Singing from the center is a new way to think about singing, using your core energy (inside the mouth, linking to the chest and diaphragm) while keeping the rest of the body relaxed. You then get the greatest amount of power from your voice, singing and speaking, using the least amount of effort.

How long is the proverbial piece of string? The voice is a muscle and need to be worked out with, regularly and with correct focus, for you to see any real and lasting results. Singing is however, a paradox. The more we try and force it, and make it sound nice, the worse it often sounds.

For singing is all about balance, everything working together as one. When we find that balance, singing is easy, effortless. How long it takes to get there is up to you and to focus. Which is why I created this website as an online community and tutorial, because singing DOES take time and focus

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll find that the basic precepts and rules of singing are actually quite easy, it’s REMEMBERING TO DO THEM ALL AT THE SAME TIME THAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE. It’s daily practice, gradually getting the FEEL while building strength, technique and confidence.

The program consists of 40 tutorials that comprise a (rather long but extremely enthusiastic) singing lesson (link to sample), A downloadable manual with full color diagrams and photos that further explain the program and 21 downloadable vocal exercises, to either burn to a CD or play on your computer for daily practice.

The first 10 of the vocal exercises work as a daily practice regimen. The tutorials are direct and to the point, teaching you how to sing step-by-step (another link). They’re split into 4 sections:

1. How to sing. And at the same time, how to use the exercise CD and build a strong technique.

2. How to apply those techniques to singing a song.

3. How to perform a song. Performance tips and techniques, how to deal with stage fright, how to be in the CENTER of a song and to tell the STORY of a song (link). Dare I say it, the Zen of singing, the mystery of it. For anyone who’s tried it will tell you, that everything has to be really balanced for it to sound right. And then to be able to get back to that place, time after time, is what we continually strive for. However, the song is already within you, you simply need to tap into that energy. The secret is to trust that it IS there, to like your voice and not to judge what you’re doing.

4. Putting it all together – where technique and song meet: the Center.

Unfortunately, no. When we sing a song, we’re limited technically by the song itself. It might not stretch us vocally, or we might be tempted to sing it like the singer who sang the original version (thus not finding our true voice). Also, when we sing a song we need to be thinking ABOUT THE SONG, and truly TELL THE STORY OF THE SONG. So we build strength away from the song, THEN look at the challenges of that particular song, THEN we’re ready to sing it.

It’s daily practice, gradually getting the FEEL, i.e. how it feels when we get it right, all the while building strength, technique and confidence.

If it feels right, and it sounds right, and you’re not forcing the voice or getting strained, you’re doing it right.

That’s why we created a members area. There’s regular blogs, questions and answers from members and a monthly webcam hosted by me, Susan. Send me a clip and I’ll have a look and tell you what you’re doing right and wrong and how to improve it. In this way, you have an wonderful online lesson and membership for a nominal fee, and support as you learn to sing. If you join for free you get access to an online community, blogs, members boards and the regular forums. There are also a number of free things on the site (see question 9) to get you started.

First of all, check out the clips on the home page. This will give you an idea of the online tutorial (mention how long tutorial is – of teaching in 40 clips that you can watch again and again at your own leisure). To get you started and so that you have a clear idea, we also have the some of them available for free (link), plus a downloadable file ‘Full breath exercise’. We normally breathe from our chest, and approach singing in the same way. This, however, greatly inhibits our power when singing and also constricts the vocal cords, which lie horizontally in the throat (link to diagram). The vocal cords are a muscle and need to be worked out to develop properly, like any other muscle in the body. The vocal cords and the diaphragm form the instrument of the voice, and need to work together, without obstruction from the rest of the body, for you to sing effectively. As I mentioned earlier, this is done by relaxing the rest of the body (especially the back and knees), while at the same time using the core energy of the body.

There are also samples of the manual (link), and the Daily Practice Exercises (link).

The ranges are broken down into 6 parts. 3 for women, and 3 for men. Go here to find your range

There are 2 options on Singingfromthecenter.com:

There's the Full membership that gives you access to 41 video Singing lessons. From the basics of breathing to performing live. (View Samples) You also get access to daily vocal exercises and a 57 page downloadable manual with 60 color diagrams. And of course all the benefits of the Free Membership.

The Free Membership. This allows you to post on the forum as well as commenting on the articles. You also get the Newsletters.

You shouldn't have any trouble viewing the lessons. Most computers today are able to play Flash movies. If you're not sure, you can go Here. If you can play the Samples, you'll be able to play the Chapters in the Member's Area.

The Full membership will only cost you $29.99 for the first month, and then $5.99 each month after that. Why do you we charge it this way? Frankly you could see all 41 chapters in as little as a few hours. There is alot of information available in those chapters. After the first month you can continue to view the lessons, and continue to use the daily vocal exercises to strengthen your voice.

Don't want to invest the money? That's ok, you can still get access to some of the exercises and chapters, as well as commenting on the Articles and posting in the Forum with the Free Membership.

Simply go Here.

Fill in the information, click on Continue.

You will get an email titled: Singing From The Center Subscription - Account Verification for Singing From The Center. You'll need to click on the link in that message to activate your account.

If you are choosing the Full membership you will be taken to Pay Pal to make your payment.

We chose to keep it simple, secure and cost effective by using only PayPal for the Full Membersip. You don't have to be a PayPal Member. You can also pay with your CreditCard. We don't keep any financial information from our Members on SFTC.

Chances are your email account is seeing it as SPAM. Check your SPAM folder. Still no luck, Contact Us and we'll sort you out manually

Not at all. The Full membership automatically renewes every month through PayPal. And the Free Membership is a Lifetime Membership.

Quite Simply, you go Here. (You may need to Log-In first) You'll see an area on the right of your screen called Add/Renew Subscription. Choose Full Membership on the Drop Down Menu, and then click on the Order Button. You'll then be taken to PayPal for payment.

No Problem, go Here.

Go Here. You'll need to Log in.

We try to do best support possible. We'll try to have an answer for you within a few hours during business hours (PST) on weekdays, and 24 hours on weekends. You can go Here to Contact Support.

This is due to the Forum software we use. We hope to fix this in the future.

No problem, just log into your control panel and reactivate your account. It's as if you never left. The regular monthly subsciprtion price will apply.

To Cancel your Full membership, go Here. You'll need to Log In. Under Payment History. You'll see a link that says Cancel. The link will take you to PayPal. If you want to Cancel The Free Membership, you'll need to drop us a line.

Sorry to See You Go.

Go here to see a Diagram

This is probably due to your conection speed. The player detects your connection speed and adjusts accordingly. If the clip is jittery, choose the PAUSE button and let the clip load for a few.

Most computers these days are able to deal with a zip file. If it doesn't, you can use this free program to get you sorted.

This is a very difficult question to answer, as every computer is different. Seems like most of the world is using iTunes. Once you unzip your mp3downloads.zip file, open your iTunes and import the folder. Make sure you know where the mp3downloads.zip gets unzipped to, so you can find it when you import it into iTunes.