Casual singing, where do I begin?

[alexao]

Hi,

 

I recently came across this forum in search of somewhere where I could ask a couple of questions.

I've been playing guitar for a couple of years and in the past couple of months singing have intrigued me, however it feels intimidating considering I've always been told I have a crap voice and to add to that Its a rather deep one too (male btw if it makes any difference). After looking around I've read that anyone can "learn" to sing in terms of not singing off key etc. Now I'm wondering if this is true? I'm not talking about trying to pursue a career within singing, but more of a hobby if you will. I can't really afford vocal lessons so I'm wondering where I should start. I don't know that much about music theory either (sadly). What I have in mind when it comes to this hobby of mine is something along the lines of Ed Sheeran. More something along the liens of this (

), being able to "perform" this would be something I would love to do (It might be more rap-like than singing but I guess that makes it more feasible). What I would like to know is, could I pull this off? And if so where should I begin? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Masklin]

singtherightnote.com

 

As long as you're not chronically tone deaf you'll get there if you work it.

 

Since you're a guitarist, I would suggest that you play some fairly simple and slow riff on your guitar, and then sing or hum along to it. Record yourself doing this, listen back, and see if you did it on key (as you were supposed to ).

 

Being confidently able to match pitch is step one in my opinion. Next come things like improving resonance, range, comfort, etc..

[PhilMoufarrege]

Yes anyone can learn to sing. However depending on how bad you start, you won't exactly get to "choose" whether to be "casual" or not. What I mean is, you may only want to learn a few casual tips to improve, but if you are really bad from the start then it means you will only benefit from in-depth training. The "casual tips" only work for people who already have a lot of good things going on naturally.

 

If I could only give you one tip it would be this: Stay in your loud "big boy voice" as high as you can without straining and when you feel the voice wanting to "break" just let it do so but WITHOUT lowering the volume and without fear of it flipping. Learn to smooth that blend out by not fearing it and without trying to dip the volume just go through it and allow it to flip. The volume will resemble that of calling out to someone.

 

There is so much more to building an excellent voice but it definitely does require one-on-one training. Having said that, if you follow what I just said to a T you will probably be happy with the results.

[kickingtone]

A good place to start is to record yourself a cappella. How you hear yourself directly, and how your recording sounds (which is more like other people hear you) will generally be quite different.

 

Ignore all the "crap voice" comments and focus on producing the sound that you want. When you achieve it, only then will you find other people who like it, too. Your taste is not unique.

 

There is tons of information on the internet. Experiment. It is the best way to learn.

 

Good progress requires years of patience. If you lack patience, there are many "coaches" and "trainers" out there with a hard sell, who will be happy to relieve you of your money with promises of unrealistic time scales, threats of how you may be damaging your voice, and all sorts of other negatives. Learn to spot them and ignore them.

[ericvomme]

A good place to start is to record yourself a cappella. How you hear yourself directly, and how your recording sounds (which is more like other people hear you) will generally be quite different.

 

Ignore all the "crap voice" comments and focus on producing the sound that you want. When you achieve it, only then will you find other people who like it, too. Your taste is not unique.

 

There is tons of information on the internet. Experiment. It is the best way to learn.

 

Good progress requires years of patience. If you lack patience, there are many "coaches" and "trainers" out there with a hard sell, who will be happy to relieve you of your money with promises of unrealistic time scales, threats of how you may be damaging your voice, and all sorts of other negatives. Learn to spot them and ignore them.

 

 

THIS. Record yourself a capella, and be very critical of yourself when you listen back to the recording. This is something a lot of singers skip. Just like a lot of wannabe speakers and salespeople are reluctant to practice in front of the mirror. As musicians and artists, we have to be our worst critic and best cheerleader at the same time. Not easy, but you'll get the hang of it.

[wesg]

Being your own worst critic and best cheerleader is not always difficult if you have the right attitude and are willing to be honest and work. In my case, I was a horrifically bad singer two years ago. Now I'm just a bad singer. That's a huge improvement, I have worked hard to get there, and am quite pleased with myself.

 

Being a multi-instrumentalist and able to quantify one's singing as though it were another instrument definitely helps in this regard. I can identify many things I don't like about my singing, and work on getting rid of them. I also have a coach to give me advice and honest feedback. For instance, my biggest problem was being able to accurately hit pitches that are in my range. I still have this problem, but my accuracy is now around 80% instead of 10%. And my range is better, too. So is my tone. The biggest thing that helped me there was singing scales in thirds. Learning to feel where the notes are. Because once you make a sound and hear that you are out of tune, it is too late.

 

If you can sing the right notes at the right time, it doesn't really matter how "crap" your voice is. People will enjoy your performance if you are sharing emotions.

[Walldude]

Hi, new guy here. My first post. I was in a similar situation, wanted to learn to sing, not real good at it. The best suggestion is obviously to take lessons. However, as I can attest that it is possible to figure it our for yourself, it just takes time... a lot of time.. I'm in year 5, and it was just this past year where I felt I could really do this. My range slowly improved(if you smoke.. QUIT!) and I went from being "good" about 5% of the time to about 50% of the time. I started with bands like REM, Clapton, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, all fairly easy vocal ranges. Once I started thinking I was getting good at those I moved up to higher ranges, Stones, Beatles, from there up to where I am now, Supertramp, Styx, Classic Motown,... The cool thing was, what I thought was "good" when I took the next step up was actually crap, and by the time I finished the next step, I would go back to the old songs and just kill on them... Each step up you take improves the steps below exponentially. Now I play open mics 3 nights a week to get used to singing somewhere besides my laundry room... I'm hoping to eventually get some casual gigs..

I know this isn't much help but I can attest to the fact that if you practice you will get better, and if you push yourself, you can get good.