Is it safe to sing and drive?

September 23, 2010 7:35 AM

Can I use my commute to work to improve my singing voice? I sit in the car for an hour and a half each day. Are there any training CDs I can use in that time to learn to sing? For the purpose of this question, let's assume I can generally stay in tune when I warm up.
posted by Dragonness to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

One of my castmates brings a recording of his Skype lesson with his singing coach on his iPod to rehearsals and performances, so if you have a singing coach, you could most likely burn lessons onto CD and do that.
posted by xingcat at 7:45 AM on September 23, 2010

Short answer: Yes, but...

It probably isn't a big deal if you're not a professional/regularly performing singer, but singing in the car can be bad because the air is soooo dryyyyyy. I've been in a car on the way up to competitions and flamed out because the drive (okay, and the low-key talking in the dry car ON the drive) dried me out a lot.

So just be careful. Keep a clean car, clean those vents as well as you can and stay properly hydrated.
posted by Madamina at 8:00 AM on September 23, 2010 [2 favorites]

A lot of the 'improving your voice' thing is really just exercise, so you can do it anywhere, with or without accompaniment. Be prepared for some odd looks, though.

Watch your posture. A good driving position isn't necessarily a good singing position, and you don't want to be doing 90 minutes of workout with everything unnaturally squashed up.

Make sure you're well hydrated before you start.
posted by monkey closet at 8:05 AM on September 23, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for your replies. This was just a thought I had on how to use my commute productively. I don't have a singing teacher, and wouldn't know where to begin with the exercises. That's why I was hoping that I could get a CD to train me.
posted by Dragonness at 8:39 AM on September 23, 2010

Best answer: I don't have any experience with training cds, but the Vaccai exercises are pretty standard, so I looked them up. Looks like there's a book/cd set that might be useful to you.
posted by Madamina at 9:11 AM on September 23, 2010

I took singing lessons and tried to do exercises in the car. But I found that for the exercises to really help, I had to concentrate on what I was doing (posture, throat shape, breathing, tune and all) . And hat was really distracting from, y'know, driving. So I stopped that pronto. I kept envisioning the last thing somebody's kid hearing was me running scales.
posted by lpsguy at 9:19 AM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have a couple of voice-training CDs + books, but really wasn't able to get much out of them. Once I started taking voice lessons, I did find some good exercises that I've been able to do in the car on long trips. (I don't seem to find them as distracting as lpsguy did.)

Vocal training seems to be one of those areas where it's a whole lot easier to learn with some expert guidance and feedback.
posted by tdismukes at 10:46 AM on September 23, 2010

Best answer: I recommend this, but if you don't have a good foundation on which you're already building (knowing how to correctly breathe, how not to overdo it, etc) you might do more harm than good, as sitting in the car is hardly an optimal position for singing, and the jostling and dry air won't help, and may force you into bad breathing habits that will be hard to break once you're singing standing up. Seconding what others have said about staying hydrated and keeping fresh air going.
posted by FlyByDay at 12:28 PM on September 23, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks so much for all the input. I think I'll talk to a voice coach to help get me started, and then try your recs.
posted by Dragonness at 2:57 PM on September 23, 2010