

Here's a trick. First, stretch your jaw as far as it can go downwards. Then, open your mouth slightly. Then, just let your mouth relax.

Warnings

Avoid vocal misuse with actions like screaming, hollering, yelling, throat clearing, talking loudly, whispering, and singing with vocal warm ups.

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Don’t consume dairy before you sing, it coats your chords and makes you strain to sing. This will cause your attempts at projecting to fail and your cords potential damage.

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If you have mold or mildew allergies, do not use vaporizers or humidifiers because they increase moisture in the environment.

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