What I'm starting to learn about singing...

Drew_TNBD

It's fucking hard! *grumble*

HollowAxis

And you're born with the instrument you have to use! 

Goddammit

randomhandclaps

It can't be hard at times but you just need to keep your mind focussed on the adoration you'll receive when you crack it and become the next Ed Sheeran.

BenSirAmos

Stop thinking of it as singing. Think of it as delivering a line. And then another one. And then another one. You don't play guitar so that every note rings out true and pure. You make it squeal and cry, whisper and scream, moan and wail. Deliver vocal lines in the same way and you'll have fun instead of grumbling. 

Drew_TNBD

randomhandclaps said:

It can't be hard at times but you just need to keep your mind focussed on the adoration you'll receive when you crack it and become the next Ed Sheeran.

That's definitely what I want. lulz.

BenSirAmos said:

Stop thinking of it as singing. Think of it as delivering a line. And then another one. And then another one. You don't play guitar so that every note rings out true and pure. You make it squeal and cry, whisper and scream, moan and wail. Deliver vocal lines in the same way and you'll have fun instead of grumbling. 

Nah there are things I want to achieve that you can't safely achieve by just giving it the old college try. Stuff like screaming, adding bite and distortion to high notes, that kind of thing. You really will fuck your voice up if you do that stuff with no training.

richardhomer

I've been working on a song recently - and for the first time ever, I'm beginning to accept/tolerate/almost like my voice.

I've redone the vocal loads of times - and think I'm delivering the song with more conviction than earlier attempts - but I'm actually just getting used to hearing it back as well. I can listen to it now without thinking 'that's me signing - my voice is crap'. I reached the point where I can think about what I'm hearing in a more analytical way - that word needs more emphasis/that bit could be phrased better/that word needs changing, etc.

I've worked with plenty of people in the past who have had no hang-ups about their voices at all. Odd how some of us are bothered by it....

starwarsnosebleed

Its easy to be over-critical when listening to yourself. I hate hearing my own voice, even 99% of guitar parts ive written and recorded i trash as being sub standard.....which to be fair it probably is.

Snap

oh yeah, singing is difficult. Since I started, er, trying, to sing, I've got enven more respect for any singer. Its hard. I get all my breating wrong too, so if I sing hard I get dizzy. Thing is, as a kid I learned how to sing properly, but just about the only thing I remember from it is to breath from below your diaphragm, and breathe out with control.

I'm still trying to find my older singing voice tbh. You also need to exercise too. Can't be arsed with all that tbh. Maybe I'll just stick with synths and that.

octatonic

Had any lessons?

Singing shouldn't be hard- once you sort out your breathing it should be fairly easy.

You let the mic do most of the work.

Winny_Pooh

Its so much harder than it looks. You realise that no matter how "naive" many good singers look, once you start practicing, you can hear that they put in a fuk load of work to get good.

After years of winging it, I started doing exercises from instruction discs regularly and it make a fair difference.

I did some rough vocals for a recent demo here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=831109843654918&id=567677286664843&refid=17&_ft_=…

And they were a big improvement over the comped vox done 6 months ago.

Just keep practicing man, you will reap the rewards.

DarkUniverse

I feel your pain, I can actually sing some stuff, but hate the sound of my own voice when I play it back.

Find your octave range, that is likely to be the main factor when composing songs with vocals. Write songs where the root chord is in the middle of your range.

Piano melody can also help a lot, the notes are 'pure' and they give you a reference point for the vocals, the piano can be left out of the final mix. 

There are also mixing tips. Bounce the vocal track to another track (clone) add a pitch shifter and adjust it till you get some cool harmony effect (only do this on the cloned track.)

Stay away from Autotune, unless you want to sound like a robot.

monquixote

Learning some stuff about the technical side gives you a great respect for skilled singers. 

Danny1969

Like anything else practice makes you better. The first time I sang lead vox live I was crapping myself and there was no commitment in my voice but 100 gigs or  later it doesn't bother me singing lead vox at all. I can reach a good 2 whole tones higher now than I could when I started and I've learnt how to make the best of what I've got with my limited range. I like my tone it's the pitch control I need to get better 

I work with some guys who are really good. Not only do they hit the notes consistently spot on they do it 3 sets in a row singing covers from Bon Jovi to Bruno Mars while playing guitar or bass parts as well. 

Jeremiah

I'm far from a good singer, but I actually like my singing voice much more than my speaking voice. Maybe I should start singing in everyday conversations...?

joeyowen

There are some spectacularly shit singers who can ride on confidence, and some great singers who don't have confidence who sound shit.

The voice box is like any muscle/instrument it needs practice, strengthening and rest every now and then

pmg

joeyowen said:

There are some spectacularly shit singers who can ride on confidence, and some great singers who don't have confidence who sound shit.

The voice box is like any muscle/instrument it needs practice, strengthening and rest every now and then

@joeyowen  I take it the video is a message of support as opposed to vocal examples of the points you are making above ;-)

joeyowen

I leave that subjective haha

joeyowen

I leave that subjective haha

thomasross20

I might take up singing lessons again. 

TBH it's tough to practice when you're in a flat

digitalscream

For me, the whole singing thing has been a simple source of fear - my voice is ridiculously uncontrolled, to the point where even with practice I can't hit simple intervals accurately at all. It's only when I started my current band that I realised that, for truly good singers, their voice is no different from any other instrument.

It just reinforces my original logic for learning to play guitar - at my primary school, everybody had to do a musical recital in the school assembly. Most people just sang something, but for me they made the exception on the condition that I had to learn to play an instrument by the end of the year. As I recall, I played Andante by Ferdinando Carulli. Badly, but better than having to sing.

Drew_TNBD

thomasross20 said:

TBH it's tough to practice when you're in a flat

It really isn't.