Ways to improve singing range...

W

Will25

New member


This guy says he learnt how to sing by playing Beatles songs (for the highs) and Johnny Cash (for the lows) through headphones and singing along until he could sing them...would this actually work?

Of the above song, I can pretty much sing it but can't get the bits in the chorus: "I just STAND by and I WAIT my time"....will I ever be able to or is my range sort of set in stone? I.e. is Jake Bugg's singing as much natural physical ability as it is practice?
 
He pretty much just got inspiration from those artists and started emulating their techniques until he got it down. Practice is practice so I'm sure it works.
 
I find that having vocals while singing along doesn't help. you can listen to it for reference, but you really shouldn't sing WITH it. It makes you either sound much better or much worse than you actually are. Basically, it's like using the singer as the medium and yourself as a cover-up
 
You can tell right away he has a high voice/range, it's mainly natural ability. He has great pitch for live singing too.
Cool tune...

As far as singing with headphones...if you sing along and are able to tell when you match the pitch and when you don't then that's half the battle. Headphones would IMHO accentuate the errors. You could gradually improve so that your voice and the original blend quite smoothly. Then you can sing without the record and use an instrument to guide your pitch - like your guitar. But you're right - eventually you need to sing by yourself.

His vocals are sort of middle of the road - he's not singing AC/DC or Opera. His vocals are not difficult - maybe high range for some. You could, with practice, sing like him if you have a bit of that natural gift too.
 
Hmm thanks for the input guys. I wouldn't say I have a high range, perhaps mid-range to high at a push, not sure if I can change that or now. Perhaps I'll get it with practice though...
 
you can stretch it a tad further if you make sure your throat is moist or coated with something like honey or a syrup.
 
i've increased my vocal range and volume dramatically from the age of 19 to the age of 26. the way i did it was not very mysterious - i sang. a lot. also - and this may sound strange to some - i've actually found that singing from my heart (i.e. placing my attention in the center of my chest as i sing) brings more depth, warmth and tone into my singing voice. i hope this helps!

:)
 
Basically, you're talking about muscles, just like any other muscles. And just like any other muscles, regular, structured, exercise will make them work better.

But since your vocal cords are pretty much a finite length, you're probably not going to gain more than a couple of notes at each end of your range.

Vis a vis singing along with music playing through headphones, make sure you keep one cup off your ear (unless you're singing through a microphone) or you'll probably learn to be someone who has good voice control but who sings off key.

When you sing, you are hearing two separate components: bone conduction - where the sound is transmitted through the bones in your face to your ears, and air conduction - where the sound comes through the air to your ears, which is how you hear most other sounds (and how others hear your voice).

If you're listening through headphones over both ears (and not singing through a microphone), all you are hearing is bone conduction, which does not give you an accurate depiction of your voice.

This is why you will sometimes see a singer "cup" their hand behind their ear while they sing, as it improves the air conduction of their voice...
 
I thought I posted on this thread, but I don't see it. Join a choir, and practice and sing with them regularly.. A good choir director will have you do vocal warm-ups, and the different songs will help you with intervals, pitch, and range. Solo singing is quite a different animal, but there's no substitute for the experience you'll gain from being a member of a good choir.
 
Scales. Practicing scales with proper shape and support will help your range. It makes you very accustomed to what you're doing because you're not jumping around your range. Visualize the opposite of what you're doing. As you go higher, motion and think incrementally lower. Get the psychological barriers out of the way for your proper technique to take forefront.

Look up "The New Voice: How to Sing and Speak Properly" by Alan Greene.
This is great old book that uses bio-feedback to inform proper singing. There are instructions on how to exercise un-intuitive muscles that are involved in the process of singing. Knew a jazz singer who used this book to recover after a doctor told him he had damaged his voice so badly he'd need to not speak for a month to heal. Now he can singing three hours straight and not fatigue his voice at all. Great resource.
 
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