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Help me sing well
Nibble
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I really enjoy singing, and when I sing along with a song on the radio, I generally feel that I can do it quite well; however, if I record myself, I find that my voice is quite nasal, flat, and lifeless. I've been looking online for good instructions for singing well, but all I've found are buzzwords without explanations (How can I "sing from my diaphram"? I thought my voice comes from my throat. What is a "head voice," how do I know when I'm using it, when I'm supposed to be using it, or how to switch between it and my "chest voice"?) So far, the best advice I've found is "practice with scales," but I don't know how one goes about doing that. While I'd love to just pay for proper lessons, I don't have the money.
Does anyone know of any good sites, books, or software for helping me to learn how to sing on my own, with understandable explanations of techniques and exercises?
Does anyone know of any good sites, books, or software for helping me to learn how to sing on my own, with understandable explanations of techniques and exercises?
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As for singing from the diaphram, the best advice I can give you is listen to opera music. That is all about singing from the diaphram, and if you hear it enough, you may be able to emulate it. This may sound kind of silly, but it's kind of like an ab workout. I know what it's like from playing an instrument, where you also have to use the diaphram. Basically, the feeling you should get is similar to clenching your abs. You should feel it tighten around that area. It gives you control and much more substance behind your voice. Singing from your throat will work well enough with friends, but there is a clear difference when you learn how to do it otherwise.
If you really like singing, try putting a lot of energy behind it. Really get yourself into the song. It will help it become meaningful and hopefully add some life into your singing voice. If you are coming up flat, then at least your ears are working well. Some people can't even get that far. Scales are a good place to start for helping out with this. Maybe you aren't putting enough presence behind your voice. Often times being nasal and flat go together. Try using more air behind your words. Open up your throat as much as you can while you sing. It should help.
Hope that improves you a little.
Hold your finger on your larynx/adam's apple area and make sure you're singing with your larynx lower, rather than higher. Your nasal sound comes mostly from tightening your throat and pushing your larynx up, which messes with your vocal chords. It's gonna take a while since you'll have to strengthen the muscles in your throat.
As for singing from your diaphragm, that just means to sing using your gut. When singing, imagine the air isn't coming from your lungs but from your abs - push firmly with your stomach area. This will help give you a more solid airflow and also give you a stronger sounding voice.
These are all techniques my vocal teacher has taught me, although I've only been taking this class for 9 weeks and so my technique is still pretty bad. However, by doing what he's said, my voice has definitely had a huge improvement.
Edit: I can't stress how important keeping your larynx low is, though. My teacher showed me once how much of a difference it made by singing while moving his up and down (he's been singing for millions of years so he has complete control over everything); his voice went from being a very strong, powerful tone to a weak and nasally one.
Welcome to "every single man woman and child in the world"-ville
If you're not accustomed to hearing your voice without your ears and head ringing from your own vocalizations, it's a sobering and terrifying thing. Everybody sounds, to themselves, like how they think they sound. Without lots of practice though, you usually sound NOTHING like what you think you sound
I have limited experience singing(some though!)but lots at other instruments, and the voice is an instrument similar to any other(my piano teacher was a choir teacher as well and kinda did some dual instruction but I wasn't too keen on singing)
Two things you need to be concerned with at first
TONE and TUNE
Tone is how pretty the sound is basically. It's what you complained about on the tape. You want a deep resonating sound which is probably NOT how you, or most people, talk. Most annoyingly, it's the hardest thing to REALLY hear when trying to listen to yourself when singing, the use of recording instruments is an eye opener, as you saw
Being in tune is a matter of learning music, which you may already know. You need to be able to hit the notes you want to with your voice, with consistency
Anyways, look into singing lessons. As for random internet advice, do this:
Yawn....and STOP, about halfway through, your mouth is open which is nice but your THROAT IS OPEN. Now talk, sing, yell, etc.
I used to play trombone and a fellow trombone player, who was once first chair all-state in Texas(fyi Texas has strong high school music programs too, we practice while riding our horses etc.)in high school gave me this advice(this IS transferable)the key to good sound is to pretend you're deepthroating a cock
and yes it was a girl.
Edit addition: To touch on the above poster's point, breathing is important(mind you the trombone and voice are very similar instruments, you may be surprised to hear. They both involve blowing air to vibrate something to make a sound)
Any band nerd who plays a wind instrument will happily show you this. Stand or sit straight, straight back, shoulders RELAXED(not forced back like some do to sit or stand straight)
breathe in deep without moving your shoulders! If your shoulders come up you're constricting your lungs, instead expand your stomach, letting the diaphragm have room to open up and suck a lot of air into your lungs. Never force it either way, that hurts your tone, but you can get a lot more power and a lot more air this way. In every way this is the superior way to breathe, it's better for your back and stress and stuff
Make sure equal amounts of air are going through your nose and your throat. Alot of people sing through their nose primarily. One way to do this is by opening the inside of your mouth. It feels odd, but when you open up the inside of your mouth the sound will resonate in there and will come out much better. Of course, don't neglect the nose either, or else you'll sound like you're just yawning, and your sound will be too open and lack focus.
Your throat should be open too, just like the yawn, see above.
Singing from your diaphragm basically entails you feeling like the sound comes from your chest, not from your neck or head or nose. This is accomplished by setting up those points of resonance (having large cavities in your mouth and throat) primarily. The more closed your throat is, the higher up on your body the sound will feel like it's coming from. Once it feeld like it's coming from deep in your chest, you know it's the right place. Thats the powerful singing, and it will sound the best.
I'll have to try the yawning thing. Does that mean that my mouth should be open wide as well, or just my throat? It seems like it would be hard to form sounds properly if I have to keep my mouth wide open all the time.
I think one problem for me is that I'm very self-conscious about my singing voice, even when I'm home alone, so I tend to sing with a very "small" voice, not putting a lot of power behind it. I know from playing bassoon that it's much harder to get pitch right when you do that.
A wide mouth helps a bit, but you don't have to look like a monstar or anything. It's more about the inside of your mouth than your lips. You can pass with narrow lips, unless you're in choir or opera.
Also, singing small will ALWAYS bring your quality way down. It's nigh on impossible to be self-conscious and sing well at the same time. You can sing quietly, but there's a difference between quiet and scared. When you sing real small like that, you won't be able to get that resonance you need.