The fundamentals for singing are just like the foundations of your house - the concrete slab that your vocal technique, range and style rely upon.

With a strong foundation of the fundamentals for singing, you're going to face many frustrating issues in your journey towards becoming a better singer.

Fortunately, the fundamentals for singing are super simple to develop!

The Four Vocal Fundamentals, as I like to call them, are as follows;

• Height in the vocal tract
• Forward placement
• "All in one flow"
• Tonal intent

Let's break them down one by one;

Height in the vocal tract

When we talk about height in the vocal tract, we're talking about lengthening the vocal tract to allow for our increasing pitch, and to cater to the changing frequencies which occurs within our tone and vowel.

Now, height in the vocal tract is actually all about VOWELS.

You can try this right now by singing a word like "hey" - it's not too hard in chest voice right? But if you ascend higher or slide up to a higher pitch, you'll notice that you totally crap out and your voice breaks.

That's because the frequency that dictates your pitch no longer matches the frequency which is received within your vowel.

Basically, you're out of leg room in your vocal range!

The key here would be to shift this sound slightly towards EH like "head" instead of "hey" like you're doing in chest voice, then eventually into an IH sound like "hid".

These changes are subtle and really occurs as a result of shifting and changing the space within your vocal tract to all for more height - so don't just pronounce different words and hope for the best.

Vowel modification is KEY to finding height in your vocal tract.

Forward Placement

We don't need to overcomplicate this one - sing with a bright tone instead of swallowing your voice.

Forward placement is a specific formant within your frequencies, and is often a partner to twang - placement being about 3k, and twang being 1k within your tone.

Sing bright, aim forward and you'll get this one in no time.

"All in one flow"

You've heard about diaphragmatic support for your singing, yes?

Well, support is actually all about EXHALING - yep, you heard me - support is actually a way to control your exhale.

Practice a leaking tyre "S" sound or a frustrated puffy cheek type exhale where the air is backed up in the mouth - you'll notice this same backed up feeling around your ribs.

The key here is to consistently exhale as you sing, while maintaining this same resistance and pressure.

If. You're. Chopping. Up. Your. Words. Into. Different. Breaths.... then you're not singing "all in one flow".

Tonal Intent

Whew, this one is a can of worms that can be best explained in this video;