Any tips on learning to sing well?

Matthew

Matthew

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I know singing is something that can be learned, but I just cannot seem to do it well no matter what I try to do. So basically to all the musically talented people on Smogon (specifically singers), can you give me a run-down on how one practices to best enhance their ability? Is it worth my money / time to go invest in a voice coach, or is practicing alone good enough?

Any tips, anything at all would be of great help!

EDIT:
<Birkal> Haha yeah, you are probably more of a tenor 2?
<Matthew> NOT SURE
<Matthew> WHAT THAT MEANS
<Birkal> Haha.
<Birkal> It means you sing the upper part.
<Birkal> But not the uppermost part =P
<Matthew> is tenor 2 a pretty sound
<Matthew> ;L;
<Birkal> I am a tenor two!
<Birkal> So yes, very pretty <3

So I guess I'm a Tenor 2?
 
Sit a piano and sing scales and arpeggios. Pick a song and learn it. I like to pick a difficult song and work my way up to it. Fuck buying a vocal coach just Skype me I'll make you into the primadonna you long to be
 
Sing often in the shower and in the car sing along to your ipod.

Now the absolute most important thing:

RECORD YOURSELF AND PLAY IT BACK. This will help you figure out better pitch and tone. This is really important, can't stress the importance of this.

Learn to play a bit of piano so that you can learn to hear and sing intervals in-tune.

I'm not a tenor, so may range makes it hard to sing rock music other than Jim Morrison and a few others. But I could sing Debbie Harry and still be intune and sound fine, just out of place.
 
Learning piano is definitely a really helpful tool to learn how to sing in tune and on pitch. It allows you to hear the notes in your head, even without singing them out loud.

I wouldn't consider myself a good singer, as I have a terrible natural tone (imo), but I can definitely sing in tune, mostly thanks to my good musical background in piano / violin.

Recording yourself can be very helpful as well, as it will pick up things you cannot hear. I personally never record myself because I hate the sound of my voice rofl but if you are serious about learning, then it will definitely help.
 
LonelyNess said:
You'll need to stop smoking.
Click to expand...

Smoking does not affect your singing in any way or form.

To get better at singing in to sing. I guess I've been singing since I was like what 7 years old but I kept it secret even from my family till I was like 16 when they walked into the house without me noticing and caught me singing. My dad was mad but at the same time happy, his family comes from a family of musicians. I remember my singing most of my dad's music The Doors, Creedence, Black Sabbath (this was hard), and other rock music.

Something that helped me out without noticing was probably imitating and lip singing. You need to learn how to adjust your vocal cords at certain low and high pitches.

By no means I'm a professional singer or try to sing for a living, I just sing because I can.
 
Smoking does not affect your singing in any way or form.
Click to expand...
Actually, it could affect how high of a note he can reach, and possibly lower notes too.

Anyway, learning how to play the piano is a huge one. Any instrument can help a little bit, but piano always seems to be the biggest one. I would also record myself and then listen to it. This helps a lot if you're pretty tone deaf at heart.
 
Like I said, I'm not a professional or anything, but what you stated is what happens to a person after heavy use after a 10-15 year period. And yeah I've done some research because I was too kinda paranoid about smoking and my vocal cords. If it would affect it people say then nobody would listen to Bob Marley.
 
I'm not too good of a singer, but since I sing,

1. Don't subdue your voice, sing openly. The worst singers are the singers who don't open their voices and sing.
2. Sing from your stomach, not your mouth. ie, put some effort into the voice.
3. Don't be afraid to sing, the more you practice the better you'll get.
4. Try getting the pitch/note right before you make changes. More often than not, amateur singers, watch other cover artists, who are extremely good, and try to improvise on the original song, thus failing to hit the note correctly. The most important thing is to hit the note.
 
LonelyNess said:
You'll need to stop smoking.
Click to expand...

tom-waits.jpg
 
I was a baritone in middle school in advanced chorus...I was good, eh, somewhat, but my voice did get pretty deep. Practice, practice, practice, practice, is all I can say.

Auto-tuning isn't singing, by the way.
 
you don't get to pick your voice range, lol. see a voice instructor about it. they'll ask you to sing some high notes and some low notes, and then they'll tell you what your range is.

a great way to practice singing is to join a choir. they're happy to have anybody and you can get instant feedback from the other singers while keeping up a regular practice schedule. also you can make friends, i guess.

piano students like me and birkal are generally required to take at least a few semesters of choirs.
 
Thanks for the tips guys!!

Crux said:
Sit a piano and sing scales and arpeggios. Pick a song and learn it. I like to pick a difficult song and work my way up to it. Fuck buying a vocal coach just Skype me I'll make you into the primadonna you long to be
Click to expand...

I actually might take you up on that Skype call since my embarrassing feelings over my own voice is super trumped by trying to improve. While I don't have a piano or keyboard at home I'm pretty sure I can get some kind of app on my phone / computer to help me out with scales. If they're terrible there's pianos in the school of music at my university.

Myzozoa said:
Sing often in the shower and in the car sing along to your ipod.

Now the absolute most important thing:

RECORD YOURSELF AND PLAY IT BACK. This will help you figure out better pitch and tone. This is really important, can't stress the importance of this.

Learn to play a bit of piano so that you can learn to hear and sing intervals in-tune.

I'm not a tenor, so may range makes it hard to sing rock music other than Jim Morrison and a few others. But I could sing Debbie Harry and still be intune and sound fine, just out of place.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm actually planning on recording myself sing one song after every two weeks / month to see if I've had any improvement. Birkal has given me a few exercises that are supposed to help strengthen my vocal chord (singing in falsetto and buzzing my lips to a scale). They're actually kind of challenging to do which is funny, but I can tell they'll help me improve.


Badal said:
I'm not too good of a singer, but since I sing,

1. Don't subdue your voice, sing openly. The worst singers are the singers who don't open their voices and sing.
2. Sing from your stomach, not your mouth. ie, put some effort into the voice.
3. Don't be afraid to sing, the more you practice the better you'll get.
4. Try getting the pitch/note right before you make changes. More often than not, amateur singers, watch other cover artists, who are extremely good, and try to improvise on the original song, thus failing to hit the note correctly. The most important thing is to hit the note.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, means a lot! Singing from the stomach is something that I'm going to need to try to get better at. While my pitch isn't flawless, I'd actually consider it the best aspect of my singing right now, I'm pretty quick on picking up pitch.

idk I might make this thread like progress and post links of me singing every two weeks / month to see if there is improvement. Hopefully there is.

EDIT:

Umbreon Dan said:
you don't get to pick your voice range, lol. see a voice instructor about it. they'll ask you to sing some high notes and some low notes, and then they'll tell you what your range is.

a great way to practice singing is to join a choir. they're happy to have anybody and you can get instant feedback from the other singers while keeping up a regular practice schedule. also you can make friends, i guess.

piano students like me and birkal are generally required to take at least a few semesters of choirs.
Click to expand...

I didn't pick it, I sent Birkal a sample of my voice so he could determine it for me. He figured I was a tenor 2, so yeah
 
Hi Matthew,


Your right that singing is something that can be learned by anyone. Take it from me, I'm a guitarist who had never sung before and had a real monotone low voice. I thought I would never sing and had to just stick to guitar playing but eventually I gave it a shot and now I can sing well with confidence.

First thing I would like to note is that if you have any basic music knowledge (such as strumming basic chords on a guitar, knowing the keys on a piano, or reading sheet music), the process of learning how to sing is going to be 100x easier. It's important to know your capabilites and to be able to change keys and stuff.


Another important aspect of singing is learning proper technique such as how to breath properly (from the diaphram) because you dont want to ruin your vocal cords. The internet is an excellent resource (especially youtube) to find all this information but the most effective method by far (especially if your not a musician) is to find a teacher. Now before you go looking for a teacher you have to ask yourself what you want to accomplish with singing; if you plan on singing in the shower only, then it might not be worth your money to get lessons. If you want to eventually perform and play live, then I would recomend a teacher. One last thing I want to tell you, your probably going to sound like shit at first (especially hitting them high notes...) but dont be discouraged because its normal; everyone goes through it.
 
Venom said:
Like I said, I'm not a professional or anything, but what you stated is what happens to a person after heavy use after a 10-15 year period. And yeah I've done some research because I was too kinda paranoid about smoking and my vocal cords. If it would affect it people say then nobody would listen to Bob Marley.
Click to expand...
Bob Marley is one case. Like anything else, your body reacts different to everything, and it doesn't mean that Genny's vocal cords will suddenly shrivel up and die in 10-15 years. Hell, it could be earlier, or just like Bob Marley's not (possibly) happen at all.

My advice is, though, is if you seriously do smoke a lot (I'd say if you burn a pack every 2-3 days), you might want to at least cut down a little bit. I'm not ever going to recommend to quit outright (suggest, but never recommend), but just be consciously aware of the consequences is all I would say.
 
He smokes cigarettes, not marijuana, Venom.

Might sound like a smartass answer, but in my experience if you want to learn a new skill, lessons are the quickest and easiest way to do it.
 
I've been singing wrong my whole life and only recently I've figured out my vocal range; Tom Waits. Now I'm thinking about getting classes to refine it. Or joining a metal band.
 
Vader said:
He smokes cigarettes, not marijuana, Venom.

Might sound like a smartass answer, but in my experience if you want to learn a new skill, lessons are the quickest and easiest way to do it.
Click to expand...

While I'm not really concerned with picking this up quick (singing decently by the end of the year is my ultimate goal), I have been considering a voice coach. I don't know if it's ultimately worth my money as I don't have any need to really learn other than to make myself sound more pleasing to me and everyone around me when I'm at a party or something. That's why I've been torn on getting a coach in general. I know there's some pretty good resources on the internet that could help me out (however droll they may be).

EDIT:
Weed vs Cigs:
I heard weed is more harsh on your vocal chords than cigs, but I'm not sure where I picked up that tid-bit.
 
you really just need to start singing all the goddamn time. if you have any slight interest in music, you already know what sounds good to you, be it because of your taste or just because your ears are conditioned enough by now to know what a good note is, and what a bad note is.

for yourself, you need to figure out exactly how you produce the good notes from your throat and your mouth. it's kind of hard to describe, but you almost need to sing from your gut. not all the time, but learning to sing is just as much an aural exercise as a physical one! even before the sound leaves your lips, you can manipulate a lot about any pitch or tone in your throat. I am always singing whenever I get the chance to be alone, my favorite being when I'm driving. the best thing about improving your singing ability is that you can't really backtrack - bettering your singing is such a finely-tuned and tightly wound process that you can't really unravel all that you've learned once you get to a certain point, and understanding. pitch is EVERYTHING, whatever flares you become adept with, if your pitch isn't perfect, people will hear it, even if they don't know shit about music.
 
Matthew said:
Weed vs Cigs:
I heard weed is more harsh on your vocal chords than cigs, but I'm not sure where I picked up that tid-bit.
Click to expand...

weed definitely feels like its harsher. btw i smoke cigs and weed a fair bit and i can still sing fairly well, but obviously thats no long term guarantee
 
Vader said:
He smokes cigarettes, not marijuana, Venom.

Might sound like a smartass answer, but in my experience if you want to learn a new skill, lessons are the quickest and easiest way to do it.
Click to expand...

Not at all actually, cigarettes are a different thing. Especially if you smoke 2 or 3 boxes a day.
 
Try lowering your voice and raising it a few times. It helps you get better low and high pitches.

Of course you could also adjust your vocal cords with surgery, but that's probably a last, plan-z option.
 
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