Ask me about singing

Yeah a topic about singing.

I've been addicted to singing for my whole life. I'd spend all my afternoons trying to make anything slightly sounding musical, and I enjoyed it so much. I foudn it delighting to hear a good voice, and was amazed at what such beautiful instrument humans naturally have.

So I researched a bit on singing exercises, techniques, hints and whatnot. Today, I can sing past the soprano C, even though I do have an extremely low voice type. I have learned to recognise notes and to reproduce them using my voice. I have learned how singing "feels" and how delighing it can be.

Singing it is. Ask me anything - chest and head voice, falsetto, high falsetto, vibrato, warmups, exercises and whatever boggles your mind. I'm all ears ;)

Do you take exams? Some people have A-levels in singing.

No, unfortunately I don't take exams, first because it's pretty much a hobby, and second because we don't have A-levels in Brazil. :)

Have you made any recordings of your singing?

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Originally Posted by Vex Kitten

Have you made any recordings of your singing?

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That was my question!

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Originally Posted by pj

That was my question!

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Sorry.
I'll ask another question and you can swipe my original. ;)

How long did it take you to get past the soprano C?

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Originally Posted by Vex Kitten

Sorry.
I'll ask another question and you can swipe my original. ;)

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You are as gracious as you are beautiful, Vexxie.

Working on it :P

In fact I did have a file on my comp with my whistle register, but I really must've deleted it.

Was back when my cousin had a project of a CD for college.. She had to master a CD in a studio, and she invited me to sing a few songs for it. You just CAN'T believe how funny it is to be in a studio xD I'd burst out laughing and be unable to go on

EDIT: Just saw your next quesiton Vexy.

I found out how to do a high falsetto/whistle register like, some months ago (?). I also found it amazing that I discovered it on my own (that's why I say and repeat: the whistle register is not a gift few have, it is a singing technique anyone can master). So a whistle register can easily go past a soprano C. I can sing higher than all my female cousins using it xD (sounds gay, I know)

I need to hear you sing Kromie!!! :D

Now, about the falsetto thing... that's great and everything, but I've seen enough American Idol auditions to realize that many people think they sound amazing in falsetto when they really don't. Of course this doesn't apply to my Kromoh, but just so ya know, I've learned to be skeptical until I actually hear stuff!

I'm with Mes. I thought about that guy who sang The Righteous Brothers last year and thought he was great when he actually sounded like a whoopie cushion.

Let's hear some My Girl by The Temptations :content:

Can anyone practice singing and get better at it, or are there some people who are going to naturally just suck at it for life no matter how hard they try? I'm wondering because I'd like to be somewhat of a good singer, at least a decent singer, but I find when I hear myself, it's as if my voice has this irritating sound that seems to come from the back of my throat or something and I can't seem to get rid of it, it makes me sound as if I'm like mock-singing or something, like as if I was making fun of someone singing. Hard to explain. >.>

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Originally Posted by Bayside

Can anyone practice singing and get better at it, or are there some people who are going to naturally just suck at it for life no matter how hard they try?

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I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm going to answer anyway because I just started singing a few years ago, after a lifetime of assuming that I was hopeless. The reason I started singing was simply because I needed to have vocals in the demos of my original songs. Once I started doing it, I really found I enjoyed it!

My voice still makes me cringe, but with practice I've learned to sing in tune, apply vibrato, and increased my range dramatically. A sample of my singing is in the Guitar Wars 2 thread right now. And, to top it all off, I've actually sung onstage a couple of times. What a thrill that is!

Bottom line - if I can do it, anybody can. I'm not just saying that. Singing is a discipline, more than anything. You'll sound like you, but you can sound GOOD. I'll never sound like Stevie Nicks, but she'll never sound like me either. (Not that she'd want to.)

Ok - returning this thread to its rightful owner.

:hijack:

Hehe! :content: I agree with PJ (go listen to his song btw, it's not every day you get to hear an admin sing). But I think you can only improve to a certain point. Also, I'm assuming that the earlier you start, the more you can improve (I'm talking like starting as a teenager as opposed to starting a few decades later). You could take a few voice lessons just to get pointed in the right direction.

Yeah, you can definately pick singing up. When I first started playing guitar, singing seemed like something that was always going to be out of reach and impossible for me to improve at. With practice I went from horrible to enjoyable, as I'm now recognized as a better singer not only from family but my friends as well. This is coming from someone who's family has zero musical background... I basically started this whole thing off from scratch. :)

^^ Dat man is good. :smitten:

There's a big difference between singing while playing an instrument or not. I would say that anyone could end up sounding decent while playing something, but alone is a completely different story (meaning the majority of people will never be able to do it).

Personally I find it easier to sing while you're not playing an instrument. More concentration on your voice than dividing it between whatever you're playing and your vocals.

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Originally Posted by CoLd BlooDed

Personally I find it easier to sing while you're not playing an instrument. More concentration on your voice than dividing it between whatever you're playing and your vocals.

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Yeah, but an OK singer sounds better with a guitar in his hands :P. Some musicians sound terrible without there instruments, it's like playing piano while singing compared to playing a Chopin piece, solo singing is in a whole different class.

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Originally Posted by Bayside

Can anyone practice singing and get better at it, or are there some people who are going to naturally just suck at it for life no matter how hard they try? I'm wondering because I'd like to be somewhat of a good singer, at least a decent singer, but I find when I hear myself, it's as if my voice has this irritating sound that seems to come from the back of my throat or something and I can't seem to get rid of it, it makes me sound as if I'm like mock-singing or something, like as if I was making fun of someone singing. Hard to explain. >.>

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I completely know what you are talking about. I had teh same problem in the beggining. But take it this way: singing is more or less like playing volleyball. Without practice, you'll often screw it up, or not be able to perform some movements due to physical restrictions. With practice, you'll learn to coordinate your movements, apart from getting your muscles fitter and able to cople with a higher physical demand.

The exact same thing goes with voice. You must learn to coordinate yourself: it isn't rare for me to, when trying a new song, sing some notes out of tune. But with practice your learn to coordinate your voice to get to the result you want.

Also for range length and vocal power: your vocal tract is a muscle. As so, it can be trained to cope with a higher vocal demand. As a muscle, it requires warmups, regular exercise to keep fit, and rest when overused.

But remember that, just like volleyball, voice isn't about brute muscular strength - it involves techniques that will make your job much easier.

If you need further than that, ex. hints on how to start, what to do etc, just say ;P

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Originally Posted by Spartiate

Yeah, but an OK singer sounds better with a guitar in his hands :P. Some musicians sound terrible without there instruments, it's like playing piano while singing compared to playing a Chopin piece, solo singing is in a whole different class.

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I guess a singer sounds better with a guitar because we kind of forgive him for not having a perfect voice if he's doing two things at the same time. A lot is expected from a singer that is only a singer; but we may accept a so-so if the person is performing two things at the same time. Just like in a career: either you're the best in your area, or you're averagely good in many multiple areas. Gotta love weird allusions :P

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Originally Posted by Kromoh

I guess a singer sounds better with a guitar because we kind of forgive him for not having a perfect voice if he's doing two things at the same time. A lot is expected from a singer that is only a singer; but we may accept a so-so if the person is performing two things at the same time. Just like in a career: either you're the best in your area, or you're averagely good in many multiple areas. Gotta love weird allusions :P

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Yeah, that`s pretty much what I meant.

How do I learn to control the pitch of my voice? I don't really care about have good tone or anything. I mean Bob Dylan's a terrible singer but I still love listening to him. But you really should have some control over pitch. I'm so embarrassed about my voice I can't even sing at church.

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Originally Posted by Kromoh

If you need further than that, ex. hints on how to start, what to do etc, just say ;P

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Actually, yeah. I'd really like to improve my singing, I really want to be able to sing songs like Martin from Boys Like Girls, he's uses a rather high pitch, here's a few examples to show you what I mean, if you aren't familiar with them.




If you could give me any tips of what I should do to be able to eventually reach a point where I can sing at least somewhere in that range without sounding horrible, I'd be very grateful, as I'm learning their songs on guitar right now and I'd like to be able to sing them as well.

Thanks for all your guys' replies to my question, very reassuring, glad to know I can improve my horrible singing. :P

I've found that just by singing more and listening to a cd I like and just singing along that I have improved a ton over the past couple months. I went from horribly terrible to a point where I'm not embarrassed about my singing. The only exercise I do is everyonce in a while hold a note that sustains on my keyboard and just take a deep breath and try to hold the pitch there for as along as I can (usually about 30 seconds). Then I continue up the minor scale and then sing scale fragments too.

Also singing into a mic and listening with headphones helps alot to hear what you sound like and also I found that recording myself made me aware of things I felt I needed to change.

How can one improve their singing? And how can you tell if your tone def?

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Originally Posted by slayer

How can one improve their singing? And how can you tell if your tone def?

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1. Focus on sounding good and sing alot

2. If you make excuses for everything else in your life too then you're not (jk:D)