Learning to sing

[animal crackers]

I want to develop a good voice, I really like alternative/rock songs that are somewhat heavy, and I was considering taking voice lessons. I talked to my friend who used to be REALLY bad, and now he's decent, and he told me to just sing everyday as much as you can. I'm alright I guess, but I feel not good enough to perform. I want to know if anyone here is in a rock band and sings. What has helped your voice become strong.

 

[Climax]

Voice Lessons...

I heard that you can go for lessons to improve your voice, maybe try going to a few of those? Just a thought.


Laterz...

 

[Desdinova]

I've never taken a lesson in my life, but I can do Guns N Roses. All I did was practice practice practice. The biggest thing that helped me was starting out on songs that were simple to sing and had a lot of long notes in them. During these long notes, I worked at making my voice and the voice on the CD sound like one voice.

 

[duke007]

Yeah just as Desdinova says, work at making your voice and the cd voice sound like one.

Then move further away from the speakers as you sing so you can hear yourself clearly and realise how to hit the right notes. Try to match the original singer's intensity....that is really important for alternative rock singing. If you sing lacklustrely it sounds crap. Just beat it out at full throttle and this will cover up the little slip-ups you make.

Practice makes perfect - while driving, at the bus stop, at home, anywhere. You'll get better trust me.

 

[animal crackers]

I tried recording myself, and honestly I think it's a little weak. Not enough edge in my voice at all. Axl has an awesome sound to his voice, and a good range. How long did it take you to see noticible improvements?

 

[EverywhereMan]

remmember..

One thing you should keep in mind when trying to be like the CD is that they have truly wonderful studio technology that can make the voice sound better. So don't beat yourself up if you can't get what Axl has.

 

[Luveno]

No matter how much digital fixing there is with a good voice, its still a good voice. Going back to music like GnR and Zep way back before digital voice repair was used, its obvious that you gotta have some pipes to sound good.

How do you get said pipes?

Answer: Take voice lessons from a well trained, experienced vocalist.
It will cost a lot of money, but it will work. Your best bet is to learn opera, since that commands your voice to reach the best range and power.

 

[Wyldfire]

If you really want to learn to sing and practice, get yourself a home karaoke machine. You can find a ton of karaoke CDs with good songs and you can tape yourself. If you want to go even further, you can get a CD recorder that you can record your own CDs with. (That's what I have). Since I got my karaoke set up I went from being able to sing a few songs fairly well to being able to go out in public and pull off a ton of songs. I'm especially good at Jewel, Pink, and 3 Doors Down. With practice, I have trained my voice to be able to go much higher than it previously could go and can do some very difficult songs.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

What type of singing are we talking about here?

Singing like Blink 182 or linkin park or


Singing like deep screaming, growling and all that

I can help you out with the screaming because I'm the vocalist for my hardcore band but if its the first choice I can't help you out there bro.

 

[animal crackers]

I want to have a deep melodic voice, that has an edge to it. Think Goo Goo Dolls meets Shinedown. I play guitar pretty well, and have been in a few bands, but I never really practiced singing very much. I can sings songs in key decently, and my range is alright for the time being. I know it will improve with practice.

I really want to know how to get an edge on my voice, when I sing low I can get it because I have a low speaking voice, but even then i'm not really singing with correct form. I'm using my throat to emulate that rough sound.

How can I add an edgy sound when I sing correctly from my diaphragm. It's pretty bad when I go for the higher notes.

 

[Wyldfire]

Getting range comes with practice. I've found that it's easier to sing higher if you sing softer...with less loudness and intensity as you do when you are singing low. You can't "force it" when you are trying to sing higher. I also find that drinking something hot before singing helps a bit for me as well.

 

[Jippii]

Definitely "Set Your Voice Free" by Roger Love. It's great. http://www.rogerlove.com

 

[Desdinova]

How long did it take you to see noticible improvements?

The thing is I wasn't able to pull off an Axl Rose within a few weeks or months. It took years. I have two recordings of myself doing the song "Patience". One was recorded about 6 years ago, the other was recorded about 6 months ago. At the end of the song on the old recording when I'm trying to hit the high notes, it truly sounds like crap. You can really hear me struggling with it. On the new recording, you can hear me belting it out, and doing a fantastic job at it.

My old recordings of myself sound absolutely nothing like I do now. There's no quality, passion, range, nor vibrato in them. They all sound very nasal. The time that I made the biggest improvement was when I was singing on an almost daily basis. Comparing the two recording is like day and night.

One thing you should keep in mind when trying to be like the CD is that they have truly wonderful studio technology that can make the voice sound better

This has nothing to do with trying to match your voice with what you hear on the CD. No singer is perfect, but one can usually tell a decent singer from a lousy one. Live recordings are excellent for finding out if a singer is only good in the studio. Also, don't forget that they usually do multiple takes in the studio, and can take parts from each take to make one really good one.

Also, there's some singers and songs that you're just not going to be able to pull off very well. You might be able to hit all the notes, but it just won't sound that great with you singing it. I can sing Bon Jovi tunes, but my voice just doesn't work very well with his music. A raspy raunchy voice doesn't sound that good singing "Bed of Roses".

Just a piece of advice: keep your old recordings to see the progress you're making.

 

[Acidic Camel]

I do a little bit of singing, and have sung live, but my voice really doesn't have enough character to go solo. Practice does definitely help, while there is a limit to what your voice can do most of us rarely reach that limit without training our voices. Another thing to remember is breathing- here's some advice I found on one website that's helped me:

The most important thing you need for singing is tension! Tension in your chest where the diaphragm is! Because from this place you can manage your breath and the strength with which your breath comes out! Never use to much breath because then the tone will sound thin. You can train your diaphragm when you lean at a wall and sing while doing this. Then you can feel your diaphragm very good and you can feel the tension which comes from it! And if you have developed a good tension you can hold longer notes and sing whith more sound. Try to sing not just with your throat because your vocal chords will fast be tired.

It will take a while, but you will improve. After a couple of months I improved my range by a semitone and gone up another since then.