As you continue to practise all the exercises in Part One you will be developing a really solid basis for your Better Voice, and will want to gradually start bringing what you’re learning out of your practice sessions and into your life where it belongs. Expect this to take time. You’ve been using your voice in the ‘old way’ all your life, which has become completely automatic, so you’re not going to be able to switch into permanent Better Voice mode immediately. 

Start small. Change will come from an accumulation of small steps.

As always, awareness is the key. It’s only when you’re aware of what you’re doing that the opportunity is there to change it.

Although your main focus is on developing your singing, hopefully you will start to appreciate that also doing some spoken Better Voice practice will have a beneficial effect on your voice when you sing, and vice versa. That way you not only get double the opportunity to practise your technique, you also get a double benefit. Part Two of the course has more on integrating sound qualities between singing and speaking.

Meanwhile, here are some ideas for starting to use Better Voice in both your singing and speaking. But first, a warning.

Getting back to your regular singing

At the beginning of the course we suggested that you suspend your regular singing until your Better Voice technique became more established. You could think about resuming your singing now, but you will still need to be careful. That’s true whether you sing on your own or with others.

Choirs are dangerous because there’s a tendency to over-sing so that you can hear your own voice, and they also come with a musical director, who will often be encouraging you to give more. If at all possible, try to sing ‘within yourself’, in other words in a way that allows you to stay aware of your Better Voice technique as much as possible. For a while that will probably mean not hearing your voice or obeying the director’s fortissimos – it’s not for ever, and once your Better Voice is secure you should be able to contribute more to the choir’s sound than previously. Explain the situation to your choir neighbours, and possibly the director also, so they understand. When they start to hear the improvements in your voice they may want to do the course too!

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Reminders about head focus

Keeping in mind the sound-generating machine in your head from which your voice flows, and the on/off switch behind your forehead, will deter the tendency to slip back to controlling your voice from your throat. And, as always, the hum is the friend who will help you do that.

There are lots of ways you can remind yourself about head focus. Try some of the suggestions below, and find others that work for you.

• Humming in odd moments: Humming will always be the best way to head-focus your voice. Try to hum, if only for a few seconds, as often as you can.
• Humming before you vocalise: Whenever there’s an opportunity, hum for a few seconds (under your breath if necessary) before starting to sing or speak.
• Exploit hummy consonants: If you are singing (or speaking) a phrase beginning with a good hummy consonant such as ‘m’, ‘n’ or ‘w’, take the opportunity to focus the sound in your head as you have been doing in the exercises. Then see how long you can keep that focus as you continue.
• Start to use in your Better Voice practice extracts from whatever you are working on for your regular singing: There’s more detail on this in Part Two, but for now: Choose a simple phrase (if possible with some helpful hummy words), and practise by first humming it a few times, then singing it to ma or na, next to a friendly phrase, and finally to the words.
• Prepared phrases: There will be words and phrases that you say frequently during the day. Practise these ahead of time, so that when you come to say them you will automatically use Better Voice technique.
• Strategically placed Post-it notes: Provided the message on them means ‘Better Voice technique’ to you, it doesn’t have to let others know what you’re reminding yourself about.
• Placing a fingertip or two on your forehead: As you did in the early exercises, it can be helpful to touch the place on your forehead from which you imagine your voice flowing down. There are some perfectly natural-looking postures that allow this when you speak, such as leaning one elbow on a desk and resting the side of your head in your hand with the ball of your thumb under the cheekbone and your first two fingers on your forehead. It’s perfectly possible in singing rehearsals too, under cover of scratching an imaginary itch, getting hair out of your eyes or adjusting your glasses.
• Associating specific tasks with Better Voice technique: Again as you did in the early exercises, try to associate tasks that you carry out periodically through the day, such as making a hot drink, with becoming aware of, practising or implementing Better Voice.

The above are just some ideas for starting to introduce Better Voice into your life. Be confident that, given time. from these small first steps Better Voice will come to be your natural way of using your voice for both singing and speaking.

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