How much to practice/sing

Hello. I'm 63, have come to music late in life, now part of a classic rock band, etc. I've also been singing a lot for the last four years or so, and have studied programs by another teacher who emphasized vowel mods and very strenuous vocal workouts. i found him to be lacking, which is why I tried 30 day and so glad I did. One of my questions is this: Is singing like weight-lifting, where the longer and more intense your workouts, the stronger you get. Trying to get a sense from you how much practice time I should put in to improve range and tone, and whether or not to focus on mixed and head voice to strengthen those, which is one of my goals. Finally, what should the balance be between scales/exercises and song work. I also do have a pretty flexible schedule so I can make time if that's what becoming a better sing calls for. Hope this makes sense. Thanks, Tim

Hi, Tim! So glad you found us, and happy to have you here!

Here's an article I wrote on building vocal stamina to help answer your first question. 

As for training mixed and head voice - yes, absolutely! If that's new to you, I recommend letting your voice "flip" into head voice whenever it naturally "wants to" within your vocal exercises. This helps train your muscles to "hand over" from TA-dominant (chest voice) to CT-dominant (head voice). Mixed coordination is a balance of both TA and CT function. See below for some video lessons with exercises:

These are the 3 exercises I like best for mixed coordination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwiwZ3dS8mg&t=408s

Here's a short lesson on avoiding "flipping" within mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pI9v1YMFN4

If you're getting a shouty tone, here's another lesson addressing problems with mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzObbNv78oA.

I also love this teacher's demonstration & explanation of mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYsO7HX84P8. Sometimes it helps to hear the tone quality in a male voice, too!

Lastly, I'd recommend about 1/3 of your time spent on exercise, 2/3 of your time spent on song work (for a 30-60 minute practice session). The longer the session, the more time spent on song work. No need to warm up for 30 minutes, in my opinion! A 10-20 minute warmup/exercise is usually what I shoot for. 

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Camille. Very helpful

You're welcome, Tim!