Can anyone sing?

[chamcham]

 

Singing IS the exercise.. If you're singing a song that's outside of your comfort zone to any extent, over time if you continue to sing along to that song every day you'll most likely get better, your voice will adapt to it.. There are songs that I had to belt, songs that I actually had to brace myself for mentally because I was afraid my voice would crack and I'd sound retarded, that I could now SING as the original singers did. It's mental, too. An intimidating song gets easier over time because you're not as tense after trying to sing it 50 times, you no longer care about even singing the song, and you just stop THINKING about it and end up DOING it.. I discovered my range by SINGING.. I never made improvements by making motor boats sounds or going la la la la la la la la la with different pitches. It might work for a majority of people, but I think that just the act itself is going to naturally improve your singing, s'long as you're singing along to people with good technique, you'll probably end up adopting better vocal technique by trying to emulate them, and then you can work with what you have when you find your own voice.

 

 

I think it's different strokes for different folks.

 

I personally don't think of songs as the best way to exercise

and build the voice. I think of singing as a collection of vocal skills.

Songs are where you are put on stage and allowed to display those vocal

skills. So practice those skills with exercises and then, when they've

matured enough, you can show them off using a song.

 

That's kind of how I look at it. But I think that also aligns with my personality.

For other people (like you and grace), they use songs as the main exercise.

 

As long as you're getting results you're happy with, I don't see the problem with taking either approach. Like I mentioned, I do exercises and then right after I practice singing songs.

 

I've done both extremes (only exercises and only singing songs) and

neither worked well for me. Doing both was the best solution for me.

 

Singing songs helps me a lot with "pre-hearing" notes in my head before I sing them.

Also, it helps me to find out which songs are easier for me to sing. Sometimes I don't

know how easy a song is until I sing it. But the funny thing is that if I come back to a

difficult song a few months later, it's much easier because my voice has grown due

to the daily exercises.

[grace_slick]

There are people (like grace) that don't ever do exercises. So it is possible to get by without doing them. I think it just depends on the person. Find out what works for you.

 

Well, admittedly, my voice is kind of stylised a bit. I just sing songs I know I can sing well, but I have MANY shortcomings nobody really ever hears because of the songs I choose to sing. And I write and sing my own songs too, so they tend to "showcase" any good points of my voice as opposed to struggling to do the things my voice is NOT so adept at.

[chamcham]

Well, admittedly, my voice is kind of stylised a bit. I just sing songs I know I can sing well, but I have MANY shortcomings nobody really ever hears because of the songs I choose to sing. And I write and sing my own songs too, so they tend to "showcase" any good points of my voice as opposed to struggling to do the things my voice is NOT so adept at.

 

I guess songwriting can be like cooking.

If you learn to cook, you get to make the things you like and/or are good at.

[grace_slick]

Exactly.

 

Though back in the days (before your time, chammy) of my karaoke youtube tracks being posted endlessly on this forum, I still only usually chose songs that I felt suited my voice. Whenever I tried ones more challenging to the issues I knew I had, it just sounded terrible.