So you're trying to work out which singing exercise works the best.

Lip trills?

Mamamas?

Zeebidydoobidy?

Lahlahlah?

Gug-gug-gug?

What if I told you that every single one of these sounds/exercises is absolutely useless?

You heard me.

Useless.

That is, unless you know exactly WHAT they are designed for, and what you're meant to be learning from them.

You see, learning how to sing ISN'T like lifting weights at the gym.

It's not a "turn up to the woodshed" type thing where you just have to put in 10,000 of training and you'll be Freddie Mercury.

Oh no sir.

Better singing is all about better habits and better choices - and muscle memory.

If you're just blasting through lip trills or goo-goo-gah-gah type exercises with nothing in mind other than just making the sound and going through a scale - you're likely forming bad habits and making bad choices along the way.

Basically, you're wasting your time.

However, if you're focusing on connecting head and chest voice with a lip trill, maybe focusing on support and backpressure too - or you're using a "lah lah lah" type exercises to develop vowel modification... NOW you're cooking with gas, right?

You see, endless exercises and drills have sadly become the norm in vocal training.

"I prescribe an hour of lip trills, a couple of mamamas and a hail Mary" is what you're going to hear from most voice teachers, and probably most YouTube coaching channels at some point too.

But consider the above.

It's all about the "how" the "what" the "why" and the "when" - and with time and practice, you'll discover a NEW way of singing this sound or exercises that you can then port over into your actual singing in songs.

"oh hey, that feels like it goes up into the back of my head... weird! maybe I'll try and do that in a song now" <- lightbulb moment.

"I've done exercises for months and I'm not a better singer... I guess it's because I'm a baritone/short/have red hair (insert excuse)" <- wasting time

When I first started singing in about 1998, I was absolutely NOT a natural singer.

I couldnt' carry a tune in a bucket to save my life.

My first vocal teacher, god bless her, actually told me that my voice was too low to ever sing rock - and that I just 'better accept' the reality that I would only ever do a decent Johnny Cash impression and that was it.

BOY was she wrong (granted, it's been 25 years now) - but the truth is, she just gave me exercise after exercise, then got frustrated at me when I didn't sing any better after a week of practice.

Once someone actually sat down with me and showed me HOW to sing, instead of telling me WHAT to sing - my whole life changed as a singer.

Rock singing really ISN'T like weightlifting, and this is why: