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I Just Recorded Myself Singing.....I Always thought I was Better Than That


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So I finally got up the nerve to just record myself singing because I haven't really heard what I sound like. No background music or anything. Man, I'm not very good. Really my tone wasn't that bad, but I was surprised how out of tune/key I was! I didn't sing a whole song or anything, just parts of some songs I had in my head and listening back to it I could obviously tell I was hitting off notes. Yet when I sing it it sounds like I'm hitting the right note. I generally have a good sense if some thing is sharp or flat or out of tune (I played trombone in school).

 

Why is that? Is it just because I'm kinda grabbing for notes? I haven't had any type of vocal training (obviously). So what types of things can I work on to improve singing the right notes? Do I just need to keep recording myself and reviewing what I'm doing right and wrong.

 

And please don't just say "Go take voice lessons". I'm all ready spending my extra cash on guitar lessons. I ultimately would just like to playing and sing some tunes for friends/family and not sound bad. :)

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Originally posted by Teletwister

Do I just need to keep recording myself and reviewing what I'm doing right and wrong.

 

Yep. One trick you can try if you haven't already is to put on a british accent when you sing. All those brit groups do it naturally, and it seems to give them an edge. Another thing you can try is to put some of your guitar effect pedals in your vocal recording chain. Flanged vocals, heavy reverb echo delay, compress sustain, can make you sound much better than you are. If it works for guit, no reason why it shouldn't work for voice :)

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Listening to yourself sing for the first time can be a very unsettling experience, it takes awhile to get used to.

 

Can't afford voice lessons? I'd recommend finding a book on proper techniques and maybe pinpointing some problems yourself. Are you straining to hit notes out of your range? Often transposing a song into a different key will yield dramatic results. Maybe all you need is practice, maybe you really suck (I think we all do initially):D But for gods sake, use effects to enhance your voice not as something to hide behind!

 

good luck.......

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Originally posted by confuseitall

Are you straining to hit notes out of your range?

 

 

No, I was just singing general notes that I can comfortably sing. I think part of it is I've always hate my voice when I hear myself talk, so I've never actually listened to myself sing. Without hearing myself I can't ever really hear what I'm doing wrong. One thing I do notice is I feel like my volume isn't consistant enough. Like hitting the beginning of a note louder or softer, etc.

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Try to record yourself singing along to your guitar instead. It's easier to hit the right notes if you have your guitar chords to shoot for. Try that and see if that's any better.

 

My other advice is to not let this first recording get you down. There is NOTHING that makes you sing worse than lack of confidence in your own ability. Alright laryngitis may make you sing worse. ;)

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Originally posted by qaswed



Yep. One trick you can try if you haven't already is to put on a british accent when you sing. All those brit groups do it naturally, and it seems to give them an edge.

 

 

This is bizarre. I was doing some "Record yourself then play it back" type practice the other day, and I started listening to some of my favourite singers trying to determine how the were getting such a clear and present sound.

 

My conclusion: Its the american accent. (I'm a brit.)

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Recording yourself and playing back helps, but a more real-time exercise that's similar is just playing an acoustic and singing into a vocal mic and running both into a PA or powered speaker, and turning up so the PA is louder than your internal hearing. That way you hear yourself from the outside as you're actually singing.

 

And the reason you both think the accent has to do with the good tone is because to get good clarity and tone you have to form your sounds differently than when you speak - you need to overpronounce some things and alter others. At first, this will take a lot of conscious effort. When you fake an accent, you're doing this, but when you're singing in your own accent, you're probably making a lot of the sounds on autopilot.

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Originally posted by qaswed



Yep. One trick you can try if you haven't already is to put on a british accent when you sing. All those brit groups do it naturally, and it seems to give them an edge. Another thing you can try is to put some of your guitar effect pedals in your vocal recording chain. Flanged vocals, heavy reverb echo delay, compress sustain, can make you sound much better than you are. If it works for guit, no reason why it shouldn't work for voice
:)

 

this advice is.... sabotage! don't bite!

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Originally posted by qaswed



Yep. One trick you can try if you haven't already is to put on a british accent when you sing. All those brit groups do it naturally, and it seems to give them an edge.

 

 

 

Originally posted by GDan



This is bizarre. I was doing some "Record yourself then play it back" type practice the other day, and I started listening to some of my favourite singers trying to determine how the were getting such a clear and present sound.


My conclusion: Its the american accent. (I'm a brit.)

 

 

That's hilarious! I actually use the brit accent at times, depending on the song.

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Start by singing scales (ie: up, down, thirds etc.) very slowly and doing sirens is also a good thing. You need to build strength in the muscles that produce tone just the way you do for any other instrument.

I remeber a quote from a singing book I read a long time ago " learning to sing by ear is the same as trying to play a violin while it's still a block of wood ".

 

You will shave years (even decades...i'm not joking) if you get the right help in the formative years. As it is with learning any instrument the right teacher can be critical. I hate money being an issue (as it was for me too) but I would think seriously about doing some extra work or finding a teacher that will let you do some odd jobs also you dont have to have a lesson every week and maybe you could drop every third giutar lesson for a singing lesson, I believe it will pay in the long run.

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You're used to hearing your voice via your head, which is more "bassy" because the sound waves travel through your skull to your ears. But what you hear on a recording, and what other people hear, is something different.

 

You really need to just get used to hearing yourself - both speak and sing. That's all it really is.

 

I heard John Lennon HATED the sound of his own voice, which is why he liked to have tones of echo mixed in in most of his songs. Yet John Lennon's voice was one of the most reognizeable voices of all time.

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1) ALL professionally recorded albums have a some sort of (if not many) effects (including pitch correction). Even though you said your tone was "ok", you'll sound like a million bucks after some reverb and compression. Some of these effects make even sharp/flat notes sound acceptable. There has always been a rumour that Mike Love (lead singer of the Beach Boys) ALWAYS sang flat. Of course you shouldn't settle on singing off key, but there is hope if you invest into some vocal technology.

 

2) In most cases of amateur singing, vocal support is the one things that is the MOST IMPORTANT, but yet the thing no one wants to practice (the excersizes are usually silly). I'm not going to go into vocal support training, but going flat is 99.9% of the time due to a lack of vocal support. A quick tip: If you think that vocal support is your problem, try singing sharp, it works for me when I get to the upper range of my chest voice.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to reply, if you'd like more details.

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Originally posted by Tedster

IMO, recording yourself and getting past the "I suck" stage, to the part where you start listening analytically to what you're doing and working out how to correct it, is the most valuable thing you can do.

 

 

Yeah. You just did this for the first time? Wow, you have TONS more work to do. Record yourself all the time. Practice playing the guitar and singing at the same time and record and listen over and over again. Also, write your own songs and sing them and listen. I personally don't think its easy to find your own voice without working with original material. But, first just sing a lot and record a lot.

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I'll echo what others have said about not getting discouraged.

 

It's probably true that few have even the potential to be, say, great opera stars, but with hard work, sensitivity, and practice, anyone can learn to express themselves musically in interesting and distinctive ways.

 

Many of our most popular and influential singers have clearly not started with optimal vocal instruments. Look at Louis Armstrong, once the most popular singer in the world, or Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger -- or Macy Gray. :D (Okay... I love Macy and ain't no one gonna tell me I don't.)

 

Or, even in the case of those whose voices have been ravaged by time or abuse there's room for artful, sometimes poignant expression.

 

And by the reverse token, we all have run across those for whom singing or playing seems to come so naturally that the person never really grows as an artist, perhaps because they had no struggle in sounding 'good'...

 

 

 

On the pitch thing... sounds like you're 'keying' off each subsequent note, which, depending on your accuracy can cause your tonal center to drift. You probably don't notice it while you're singing for the simple reason you're concentrating on the next note rather than the flow of notes. But once you take off the vocalist hat and sit down in the producer chair... bang... you see it in a way that makes you doubt your perception if not your sanity.

 

 

The recorder may be a cruel friend -- but it's also your best friend when it comes to developing your singing skill. But it's easy to get discouraged -- and important not to succumb to that state of discouragement.

 

There's barely a musical skill in my own trick bag that didn't sound just perfectly awful the first time I recorded myself exercising it. That's just part of the process.

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The recorder may be a cruel friend -- but it's also your best friend when it comes to developing your singing skill. But it's easy to get discouraged -- and important not to succumb to that state of discouragement.

 

I always like it when old threads come up....especially one as old as this.

 

For those who may feel the need to sing but are concerned about their natural ability (:wave:).......the above advice is excellent.

 

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You are (more than likely) going to criticize yourself more harshly. I really think that comes from discovering that you don't sound like you hear in your head, and thus thinking it's bad. It's probably not bad, just not what you thought you were going to hear. Record yourself more often and you'll "train your brain" to expect what you hear in the recording, rather than what you hear in your head right now. That will boost confidence and you start singing better because of the increased confidence.

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Originally posted by blue2blue View Post

The recorder may be a cruel friend -- but it's also your best friend when it comes to developing your singing skill. But it's easy to get discouraged -- and important not to succumb to that state of discouragement.

 

I always like it when old threads come up....especially one as old as this.

 

For those who may feel the need to sing but are concerned about their natural ability (:wave:).......the above advice is excellent.

:wave:

 

 

You are (more than likely) going to criticize yourself more harshly. I really think that comes from discovering that you don't sound like you hear in your head' date=' and thus thinking it's bad. It's probably not bad, just not what you thought you were going to hear. Record yourself more often and you'll "train your brain" to expect what you hear in the recording, rather than what you hear in your head right now. That will boost confidence and you start singing better because of the increased confidence.[/quote']This is very true. You learn to hear your voice more as others hear it -- although, of course, you can never escape the simple fact that your voice originates in your head. Even if you listen to your voice live in headphones with the volume way up (but don't because it's bad for your ears ;) ), you can't escape the sound of your voice as it forms and resonates in your head.

 

Only in that all too often unflattering mirror of the recording can you get a more 'objective' appreciation of the sound. (Of course, all kinds of other factors come into play, there, too. But that's for another thread. :) )

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Most people don't like hearing recordings of their voices. The important things are to work on being in key (the scales tip is great for that) and to put feeling into whatever you're singing. Not decibels, especially, just feeling, at any level of intensity.

 

It takes practice. So practice!

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Singing is hard. Period. While "carrying a tune" might come naturally, actually SINGING is a physical activity that requires strength and stamina and proper technique...and practice. Our natural instincts are sometimes there to help cover up poor technique - slurring, scooping, and sliding notes. Not all of that is "bad" - it adds style and character, and vocals that are TOO precise start to sound like musical theater or something, but learning intervals and finding pitch without always scooping and slurring and learning to use your abdomen instead of pushing everything up into your head/nose/throat will help you develop a stronger singing voice. Some people have these gifts naturally and they develop them, others have to work very hard at achieving an "acceptable" singing voice. - a good example to me has always been Madonna - her early stuff has her singing up in her nose, very tight-throated - but over time she opened up and her voice became richer, fuller, and more polished. She's still not what I would think of as a "great singer" but she definitely worked her ass off to make the most of the voice she has. :-)

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Never thought I'd sing, or be a singer. Did not fit my persona and still doesn't. But, I did want to learn to play guitar and the singing part ended up being coincidental to that. It's still not my thing so I'm careful to prevent it backfiring on me.

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