Best place to start for someone who's never sung

M

mixinstrings

New Guy
Well at 44 I'm giving serious thought to trying my hand at singing. My goal is to play out and sing some solo acoustic type stuff this year. I have absolutely zero experience. I'm not sure if I should find a CD/DVD course or find a local vocal coach. I don't want to go the DVD route and discover that I picked up bad habits with out knowing it and I don't want to waste a lot of time and money with a poor coach. Whats the best plan of action? I have modest expectations and I'm willing to put in the time to train my voice but I'm looking for input from those who know more about this than I do which is just about everybody lol
 
Why not pick up a guitar and start singing...just wail away and have fun.
Playing the guitar and singing at the same time will get you used to issues like timing and singing above the instrument.
Do you play guitar ?....
Here is an excellent site which has all kinds of songs on it.

Betty Lou's guitar site
 
A question that springs to mind is > can you sing at all ? Are you literally starting from a position of never having sung, rather like learning a new language ?
 
I am your age and in the same boat. I went with the "what the hell just sing" approach and by recording myself, having my friend take some videos of me singing (and posting them on youtube and showing it to friends... shudder)... by doing all this I got over being embarassed to hear myself sing and to play it for others... though I still am finding it hard to play live in front of people and haven't worked up the courage to do an open mic night yet, and when I'm trying to record vocals I still do a lot better when I know the house is completely empty even though I know they can't hear me upstairs.

So to get to the next level I really felt I need some help to gain more confidence in my voice and I found a local voice teacher I like. He gave me a free initial lesson with him so I felt pretty good that I liked his style and approach and he liked the stuff I was trying to do so it felt like a good fit. He is pretty expensive but at 44 I figure spend a little money on yourself to do something you enjoy.

I think it's good to just have at it a bit first like I did... then when you go shopping for a voice teacher you can maybe play some tracks for them or sing in front of them and actually have something to sing and have an opinion about your singing (what you like about your voice, what you don't, etc) that you can discuss with the teacher during that initial meeting. You'll be in a position to make a good decision then.

And who knows, maybe just by recording yourself singing you'll discover you love your voice and just go with it. That certainly wasn't my experience but it could happen!

Here's a step to skip: thinking that applying all kinds of effects to your voice is the right way to "find" it. I wasted a lot of time recording dry and monkeying around with effects, or singing through different effects.

Good luck and have fun with it, that's probably the most important thing, it will come across in your singing.
 
I've never tried recording myself. I just started playing guitar regularly about six months ago and I've tried to sing while learning a song but even something simple like "Knocking on Heavens Door" seems to be a challenge. I've been told to learn the song before I try to sing it and others say learn to sing and play at the same time. Think i m leaning toward takeing some lessoins from a pro.
 
Get a voice coach. they're not cheap but they are worth it. $200/four 1 hr sessions seems to be the going rate. Make sure you get one who knows what type of music you want to sing. You don't need to be trained for opera. You probably won't be singing and playing your guitar at your lesson at least for a while. It doesn't mean you can't learn songs on your guitar and sing them at home. Eventually you may want to bring your guitar to your lesson -- ask your coach when you think you're ready.

For now I'll give you the $150 lesson for free. Do lip trills daily: YouTube - How to Develop Your Singing Voice : Understand Lip Trills in Singing Do these in the shower in your head voice (above your natural voice break) every day. The warm moist air in the shower will help you loosen up.
 
The simplest way is to think of an artist wich you feel comparable to when it comes to speaking voice. Try gently to sing along on the artists songs and see if you feel comfortable. What style of singing are you aiming for? Garth Brooks or Rob Halford? When going high always try to lower your volume. The surest way to ruin a voice is to use brute force.
Remember: Singing is like sex. If it hurts you're doing it wrong!!
 
There are good music school that can help you because I was once enrolled there for 3 months tutorial. I learned a lot, my voice improved plus they will give you techniques about the diaphragm when to loosen or tighten it to reach high notes etc.
 
Wow, I'm surprised nobody went with the easy sarcastic answer: "At the beginning".

Now I know most will disagree, but I don't see singing like playing guitar, drums, piano, etc. Unlike the aforementioned where you can learn to play through instruction and practice, you either CAN sing or you CAN'T sing. Lessons will put some polish on your voice, but if your voice is a turd... well, we all know there's no point in polishing a turd.
 
DogmaticVox said:
Wow, I'm surprised nobody went with the easy sarcastic answer: "At the beginning".

Now I know most will disagree, but I don't see singing like playing guitar, drums, piano, etc. Unlike the aforementioned where you can learn to play through instruction and practice, you either CAN sing or you CAN'T sing. Lessons will put some polish on your voice, but if your voice is a turd... well, we all know there's no point in polishing a turd.
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If someone can sing in pitch and still sounds terrible then you are probably right, but most people's problem is singing in pitch and that CAN be taught.
 
Bomer said:
If someone can sing in pitch and still sounds terrible then you are probably right, but most people's problem is singing in pitch and that CAN be taught.
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I'd have to disagree. While you can teach someone to hit notes "in pitch" with a song, that doesn't mean they can sing in the sense that most people think of. It may be fine for 3rd grade recitals, holiday caroling, singing "happy birthday", or bad karaoke, but it's not going to make you a singer other people are going to want to hear. Now let me set something straight: I do think lessons are great and anyone who wants to try singing should take lessons so you learn how to get the most out of what voice you have along with proper breathing, etc. Proper expectations should be set though, you're not going to be transformed from William Hung to Chris Cornell. And if someone says, "I don't know if I'm a good singer" that means one of these things: they are full of it and fishing for compliments, they have serious self esteem issues, or they can't sing.
 
DogmaticVox said:
I'd have to disagree. While you can teach someone to hit notes "in pitch" with a song, that doesn't mean they can sing in the sense that most people think of. It may be fine for 3rd grade recitals, holiday caroling, singing "happy birthday", or bad karaoke, but it's not going to make you a singer other people are going to want to hear. Now let me set something straight: I do think lessons are great and anyone who wants to try singing should take lessons so you learn how to get the most out of what voice you have along with proper breathing, etc. Proper expectations should be set though, you're not going to be transformed from William Hung to Chris Cornell. And if someone says, "I don't know if I'm a good singer" that means one of these things: they are full of it and fishing for compliments, they have serious self esteem issues, or they can't sing.
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There are people who are good singers who say they aren't because they are fishing for a compliment. (makes my skin crawl)
But funnily enough, I am a good singer compared to pretty much everyone I have met and have sung in a band for a while, however I have no idea how I would stack up to professional criticism , So i don't know if i'm a good singer by other peoples standards.
I'm thinking about taking lessons for this reason. I don't want to deconstruct my voice and turn it into a Disney vocal because I'm happy with its quirks and in some instances its shortcomings..
But i'd like to push the boundarys of my knowledge of what good vocals are.

In regards to the question posed at the start , the way I got into singing was turning up the CD in my car and listening to Bono, and screaming along., However it was a one hour 15 minute trip to work each day, so in essence I would end up practicing 2 and a half hours per day. I used to cup my hand around my right ear so I could actually hear my voice over the background sound and just sang and sang and sang until I could match Bono..

Then I moved onto Guns n Roses.....

And nearly blew my voicebox out against the windscreen... :-)
 
If you can play a few chords on the guitar try singing the notes of the chords. Like a C chord, an F chord and a G7, once you can sing the notes on each string try strumming each chord while changing the order of the notes you are singing. Once you have this mastered try moving it through your vocal range.
 
For what it's worth.....cause a lot of you guys all sound right with your comments. So I'll simply add my own experience. First, I feel like musicality is something that one's born with...BUT....among those who weren't born with it, some may develop the talent. But there'll always be those persons wanting very badly to be musical and be Eddie Van Hallen on their axe or Geoff Tate on the mike. And they wont cut it. Ever. No matter what.
Me, I play guitar and I once decided I wanted to sing to be able to fully reproduce beautiful songs. When one plays a cover song with just his guitar, he's playing half the song. A song is the voice/lyrics and the melody/rythm.
And I started practicing. And I kept asking my girlfriend and my kids how it sounded. And kept asking for detailed citicism. At some point, my girlfriend told me my breathing was troublesome. I knew and felt she was right ! I worked on that. Things improved. And I kept practicing. And I still keep practicing, over and over, and I'm improving, mostly because I love with a passion playing and singing my heart out. So it gets me...practicing everyday. I fell that because there's passion and a very very strong need to continually improve, things get better with time.
My dreadest judge, my most severe critic is the recorder. When I hear myself singing on the tape, oh....one must remain humble ! So I keep practicing until my recorder reproduce a singing that I'm satisfied with. It can take long, but I think that's the utimate test.

Enjoy !
Stef
 
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