Why You Should Practice Songs You Don't Even Like: The Case for Standards in Voice Training
Here's a question I get from singers all the time: "Why are you having me work on this old song? I'd never actually perform this. Can't I just practice songs I want to sing?"
It's a fair question. And the answer reveals something about how serious vocal development actually works, which most developing singers don't initially understand.
You don't always practice the songs you want to perform. You practice the songs that develop the skills you need to eventually perform anything well.
Today I want to talk about why classic standards from the 1950s and 60s are some of the most useful technical training material available, regardless of your actual genre interests. I'll cover why specific repertoire serves specific developmental purposes, how to approach unfamiliar styles without getting lost in performance pressure, and the foundational vocal warm-up framework that supports everything else you do as a singer.
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The Cross-Training Principle
Athletes don't only practice the exact movements of their sport. Football players take ballet classes for ankle flexibility and foot control. Basketball players do yoga for mobility. Boxers run distance for conditioning that has nothing to do with the specific motions of boxing.
Why? Because the underlying physical capacities that support athletic performance get built through a wide variety of training, not just by repeating the sport's specific movements. A football player who only trains football movements will plateau. The cross-training builds capacities that the sport itself can't fully develop.
Vocal development works the same way. The skills that let you sing your favorite contemporary songs well are built through a variety of training material, much of which doesn't sound like your favorite contemporary songs.
A singer who only practices modern pop will plateau. A singer who works through standards, classical material, vocal exercises, and stylistic territory outside their comfort zone develops the underlying capacities that eventually let them deliver pop better than the singer who only practiced pop.
This is a hard sell to developing singers. The songs feel less rewarding because you're not building toward a performance you actually want to give. But the technical capacity built through this work transfers to everything you eventually do.
Why Standards Specifically
Songs from the great American songbook era (roughly 1920s through 1960s) have specific qualities that make them exceptional training material:
Wide melodic range without extreme demands. Standards typically require singers to navigate broad melodic territory, but they rarely push to the extreme high or low ranges that can strain a developing voice. They develop range and flexibility safely.
Long sustained phrases. Many standards include extended sustained notes that build breath control, tone consistency, and the capacity to live inside a single note expressively. Modern pop often features short, percussive phrasing that doesn't develop these skills the same way.
Emotional storytelling through restraint. Standards typically express deep emotion through controlled vocal performance rather than dramatic outbursts. This trains expressive capacity that translates to any genre.
Rich harmonic context. The accompaniment in standards is harmonically sophisticated, which trains your ear to handle complex musical environments. Singers who only work with three-chord pop songs often struggle when they encounter material with more harmonic interest.
Clear melodic structure. Standards have well-defined verses, choruses, and bridges with clear melodic development. They teach you to think about songs structurally, which transfers to every other genre.
Multiple recorded versions. Almost every classic standard has been recorded by dozens of artists across decades. You can study how different singers approached the same material, building your sense of interpretation and stylistic flexibility.
Vocal styling without contemporary embellishment. Standards generally don't require the vocal runs, melisma, and contemporary stylistic ornaments that modern material includes. This lets you focus on fundamental tone production without getting lost in stylistic gymnastics.
For all these reasons, working through a curated collection of standards is one of the most efficient ways to build foundational vocal skills, even if you'll never perform any of these songs in your actual career.
Beginner-Friendly Songs for Men YouTube Playlist
Beginner-Friendly Songs for Women YouTube Playlist
Two Standards That Earn Their Place
A couple of specific songs come up in vocal training over and over because they pack particular developmental value into accessible packages.
"Can't Help Falling in Love"
Elvis's classic ballad sits in a comfortable mid-range for most voice types but requires:
Dark, rich tone in the lower chest range. The verses ask you to develop a full, anchored chest voice rather than a thin, breathy delivery.
Smooth phrasing across long lines. The melodic lines extend longer than most modern pop, building breath capacity.
Emotional restraint that builds intensity. The song doesn't peak in loud climaxes; it builds emotion through sustained delivery.
Accessible range that doesn't require extreme high or low notes. You can work on the technical aspects without straining at the edges of your voice.
For developing male singers especially, this song builds the kind of grounded chest voice that contemporary repertoire often requires but doesn't always train explicitly.
"Fly Me to the Moon"
The Sinatra (and Bobby Darin, and others) classic is similarly valuable but trains different skills:
Bright, forward delivery in mid-range. The song's energy lives in clear tone, not heavy chest weight.
Conversational phrasing with rhythmic precision. Standards often have a swing or jazz rhythmic feel that develops your sense of pocket and timing.
Brief moments of pushed range that test your high notes. The bridge section asks you to access slightly higher territory, building the capacity gradually.
Stylistic variety across recorded versions. From Sinatra's punchy swing to Nat King Cole's smoother delivery to contemporary covers, the song's interpretive range is enormous.
These two songs together cover a remarkable range of foundational technique. A singer who can deliver both well has built capacities that transfer broadly across genres.
Goofy Is the Path to Powerful
A specific encouragement for singers working on unfamiliar material: the path to a powerful, distinctive voice often runs through sounding goofy first.
When you try a new vocal technique, a new placement, a new style, the early attempts will feel ridiculous. A trained classical placement on a contemporary singer feels operatic and over-the-top. A committed chest voice on someone used to breathy delivery feels like shouting. A stylistic ornament from a genre you don't normally sing feels affected.
The instinct is to dial these new approaches back to feel "natural." Don't. Lean in.
The exaggerated version of a new technique is the version that develops the new capacity. The dialed-back version is your old habits filtering the new approach until it doesn't actually change anything. Going fully into the unfamiliar territory, even if it sounds silly, is what builds the new skill.
Over time, the silly version refines into a genuine version of the technique that you can deploy as a stylistic choice. But you have to go through the silly phase to get there. Trying to skip it produces compensation rather than development.
When you're working on building a "beefy, hairy chest voice" for low notes (a deliberately playful description that captures the right placement), commit fully to the beefy and the hairy. Don't moderate. The full commitment is the practice. The moderation comes later, once the capacity is established.
The Core Vocal Warm-Up Framework
Before getting into actual song work, every practice session should include warm-up exercises that prepare your voice for what follows. The exact exercises matter less than the consistency of doing them.
A useful framework is what I call the "core four":
1. Breath Support Engagement
Place your hands on your belly and take deep breaths that expand your abdomen, not your chest. This activates your diaphragm and engages the support system your voice depends on.
Practice both the inhale (expanding fully) and the exhale (controlled, sustained release). The exhale matters as much as the inhale because that's where your singing actually happens.
2. Bubbles or Lip Trills
Letting your lips bubble loosely as you produce sound (sometimes called raspberries or lip trills) is one of the most useful warm-up tools available. Bubbles work because:
They require steady airflow, training breath control
They engage your vocal mechanism without high impact
They let you navigate your range gently
They naturally release tension in your face and jaw
Slide bubbles from your lowest comfortable note to your highest and back, paying attention to where the transitions happen and how each section feels.
3. Humming Through Your Range
Humming on a closed-mouth "mm" sound through your full range builds resonance awareness. Notice where the vibration sits in your face, mouth, and chest at different pitches. The sensation gives you kinesthetic feedback about your placement.
4. Open-Vowel Range Work
Move through different vowel sounds (ah, ee, oh, oo) across your range, paying attention to how each vowel affects your tone. Different vowels naturally pull your placement in different directions, and exploring each one builds vocal flexibility.
These four exercises, done in 5-10 minutes at the start of each practice session, prepare your voice for whatever song work follows. Don't skip them, even when you're eager to get to the songs you want to work on. Cold voices produce strained, compromised singing. Warm voices produce the full capacity you've developed.
Building Distinct Vocal Registers
Within your warm-up and ongoing practice, deliberate work on each vocal register matters.
Powerful Chest Voice for Low Notes
Many singers, especially those who've grown up on contemporary breathy pop, underuse their chest voice. They sing in a thin, light placement throughout their range, missing the power and presence that committed chest voice provides.
Find your chest voice by speaking. Call out "hey!" at full volume like you're hailing a cab from across the street. That bold, anchored, resonant sound is your chest voice. Sustain that placement on a low note. Practice low passages of songs deliberately in that placement.
The goal is access to a powerful, "beefy" chest voice when low notes need it, even if your main singing happens in lighter placement. The capacity matters even when you don't use it for every line.
Lighter Mix for Mid-Range
The middle of your range is where most singing actually happens, and it's where mix voice serves you. Mix is a blend of chest and head qualities that gives you flexibility, power without strain, and smooth transitions.
Practice mid-range singing with conscious attention to balance. Don't push chest into territory it doesn't comfortably reach. Don't drop into pure head voice for notes that should have more weight. Find the blend that lets you sing comfortably in your middle territory with full expressive range.
Head Voice for High Notes
High notes need head voice, accessed through a brighter, more forward placement. Many singers strain at the top of their range because they're trying to push chest voice up rather than transitioning to head placement.
Practice the transition from mid-range into head territory. The shift should be smooth, not abrupt. Vowel modification (shifting toward brighter, more forward shapes for high notes) helps the transition feel seamless rather than flipping into a different voice.
Don't avoid head voice because it sounds different from your chest voice. Both are part of your full instrument, and both deserve development.
Daily Practice Without Performance Pressure
A practical guidance for developing singers, especially those who've been told they need to practice more: practice doesn't have to feel like high-stakes work.
When practice feels like a daunting commitment to formal training, singers avoid it. When practice feels like enjoyable engagement with material you're working on, singers do it consistently.
A few approaches that make daily practice more sustainable:
Sing along with reference recordings. Add the songs you're working on to a regular Spotify playlist. Sing along while doing other things (driving, cooking, cleaning). This casual engagement keeps the material in your body without requiring a formal practice session.
Use karaoke tracks for serious practice. When you're ready for focused work, karaoke tracks let you practice without leaning on the original singer's interpretation. Both kinds of practice (sing-along and karaoke) serve different purposes.
Practice in short, frequent sessions rather than long, rare ones. Fifteen minutes daily produces better results than two hours once a week. The frequency matters more than the duration.
Don't wait for ideal conditions. Practice in non-ideal circumstances. The professional life involves a lot of non-ideal circumstances, and singers who can engage their voices across various conditions develop more reliable instruments than those who only practice in pristine environments.
Show up even when you haven't been practicing consistently. If you've fallen off your practice schedule, don't avoid lessons or sessions because you feel unprepared. Show up. The session itself is part of the practice. A teacher can work with whatever state your voice is in; they can't work with your absence.
The Strength Coach Analogy
A useful mental frame for working with a vocal coach: a vocal coach functions like a strength coach more than like a performance coach.
A strength coach builds the underlying physical capacities that support every athletic activity. They don't necessarily teach you the specific skills of your sport. They build the strength, mobility, endurance, and movement quality that makes everything else you do better.
A vocal coach (the technical kind, focused on developing your instrument) does the same thing. They build the capacities (range, control, support, registration, tone) that let you eventually perform whatever you want to perform. They might use material that has nothing to do with your performance goals. The material is the vehicle for the underlying development.
When you work with a vocal coach, don't measure success by "did this lesson help me prepare for an upcoming performance?" Measure it by "is my underlying instrument getting stronger and more flexible over time?" The performance preparation comes from your own work between lessons. The capacity development is what the coach is actually building with you.
This frame helps singers persist through training that doesn't have an immediate payoff. The squat and the deadlift don't directly look like any movement in football, but they make the football player more powerful at every football movement. The standards practice and the warm-up exercises don't look like any contemporary song you'll perform, but they make you better at every contemporary song you'll perform.
Putting It Together
For repertoire selection:
Work on standards as cross-training material, not as performance goals
Trust that capacities built on unfamiliar material transfer to your preferred genres
Add songs from outside your comfort zone deliberately
Don't dismiss material because you wouldn't perform it; ask what it develops
For technical development:
Go fully into the "goofy" version of new techniques rather than dialing them back
Build distinct chest, mix, and head voice registers
Practice low notes with deliberately powerful chest placement
Work the transitions between registers, not just the registers themselves
For warm-up routines:
Use the core four: breath support, bubbles, humming, vowel range work
Spend 5-10 minutes warming up before any serious vocal work
Don't skip warm-ups even when eager to get to songs
Treat warm-ups as preparation for the capacity, not as separate from it
For sustainable practice:
Add working songs to casual playlists for sing-along practice
Use karaoke tracks for focused work
Practice in short, frequent sessions rather than long rare ones
Show up to lessons even when you haven't been consistent
For working with coaches:
Frame vocal coaching as strength training, not performance preparation
Trust the long-term capacity development over short-term performance impact
Don't expect every lesson to directly serve an upcoming performance
Measure progress in months and years, not single sessions
The singers who develop reliably strong voices over years aren't the ones with the most exciting practice material. They're the ones who do the unglamorous work of building underlying capacity through whatever material develops it best.
Sing the standards. Work the warm-ups. Develop the registers. Practice consistently in whatever forms fit your life. The voice you're building is bigger than any single song or genre. It's the instrument that will serve you for a lifetime, and it's built through the deliberate work of capacity development.
Trust the process. Show up. Sing the goofy version of the new technique. The polish comes later. The work is now.
Looking for more?
Vocal Exercise YouTube Playlist