The**OFFICIAL**Voice/Singing Help Thread

Lessons are always best. Because you're then finding out HOW to use your voice. I've had singing lessons for 2 years now, and first I did struggle with keeping in tune at various times, but now my range and style has improved tremendously.

However if youre not willing for lessons right now heres a few small tips:

Sing along to songs
Listen to vocalist styles and have a go at them.

Do you have a piano? or guitar or such? Strum a note and sing it

Scales always improve your range

and slowly build up confidence in your vocals. Confidence helps a lot, just releasing your emotions.
 
Well I'm 17, almost 18, in a band that plays alot of blues based rock (or classic rock if you wanna call it that.) I have a decent singing voice, but my range is... so thin. I can't sing for the band very well, and because we have gig after gig the guys don't have time to waste with helping me get better. Everyone else is too shy or something except the terrible sounding drummer, so he sings alot.

Messing with this keyboard here my comfortable range seems to be G to C, any higher and my voice starts to break up without sucking on a cough drop, any lower and it's hard to hear me over the music. Every song we play the vocals seem to be higher or lower, and I can't sing near the low range of that because it can't be heard over the music. I'm like... really small, and the other two who can sing (but have voices not really... fit for singing) project very well into the mic while I can't (diaphram size matter?). I think we need better PA equipment, but thats not going to happen soon enough.

So anyway, I've been practicing for a long time at improving my range and power, but not much luck... any suggestions? The transition to head voice is very bad too, and actually sounding good in falsetto is a phenomenon I can't understand. Any help is appreciated.
 
I'm 15 too.....anyways, the song in your head is different because the sound is inside you. Also recordings will lose a bit of quality but their still pretty close. Unless your recording ways suck......

Record more and try to get a good sound you like. Also your voice could have not changed yet....Also your voice doesnt officially STOP changing completely till your somewhere around 22 i think it was? Dont worry about sounding older, just try to get the best tone for your voice.
 
Merkaba has done such an amazing job in this tread, that most of the important info is here if you look for it..
I will try to help out when I can.. I"ll listen to the song on myspace and give you my thoughts.. But yeah, like the above poster said, I would need to hear samples of your voice to give you any type of personal critique or recommendations
 
Ok guys I got another video up this weekend.

Demon, it does get pretty shouty at the end, but I'm not sure how to correct that. I tried putting my voice more "up front", behind (or even in front of) my face, but it just didn't sound right to me, so I ended up reverting to the hollering. I don't want to go falsetto there either because I think it should be more powerful. Any suggestions?

Here's the link.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OIHPLATIzJA
 
I'm not about the mechanics of it, as far as what you do with ur throat. Basically what I did was, I listened to merkaba's thing on his soundclick, then just immitated it and that was it.
 
Hey guys, i havent been singing for very long.. and i hav a question.. when i sing it kinda get a tingle in the back of my mouth (right by the uvula (SP?)) but i can scream all day and my chorRAB/ throat dont hurt at all. is that tingling a negative thing or is that what your supposed to feel? and also... i get a massive headache after the first 4 or 5 worRAB i scream.. then i just deal with the pain the rest of the time.. i mean it may be a stupid question but im just being cautious.. but is that a sign of screaming wrong.. or is it something i should be worried about?
 
I do exhaling squeals. The trick is not to say bree. You should say briiihh, and stick your lips out. It might also help if you press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Record the sound on your phone and you should hear a high pitched whistling noise which means your doing it right.
 
Hi people. Sorry for posting this here, but I didn't know where else to post it. I once heard that if you were born with the talent to sing then you could improve. But if you were born with no singing talent then you can not improve and you are stuck a bad singer for like ever. is this true? I'm a bad singer but I really want to sing in my band, like really bad! So I was wondering If any one can improve thier singing skills?

If you can, then can any one give me pointers. I dont like my voice. it's to plain and bad.
 
I sang a couple parts in this little song that i recorded via garage band. I know the instrumentals are very basic and boring but i just wanted something i could attempt to sing to . i am well aware of the lack luster quality I am not a great singer by any means, as you can tell by the recorded clip,. but what can i do to improve on when i sing? im using the built in mic and i had strep throat while recording that (i know, bad time to record me SINGING haha)

www.purevolume.com/mattkurkjian

note erase "http://www.rabroadmusic.com/forums"
the song is called fork and my song 17, altho my song 17 is just auto tuned to ****


you can listin to my instrumental songs too. if you want ....haha
 
Hey, i just went 15 about two months ago and...

Well, heres my problem :

1. When i "sing", i get various opinions, some people SAY i can sing and others say i can't... People who can include my brother, dad, mother, old teacher. Others who can't well, they have'nt REALLY listened to me, i just sung randomly about something and i don't know if i was tring, but they include "Sister, A friend"... i just have a distinct feeling my mother/father are just saying i can sing because they don't won't to say i suck, but she says she would tell me if i was bad.

2. Whenever i try to hit High notes, they just turn into well... wind, and whenever i try to hit Very high notes i can, i used to be able to do both when i was about 12/13, will i be able to do this again if i pratice or wait till the worst of my voice breaking is over? :confused:

3. Is the Flem sensation in my throat effecting my voice much?

Help is appricated :)
 
Oooh, and on top of that, if you do that exercise without the lip trills, you can work on feeling out the position of the tongue when speaking certain vowels. You want to keep the tongue relaxed and down (not stiff, never stiffen anything up, ESPECIALLY the tongue as it'll constrict airflow in your mouth and pull your larynx up).
 
If that works for you and theres no signs of damage at all then keep doing it. It is a bit of a crutch though. Get Melissa Cross's new DVD when it comes out on January 31 I think.
 
I have two questions about screaming. When you clear your throat, making the "ahem" sound, if you sustain the "ahh", is that close to what it feels like to properly scream? And should it make me go very red in the face, to the point where I can feel the blood vessels in my face bulging, to hold screams for a long time or to scream very rapid-fire lines?

Thank you to anyone who replies.
 
Hey, I have a question for anyone who can help me (Mekarba?)
Well.. I've been playing guitar for 3 years now and I've decided to start singing, I've always wanted to but always found so hard to, I just cant seem to understand how I can hear someone sing and then recall what note that is, that is just crazy to me, but now I'm trying to learn again, I'm 16 now.. figured if I start now, even though I suck, I might get better with time..

Well.. my question is.. what's the best way of starting to learn? like REALLY basics! like starting from scratch, like someone who's really bad at hearing notes too.. I'm gonna get into vocal lessons soon when I get enough money but I'm wondering if there's anything out there I can practice to already start warming up and all, maybe I can play some scales on the guitar and try to match my voice? or something?

Any help is REALLY appreciated

~Wags
 
I'm a bass voice and have recently asked my singing teacher if she can teach me more modern styles rather than classical. she told me to bring a song I want to work on with me next week but I find it very hard to find good modern rock song in my range (from low D in bass clef up two octaves and a third). really I just want a voice that sounRAB good with rock music. do you have any recommendations for a song I could work on?
 
How can I tell what type of scream I have? All this "falsetto" talk etc.. is confusing me. I wish I could have an audio recording, but the mic I have doesn't want to work with my pc unfortunately.

Anyway, my screams are very powerful and loud, they're not really dark like death metal, but rather very high pitched, like a loud scream except extremely raspy. What kind of scream is this?

Also, because my screams are very powerful and loud, a lot of times it looks like I'm trying to show off, when really I'm only just doing my thing. My band mates are telling me to tone it down, but whenever I try to growl or scream any lower they sound like ****. I know it's important not to drown out the music when singing, but it's also important not to drown out the singer too. Ahg.

Anyway, most of the time my screams are around the same tone, but sometimes I find myself screaming higher/lower or whatever I did before starting the stanza etc..

Whenever I'm screaming and I feel like half way into it that it doesn't sound right, I change my tone so it doesn't. So sometimes they're like AHHHHHHHHahhhhhhhh, they get high then dark.

Any tips on this? Also, the songs we play require a lot of, SCREAM sing SCREAM sing, type of stuff. I always find myself choking on notes or whatever you wanna call it during the singing parts. Usually when I sing without any singing, I sound decent, but because of the whole SCREAM then sing type thing, they end up sounding horrible. I told them we should just get a second singer, but if you haven't realized already, my band mates are ignorant bastarRAB. =\
 
So I'm 14. And I've noticed my voice changing a little bit, and I figure it's gonna do it's whole puberty thing any time now. I'm extremely serious about music and I don't want to lose any range while my voice changes. If anything, I'd like to be able to sing higher. I'd like to be capable to hit pitches such as some of the songs by Chiodos or Saosin. I've already seen a noticeable difference in how high I can sing, and I'm really not liking it.

Any tips on what I can do to keep from losing range, and possibly tips to gain range, would be greatly appreciated.
 
Ksama, you sound very breathy. I'm not sure what to prescribe you falsetto screams, but Still Remains is using 'Vocal Fry' for their vocals in that song (As do many metalcore banRAB).
Vocal Fry is somewhat explained here.
http://www.musesmuse.com/art-vocalrelease1.html

Vocal Fry only works well if mixed with good head resonance (explained below). Pitch is governed by the position of your voice box and the shape of your mouth. (Zen of Screaming 2 has good instruction on vocal fry)



One thing you should try Tobius that will make a large difference is resonance. You'll notice resonance when you feel a buzz in the area above your mouth. I find the best way for me to capture it is to first:
  • Hum on a comfortable note, and then elongate your mouth cavity and make some more room.
  • Play around with the sound until you feel a buzzing/vibration around your nasal area.
  • Once you've obtained that feeling break the hum into a nicely form 'eee' vowel.
Combine the resonance with the breath support will make a big difference. For breath
Breath from your stomach more, and to get the push from the diaphragm practice on 'ssss' and going louder with the 'ssss' and you will feel the push from the correct spot.


demo for you guys:
http://boomp3.com/m/19a19dc385ab
 
I have a breathing while recording question. When I sing, I breath normally and when I do it over a PA you can hardly hear the breathing through the singing. However, when I filter that through the my four track the breathing is out there and really obvious. Is there a technique I can use to cut down on breathing volume or on building bigger lungs? Singing punk music by the way.
 
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