My theory on practicing singing is this:  Practice a lot or a little, but practice with meditation-level dedication.

How often you practice, and for what duration, depends on your goals as a singer.  We all know that practicing improves skill, but do you want to become the next opera singer, pop star, or do you just want to improve your singing-in-the-shower skills?  For dedicated singers with professional level goals, or professionals preparing for concerts, you might practice as long as one or even two hours a day.  On the other end of the spectrum, even just a few minutes of practicing a day, or 15-30 minutes two or three days a week can pay off in big ways. 

However much you decide to practice, spend your practice time focused 100% on your practicing.  Can you imagine meditating with the television on, or while checking emails, or cooking?  

What makes practicing singing effective, is when you really pay attention to how the singing sensations feel - it’s all about placement.  Some questions you might ask yourself as you sing:

• How much air am I using to nail this note or passage?

• How fast is the air flow?

• How relaxed does my neck feel?

• Am I raising my larynx too high?

• Do I feel or see tension anywhere? (Watch yourself in the mirror, or film yourself on your phone)

• How open is my mouth?

• Is my tongue down?

• Is my soft palate raised?

• Is the tone forward in my mouth?

• Is the placement in “the mask”?

• Am I feeling like I’m about to lose control?

When I am working on difficult notes, exercises, or passages of songs, I pay attention to these sensations, and make adjustments accordingly.  Once I nail what I’m working on, I don’t stop just yet.  I practice for consistency, repeating the passage again and again, paying attention to all the sensations, so that both my mind and my body learn to recognize how it feels when I do it right.  

If I’m working on a song, I am a diligent note taker!  Some of my professional singer colleagues use their iPads for everything, but I’m old school and know that writing things down with a good old fashioned pen helps me remember things, and here’s a great study that backs this method up.  Everything I want to remember about how to sing a song, I make a note of on my printed lyric sheet or sheet music.  “Big breath,” “open,” “round,” “relax,” “use head voice,” plus all kinds of dynamic and expression markings are all notes your might see on one of my lyric sheets.  That way, I can remember everything I worked hard to improve on during my practice session, and reciprocate it until my muscle memory takes over.  

So as with many things, it’s not necessarily about quantity, it’s about quality.  Commit to focused, dedicated practice time, and whether it’s a lot of time or a little, make it count!

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