Understanding Your Voice and Creating a Foundation

Before we dive into Olstead's unique techniques, it's important to assess your own voice. Take Singing Carrots vocal range test to determine your voice range. Keep in mind that discovering your voice’s range is key to singing the right songs in the correct key. Knowing your voice type can also help you to master techniques unique to your vocal range and style and to avoid overexerting your vocal cords.

Once you have an understanding of your voice, you can begin to create a strong foundation for your singing technique. Start by mastering breathing techniques, which can be found on Singing Carrots’ breathing basics article. Take the Farinelli breathing exercise video to practice and improve your breathing technique. Always begin your practice with a proper warm-up that includes breathing exercises. Humming and singing scales is a great way to warm up your voice before singing.

Unique Vocal Techniques for Jazz Singing

Renee Olstead has a gorgeous jazz singing voice. Jazz singing is all about telling a story through phrasing, tone and melodic interpretation. To make your voice sound like Olstead’s, you need to learn how to sing flawlessly using her techniques and abilities.

First, learn the singing comfort zone exercise video that helps to develop chest, mixed, and head voice techniques.

Next, sing along with videos of Olstead performing her songs. She has excellent storytelling ability and uses vibrato selectively and tastefully. Learn all about vibrato with this Singing with Vibrato article. Olstead also makes great use of glottal onsets and offsets for her phrasing. Learn more about glottal onsets with the Voice Break video exercise.

Practice and Learn from the Best

As you develop your unique techniques and increase your knowledge of singing, practice regularly using Singing Carrots Vocal Pitch Monitor tool, which displays the exact notes you sing on a virtual piano.

Use Singing Carrots’ search tool for finding jazz songs that fit your vocal range. Renee Olstead has performed several jazz standards, including “Taking a Chance on Love,” “What a Difference a Day Makes,” and “Sunday Kind of Love.” Analyze these songs carefully and try to reproduce Olstead’s vocal technique.

The Takeaway

To sing like Renee Olstead, you must first understand your voice and develop a strong singing foundation. It's important to practice regularly using Singing Carrots’ resources while incorporating unique vocal techniques into your performance. Remember, singing should be fun, so don't forget to enjoy the process, and never stop learning!