Lotte Janssen: Singer Skills (6) – Flexibility and Agility

Vocal flexibility or agility means the ability to sing very fast melodies or runs legato. Flexibility is needed in all styles of singing, from R&B to indian music, from jazz to classical and pop singing.

When singing lines that need flexibility, I sometimes compare the voice with the gears of a car. When you learn to drive with a stick, you need a lot of time to think about where to move your arm and you can only do it slowly at first. But once you get to know all the gears and where they are and your body remembers how it feels, you can do it without thinking about it and you can do it very fast.

It’s the same with flexibility in singing, because our voice has muscle memory. So it literally remembers where the ‘gears’ are. All it takes is practice.

Lesson 1: Flexibility and Agility (Practice)

You’ll practice:

• singing legato, as this is required for singing fast lines or runs
• singing challenging exercises that will make your voice more flexible, going faster and faster (even if you don’t make the tempo just yet)

Lesson 2: Flexibility and Agility (Practice)

You’ll practice:

• singing more challenging exercises that will make your voice more flexible, going
• faster and faster (even if you don’t make the tempo just yet)

Lesson 3: Warm up and Energize

You’ll practice: An energizing full body warm up.

Remember, practice only what you don’t master yet!