Loud and soft
Hot cross buns is in tune. Now give the line a shape: quieter and louder on the same note, a gentle spin that stays on the note, and a short run that does not smear. Stay in a comfortable range. Next is chest, mix, and head — after this page feels easy.
Tone is what happens after pitch and time work — shape, spin, and short runs.
Stay in a comfortable range; agility fails when you are already at your ceiling.
Dynamics here repeat control page ideas on moving lines.
Registers page is next after tone feels easy.
Dynamics
p (piano) and f (forte) jump between levels. The check must stay on the same syllable. Hairpins swell or fade on one note — breath widens or narrows; the throat stays open.
Dynamics mark how loud the story feels — piano and forte are steps; hairpins are curves.
The check is ruthless: if forte bends pitch, it is not forte yet.
Soft singing needs more support, not less — airy soft is not piano.
Conductors mark dynamics for the room; the mic check marks whether your forte stayed on the syllable.
Step soft / loud
Step between soft and loud on one do before you move the scale.
Each step should flip volume without flipping syllable on the check.
If loud reads sharp, belly support dropped — not “try harder.”
This drill is the same engine as control page dynamics.
Record one pass on your phone — often you think you changed volume but the waveform barely moves.
Crescendo & decrescendo
Hairpins are eight-beat stories on one pitch — audience hears growth and release.
Chin and neck should stay neutral; the belly widens and narrows.
If decrescendo goes flat, air ran out — plan a deeper inhale before the start.
Use this on long notes in repertoire once do holds steady.
Watch the check during the swell: if the name drifts sharp, back off and widen the belly instead of the throat.
One do grows four beats, then fades four beats. Pitch stays put.
- Your turn on soft/loud first. A new syllable on the check means volume pulled pitch.
- On the hairpin, match the model’s swell without pushing the chin forward.
Soft up, loud down
Five notes up stay soft. The same five coming down are loud. The names do not change when the volume does.
Press Play once and listen before you sing. Your turn is for testing, not for guessing.
The check names the pitch you actually sang — adjust until it matches the lit syllable in tune.
If anything pinches, stop and reset on SOVT or a lower do in the practice bar.
Short daily reps here beat one long session on the weekend.
do re mi fa sol soft, then sol fa mi re do loud.
- Your turn. The check walks up to sol and back to do.
- If the loud notes read sharp, you pushed the pitch. Same vowel, more air, same name.
Also watch: NYVC — dynamics without strain. Intro also on Control.
Vibrato
Vibrato is a small, steady pitch shimmer on a held note. It comes when support and vowel are balanced — not from shaking the jaw or pulsing the throat on purpose.
Press Play once and listen before you sing. Your turn is for testing, not for guessing.
The check names the pitch you actually sang — adjust until it matches the lit syllable in tune.
If anything pinches, stop and reset on SOVT or a lower do in the practice bar.
Short daily reps here beat one long session on the weekend.
Play wobbles slightly so you hear the idea. Your turn: hold do; let spin appear or stay straight.
- Listen. The model pitch moves a little around do — that is vibrato width.
- Your turn with Listen. Hold “doh” in tune first. After two beats, if a natural wobble appears, keep the average pitch on do.
- If you forced wobble and the check jumps between neighbors, that swing is too wide. Reset with Control · hold, then read tremolo below.
- Too much vibrato on every note is a style choice; this course keeps most motion on long notes only.
Also watch: Madeleine Harvey — vibrato basics.
Tremolo
Vibrato and tremolo are both a wobble on one note. They wobble different things.
Press Play once and listen before you sing. Your turn is for testing, not for guessing.
The check names the pitch you actually sang — adjust until it matches the lit syllable in tune.
If anything pinches, stop and reset on SOVT or a lower do in the practice bar.
| Vibrato | Tremolo | |
|---|---|---|
| What moves | Pitch, a little above and below the note | Loudness, or a fresh attack on the same pitch |
| What you hear | One tone, warming | One tone, pulsing or fluttering |
| The check | Stays on do when the swing is small | Stays on do. A new syllable means the pitch left the note |
| Where it belongs | A long sung note | Guitar, ukulele, and piano use the word for rapid repeats. A sung tremolo is a volume shake |
Same rate on purpose, about five or six waves a second. Play the three holds and listen for what changes. Straight is still. Vibrato rocks the pitch. Tremolo rocks the volume. The syllable is do the whole time.
Straight, then vibrato, then tremolo. Three holds, one pitch.
The repeated note
This is the tremolo a fretted instrument means: the same pitch, struck again and again. The pitch does not rock. Eight short do’s.
Press Play once and listen before you sing. Your turn is for testing, not for guessing.
The check names the pitch you actually sang — adjust until it matches the lit syllable in tune.
If anything pinches, stop and reset on SOVT or a lower do in the practice bar.
A finger pattern for that repeat is the ukulele tremolo seed.
- Your turn on the three holds. Match the color you just heard: still, then pitch shimmer, then volume pulse.
- On vibrato and on the volume tremolo, the check should keep saying do. If it flips to ti or re, the pitch swing is too wide. Straighten, then let a smaller shimmer return.
- On the repeated do, each attack is its own do. The check names do every time you hold one of them.
Agility
Agility is clean notes when the rhythm is fast. Start at 60 BPM. Each syllable should still name correctly on the check — blur means the tongue or jaw is helping pitch instead of the breath.
Agility is finger-work for the voice — small intervals fast, still named correctly.
Start slow with Metro at 60 or lower; speed is a reward, not a starting gun.
If runs smear, the issue is usually vowel changing mid-line.
Agility is finger-work for the voice — small intervals fast, still named correctly.
Eighth-note scale fragment
Eighth notes split the beat — two syllables per click on the moving line.
The check must name both; smearing reads as one long wrong note.
Sing staccato eighths first if legato eighths hide mistakes.
When clean, bump BPM by four, not by twenty.
Eighth notes split the beat — two syllables per click on the moving line.
Skip pattern
Skips are harder at speed than steps — thirds and fourths in quick succession.
Lock each skip slow on the hub before you run it fast here.
Jaw tension shows up as flat skips — reset on SOVT.
Jazz and raga both use skip patterns; this is the Western scale version.
Skips are harder at speed than steps — thirds and fourths in quick succession.
Turn
A turn wraps around a target note quickly — ornament, not a new melody.
Keep the center syllable on the beat; the neighbors are decoration.
If the check loses the center, slow until the middle name is stable.
Baroque and pop both use turns; the pitch discipline is the same.
A turn wraps around a target note quickly — ornament, not a new melody.
Neighbor turn into do — common in hymns and pop melismas.
The turn, walking up
Walking the turn up the scale moves the ornament through degrees — harder than one-note turn.
Each center should still read in tune before you add the next.
Breath between groups if the throat tires — ornaments are optional in early repertoire.
Lab D and style pages assume you can hit one turn cleanly first.
Walking the turn up the scale moves the ornament through degrees — harder than one-note turn.
re–mi–re–do, then the same shape starting on mi, fa, and sol.
Thirds in eighths
Press Play once and listen before you sing. Your turn is for testing, not for guessing.
The check names the pitch you actually sang — adjust until it matches the lit syllable in tune.
If anything pinches, stop and reset on SOVT or a lower do in the practice bar.
Short daily reps here beat one long session on the weekend.
When this section feels easy, move on in the sidebar or raise BPM slightly on the lab page.
do–mi, re–fa, mi–sol, fa–la, then back toward do.
- Play at 60. When Your turn is clean, raise BPM by 4 until the check wavers — back down 4.
- If eighths muddy, sing them on “di di di” tonguing behind the teeth, vowel still forward.
- Runs in songs: Repertoire and Jazz & blues scat build on these shapes.
Also watch: 30 Day Singer — vocal agility exercise.