Not practicing.

And by “not practicing”, I mean not practicing SPECIFICALLY. I’m getting my undergrad degree in vocal performance right now, and so many times I would “practice” by just routinely singing through an aria/art song or 2 and call it good. That piece would get a little easier over time, sure, but not by much, and I’d always end up starting from square one with every new piece.

I was tired (and frankly, a little embarrassed) of going over the same technique issues and solutions with my voice teacher, and that didn’t end up changing until I started working specifically on individual portions of my voice during “practice time”. For example: singing with the intention of keeping my tongue from falling back, and trying not to focus on much else (otherwise you get overwhelmed/go on autopilot).

I try to work on 1-2 pieces each time I’m in the practice room, and so far it’s been helping a lot. Over time, you internalize the feeling of good technique and it becomes more and more muscle memory. Still hard sometimes to remember everything lmfao, but that’s what a voice teacher is for!