learning to sing

cantdecide

can anyone advise me about how to learn to sing.

i'm not tone deaf, i just have very little control over my voice. i can whistle better than i can sing.

i probably have a less than melodious voice but i would love to competently back up a lead singer.

ShriekingSheet

i was in a similar position myself a couple of years ago. Im a tall guy with a fairly deep voice so most choruses on the radio were outta my reach. i never got a lesson or anything but, on the advice of my mate who can sing. i sang as much as humanly possible. that was the key for me- i love singing. so once you get over the 'i dont want my parents hearing me try sing bit' just play guitar and sing as loud as you like as much as you can. sing and sing and sing and you'll just improve. keep the water and omega 3 (tuna, cod liver oil tabs) flowing and you'll develop in time. Im doing lead vocals these days and its a great feeling given that i fully could not sing not so long ago. Im by no means amazing but like what i do and am at the stage i can get lessons and improve more.

good luck with it man

cjs19

Im a singer myself, classically trained so I guess Im coming at it from a different angle, but the methods are the same. I was trained and my teacher
was adamant that anybody can sing competently if they know the right techniques. He went into alot of scientfic detail with breathing using bell jar techniques like the vacuum experiment you do in your junior cert physics exam. Anyway to cut a long story short its all about breathing. I was a boy soprano but when my voice broke I was screwed I couldnt reach those notes but after being instructed on proper breathing I found all you have to do i sing from your gut and not your throat and definately not your nasal passage unless its for effect. Just practice deep breathing excercises, theres loadsa links on the net, like yoga stuff and then do a couple of scales every day even in the shower, it gives good resonance and you can pick up on your tonal fractions. Eventually you hone something unique and can sing almost anything depending on your vocal chords, Im just lucky to have a wide range so can sing most pieces but it takes practice to be able to blast out a Robert Plant Dazed & Confused or an Axl Rose Sweet Child. That kinda singing comes from an operatic viewpoint where singers were trained to produce maximum volume with minimal air expenditure so the audience in the back could hear. Think even Mick Jagger had to learn that stuff. Be happy just practicing with some quieter songs and dont be afraid to amp yourself, there are some really terrible singers who can use a mic to effect and pull it off and then theres gifted singers who havent a clue how to utilise a microphone. Hope this helps a little.

ferdi

imo you can either sing or you cant.

you can learn, but only so much.

WetDaddy

This isn't going to sound like much help at first, but the more you think about it the more sense it will make: Singing really isn't that far away from talking.

Not disregarding classical techniques whatsoever, but the advice about breathing from your diaphragm is... well... obvious. That's what you naturally do. The problem is that people get very conscious that they're about to sing (be they beginners or professional!) and all of a sudden, your subconcious stops taking care of your breathing and your soft pallet and all that jazz and you start trying to control everything. That's when people make the most mistakes.

Well, that's just my opinion on the whole thing. And even having said that, it's all very easy in theory One of the most important things about learning to sing though, is confidence as Shrieking Sheet said. Once you're not scared about singing or making mistakes, you'll find it gets a good bit easier.