Most people simply do not open their mouths enough to let the sound come out unobstructed. I do not mean that you should smile and go very wide. I want you to simply drop your jaw down a bit and not keep your teeth so close together. This will send more sound into the cheek area where it will bounce around and come out more resonant and full.

Too many people have heard the word support and think that it is simply creating pressure in your stomach that somehow helps push the sound out bigger and better. The truth is, when you lock your stomach muscles, you are actually stopping the air from getting back out of your body and making beautiful noises. The key is to relax your stomach muscles and create no pressure at all.

When you inhale, the cigarette smoke passes directly through the vocal cords and dries up a lot of the natural moisture they need to function.

The best way to develop a unique style is to spend time learning to imitate great singers. Pick a different singer every week and try and “become” that voice. Play their music over and over, sing along, trying to sound exactly like that artist. Then, record yourself singing along, and play it back listening to how close you have come. If you don’t sound the same, go back to listening, and then singing along and recording yourself later. Follow these simple steps until you’ve become a great imitation of the original artist. Then pick another singer, and start all over again. Sometime between now and “who knows when”, you will learn to mix and match those imitated sounds, and create a unique vocal style that is old and new, familiar and fresh, and it will ultimately help you achieve the next levels of success.

Use a few minutes of vocal exercises every day. A runner would never start the race without stretching before. Why not give the voice a bit of stretching.

It is very easy and much healthier for the body. Just put your hand on your stomach where your belly button is. When you inhale, pretend that you have a balloon in there and let it expand. When you exhale, let your stomach fall back to its normal position. It’s no more difficult than that.

Sorry mom, but, if the tea has caffeine in it, that unnecessarily speeds up the production of mucous and gives you too much phlegm. Then, the tea is usually too hot and that makes the vocal cords change in size. The temperature of liquid can change the size and shape of tissues it comes in contact with. Haven’t you noticed your fingers look like prunes when you take a long hot bath? Then, the lemon is citrus which makes you salivate extra, which also makes too much phlegm. And finally, the honey is so thick it causes moisture problems too.

There are two holes in the back part of your throat–one where the food and water passes, and the other for air. When you drink, the water goes down the liquid hole. The problem is, the vocal cords live down the air hole. It is actually impossible to drink water directly to the cords. So, you need to have so much water in your system that the bloodstream carries it to your vocal cords. To do that you should drink about one half of a gallon of pure water every day.