BecomeSingers is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
You may be one of those adoring fans of Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, Usher, Madonna, and Beyonce, and you know that these artists are bankable artists. They also got charismatic characters that make them a big draw wherever they perform. Yet, all these abovementioned artists have one thing in common—they can sing and dance at the same time. Of course, their singing is impeccable, but their dancing too while singing is excellent, making them the most versatile artists of all time.
Dancing and singing at the same time, of course, is not an easy thing to do, but the artists mentioned above make it look as if such a feat is easy. Each of them mastered the art of singing and dancing separately. But what’s remarkable about them is their ability to synchronize their singing and dancing, as if it is their second nature to sing and dance at the same time.
Techniques on How to Sing and Dance at the Same Time
If you can sing and dance, you are a multi-talented person, for not many people can fuse both skills. Moreover, if you learn how to dance while singing, you can raise your performance level a notch higher. However, such a feat is challenging. Nevertheless, if you are desirous of learning how to sing and dance at the same time, you can check out the following succinct tips:
1) Breathing Properly While Dancing & Singing
The primary thing you should master is your breathing if you want to dance while singing. Controlling your breathing is indeed a prerequisite in learning how to sing and dance at the same time. If you are used to singing without dancing, you will know at least a way to control your breathing. Yet, controlling your breathing becomes doubly tricky when singing and dancing at the same time. It is like working out while singing.
To raise your breathing control level, you can practice holding a feather in front of your lips while breathing. Aim to move the feather with your continuous breathing and regulate your breathing and put it under control. Be conscious of your body as you engage in breathing, and refrain from collapsing your chest. Avoid inhaling until you feel that you will gasp for air. Practice this exercise more often and each time you engage in this exercise, try to prolong your exhalation.
When singing and dancing, you should be at your best stamina and perfect control of your breath. As a practice, you should not stand still while singing. Ensure that you move around every time you sing. In doing so, you increase the stability of your voice while vigorously moving.
Another way to increase your control over your breathing is by singing while you do a hefty exercise. Engage in practices that increase your breathing pace like running, climbing, and jumping jacks. While engaging in such activities, always sing. In this way, it’ll become second nature for you to sing while feverishly moving around. You will need a higher level of breath control to sing the notes well while dancing.
2) Practice Each Song. Then, Dance Separately
When learning a song, you should master how to sing it well, even if you are not dancing. In the same way, you should practice the dance steps for that song without singing. Then, once you’ve gained mastery of both skills. You can then integrate these two skills.
At the onset, you will find it hard to sing and dance at the same time. Yet, there is always enough truth in the old saying that one can never achieve something substantial without sacrifice. So, focus on each skill before you integrate singing and dancing.
Thus, to achieve a higher level of proficiency in both skills, you need to invest time and effort in mastering each skill. The more effort and time you invest in each talent, the better will be the outcome for you. Nevertheless, before you work out each of these skills, you need to engage in warm-ups.
3) Learn to Stagger Your Breathing
Maybe you have already watched how Michael Jackson or Jay Lo dance and sing in their performances. And perhaps you were amazed at how fluid and flawless they dance and sing at the same time. Well, you may think that such skills come naturally and genetically determined for them for they are doing it without much effort. However, that is not the case, for behind those flawless performances are nights of practice and learning how to engage in different breathing techniques like staggered breathing.
When I was in college, my music instructor taught me how to stagger my breathing. Well, without staggered breathing, you will not last a minute singing a song without gasping for breath. To engage in staggered breathing, you should learn to take short breaths at specific points without being obvious.
This technique means that you should study the song and the song’s lines to figure out the strategic stops wherein you can take a short breath. You need to do your assignment and make sure that you also remember the strategic moments in the song when you should breathe when you practice.
If you are going to tackle a long note, for example, you need to ensure that you sneak in a breath here and then. You will need to time it with your dance to take a long breath without your audience noticing it.
4) Integrate Your Singing and Dancing
After you have separately mastered singing your song and dancing, you can then start practicing them together until you can sing and dance well. Never stop practicing until you have subconsciously imbibed both skills.
Ingrain in your muscle memory the choreography until it becomes second nature to you to dance without being conscious of your dancing. Let your muscle memory do the works for you while you sing. In this way, your body will undulate naturally without you being focused on your movement while you sing.
Madonna is also a great singer and dancer, check out full article about Madonna vocal abilities.
5) Time Your Singing with Your Dancing Moves!
Assuming that you have already gained mastery of your dance moves, I think it’s time for you to say the lyrics as you do a round of your dance moves. In this way, you can figure out how your song fits with your dancing. Of course, your dance moves should correspond with every beat and rhythm of your chosen music to ensure that your dance steps are on point with your music.
Moreover, your dance steps should amplify or stress your performance, and thus, you should study how the song flows. Practice anywhere you are or whatever you are doing. You can practice singing, for example, while cooking and imagining your fancy moves. In this way, you will have spatial awareness of yourself as you sing and dance.
Additional Tips to Master the Art of Dancing While Singing
If you want to hone your dancing skill while singing, it will be useful to heed whatever advice you can get from the experts. Here are some additional tips that you can employ to enhance your talents further:
1) Building your Singing Stamina
Before every performance, it will be useful to warm up your body to the performance rigors. So, it is good if you warm up your vocal cords before singing. The vocal cords come with vocal muscles. These muscles help the vocal cords to work out the notes that you would like to belt. To prevent damage to your vocal cords, you need to warm them up and do some vocal calisthenics before engaging in your performance.
Start with your diaphragm to strengthen your breathing. Then, move on to your larynx and position it low while balancing your vocal resonance. In this way, you can hit high notes with less effort.
Avoid straining your voice when you sing, and make sure that you do your homework by singing within your tessitura. It will be great to be efficient as possible sans sacrificing quality while you sing and dance at the same time.
2) Sing While Exercising
Since your goal is to fuse singing and dancing, you need to be always in optimum physical condition if you want to succeed in such an undertaking. After you’ve enhanced your breathing control and stamina, you can then work on your ability to sing while dancing.
One way to improve it is by singing while working out. The skill of singing while dancing necessitates not only working out your vocal muscles. It also requires working out your other body muscles that you would use for dancing. It will help if you engage in cardio exercises to improve your physical conditioning further.
3) Let Other People Assess Your Skill Level
When doing your round of singing while dancing, you will indeed find it hard to assess your level of skills because you are so taken up with dancing while singing. Hence, it will be useful to get someone to give a second opinion on how you are doing with your singing and dancing. The feedback of this person will be invaluable to your improvement as a versatile artist.
You can ask the opinion of a professional singing and dancing coach to give you his honest assessment of your performance. If you can’t find a reliable vocal coach, find a friend who can give you an honest evaluation of your practice session. In so doing, you will get objective inputs from someone other than you.
Conclusion
The enemy of the best is the good. You should bear in mind that if you want to be the best, you need to be better than those who are good and better. So always aim to be the best. Challenge yourself, therefore, to achieve greater heights. Avoid complacency, for you will not progress if you become self-satisfied.
Encourage yourself and do marginal changes in your daily practice routine so that you can further hone your dancing and singing skills. If you practice consistently and challenge yourself often, you will soon find yourself better than your previous self.