Singing Guide: Donna Adkins
Vocal technique, exercises, tips and relevant resources
How to Sing Like Donna Adkins
Donna Adkins is an American blues singer, best known for her high and powerful vocals. To learn how to sing like her, it is essential to focus on breath support, register transitions, and articulation.
Adkins is known for her unique belting technique, which means pushing one’s chest voice higher without breaking into falsetto. It requires a lot of breath support. To develop breath support, start with Vocal Range and Pitch Accuracy tests, and move to Breathing Basics and Respiration articles.
To reach high notes without straining, train your mixed voice. The Chest Voice Explained and Singing Comfort Zone videos will work best for that. Also, pay attention to transiting between voice registers and avoiding vocal breaks, which is covered in Voice Registers and Vocal Break article.
Make sure you open up your mouth and throat to achieve a full and powerful sound. The Why to Open Mouth and Throat While Singing article will help understand that better. Moreover, to achieve the blues effect, try Growling and Vocal Distortion techniques. You can get familiar with growling in the How to Growl Exercise video, and the Vocal Distortion & Growling article.
To improve your articulation, save the finger bite exercise from the Articulation video. Additionally, familiarize yourself with Donna Adkins's artistry by learning her most famous songs like "Let it Bleed" and "Sweet Little Angel". The Song Search feature will help you find songs that match your vocal range, difficulty, and genre preference.
Lastly, to improve your performance, watch the How to Overcome Stage Fright and Tips for Performing on Stage to overcome stage fright.
By following these resources, you can learn how to sing like Donna Adkins while building your techniques, repertoire, and confidence.