You've been diligent at your singing and you practice everyday, but why do you seem to be bugged by the same vocal problem for the longest time? How you practice is equally as important as how often you do. Remember, it's muscles (the vocal cords) you're dealing with here. Vocal cords just like all other body muscles require regular repetition and rest intervals to gain muscle memory. When you seem to be stuck in that exercise forever, don't give up! Thomas Edison failed around 2000 times (have you reached 2000?) Just when you think you'll never get over it ever, your voice might come around sooner than you think.

Here are some tips to help you along:

1. Start slow but sure - babies crawl before they can walk; you learn to walk before you can run. You learn letters before words, basic algebra before quantum physics or integral calculus. Sorry Mr. and Ms. Overnight Success, that's just how nature works! You're not fooling anyone when you don't have the basics down pat but yourself. Your lack of patience will definitely show up when you try pull a Celine Dion and can't support your voice or transition between registers smoothly yet.

2. Light and right is better than strong and wrong - Brett Manning says this a lot to his students: The singing voice usually starts out thin before it is thick because the vocal cords must be strong enough and conditioned enough before it can support a stronger, more powerful sound. And how do you make your vocal cords strong enough? (Say: constant practice) Right on, genius! Do it again. And no you won't feel your vocal cords develop a six-pack, but if you keep at and keep at it the strength will come, guaranteed.

3. Short frequent, concentrated bouts as opposed to long, dragging and rare sessions - your brain retains learned material (and exercises for this matter) better when you keep practice sessions short, frequent, and concentrated. You're just bound to get distracted and forget what you've developed when you do an all-nighter now and another one again next week.

4. Rest in between - just like gym workouts, buddy. It's during rest that the vocal cords develop their strength and not when they're at work. So don't feel guilty for taking a break after a productive vocal workout.

5. Don’t forget to warm down as well! Warming up the voice is easy to remember as all vocal instruction points this out, but the warmdown is equally as important to bring back the cords to its relaxed state from all the blood flow you've brought into it when you worked it out.

6. Hydrate! Avoid dairy too. Water is needed to keep ypur vocal cords from drying out. Dairy products cause the body to produce more phlegm than usual, and I bet that's the last thing you need more of while you sing. The proper way to drink water during singing is to take small sips as opposed to gulping it all down at once, or it'll all just pass out needlessly in your pee.

7. Motivate yourself beforehand - when you study for an exam, you don't study to fail, do you? That's just nonsense. The reason you're studying is to pass that exam (and top it!) in the first place. The same goes with singing. You spend blood, sweat and tears at painstakingly and patiently doing those exercises all because you want to sing better. Before you get down to it, make a list of the reasons why you want this so badly in the first place and put it up in front of you as you practice. What your mind can conceive, you can achieve. If you're getting discouraged, just take a breather and come back again when you're feeling better. The only mistake you can ever make is to quit.

8. Practice during peak energy and mood levels - try to sing when you're sad, angry, or tired. It's gonna take more effort to start, end even more effort to sound better! You are most likely to absorb what you've learned quicker and better when you're mind, body, and emotions are up to it.

9. Record yourself by audio or video to see where you've gone right and wrong. We never hear ourselves the way we actually sound without because of all our body cavities resonating our sound before the it actually comes out. The only way to hear our voice the way other people hear it is by listening to yourself in a satisfactorily good and clean recording. The video option is for seeing how you look the way others see you as well.

10. The most important tip is knowing what exercises to practice, or the point of practicing would be in vain. It's as directionless as rehearsing a classical piece for a pop contest. Did you know that different exercises serve different functions to the voice besides increasing your range? Know which is for which, and know what works so you waste no time and be well on your way to developing a great voice today.