Pamelia S. Phillips

Pamelia S. Phillips is a professional singer with over 35 years of teaching experience. She has designed curriculum for high school students, college BFA programs, and professional training programs, helping thousands of singers refine their singing technique.

Articles & Books From Pamelia S. Phillips

Article / Updated 11-14-2022
To shape and sing the tip consonant sounds in the table below, the tip of your tongue touches the alveolar ridge. The voiced consonants are D, L, N, and Z. The T and S don’t require any voice, so they’re unvoiced consonants. While shaping these tip consonants, make sure that your Tongue’s tip is moving from your bottom front teeth to the alveolar ridge behind your front teeth.
Article / Updated 09-16-2022
Vibrato, the variation of a sustained tone or pitch, is one of the differences between singers and styles of music — how much vibrato they use and whether they use it all the time. A normal vibrato rate is five to eight pulses or fluctuations in the tone per second.Vibrato can be fast or slow, depending on the singer.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-02-2022
The best way to become a better singer is to work on singing exercises that help you improve your tone and technique. These exercises can range from simple vocal warm-ups to drills that help you build your skills and fine-tune your sound.After you warm up your voice, you’re ready to tackle the world of vocal exercises, starting with a drills for practicing breath control and working on your tone.
Singing For Dummies
Go from singing in the shower to taking your audience’s breath awayWhether you picture yourself as the next Ariana Grande or just feel like picking up a new hobby, Singing For Dummies walks you through the surprisingly straightforward steps you’ll need to take to develop your voice. It’s a practical guide to every important aspect of singing, from vocal techniques to performance tips.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-24-2021
The craft of singing requires you to do several things at one time starting with aligning your body and breathing. Whether you’re preparing for an audition or a performance, the successful presentation of any song includes preparing yourself as well as your song. Posture checklist for better singingThe next time you watch a professional singer, observe their posture.
Singing Exercises For Dummies
Build your voice up—and bring the house down!Some people are born with naturally beautiful voices, but even the best can get better by applying training that can make a performance truly soar. Singing Exercises For Dummies shows you how to do just that. Following the drills and exercises found both in the book and online examples, you'll be able to refine your technique; develop consistency, power, and endurance; and increase your vocal range so you can achieve a voice that stands out from (and always wows) the crowd!
Article / Updated 06-20-2019
Breathing is breathing, right? Not so with singing. For singers, good breath control and strong lungs contribute to powerful performances. It all begins with knowing how to breathe from deep within your body — from your diaphragm, actually, which is a membrane of muscle and tendons located between your lungs and abdomen.
Article / Updated 02-15-2017
Always kick off a practice session by warming up your voice for 10 to 20 minutes. Select a vocal exercise that starts in the part of your voice that’s easy to sing. Sing the warm-up exercise softly at first and then gradually increase your volume. Here’s an exercise you can use to get your voice warmed up and ready to practice.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Music written on the page is the same for any style of music. The notation is the same, but how the music is performed isn’t the same. In opera and classical music, singers sing exactly what’s on the page. They memorize all the words, notes, musical directions, and markings. That’s a lot to memorize and to get exactly right.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Projecting confidence while singing involves finding your correct posture and maintaining it throughout a performance. If you maintain that posture and a calm expression even if you forget the words to your song, many people probably won’t even notice. It's been seen many times: The performer is onstage making up the words, but he looks as terrific as if he’d intended to sing those words.