How to Break a Glass with Your Voice

The cassette tape company Memorex seared the image of Ella Fitzgerald shattering a glass with her voice into many people’s collective memory in a television commercial that ran in the 1980s. With the right tools, good pitch, and a strong voice (or an amplifier), you can do this at home.

1. Put on Safety Goggles to protect your eyes when the glass shatters. Use ear protection to protect your ears.
2. Plug your microphone into an amplifier.
3. Turn on your microphone and turn the volume on your amplifier to a high level.
4. Place a crystal glass (see Tips) right in front of the speaker of the amplifier.
5. Tap the glass and listen carefully to the ringing sound. You can also moisten your finger and rub the tip along the rim until the glass hums. Make note of this pitch and use it as a starting point in the next step. Read more

How to Confirm Your Voice Range

When singing a song out of your range, you may find yourself straining to sing some notes. Use this guide to figure out what songs are in your range.

1. Use an accompanist and a recently tuned piano to identify the top and bottom pitches. The person sitting in front of the piano needs good ears to be able to tell whether or not you are hitting the right notes. It is very difficult to tell where your own voice is without training. Also, keep in mind that you must trust what your friend/pianist is telling you. If they say ‘you’re not hitting that last note right’, then you’re really not hitting it.
2. Sing the first five notes of the D-major scale going up and down, using the words, “one-two-three-four-five-four-three-two-one.” Or an alternative (to learn the scale degrees rather than just singing nonsense); “one, two, three, four, five, six, sev, eight” (Sev being short for seven)
3. Breathe deeply and be relaxed. Sing the same pitches on “me-oh-my-oh-meee-oh-my-oh-meeee.” Hold the top and the final pitch. Be at ease. Read more

How to Breathe Correctly to Protect Your Singing Voice

Correct breathing can help you to be the best singer you can be. Not only will it help you sing, but breathing correctly will help you relax for those tense moments when the spotlight’s on you!

1. The most important part about learning to breathe freely is to practice noticing how it is that you breathe. The more you know about your own habits, the easier it will be to release tensions and achieve free-flow while breathing.
2. Breathe in so that your torso expands in all directions (downwards into your bowels, forward in your stomach and ribcage, backward in your lower back and ribcage and up into your shoulders [be sure not to raise your shoulders, however]). Remember not to hold anything in place, meaning, let the body do what it does. Allow your breath to touch the very bottom of your torso, breathe as deeply as possible as you can. As you get more into the technique, your back and sides will move with your breathing.
3. Without contracting your abdominal muscles, move your umbilical inward toward the spine. When you place your finger in front of your mouth, your breath should feel warm and sensuous. It should also be silent. The more noise made while breathing, the more tension there is.
4. Practice noticing the breath with everything you do, singing (or playing any other instrument), talking, exercising, or doing nothing in particular. Notice what happens to the breath while doing different activities. Read more