How do I know if I can sing?

FlyingFox

New member
So.. there is this school talent show and my good friend think I can sing pretty well, while another friend of mine think I couldn't sing.. How do I know if i can sing good?
 
Record yourself and listen to it. Do you think it sounds good??? That's how you know. Another way to know is if you go sing at the talent show and a big hook pulls you off stage in mid-song, then you know for sure you can't sing.

Singing is a skill you can practice. If you're not good now, you can be if you practice it. Gods knows I don't consider myself a great singer, but I'm way better now than I was 5 years ago.... :rolleyes: :D

Also, you posted in the wrong section, so I moved it over here. No worries; it's what I do.
 
So.. there is this school talent show and my good friend think I can sing pretty well, while another friend of mine think I couldn't sing.. How do I know if i can sing good?

Stand on a street corner and belt out a few classics, acapella style, with a hat at your feet, for 2 hours.

If you make nothing, you may be able to sing, but not particularly well.

If you make $10, you're probably pretty good.

If you make between $10 and $50 and it's mainly from older women who smile at you as they put money in your hat, you can't sing. They feel sorry for you and are trying to divert you from homelessness.

If you make more than $50, you are the next Luciano Pavarotti and you should definitely go on the talent show.
 
Wait, wait, wait. I seriously have no idea what in dee bloody 'ell you are talking about! :D

Show me!

No, no , no... I'm just bored and having fun. :) Now back to our regularly scheduled thread. Mods really should avoid hijacking threads. :rolleyes:
 
Record yourself and listen to it. Do you think it sounds good??? That's how you know. Another way to know is if you go sing at the talent show and a big hook pulls you off stage in mid-song, then you know for sure you can't sing.

Singing is a skill you can practice. If you're not good now, you can be if you practice it. Gods knows I don't consider myself a great singer, but I'm way better now than I was 5 years ago.... :rolleyes: :D

Also, you posted in the wrong section, so I moved it over here. No worries; it's what I do.

I think I sound good when singing to myself, but when I record, it just sound so different. I don't know whether it's the recording quality of my phone just sucks, or my voice sucks
 
I think I sound good when singing to myself, but when I record, it just sound so different. I don't know whether it's the recording quality of my phone just sucks, or my voice sucks

yeah, phones typically suck at recording. However, if the performance is good, then the phone captures a sucky recording of a good performance. I guess what I'm saying is the two (phone and singing) are not dependent on each other.
 
Most all people upon hearing their recorded singing voice shriek in horror. Don't worry - it happens to everyone.
 
This is just my opinion....
If you have to ask then the answer is probably no, and here's why

A huge part of singing at a show in front of a couple of hundred people (and at a school show there will be a lot of people as they are all parents and relations of the kids performing plus faculty and staff) versus singing to your self in the shower, is confidence. Case in point, I was doing the sound at my Kid's school winter concert last night. There were a couple of songs that had a solo part for several of the senior choir and there was one kid with great pitch (probably the best of the choir hence being chosen to solo) and a pretty good voice, however come solo time, no confidence at all. As a result even with the gain to her mic on the board cranked hard, she was barely audible and kept tripping over her words, couldn't make eye contact with anyone in the audience and therefore IMO cannot sing solo in a show despite whatever ability she has.

Plenty of great performers aren't technically great singers, in fact some aren't even that good. But they know how to carry an audience along with them, and would never feel the need to ask or worry "Am I good enough", they just get up and do it

So get up and do it and you will know after about 30 seconds if you are right for it or not

YMMV
 
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I'd say if you can stand to listen to yourself sing and you enjoy singing then you should continue to sing. Now John Lennon HATED his voice, but the guy had something to say so he said it.
 
Record yourself and listen to it. Do you think it sounds good??? That's how you know.
^^^^^Ultimately, you have to be honest. Do you like what you hear ?

If you have to ask then the answer is probably no
There's alot of truth in this actually.
I remember some 27 years ago, I'd just become a part of this church. Now, for the previous 8~9 years, I hadn't sung. I used to say that a combination of my voice breaking and smoking {anything that would catch fire} had ruined the choirboy voice that I'd had up to the age of 11. I used to wish in my head that I 'could sing'. Anyway, in this church, they asked me if I could sing and I said 'not really'. but they said well, just sing us something anyway. So I did. They were all gobsmacked and they said my voice was lovely. I didn't think so and I don't think so now but I realized that deep deep down, I must've thought that I could at least sing a bit and keep in tune because there is no way at all ever that I would've sung in public if I didn't think I could. Embarrassing myself publically is just not my thing. I could never be a clown or a politician.
Anyway, that was the start of my rennaissence as someone that can sing. I may get a little flat on occasion, but I know I can sing. I'm not great, it's debatable whether I'm even good, but no one I've ever heard sounds like me. I honestly don't need anyone to tell me whether I can sing. And truth be told, I didn't back in '85 either.
Paradoxically, it was important to hear it though.

I'd say if you can stand to listen to yourself sing and you enjoy singing then you should continue to sing. Now John Lennon HATED his voice, but the guy had something to say so he said it.
Lennon's dislike of his voice wasn't centred around whether or not he could sing or hold a tune. He knew absolutely having been a choirboy and singing live rock'n'roll and skiffle from the age of 16 that he could sing. In fact, it's quite interesting that you only hear of Lennon wanting the sound of his voice being altered from about "Revolver" {1966} onwards when there was suddenly a range of things that could be done to the voice to make it sound different. Prior to that, he liked double tracking. During "Pepper", he always had lots of 'echo' in his phones. At one point, he tried singing into a mic covered in a plastic bag suspended in water. During the White album, he experimented with singing lying on the floor. If you put it in the context of the Beatles in general never wanting to repeat themselves, having already done something, while experimenting with any and every little thing, it makes sense.
 
It's true.
I know I can sing, but the reason I know I'm not delusional is because I'm well aware of my shortcomings and mistakes.
I know what I can't do and where my limits are.

I'll certainly never be a Freddy or even close, but I can sing.
 
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