Singing advice

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47ronin

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OK Ive been trying to improve my singing....is this even possible or do you just have what you have?

I feel like I am making progress, though....i practice scales and sing my own songs and try to sing a variety of different songs....im not looking for a big cheesy rock voice more like elliott smith, nick drake type thing (paul simon for you mall shoppers)...

anyway what do do you say about improving your ability to sing and perform....im talking no electronic gadgetry,too!

47ronin

ps how do you feel about karaoke....i live in japan now and its everywhere here....can i just do "yesterday" 365 days a year ?
 
Yes you can improve your voice. First starting out singing scales by themselves without some reference to sing along with such as piano or guitar may be misleading because you cant be sure you are hitting the right notes. After practice, accompaniment should no longer be necessary. Your vocal chords are attached and activated by muscles and like any other muscle need a workout to become stronger.
My technique I have always said is to yell in key and hey, if you can do it better you come on up here and maybe youll get hired.
Maybe you should find a reputable singing instructor and take a few lessons to get the basics down? I dont know where you are starting from.
Welcome to the site.
 
If you can take some one on one vocal instruction that would be optimal. Even if you only take it for say 6 months it will be well worth your investment because you will learn the basics.

Short of that, there are some decent instruction packages on CD/tapes. I got one from the public library, burned the disk and saved myself $50. I'm not sure if the Home Recording Police will rain down destruction on me if I mention a name. But here goes, "Vocal Power" by Howard Austin and ... I forget the woman vocalists name. duh

But I DO NOT recommend screaming on key. If you have even a decent speaking voice, you will have no hope of refining your singing voice once you cross to the dark side young Skywalker.
 
Here's a bad habit I still have to break:

Don't clear your throat before you start to sing. If you have to get the plegm out, drink some water or LIGHTLY clear your through.
Clearing it too roughly shocks the vocal chords.
It's like if someone were to punch you in the stomach right before you go into the ring for a boxing match.
 
wouldn't it be nice to have a seperate "voice / singing" forum?
i think there are a lot of guys interested in vocal advises.

... so am I:

I really don't know in which direction I should work with my voice (don't tell me to take lessons - it's WAY too expensive here).
So far I thougth I had to strengthen my head register (/falsetto) to sing those 80's rock style songs (def leppard, europe, bon jovi...)

but now and then - on a good day - I manage to sing songs like Gn'R's "Sweet Child Of Mine" with my chest voice... only once of course - then my voice cracks (not only because I have to sing it quite loud).

now I'm in doubts: do rock-singers use their head-voices at all?
I mean, ok, it's quite obvisious with guys like brian johnson, vince neil, joey tempest or joe elliot - I guess they do... and bruce springsteen and billy idol don't, right?

but what about guys like jon bon jovi, bret michaels, bryan adams, bruce dickinson?
I even have a hard time trying to reach joe cockers highest notes... and you'd better stay away from me trying to sing "keep the faith" with a strong voice.

I guess without shouting in chest voice I don't get farther than the second C on a guitar. in head register I get to the 12th-fret-E of the high E string - getting louder I even reach G.
Is this a normal voice? Am I a mutant?
 
I been yelling in key since I was 4 or 5 and for the last 44 years it has never failed me. Now, screaming is another thing.
 
Caution!!

If you decide to try taking some lessons, be careful to find a coach
who will help you Maximize what you have rather than try to get you to conform to some standard they might have about CORRECTNESS. I made that mistake after many years of singing in my natural voice and it took me months to get back what I had
before.
 
"but now and then - on a good day - I manage to sing songs like Gn'R's "Sweet Child Of Mine" with my chest voice... only once of course - then my voice cracks (not only because I have to sing it quite loud)."

If singing at that higher register without falsetto is difficult then I would advise to be careful when singing that way.. You could do serious damage to the vocal cords if you try to push that register without warming up to it..

I wish I could sing up there.. could make doing Zeppelin covers a hell of a lot easier.. but I can't. I'm stuck with a voice range that plops in the middle of the register.. and with guitar, bass, and home recording, a full time job and full time family, I don't have the time or desire to improve my range..

The good news is that high register singing is out of style.. and people like Maynard James Keenen have taught me that softening the vocal approach can provide a very dramatic approach to singing, giving the same (if not greater) impact on the vocal performance.. Here is some other things to consider when singing:

-if you're like me and your falsetto sounds worse than Tiny Tim.. you can often tease a vocal track by dropping falsetto notes here and there.. McCartney does it sometimes.. Geoff Tate did it beautifully on Silent Lucidity and Della Brown.. Chris Cornell does it too..
-a great trick is to sing a long sustained note completely clean.. and then at the end add a flair for vibrato.. Layne Staley is the king of this.. most noticeable on Alice in Chains Facelift...
-then there's the Godsmack/James Hetfield approach of accentuating the last syllable of a vocal phrase ("Sad but True-a").. more subtle is Freddie Mercury's technique on the Queen albums...
-and perhaps the best thing you can do for singing is to spend considerable time listening to yourself on a tape recorder.. it seems that half the battle is getting over that awkward feeling you get when you hear yourself and learning what vocal style and diction work for you..

Cy
 
The most important thing in my opinion, along with everyone's advise, is to TAKE DEEP BREATHS whenever you can in between phrases..etc. I didn't understand what people meant by "sing from your diaphragm" untill I started doing this. I noticed singing FELT alot better and was easier, more comfortable. A good foundation for working on scales and other exercizes. Just like playing guitar, if you're not loose and comfortable, you're just dealing with obsticles instead of your goal.
 
ahh

Alright, heres the deal, I am not an expert on vocals, but I've found my own way of improving like hell, and I have a huge knowledge of all music/music theory/bands/whatever. Ok, well, the way I improved, and became a vocalist, is pretty much sing to all sorts of different styles of bands you like. Sing along to them, and if you can't tell if your on key or not, use ear plugs. Who cares if your parents hear you, though they won't if you sing along to music at a nice volume. That's what I did. I sang to Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, then some artistic stuff (tool, radiohead), then some punk (pennywise, suicide machines). I then went to concerts of my favorite bands (Finger Eleven, Boy Hits Car, Pennywise, Tool) and pretty much sang along to every song. I opened myself up, didn't care what happened, and surprisingly, was complimented afterwards by someone at the F 11 show. Hey man, don't take my advice for expert advice, but hey, it helped me a hell of a lot.
If you wanna know any phenominal vocalists....here it goes.
Finger Eleven's, Tool's, Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westwards', and if you want a bit of yelling power, try System Of A Down, or if your really daring, some Cradle Of Filth. For scream singing I like Filter's old stuff. (one, hey man nice shot). all great songs. so check it out man, it'll help.
 
breath control

First off dont yell. unless it's for your style. yelling will kill your voice quick. Before you sing practice this, take a deep breath through the nose, feel your air fill up your belly so it expands, put your hand on your belly to feel it expand. Now breathe out through the mouth and put a little presure on your belly with your hand so its like you're pressing the air out of the belly. practice this breathing technique all the time. try 5 counts in 5 counts out then slowly work up to 16 in 16 out. This is deep diaphramical breathing, it helps when you're stressed too. Now try pushing a note out with this air presure. And above all stay relaxed!

Adam
 
I go off and on between smoking and quitting....definitely much better when Im not smoking...expecially the lower notes...now of course it seems like most rock singers are probably smokers though...hmmm

also i think drinking lots of water during the day helps...

47ronin
 
Re: breath control

HearClear said:
First off dont yell. unless it's for your style. yelling will kill your voice quick.
Click to expand...

I take it when you mean yell you are referring to the constant, non-stop, in your throat screaming characteristic of Henry Rollins and whats-his-face in Pantera (Phil something I think..)? Because although I don't scream my voice sounds best when I've accumulated a bit of grovel.. ala Joe Cocker.. I've been able to expand my range singing this way.. and although my voice is a little hoarse afterwards that goes away in about a half hour..

Cy
 
You know, when I say yelling in key its just a joke son. What I mean is I dont really think about it and dont give a damn what anyone else thinks. You know the answer on how to get to Carnegie Hall, the same holds true for vocals. When people ask me how I learned to sing so well I tell them I dont sing, I just yell in key. The reason being is because I am not trying to sing if you get my meaning.:confused:
 
Yelling like most rock stars is fine if you're in the studio. Try a 1 hour set of songs like that 5 nights in a row and you're voice is well on it's way to a gravel sound all the time.
I took vocal lessons for 2 years and sang in a rock band that played a lot. If you get proper instruction you can use it to your advantage. Because you can get that gravel sound and do everything else correct. There is a lot of things to do to sing correctly. I would almost put money on, most cigarette smoking rock stars have probably had vocal training of some type or instruction while in the studio. Rivers of Weezer amazing voice, he's in the top coral group at Harvard.
 
This is great stuff. The other oft mentioned piece of advice that sometimes helps me is to wear the headphones on only one ear while you are singing. The other big one is that if you have to get away from people to really open up and discover your voice then you had better find a way to do that.

Bad intonation is the worst so if you are just trying to nail a part and cant get it maybe record a keyboard for the melody part, sing over it and strip it later.

I learned harmony voicings soley in the car by singing in parallel a 5th above and below the melody then later experimenting with 3rd, 6th 7th 4th and then singing lines not in parallel with the melody.You will sound much better singing standing up than you will in a car though.
 
concentrate on two things

2 main things:
Pitch, Intonation

focus on both, separately if needed. But get the sound you want, and then learn to sing notes with it. Voila, yes easier said than done, but hey, if theres a certain artist you like the style of, sing to it, and mimic him/her.
 
i agree. if a fairy would let me choose between perfect intonation and killer tone I'd most probably go for the latter.
I heared a few singers (including me - IF i'm a singer) that were in tune but it still sounded crooked somehow... cause the tone was bad.
but there's a lot of singers (famous ones too) who sing a bit out of tune now and then and it still sounds great because their voices do.

... and then there's guys like mick jagger who sing out of tune and have shitty voices and it still sounds killer... life's not fair ;)
 
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