How did you start singing?

[sickman]

I want to start doing more singing. When I first started getting involved in music 15-16 years ago I actually sang in my first little garage band. I actually got a guitar first, but got together with some other kids in my school and one of them was a better guitar player and no one else would sing. I decided I would turn my little 10 watt Yamaha amp into a PA (didn't know what a PA was) and would belt out my best Axl Rose, Layne Staley, and Kurt Cobain impressions. Over the next couple of years I focused more on my guitar playing. By the time I got with gigging bands singing was an after thought, although I would always sing when I was home practicing or in the car.

 

I have zero stage fright when it comes to guitar playing, but when it comes to singing I'm far too shy. I don't really think I'm great like Freddie Mercury or Paul Rodgers, but I don't necessarily think I suck. I guess I just need more practice? Right now I sing harmony/backup vocals and 3-4 songs with my current band. I'm not looking to be a front man, but there's tons of songs I wouldn't mind doing if I could pull of singing them.

 

Is the best way to get over ones fear to get out there and do it? Maybe I should try hitting up some acoustic open mics for practice?

[snoggin]

Yeah just do it,, work it out at rehearsal first of course but its just time.. i started singing about a year and a half ago just because there was noone else..

 

now i really like doing it and write my own tunes and sing 95% of all the songs we play in my trio.. check it out

 

www.myspace.com/thescarletpimpernels

 

you just need to get started. what instrument do you play?. i cant remember

 

Need to practice playing and singing at the same time.... a lOt

[easilyspooked]

practice practice practice, then open mic nights to test the waters and make sure you can do it in front of people (old people who don't matter and don't care if you suck)

[vanlatte]

It sounds like you are already on the right track, open mic is a great place to start. Do you know anybody you can sing with? What helped get me out of my shell was starting out with backing vocals. Of course it helps that harmonies come easier for me than melodies but I digress...

 

Just sing every chance you get! Get used to hearing your own voice, and also get used to the fact that it will sound different to you than it does to everybody else.

 

I mean who hasn't heard themselves on a recording and gone "Do I really sound like that"?

 

[SunRaFan]

I just tried singing backup at a rehearsal for the first time ever after playing in bands for almost 20 years. It didn't go so well. In theory with practice it's going to get better. It would be hard for it to get worse.

[Dthraco]

Lessons always help.

 

I started singing almost 3 years ago because I got tired of every band I built failing because of some douchebag singer. I sang the last gig for the last band we fired a singer from. IT WAS NOT GOOD. The band broke up after that. So, I took lessons, and hit the woodshed. Then I built another band, only this time a power trio. That band rocked for 2 years straight. The bassist quit, so now I do the singer/songwriter thing.

 

Now that I have learned to sing, I LOVE it.

[B Money]

I really enjoy singing. It took me many years to get the point where I feel completely comfortable doing it, and being confident that I don't totally suck at it!

I have sung lead in almost every band I've been in. Not always by choice, but because no one else could sing AND play at the same time. That is something that I have always been pretty good at.

I found my biggest improvement happened when I was singing harmonies, it forced my ear to develop more and I gained confidence. I learned some basic exercises that I practice occasionally, but my "practice" is mostly singing along in the car.

Not just belting it out though, really focusing on nailing the pitch and phrasing.

 

I don't know, I'm no expert, but just keep on singing and eventually you'll get better. Lessons will probably accelerate the process a lot!

[BATCAT]

A couple years ago, after about a decade of playing guitar, bass, and drums in bands, but never vocals, I was in a lull with band stuff and decided to start fronting a band, just to challenge myself.

 

I was extremely nervous about hitting the stage for the first time. How did I prepare? Band practice, vocal lessons (INVALUABLE!), and individual practice. One thing that really helped was having scales and chords-only versions of songs in my iPod to sing along with during my commute.

 

Nevertheless, the first time was SCARY. The second, a little less... until after a few dozen the nerves subsided.

[Z_Zoquis]

I just tried singing backup at a rehearsal for the first time ever after playing in bands for almost 20 years. It didn't go so well. In theory with practice it's going to get better. It would be hard for it to get worse.

 

Right there with ya man. Over the past couple years of trying to get a band going (or just trying to get a spot in a decent band) I've come to realize that a guitarist who doesn't at least do some back-up vox is almost a liability no matter how good he is on the axe. So, I've been trying to contribute in the vocals dept lately. It's a long haul - especially if you're like me and pretty shy to begin with - but I've made a bit of progress. You first have to get over that hump of actually stepping up to the mic and putting yr voice out there. The first time you hear a recording of yrself singing is a sobering experience. But you can't sing at all if you can't get past the self-consciouness of doing it. You can't {censored}-foot around - you really have to try and do whetever you do vocally with authority. You have to belt it out. Also, I've learned that you have to resist the urge to try and sing. You don't want to be doing alot of crazy warbling and vibrato and crap. You want to concentrate on hitting the fundamental notes as straight as possible.

 

My MO with the singing is to pick parts that are really easy, basic and well within yr range. When you are listening to music, really focus in on the vocal parts and what the artist/band is doing. It's really interesting. Stuff like The Beatles - the vocals and harmonys are pretty amazing but often when you break it down to the individual parts they aren't crazy hard to do. Don't get me wrong - I can't do them. I still suck, but I can hear what they are doing and I can get my head around how its done. THe band I was in previous to my current one was sort of a weezer-like alt-pop band. The singer/songwriter was an ass, but he was talented and he was huge into harmony. He wanted to get three and four part harmonies into his songs. When I first joined that band there were three guys in the band who could sing, and a fourth guy who was sort of loosely affiliated who could also sing. We only had one practice with all those guys there but it was a total revelation for me. They stopped several times during the practice to work out vocal parts and when all four of them got together and they got it right it just sounded unbelievably cool. It really opened my ears up to the possibilities and it got me started listening to stuff in a new way. I started to focus on the vox and started hearing harmonies in songs that I'd never consciously been aware of before and it made me realize how significant a role those harmonies play in making a song great.

 

so yeah - long story short...singing is fundamental.

[JailTime]

The pre-show anxiety has never gone away. But it is pure joy to be in front of the mic doing it well.

[tlbonehead]

I want to start doing more singing. When I first started getting involved in music 15-16 years ago I actually sang in my first little garage band. I actually got a guitar first, but got together with some other kids in my school and one of them was a better guitar player and no one else would sing. I decided I would turn my little 10 watt Yamaha amp into a PA (didn't know what a PA was) and would belt out my best Axl Rose, Layne Staley, and Kurt Cobain impressions. Over the next couple of years I focused more on my guitar playing. By the time I got with gigging bands singing was an after thought, although I would always sing when I was home practicing or in the car. I have zero stage fright when it comes to guitar playing, but when it comes to singing I'm far too shy. I don't really think I'm great like Freddie Mercury or Paul Rodgers, but I don't necessarily think I suck. I guess I just need more practice? Right now I sing harmony/backup vocals and 3-4 songs with my current band. I'm not looking to be a front man, but there's tons of songs I wouldn't mind doing if I could pull of singing them. Is the best way to get over ones fear to get out there and do it? Maybe I should try hitting up some acoustic open mics for practice?

I just don't get this question, mainly because it gets asked so often. Most guitarists have an acoustic. Even if they don't, don't people just play songs and sing along on their own time? It just seems so weird to me.

[Z_Zoquis]

Not really. I'd imagine alot of people are like I was. I started playing a couple decades back when I was about 22. I recognised that was a fairly late age to take it up and I had limited aspirations. I just wanted to learn to play a few songs...learn the basics. I figured at the most I might end up playing rhythm guitar in a garage band or something. Singing wasn't even on my radar and the type of songs I was learning really weren't what you'd sing along to while strumming an acoustic. It wasn't till a few yrs back when, like I said earlier, I started trying to get in a "real" band that I started to feel like I wasn't doing my part if I couldn't help out with the vox a little. Oh sure, I would occasionally try and sing along while I played but never in any serious, "I need to get better at this" sort of way.

[DevilRaysFan]

I was playing in a Top 40 band in the 80s......one of the members (a seasoned vet) told me that any musician that sings can do what they want in a band, musically. This person was absolutely correct

 

Plus, singing bass players are a rarity

[992gnt]

Seems like I'm in good company here! I played forever, never once did it occur to me to try and sing. Then I did an acoustic duo gig a couple years ago that I needed to do some backups on. I was terrified and not confident at all and it showed - I just skipped most of my parts. That's about the time i started looking around seriously for a band. Inevitably the background vox came up again, but this time I had been practicing. At first I couldn't play and sing at the same time at all. A year later I think I can hold my own. I'll never be mistaken for a frontman, but our harmonies have garnered some nods from fellow musicians and I can play and sing on most things these days. Eventually I'd like to be able to sing a song or two as the lead, but for now I'm really enjoying pushing myself into new areas.

[cooterbrown]

Besides singing at least a few songs in every band I've ever been in, I have played solo gigs off and on since 1992, but I never thought much about my mechanics until a few years later.

At one point, I decided that I really hated my voice.

So I gradually worked on losing the things I disliked by recording myself, and listening to what I percieved as problems...just steadily working it out. Still trying to work it out.

It's an ongoing process. The key is to stay in your wheelhouse - what works best for you, and not try to step very far outside that zone.

There are plenty of songs written for every imaginable style and range of singer.

[tim_7string]

I guess I started out like many do. I just had the urge to do it.

 

Realizing that my voice was not very pleasant as a kid, I didn't like hearing myself sing, so I would try not to do it in public, not even around family. Still, I recall singing along with records and the radio here and there. I even used one of those cheapo Realistic tape recorders to record myself singing along with albums or the radio. When I listened to it later, I cringed, but I tried to improve.

 

When I hit my teens, I started getting into music seriously. I learned how to play piano and started to write lyrics. Inspired by hair metal of the early to mid 80s, when I was 14, I would sometimes draw pictures of myself fronting a band where I sang lead and played bass like Gene Simmons from KISS or Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. I had the urge to do something, just not the facilities to make it happen yet.

 

Eventually when I was 16, I decided to take some vocal lessons. A band made up of high school Seniors and one Junior asked me to join their rock band (I was a Junior at the time) to sing a few songs for a Christmas dance held at the school. There wasn't much of a turnout and I sucked, but since the whole band sucked, I was in good company.

 

Even though it wasn't a great show, the performing bug bit me and I kept working at my voice, recording my own songs, singing in bands where I could. I started out like many here by picking out harmonies, then 'graduated' to lead vocals. It was much more difficult to do those...more words to remember, a lot more air pressure to project the singing and of course, everyone watching me.

 

I'm still not satisfied with the sound of my voice, but I am always pleased when I can sing a phrase or hit a note that I knew I couldn't do 10-15 years ago.

 

The irony of singing for me was not that I was encouraged to sing. It was more the opposite. I had a lot more people (musicians in bands) that tried to discourage my singing lead on songs. I guess I should have taken that as a sign that I should just form my own band and do it. It took me years to get over that negative reinforcement and realize that I'm not as bad as I think I am and that a lot of people actually like my voice. And that's good enough for me to keep singing!

[Lee Knight]

I stumbled into it. Age 17. I wasn't the singer. Then Elvis Costello's 1st album came out. I was taken by it. It really had a profound affect on me as a young musician. Great songs. GREAT songs. But his voice? I liked it but...

 

...I could do that.

 

After listening to that album and discovering that his range was not unlike my unexplored range... I began. I transcribed all his lyrics off that 1st album. LP. Vinyl. Lift needle and hope for going back one line. Then I created a short hand that I put above the lyric that described the notes he was singing. Trill, bend up, bend down. That sort of thing.

 

I had no designs to sing in front of people. I was just lit up with exploring this.

 

Then our lead singer heard me fooling around doing an Elvis Costello imitation. Just joking. We worked up the song right then and there and I was cornered. I performed it that night in a bar of 50 people. It went over.

 

I was hooked.

 

Then, over the years I followed Cooter's course. Record, listen, adjust, improve. I don't sound anything like Elvis Costello.

[BATCAT]

 

I just don't get this question, mainly because it gets asked so often. Most guitarists have an acoustic. Even if they don't, don't people just play songs and sing along on their own time? It just seems so weird to me.

 

 

Never. I absolutely hated the sound of my voice until I started taking some lessons and working on it.