any self taught singers here?

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tdukex said:
Well...I'm a self-taught singer, and what I found was that not only am I a poor student, I'm a worse teacher. :D
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I'm a self-taught student also...My teaching was so bad, I fired myself..trouble is ....Can't get any un-employment pay.... :p
 
Aaron Cheney said:
Well, I'll buck the common thinking here and say...

Buy some books. Visit the library and borrow a few for FREE! Why spend months/years fumbling around on your own when you can learn the same things from someone else in 30 minutes? Learning proper technieque doesn't mean you have to sing like an opera singer. Sheesh...

Knowledge will only help you be a better singer. Learning how to visualize your tone and placement. How to lift you soft palate and proper mouth shapes. How to breathe with your diaphram. None of that can hurt no matter how you want to sing.

Mimicing other singers is also good to a point, but only if the singer you are mimicing has good technique. If not then you're doing more harm than good. You're developing bad habits that will take even longer to unlearn, and you run the risk of temporarily/permanenatly harming your voice.

A
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I agree..I am self taught..as I had said..fired myself..Knowledge is the key to betterment of anything....IF YOU APPLY IT.....will I?? :confused:
 
Garry Sharp said:
Yeah, there is some stuff you can't learn from books, and it sounds like you've found it. You hear singers singing on their throat all the time (not automatically a bad thing, Springsteen is a very heavy throat singer for example) but when you hear a properly trained singer move her voice from chest to throat to hard palate to head it's a different league.

I think that you can only learn stuff like that with physical face to face instruction. There's also the matter of protecting your voice in the longer term. Tutored singers last a hell of a lot longer and can make more noise with less effort.
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And if you've been self-taught...and happen to hit that 'note' you've been searching for..Can you do it again..?.Frustrating huuuuuuuh?..having been tutored gives you a recognition of what you've done so you can apply it again...DID I SAY THAT??..Must come from frustration... :p
 
thanks for all of the great advice people, if theres anything more anyone wants to add i'm open to it all, i'm gonna put as much into this as it takes , i dont intend to ever become an unbelievably great singer, just an honest sounding singer with a decent tone
 
Since we hear in stereo, and our mouths are also connected to our ears via the eustation (sp?) tubes, we can get a somewhat false sense of how we sound. Of course one way to find that out is, record yourself singing, then play it back. Even easier than that...cup one hand behind an ear, while singing, or even cup both hands behind your ears.

Matt
 
the best way to improve your range:

(assuming you play guitar or piano or something) if not get someone to make you a tape.

you start at a note on the fretboard that is at a good middle ground of your range. play that note and match it with your voice. now, you want to sing a melody with that note as the root. I suggest C D E F G F E D C, or 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 in a Major Key. sing it smooth and controlled. You could actually use any melody. try to stay in the bottom five notes at first. try
1 3 2 4 3 5 4 3 1 also. and also do minor keys, the same patterns. but what you do is play the chord and sing the melody. then move up a half step. move up a half a step. keep going up until you go into your falsetto. there will be some keys where you are singing half normal voice and half falsetto. those will train you very well. go up as far as you can, then go back down, as low as you can. this should take about 10 - 20 minutes. do it every day until you see an improvement. guaranteed to improve your range, control, and pitch.

also try - 1 3 5 3 1 , and 1 3 5 8 5 3 1
 
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I was taught that it is all about air and breathing and making sure that the end of each line that you sing is stronger than the begining. Also in the begining try to just sing the melody without adding too many flashy parts until you have the melody clear and clean and you are hitting the right notes throughout the song. Then you can flash it up and it will sound great because you will be on pitch.
 
I found a vocal training cd somewhere on the internet, I just did what it said on the way to and from work every day (about 2 hours a day). At first it felt really stupid doing some of the stuff on there, but after a few weeks i was shocked at how much my voice had improved. One night i was so into it and felt so good about how i was sounding that i didnt even notice i had just ran out of gas. And it was fucking freezing out that night. But anyway if your interested in it i could get ya some more info. I have also seen how my voice went right back to how it was before tho after i started working from home and smoking all day. I guess if you dont use it, you lose it. :mad:
 
sing in the car where you are less inhibited for practice, pop music is good for practice, even if you sing metal.. it helps build range i've found (still workin on that myself) and record yourself... record and record and record yourself... time after time after time.. until it is perfect, and then you will begin to deliver the song perfect.... practice. i took vocal classes and all the woman did was bitch about my diction (how i pronounce things..) but this woman was in to classical music and im an alice in chains freak so go figure.. be careful in choosing a coach, find one who's got the slightest interest in whatever style it is you do.
 
Here's a thought; I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds plausible....


Take the song you want to sing, and import it into your multitrack software...

Then just record another track or you singing along to it, and play them back at the same time.

It should either sound good, or horribly dissonant, depending on your abilities.....
 
does anyone else on here notice yourself singing better when you're singing along with cd's, . its wierd, maybe its just that i always have a guide to follow along with , but i can stay in perfect pitch and hit notes that i cant normally hit when i'm singing along to another singer, when i sing on my own i can do fine sometimes, but the biggest problem i'm seeing now is doing the legato slides up and down which you commonly hear at the end of lines, maybe i should invest in some lessons, i'm sure i'll benifit from it,
 
If you're going to sing in front of a rock band you have got to be able to sing at volume. Your chest voice is much louder than your head voice. Know where you have to make the transition, and you can bring the mic in when you switch to your quieter head voice or falsetto. Similarly, you will want to attenuate the signal by backing the mic off when you move to your head voice. Learning to control your voice at volume is hard, because you practice infrequently. Even in the shower, you're not belting, you're singing.


Get in the car and belt stuff at volume to begin to develop the muscle control you need. Just jump right in and start. Cut yourself no slack - you know when you're on.
 
Homemade singer :) Started at the age of 33. The first years I sang people really laughed; both in front and behind my back. But he who laughs last.....
Sounds much better now :rolleyes:
 
re

It believe it is essentially an intuitive thing. I also agree to sing to your favorite songs, it makes practice enjoyable. If you can already play any melodic instrument well, you will probably be able to identify when you are out of tune and with practice you will easily be able to correct the pitch. Different people have different ranges/tones/pronunciation-that is how we get such unique sounding singers. The more you sing the more you will start liking little things you do and before you know it you will have your own style. Plus, that is only one side of it, you still get to add melody and lyrics!

By the way, what exactly do you guys mean by singing from your head or chest? I'm pretty sure I know what you mean and I've been trying to explain this to people for a long time but never knew a good way. I always argue that singing high in your "upper" voice is easy but hitting high notes with your "lower" voice is what I admire. Are there any other terms for this? Thanks!
 
Singing from the chest vs. from the head vs. from the throat, etc. is a matter of body mechanics, proper breathing, proper use of the diaphram etc.

Offer head voice is thinner and perhaps nasal, whereas chest voice (using the stomach muscles to push air up) is often much fuller, deeper and projects more.

That is really where the value of a good teacher comes in (helping to learn how to go from one voice to the other - and when)

I believe you are making reference to falsetto when you talk about singing in a high voice. Falsetto can be useful when singer high harmonies, but is often not pleasing in a lead voice.

Most singers must switch from thier "normal" voice to thier falsetto voice to hit higher notes - often there is a range of notes (perhaps 2 or 3) that fall right between the highest note you can hit naturally and the lowest falsetto note - it can take much practise to smooth out that transition range.
 
mikeh said:
Most singers must switch from thier "normal" voice to thier falsetto voice to hit higher notes - often there is a range of notes (perhaps 2 or 3) that fall right between the highest note you can hit naturally and the lowest falsetto note - it can take much practise to smooth out that transition range.
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practicing this is how you improve your range.
 
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