How did you learn to sing?

How did you learn to sing?

  • I taught myself

    Votes: 86 58.1%

  • I took lessons (how many years until you were happy with your voice?)

    Votes: 21 14.2%

  • I can't sing

    Votes: 25 16.9%

  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 16 10.8%
  • Total voters
    148
H

himynameisbuddy

New member
I picked "I taught myself" - I used to not be able to carry a note with a backpack, but once I started playing guitar, it came real naturally/easily.
 
I am self-taught, but I am sure that lessons would help..... to lazy......

I learned to croak out the songs I was writing in high school and as the songwriting progressed, my singing did too. I would call myself a singer/songwriter, but I would not ever define myself as a real "singer."

The one thing that I can do well, given my limited range, is sing harmony. As a bass player in bands over the years, it has greatly increased my marketability and I really love to sing harmony with a strong singer. It is an entirely different mindset than singing the lead vocal.

I am STILL not really comfortable singing the lead on a song on gigs, unless I am doing a song showcase of original material.....

bilco
 
It's been a while now but from what I remember I started out singing harmonies. It was a combination of what sounded good with the chords I was playing or what was on the record. I moved to lead singing as a matter of necessity, and I think the higher harmonies helped me develop my voice for lead. I still enjoy singing harmonies whenever I can.
 
Grew up in a musical family (not quite the Von Trapps, but lots of singing) and it just sort of happened; no one specifically taught me at home.

Studied drama and music at college and had formal singing lessons there – didn’t really change my voice but it certainly improved capacity and how I phrased and analysed melodies.
 
I've been thinking of taking singing lessons for a couple years now... I'm not sure if I should or not. I've got a good-sized "following" (just friends that regularly come see me play) that always tells me *not* to take formal lessons, because the teacher will try to change my voice. I really don't want to change my voice at all, but I know (even though my friends don't realize it) that I can definitely stand to be more consistent... note-wise. Like, I can sing pretty okay, but every now and again, I just have an off-day and I can't hit notes. I'd love to always have good singing days, y'know?
 
I don't believe that you can technically teach yourself to sing. Either you can or you can't, either you have it or you don't. I do believe that you can fine tune your singing ability with proper direction, once it is established that you can carry a tune for more than just a few notes.
If you sing a bit pitchy here and there, it can be corrected. If you sing totally off key and you're all over the place, you probably need to find another hobby!
 
Yeah, those are good points... personally, I sucked at singing before I picked up a guitar. After I learned a few chords, I'd pluck a single string in the chord and put my voice there. At first, it took a while to find the note, but after a few months of that, I didn't need to pluck any strings in order to sing along to my chord changes :) . I'm not sure I'd call that "teaching," I guess, but I do believe I trained my voice (or maybe my ears) to find the right notes faster - ultimately allowing me to sing along in tune with (almost) anything thrown at me.
 
To be honest buddy I think you trained your ears – singing is about supporting your voice with the right amount of breath – you probably always had that voice in you and sitting with the guitar in private possible gave you the impetus to start to use it.

Do not be afraid of singing teachers – a good teacher will simply improve what you have got – remember you are paying them for a service – if they want to create another Pavarotti then drop them – if the are a serious professional teacher then they will give you what you need.

One thing to consider – singers will spend hours working on their voice, guitarists and pianists will spend hours working on their chops – often singer songwriter are focused on their composition and performance and pay little attention to the technique of either their voice or instrument – claiming their limitations are part of their style or compositional persona.

If you want longevity and versatility then as a singer songwriter you have to develop not only your compositional technique, but also your vocal and instrumental skills – that said pushing yourself in these areas will always open up new compositional opportunities.

The one most beneficial reason why you should take a couple of lessons from a good teacher – is to get a diagnostic of your voice; sometimes if the sound (signature or not) is being created by tension or bad technique then it will damage your voice in the long run. It is all about sustainability.

Try this next time you sing.

Before you start lie on your back on the floor with your legs bent and pulled into you (heals about 2 – 3’ from your butt - In Yoga it is known as semi-supine). Breathe in focusing on trying to expand your lower back into the floor (10 to 20 slow breaths). Repeat, this time humming as you exhale. Let the hum vibrate into your lower back, diaphragm (stomach) and chest. Repeat this but as you exhale start with a hum and open into a long ‘Ahhh’ sound. Again use the sound to vibrate your body and also your nasal cavity, play around with different pitches – seeing which pitch vibrates different body parts more or less.

Now when you sing put your hands on your head (make sure your arms and shoulders are relaxed and that they are held by your locked fingers). As you breathe in do not think of sucking air through your nose/mouth, think about your diaphragm (gut) dropping down, play with it, bounce it, just try to really engage your breath being pulled from there rather then being push in by sucking. The trick is to train your body's muscle memory to assume this state, even when you've got a guitar or are at a keyboard. - That said I record most vocals with my hands on my head!

I would be surprised if you do not notice and improvement, at least in your capacity.

HTH

Burt
 
Wow, thanks, Burt! That means a lot that you'd take the time to write all that - I'm impressed :) . After reading that whole thing, I suddenly got super motivated to write a sweet song... then I remembered I don't know how to do that.

Anyways, those breathing techniques sound really useful, I will definitely have to try those - sounds like just the thing I need. I'll have to make sure my roommate's out of the room, though ;) . That would be weird for him to see me suddenly lay down on my back and start making noises. Heh. So you record your voice doing the hand-on-head thing? Interesting. I've never heard of anything like that. I'll definitley give it a shot, and I'll let you know how it goes :)

Peace,
BT
 
[oops, double post]

Oh yeah, and I think you're right about me training my ears. That makes much more sense.

And one day I really do want to get a singing coach, just to see how it helps. Ah, if only I had some money...
 
I'm pretty much the same as the OP...almost exactly. I trained myself out of necessity because my band needed a singer. A lot of people don't like the actual tone of my voice, but I can hit notes well. I think a lot of my dissatisfaction with my voice stems from bad technique. I can sing well when I'm really belting it out, but that's pretty much my only speed. When it comes to quieter stuff, I suck hard.
 
Like many musicians - when I started playing in bands, as a teenager, we needed people to sing - so I started singing. In fact, I got gigs in a lot of bands over the years because I could sing lead (at least 8-10 songs a night) and harmony....as needed (my main axe is the drum kit - and drummers who can sing may often get a gig over a drummer who can't sing) For the first 30 years or so, I was completely self taught.

When I was in my 40's I finally decided to take some lessons with a couple of singing coaches (not for the gigs - but to help me in the studio). Even after years of singing, the lessons improved my tone and actually increase my vocal range by a couple of steps.
 
As far as singing correctly, just practice. I learned the concept from my brother, and figured out the whole diaphragm thing after trying to resolve the problem of my throat hurting from being in a metal band. Also, when I was in my first band, and our PA system broke, I tried going unamplified at practices. With all of us singing along, it just barely worked, but it taught me projection very well.

I'd recommend watching a DVD called "The Zen of Screaming" whether you scream or not. Very good info there.
 
It's all fine and dandy to practice techniques and incorporate a proper regiment into your repertoire for recording and performance purposes. But if you can't hold a note to save your life, projectory would only make a bad situation worst!
 
thats me to a tee! i dont fancy amplifying my voice, but having said that i have sang lead vox in bands and it wasnt bad, just wasnt good...
 
I more or less taught myself to sing to old George Strait songs as a small child. I always loved music, but didn't really get into it until my grandmother bought me a cheap guitar for christmas when I was 13 simply because she didn't know what to get me.

I now have a vocal coach and I'm improving and getting more comfortable with my voice every week.
 
Trumpspade said:
I don't believe that you can technically teach yourself to sing. Either you can or you can't, either you have it or you don't. I do believe that you can fine tune your singing ability with proper direction, once it is established that you can carry a tune for more than just a few notes.
If you sing a bit pitchy here and there, it can be corrected. If you sing totally off key and you're all over the place, you probably need to find another hobby!
Click to expand...

Before my voice broke, I sang in the school choir. Then I discovered The Beatles (after they'd split up, of course, and I was too young to remember them in their heyday), and I was DYING for my voice to break so that I could sing like them.

What happened, of course, was that my voice broke, and it took about 4 years for me to gain any kind of control over it. Even though I played guitar, I sounded like a yodeler hitting all the wrong notes. My friends used to play demo tapes of me for a laugh when I wasn't there.

However, over the course of the last twenty five years or so, I have not only learned to sing mostly in key, but - and I'm quite proud of this - when singing cover versions/other people's songs, I sound like me, not like me singing a Beatles song.

I'm in no way a natural singer, and I need an instrument to keep me in tune/on pitch most of the time, but I have learned to (1) technically control my voice to a large extent, and (2) use my voice to develop a 'voice' or way of singing that is individual (I hope I eschew falling into the trap of establishing a style).

Now, I'm applying the lessons I've learned to try to develop my ability to sing harmonies - something I had previously believed was impossible to develop. It's going slowly, and is easier in terms of hearing and singing harmonies that come naturally (fifths, I find very easy), but nevertheles I'm improving.

So, Trumpspade, based on my experience of being off-pitch/key 95-99% of the time, to being in tune/on pitch about 85-90% of the time, I'd disagree that one can't teach oneself to sing.

Now, I've seen my cousin - who's a much better natural singer than I am - be helped tremendously by lessons, too, but I'd say he had 'it' to begin with (by which I mean a kind of arresting quality to the way he sings, regardless of whether he is on pitch or not).
 
My discovery of singing stemmed directly from my ability to mimmick and impersonate other's voices when I was younger. Of course, I continue to do that, but it's just for shits and giggles.
When I picked up on music heavily and began beating around on the piano and strumming on an untuned guitar I guess using my voice came naturally.
I had began copying other singers and learning songs until I was satisfied.
Scott Stapp get the most credit, because he was my first real try at "that kind" of voice. When I got into Soundgarden though, I think that helped me find more of my upper range. Keep in mind this all happened before I was 16 or 17.

Now, I'm still not great, and I've really only began singing seriously about a year now.

So I guess being a naturally vocal person (making an array of sounds), and the ability to become quite loud (often used as a nuisance), led me into REAL singing.

I'm looking for reputable vocal coaches right now, and once I find one (and if I like them), I hope to grow some more!
 
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