(Part 2) Best vocal & singing books according to redditors

This "hearing" is called audiation. While you might believe that the pitch you are audiating is perfect, in reality it takes training and practice to really sing on pitch well (although talent can do a lot for that) as the human ear can really only hold onto a pitch like that for about 7~10 seconds. For instance, many amateur/novice singers when holding a sustained pitch will tend to go flat (the pitch gets slightly lower, enough to go out of tune) unless they are aware of this and compensate for it. There is also much pedagogy on vocal technique to make sure your singing voice produces a clear tone, much of which might not occur to one on instinct.

Edit: Many of you wish to improve your singing or wonder why you can whistle or play pitches perfectly on another instrument and yet be unable to sing pitches accurately. I am a music ed major in college currently enrolled in eartraining and voice methods classes, which is where my knowledge comes from. For tone production with singing, the main thing is air support. I don't mean just getting louder, I mean using your diaphragm to push more and faster air through your vocal chords. As for why you may not be able to sing on pitch but whistle, it is a different form of muscle memory, of knowing how to shape the throat and lips to produce a certain pitch, and most of you probably practice whistling a lot more than you might sing in public. Talking won't do it, as singing uses much more air and shape the mouth and throat much differently. One last thing, many pop singers use unorthodox technique to achieve their tone which is considered 'incorrect' as my training is in a more classical choral style. If you would like to learn more about singing technique, here is the text I use in class. I hope you guys find all this helpful!

Edit 2: The question of whether or not just anyone can learn to sing keeps popping up. The text I use expresses the belief that anyone can be taught to sing with the right amount of eartraining and the correct vocal technique in the choral sense. That's not to say that with enough training everyone could go make a competitive audition for a musical on broadway, as some aspects of singing such as range and the actual timbre of your voice are genetic, but they could realistically learn to sing in tune with a pretty decent tone.

Yeah... I really don't condone self-teaching for many reasons, but obviously you don't want to hear that right now, so this is just a bit of a disclaimer.

Personally, I think if you're going to study on your own, it's really worth it to get a good background in the "bookwork" elements of singing, like vocal anatomy and pedagogy, as well as language work.

On that end, I would recommend books like Doscher's The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice, McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, Miller's The Structure of Singing, and McCoy's Your Voice: An Inside View. These are really not easy reads, per se, but they should give you a really good foundation in understanding what's going on physically, and being aware of potential problems in vocal health and hygiene, which is arguably the biggest reason to study with a teacher. (In other words, a good understanding of the physical vocal structure can help prevent unknowingly contorting it in an unhealthy way).

I would also strongly recommend some study in language, diction, and text. Even for non-classical singers, it's worth it to know about how diction and articulation works. Diction for Singers, A Handbook of Diction for Singers, and International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers would be a good start. (And in general, a working understanding of IPA is crucial).

You can also work on text analysis - I'm not really a poetry/text specialist so I can't recommend any specific books, but I'm sure there are many out there.

Marchesi's Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method is another resource to look into, as it contains many exercises designed for technical practice - I liken it to the Hanon exercises commonly found in piano curricula. However, I will definitely warn that these exercises can be easily done incorrectly and can lead to the development of very bad habits, so please proceed with caution and be aware that there are many ways to execute the exercises, some of which are not healthy.

In addition, I would recommend a broad study in music theory, music history, and ear training. [Musictheory.net](http://www.musictheory.net] and Teoria.com are well-respected websites that offer lessons and exercises to learn beginner to intermediate level music theory concepts. Good-ear.com is another website I often recommend that focuses more on ear training. I would also recommend checking out the sidebar and FAQs over at /r/musictheory for more details.

In addition to these websites, some books worth mentioning include Berkowitz's A New Approach to Sight Singing, Music for Analysis, Caplin's Classical Form, Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music, Grout's A History of Western Music, and Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony. While of course you don't need to have a doctorate in music theory to begin singing, I think it can only be helpful to have a really broad basis of understanding in various parts of music, as they directly affect your ability to read, understand, and interpret music.

Anyway, that should give you a pretty decent start. Please feel free to post if you have any additional questions.

Brent Edstrom's 2 books of arrangements through Hal Leonard are pretty neat and fairly involved. Here's one and here's the other one.

There's also a piano solo book of Dave Brubeck's christmas album that is also neat.

While I am not a primary vocalist, I happen to have a few excellent resources at my disposal: a textbook from a vocal pedagogy class I took a while back and a book on the list of recommended books for that class. The first is Barbara M. Doscher's The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice. I would highly recommend it for its very in-depth look at MANY aspects of singing, and how technically minded it is. It brings up various points of view on mechanisms from vocalists, and prior pedagogues, and compares them with more recent scientific study and great detail on anatomy used in singing. The second is James C. McKinney;s The Diaganosis & Correction of Vocal Faults.

I'm mainly going to talk about head voice and falsetto as it relates to men, though some of the anatomical information present will apply to women as well. Please pick up a copy of one or both of these books if you want to study this topic further, maybe ask your vocal instructor to assist you in learning a bit more about what they both contain.

>The male head voice is a blending of heavy and light mechanisms to attain a voix mixte, but it has a very different color and projection from that of the female middle voice.

^(Doscher 183)

Earlier in the text, Ms. Doscher talks about heavy and light mechanisms based on laryngeal function, which according to her source (Vennard, William. Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic, 4th ed. New York: Carl Fischer, 1967.), can overlap by about an octave in usage.
Heavy mechanisms:

• utilize thickened vocal cords
  
• have a wide amplitude (large range of possible volumes or dynamics)
  
• exhibit firm glottal closure
  
• are rich in partials (SEE THIS for information on partials)
  
• utilize an active vocalis.
  
  In contrast, Light mechanisms:
  
  
• utilize thinned vocal cords
  
• have a narrower amplitude
  
• utilize brief and/or incomplete glottal closure
  
• have fewer partials
  
• utilizes an active crico-thyroid
  
  ^(Doscher 174)
  
  >[still referring to male head voice] The intensity or amplitude of vibration and the multitude of overtones in the sound wave are regulated by a firm glottal closure, the longer length of time the glottis is closed, and the high air pressure used. In laryngeal appearance, this blended head voice resembles the chest register more than it does the falsetto.
  
  ^(Doscher 184-185)
  
  And on the topic of falsetto:
  
  >According to Hirano, the major breathing and phonatory characteristics of the falsetto are:
  
  > * relaxed vocalis muscle
  
• stretched crico-thyroids
  
• incomplete closure along the total length of the vocal ligaments
  
• great increase of air flow
  
• great decrease of air pressure
  
  >Although falsetto behavior formerly was thought to be solely the result of the damping of the vocal folds (as in a violin string), some authorities now think extreme longitudinal tension of the folds creates the effect of damping. [...] Because of all these factors, the glottal closure time is short and often incomplete, the amplitude of the folds is narrow, and there are very few upper partials in the sound wave. There is greater breath flow than in either the male chest or full head registers.
  
  ^(Doscher 185-186)
  
  Now on to Mckinney on Falsetto, contrasting against the "modal voice," which he calls the normal register for speaking and singing. This puts falsetto in a much shorter and easier to digest way (or if you'd rather: TL;DR)
  >The falsetto register lies above the modal voice register and overlaps it. The characteristic sound of falsetto is inherently breathy and flute-like, with few overtones present. This is due to the type of vibratory pattern set up by the vocal cords. As has been previously stated, the frequency of vibration is determined by the length, tension, and mass of the vocal cords. As pitch rises in the modal register, the cords are lengthened by the action of the cricothyroid muscles, tension is increased by the resistance which the vocalis muscles (the internal thyroarytenoids) offer to the pull of the cricothyroids, and mass is decreased as the edges of the vocal cords become thinner. The key factor is that the whole vocal cord is involved in the vibratory pattern of the modal register; this is not the case in falsetto.
  
  ^(McKinney 99)
  
  So that's what's different between Male head voice and falsetto.
  
  
  EDITS: a ton of formatting issues. It's readable now.

How old is the daughter?

If she's under the age of 13, I'd suggest doing nothing more than teaching her to match pitch and some music theory on how to read sheet music.

I strongly suggest this book for you to read (it's not very sciency, very easy to understand) if you're trying to do anything else.

If you are not comfortable teaching voice lessons, it's okay if you turn your coworkers down. I don't personally recommend giving voice lessons unless you're secure in what to teach, and if you've been formally taught to a comfortable degree. Being in charge of someones voice is a responsibility, and while you probably won't do anything to permanently damage them, you always could. They put full trust in you, so it's important for you to know what you're doing.

Start with the basics: Posture, breath, and matching pitch. Until the student has a basic grasp on those three things, nothing else is going to stick terribly well. Only mention something about an open throat or resonance or tension if it sounds (or if the student tells you) that it physically hurts.

I'd also recommend getting some formal voice lessons yourself if teaching is going to be a thing you continue to do. Not only will it improve your own personal singing, it will improve your teaching as well.

Good luck!

Good on you for turning your embarassment into motivation! That's a tough step to make, and it will be very rewarding to work on your singing.

As for transitioning from one note to another, just practice scales. The bigger the jump between notes, the more challenging it will be; there is a whole lot that goes into blending the registers so I won't get into that. So just start with scales in the easy part of your range, and try and make the transitions smooth as though you're just singing one sustained note (that is, the breath stays constant between notes-- you don't need to "stop the air" between notes). And as a matter of fact, when I say start with scales, don't let ambition push you to doing scales that cover too large of a range or are in a difficult part of your range. Start with just 2 or 3 note patterns, like "do-re-do" (but all one one vowel, such as "ah"), or "do-re-mi-re-do" and so forth. The old-school singing schools started very slow with this kind of stuff-- like this book for example:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486223159/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1423438736&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1EVP16YWAGXYX5QPGN1C

There are pages and pages of simple 1, 2, and 3 note figures before you start getting to the point of singing bigger scales. Singing a full octave scale with even tone and easy production is surprisingly hard for a true beginner. The "grand scale" of 2 octaves (maybe with a turnaround at the top making it 2 octaves plus a whole tone) is certainly "advanced." Adding consanants and vowel changes is another added layer of difficulty. I'm just mentioning these things because I came to singing a complete beginner, and thought it was silly that it should be so hard. On guitar, violin, or piano, which I had played for years, there is really very little difficulty or adjustment required in moving around from low to high notes. The voice is really clunky, and by nature not very smooth from bottom to top. It takes a lot of time to get a consistent tone throughout one's range. Just bringing this up to say-- take pleasure in small victories, and don't get discouraged! ;)

As for vibrato, it's a nice milestone to strive for, but it's not really recommended that you try to create it consciously. It will come naturally as your technique gets better. Strangely enough it is just one of those things that emerges on it's own once you've found a nice and relaxed and resonant mode of singing. It can be created artificially in various ways but this is usually considered to not sound very good, and some of which could be downright unhealthy for your voice.

These are the ones I tried. I strongly encourage you to learn IPA before you get into a class though. It'll help you SOOO much.

Here's the IPA VOWEL CHART with AUDIO

1. this ones good but a bit too much content (350pages). You really have to study it carefully. It has a good amount of exercises and tons of information on what most academies teach for singing. There's really no secret though because most of the stuff in here are really just the fundamentals. It's a bit heavy on imagery.... so if you're a visual learner, this is the one for you! It has great exercises for releasing your voice, removing tension, how to breathe and use your breath, and how to do vowel modifications.
   
   
2. I love this one. If you get the book, it has a beefy sound library of 417 sound examples (for both m and f), how to do those sounds at different intensities plus how to do vocal effects (after you polish your voice). It's not perfect like everything else. It really doesn't talk about EMOTIONS and expressing yourself like actors do. But sucks if you live in America like me where most people don't know what it is so you can't really clear things up and discuss with other people learning it...and most vocal teachers don't really like it (THEY HATE IT) because they don't like how it can go against their teachings and by the terms it uses. IF YOU'RE BETTER at learning through HEARING things, then THIS IS THE ONE FOR YOU. It has made me identify and imagine HOW every single person uses their voice whenever I hear a recording. However, I still get a bit confused if it's a studio recording because those recordings can make someones voice sound more powerful than it really is... One thing is it THROWS OUT ALL terms from other singing methods out the window. That can be good in a way because it removes all the confusion that people label certain sounds with (e.g. for a particular sound 3 teachers hear-- teacher 1 says this sound is FALSETTO, teacher 2 says it's MIXED VOICE, and teacher 3 says it's HEAD VOICE. They all are talking about the same thing but defining it differently!!!). It completely avoids talking about vocal fachs all together (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) because it's unnecessary for the modern times as proven with SCIENCE. They study peoples voices by using ENT and put a small video camera inside people to see what actually goes on when someone sings.
   
   
3. Seth Riggs - Speech Level Singing. Very simple but if you want to sing with a beefy powerful "full of body" sound... then this isn't the one for you. It's basically almost falsetto-ey like. Here's some videos of people taught SLS: Guy doing his whole range, Korean guy practicing the exercises made for this program, A certified instructor singing YOU RAISE ME UP. It's a bit false advertising that they use Michael Jackson and other singers for their testimonials. Yes, they went to Seth Riggs to help their voice out... BUT they were already SINGERS before they went to him. Michael Jackson is a master of EVERY kind of sound there is.. from this soft and gentle sound, falsetto, head voice, mixed, screaming, whatever there was! But this IS against of singing with versatility I believe. Anything outside of this "speech" level is considered harmful for them PLUS they don't believe in the term "falsetto" and just call it "head voice". It's pretty easy to tell who comes from SETH RIGGS method. If they want to sing something powerful and loud, they'll get pretty scared of doing so because they've been told NO NO NO don't DO THAT, it'll hurt you!
   
   
4. New York Vocal Coach YouTube Channel - Justin Stoney. Start from his first episode to his latest so you know what terms he refers to. It's basically similar to SPEECH LEVEL SINGING except a bit more versatile because he talks about belting, twang and using more "oomf" type of singing. It's basically CLASSICAL "musical theater" singing and pop most of the time.
   
   
5. Ken Tamplin. He has a weird shaped lizard tongue that he claims uses the maximum openness for singing and bases his techniques off of BEL CANTO School... I'm unsure about that but he has a really STRONG voice and all of his students seem to have that same sound as his too. This is one of his students. It's very versatile and focuses on singing in styles. Very different from Speech level singing. A bit business-like though... Be cautious. I tried his purchased program -- it's basically just modifications from open vowels. You'd be better off knowing how to modify from IPA (with the #1 source I linked above)
   
   
6. Rock the stage NYC - Kevin Richards. I find his videos and his own vocal program -- vocal fire and his breathing program really great. I haven't really tried everything he supplied to me yet when I got it on sale... they were a bit difficult to do. But he really talks about the difference between all these vocal methods. He is similar to Ken Tamplin but also is against Ken Tamplin at the same time for some of the stuff he teaches. He really tried so hard to find his voice and the way he teaches is straight to the point. Full on exercises that seem to help VERY well but his voice is okay. He is very active at replying too. He knows basically about everything SLS, Bel Canto Classical Method, and Complete Vocal Technique (he told me that on twitter). But I think he really doesn't like how CVT is because of how confusing it may be to some people. He really believes what he knows is THE BEST there is... so it may work for you or may not work for you.
   
   
7. The best method was basically downloading a PIANO/TUNER app -- on iOS get TUNED XD. Check out of you're on the correct pitch. Sing along with your favorite songs, repeat every line till you get it right... that's basically the best way to learn how to sing without a teacher. This one works best if you're already a musician though... Some people just absolutely NEED assistance and can't do anything on their own when it comes to singing.
   
   I have tried other sources but I found these to help me the most to be honest.

I'm currently studying Vocal Performance in preparation for graduate studies in Choral Conducting. I would ABSOLUTELY look into literature such as Dennis Shrock's books, specifically his most known, Choral Repertoire and Choral Scores.

Also, if you are looking at this opportunity very seriously as your future, this is very exciting and I welcome you to choral singing!

Absolutely also look into the work done by Dr. James Jordan, he is one of the leading scholars, pedagogues, and conductors in the field. His books in the Evoking Sound series, Evoking Sound, Evoking Sound, the Choral Warmup, and if you're particularly interested in conducting(not just choral conducting!) and its nuances, then The Conductor's Gesture.

Also, Podcasts are a GREAT resource, listen to Choir Chat, with John Hughes, he interviews the fields leading experts and big names, composers, conductors, and teachers!

I would also like to say that the greatest tool for finding new rep is just listening to choirs, listening to a lot of recordings. You should be able to find a LOT of rep just from searching through recordings from ACDA conventions alone.

Also, recommendations for composers generally outside of the classical choral canon, or who are gaining some popularity, Stacey Gibbs for spirituals, Moses Hogan for spirituals, Dan Forrest is a new contemporary composer whose music is approachable, Jake Runestadt is another contemporary composer with approachable music, Daniel Elder's set of Three Nocturnes(Lullaby, Ballade to the Moon, and Star Sonnet), Michael Burkhardt for treble choir or approachable young choir / world music, Eugene Rogers has a very approachable series for world music, Joseph Flummerfelt has a lot of fantastic arrangements of a lot of stuff(Danny Boy), Greg Jasperse for vocal jazz, Darmon Meader for vocal jazz, Kerry Marsh for vocal jazz.

Don't hesitate to message if you have any questions about the comment or in the future!

Modern Jazz Voicings by Ted Pease from Berklee Press. This is THE definitive book on arranging techniques, voicing, etc, and it’s geared to small groups.

Check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Choral-Vocal-Technique-Evoking-Sound/dp/1579997376

It's appropriate for all levels. The key is to activate their singing voice, which is different than their speaking voice (singing voice has more head resonance, is more brilliant, and forward; needs to be spacious and resonant)....

This book is also good. Reading through it now. http://www.amazon.com/Evoking-Warm-up-Procedures-Planning-Exercises/dp/1579993893

Finally, if you want tips for working with untrained voices.. read this book. http://www.amazon.com/Directing-Choral-Program-Kenneth-Phillips/dp/0195132823

It'll also tell you of logistical concerns too, like designing a program, programming a balanced concert, conducting, and things of that sort. It reads like a textbook but is really informative


oh, and one of my favorite books: It features a "Troubleshooting" area too that tells you how to fix various concerns in untrained singers.
http://www.amazon.com/Choral-Challenge-Practical-Solving-Problems/dp/1579997031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404185673&sr=8-1&keywords=the+choral+challenge

Thought I should mention this book even though it isn't free.

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Singing-Exploring-Discovering-Developing/dp/0073284777

Great reading exercises and practice pieces:

1. 113 Etudes for Cello
   
2. 15 Inventions, Bach
   
3. 6 Cello Suites, Bach
   
4. Jazz Transcriptions
   
5. Various transcriptions
   
6. Vast collection of classic Funk/Soul Transcriptions
   
7. Rhythm Studies
   
   Transcribe as manny lines as you can. Practice arpeggios and scales (write them out even if you have them memorized) through the entire cycle of fifths (up and down) to help internalize the succession of key signatures. Don't worry about style of music. Just read everything you can get you hands on. Practice reading rhythms separately and in conjunction with pitch. For rhythm, think in terms of beats rather than notes. There is a finite number of ways for a beat to be subdivided. Sight-Reading any Rhythm Instantly is a great book for rhythm reading. Frequent short practice is much better than infrequent long practices. It is hard work, but the work pays off.

Thanks. I actually have Brett Manning's Singing Success as well as Set Your Voice Free by Roger Love and Singing For The Stars by Seth Riggs (who I believe developed the speech level singing program that the first two admittedly built their programs around). I use a combination of those programs as well as Secrets of Singing by Jeffrey Allen (which I actually consider the most useful of all of those programs).

I'm definitely a believer in warming up and cooling down as well, but I still inevitably push it too much during practice. Just wondering if I should give myself a rest day or not afterwards, though.

Thanks for responding!

I think it really depends what sort of things you do / want to do. You can totally get by with your ear and mouth, and having a good ear is definitely more important.

I like tabs as they are quick / accessible but I dislike them because pretty much they are a way of noting down where you put your fingers.

So if you want to learn / play and essentially arrange songs in a creative fashion then a basic ability to understand / read music really helps.

For example to take a lead sheet, something like Autumn Leaves for jazzier or maybe more poppy, a beatles song Michelle. You can see they dont tell you how to play the song, what they do tell you is what chords go where and it details the melody + rhythm of melody. So you can take this and produce your own version if you can read it.

You could do that through ear, i.e. listen to song, pick out meldoy and chords by ear / rework but its helpful using the sheet, really using both is important.

Sight reading perfectly in real time is more questionable. I think professional guitarist / session guitarist / teacher its almost an essential skill to have, otherwise you can get by.

I've found that arrange enough songs / play with lead sheets then at first its a little slow, (you have to work everything out, i.e. what are these notes, this chord contains what notes and where do I play these notes?) but over time with practice / experience you naturally get faster until you are sight reading it.

I think one of the things its really helpful to be able to sight read are rhythms. You can count out but I found that doesnt translate well, this book I found was really good. Its where though you can start using your ear / feel more tho instead.

As well you mentioned improv. Benefit of lead sheets and being able to read them is you can read what notes or chords are there, it helps you discover possibilities for improv on the guitar. I.e. applying theory. So reading just makes that easier / quicker.

Here is a good book:

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Voice-Free-Roger-Love/dp/0316441791

These books are outstanding (for any voice type) - comprehensive, with music from a great range of sub-genres & styles as well as time periods (including Gilbert and Sullivan), matched by volume to voice type. I have four of the Tenor volumes. My one criticism is that the first book came out in the late 70s, so the 2nd and 3rd have some slightly more modern repertoire, such as Les Mis etc.

There's a slightly more expensive version that comes with a recording and a backing track, and a version with these disks alone (no sheet music). They're good quality, just be careful which you're buying.

The Structure of Singing by Richard Miller

Securing Baritone, Bass-Baritone, and Bass Voices by Richard Miller

What Every Singer Needs to Know about the Body

I didn't learn about these books until graduate school. I think every singer needs them in their personal library. The Miller texts are very thorough on technique with scientific explanation of phonation. Lots of diagrams and lots of exercises with very specific purposes. Also a lot of very good references to other texts. If you're more of a right brain thinker and respond better to metaphors and abstract approaches, Miller may not be your go-to reference guide, but it's important to at least study for pedagogy's sake.

The other book focuses on body awareness. It will change your life. For real. Posture, balance, alignment, movement - everything you need to know. Teachers toss around terms and commands such as "tension," "relax," "stand up straight," "chest high," "shoulders back," etc. but none of this is specific enough to actually correct anything and can actually cause other problems! This book will save you. It is my precious and I love it.

I have not read Mark Levine's book, but if you're just looking for another read, I would recommend "Modalogy" by Jeff Brent. I just got it and it's been so much fun to study. You'll go in depths on modes, variations of modes, scales, and learn the "why" behind why they behave the way they do and a ton of other stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Modalogy-Scales-Chords-Primordial-Building/dp/1458413977

The vocal cords do use a set of muscles to come together and to coordinate and on higher notes they do require more control to keep the cords together when that much air is going through them, but most of the muscle control should be sub-conscious and should be teased out by correct support and good mental imagery. There is almost no conscious effort on controlling muscles in the throat to help with singing other then to relax them.

In a Book called "Great Singers on Great Singing" There is an interview in it where one of the people says that every singer in their learning of the voice will go through a period of excessive tension. You have to know how far to take it and to do that you have to be ready to experience and memorize what is too much and too little.

It's interesting to see that operatic singing has been relegated to the realm of freaks with enormous voices and folks "just born with it." There are a multitude of roles in the repertoire for lighter or "smaller" voices, and they must cultivate the skill of singing into a large theater and over an orchestra just as well as the Brünnhildes. Renowned dramatic-mezzo soprano Dolora Zajick calls this subjective awareness kinesthetic empathy, and frequently likens the skill of learning how to identify when a voice isn't functioning properly to a famous choreographer who went blind but could tell how dancers were moving by placing his ear to the ground and listening to how they were landing. Genetics may exclude you from singing your dream role, but that's about as far as the "talent" element goes.

The most beautiful sounding voices are usually the most skillfully used, and while some have an innate sense of "how one sings" it can and has been learned by many-a great singer. There is absolutely nothing natural about singing the scales of absurd range and rapidity which are common place in opera, and while everyone is born with voices of unique timbres and sizes, I assure you that barring major physical ailments (deformities to the cords etc) everyone can learn to use them skillfully and deliberately.

The book Modalogy identifies the most important traits of a modal cadential chord as stepwise motion of the root, a major quality, and presence of the mode’s characteristic note.

For example, it gives II-I as the strongest Lydian cadence, since II’s root is a step away from I, it has a major quality, and it contains the characteristic note of the mode (the raised fourth).

Robin Fredericks suggests start with a title, ask questions about the title, then chorus (includes title), then verse (answers who, what, where), then bridge (what's the big reveal). You can learn more about her strategy on this video How to Write a Song in 10 steps.

Andrea Stolpe is similar but begins with destination writing , the title, then a list of images and craft them into phrases along the way.

Sheila Davis has that book that you've probably seen at your local book store called Successful Lyric Writing. Apparently there are fun exercises in it. I haven't picked it up.

They both suggest you store potential titles when you're going about life.

Then when you sit down to practice, you follow their steps so you always have a clear focus of what to do next.

I'm still very much a beginner in lyric writing but their tips have helped me actually finish songs rather than writing down pieces of songs.

I was actually just recently made aware of the Lomax songbook while looking into the history of I Know You Rider... Trying to decide whether I want a kindle version or a $$ hardbound or both. I know what I am doing in 2016...

http://www.amazon.com/American-Ballads-Songs-Dover-Books/dp/0486282767/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452536099&sr=8-1&keywords=lomax+american+music

Yuh amma siktin ha.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Ballads-Songs-Dover-Books/dp/0486282767 kapagi farkli ama bence kitap bu.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

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http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Songs-Piano-Series-Volume/dp/1476812063

You might also want to look into modal interchange.

In jazz music, we rely a lot on various modes, and borrowing from parallel modes to create harmonic progressions that are from related chordscales.

/u/kilometresdavis also explained the idea of secondary dominants, which can play a role if the III or VI chord is a dominant 7 chord.

For more on Modal Interchange, check out Modern Jazz Voicings: Arranging for Small and Medium Ensembles
By Ted Pease, Ken Pullig.

Google Books sample on the topic here, but fairly illegible.

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    Edit 1: I'm an idiot and clearly didn't read the first large chunk of your post in giddy excitement and flu delirium. Forgive my fevered repetition pointing you towards resources and terminology you already have. Captain Useless out.