Learning to sing is less of a destination and more of a journey.If you plan to sing professionally and make a career out of entertaining with your voice, you'll probably spend a lot more time, money and energy on learning to sing than a hobbyist. I'm going to address both of you - the singer who wants to sing professionally and the singer who just wants to get good as a hobby.
Learning To Sing In Preparation For A Singing Career.If you plan on singing professionally, regardless of style and genre, you'll need some vocal training. It's true that there are a lot of self-taught singers out there doing just fine without ever taking a single lesson but I can tell you from living and breathing singing since my teens and working in the music business that it's definitely the exception and not the rule.
Many people have found it a lot easier, not to mention cheaper to learn to sing by using CD's and DVD's to help them to visualise exactly what they should be doing. There are many singing courses around that offer CD's to help you, but you really do need to be careful which one you go for. Read everything about learning to sing this way, listen to examples, see what qualifications the person who is making the CD's has. If you go for a Singing Success type course you will have CD's and a DVD which you can listen to and play over and over again until you are happy with your progress. Compare this type of learning to sing with the cost of paying a teacher on an hourly basis, and you will see that learning to sing in this way will be less expensive than learning with a personal teacher.
You'll also probably be surprised to know that some of your favorite singers took or currently take voice lessons. Brandon Boyd of Incubus comes to mind as an incredibly powerful singer who was good before he took lessons but now he's just incredibly solid, in tune and relaxed and guess what...his sound is still the same! If you're still in high school, join the choir or the band. Playing an instrument always helps your singing because it improves your ear and general musicianship. But who do you go to for voice lessons? You'll find the most competent vocal coach at a university or college that has a music program.
Many people will maintain quite strongly that singing is a natural ability that you are born a singer or you're not. Now I will concede that there are many 'natural' singers in the world and I wouldn't even be surprised if the vast majority of professional singers were naturally gifted. But given will and determination almost anyone can learn to sing.
You see, like pretty much all of the major arts, singing is an extremely technical study. There can be a thousand ways to do something wrong and only 3 ways to do it right and only the eyes and ears of a highly skilled and experienced vocal coach can give you the immediate, actionable feedback you need to correct you AS you're actually performing the act.But, if for whatever reason you can't or don't want to take singing lessons - which, many people don't, and yes, they're very expensive! - then there are still A LOT of resources you can learn from and apply to your singing on your own.
Gig as much as possible while learning to sing. They'll never be a perfect moment when you're perfectly ready to deliver the perfect performance. This is real life. Your voice is going to feel great one day, crappy another day and everywhere in between. Welcome to the emotional rollercoaster, that's what it is. Make your own opportunities and capitalize on those presented to you. Ask your teachers for help. They have connections, experience and want to see you succeed.
Most of them anyway... Expect to run into some really unsavory people. But that's with any industry. As you take voice lessons and/or sing your gigs, keep continually educating yourself on all the different aspects of music: music history, music theory, aural theory, orchestration, arranging, harmony, etc. Essentially, you've just gotta keep working your butt off and growing and more and more opportunities will come your way. Remember, you're your own number 1 teacher. Even a great vocal coach who's your friend and mentor and an amazing singer and teacher can NOT replace your own drive and desire so be careful of emotional dependency, transference and vicarious living through your teach.
To get a physical feel for what your breathing is really like try this. Place your left hand over your stomach, with your thumb on your belly button, place your right hand on top. Now take a deep breath in through your nose and let your hand feel the expansion in your stomach as your belly fills up with fresh oxygen.Now try and hold it there and count to five, it's difficult I know, especially if this is your first time. OK it is time to exhale on a slow count to five release your breath mellow and slow, conserving every last bit of it. Was it difficult?
That's only if you want to do it professionally. But if you just love singing and want to be a better singer, learning singing is going to be a lot less time consuming for you. Of course, I still recommend that you take voice lessons once a week or so because it'll hold you accountable and keep you on track and progressing, whereas if you were left to your own devices you'd probably let your singing stagnate.
One final word of advice as regards breathing properly while singing, When singing proper breathing needs to become second nature to you, you've got to learn to do it without thinking. Get a good technique, learn how to breath properly and you'll be amazed at just what difference it makes to your singing.We've looked at how important breathing is if you want to learn to sing but it's impossible to go much further in an article like this. For those of you wanting to learn to sing you can read more about how a non-singer can learn to sing by checking out the link in my resource box below.
Learning To Sing In Preparation For A Singing Career.If you plan on singing professionally, regardless of style and genre, you'll need some vocal training. It's true that there are a lot of self-taught singers out there doing just fine without ever taking a single lesson but I can tell you from living and breathing singing since my teens and working in the music business that it's definitely the exception and not the rule.
Many people have found it a lot easier, not to mention cheaper to learn to sing by using CD's and DVD's to help them to visualise exactly what they should be doing. There are many singing courses around that offer CD's to help you, but you really do need to be careful which one you go for. Read everything about learning to sing this way, listen to examples, see what qualifications the person who is making the CD's has. If you go for a Singing Success type course you will have CD's and a DVD which you can listen to and play over and over again until you are happy with your progress. Compare this type of learning to sing with the cost of paying a teacher on an hourly basis, and you will see that learning to sing in this way will be less expensive than learning with a personal teacher.
You'll also probably be surprised to know that some of your favorite singers took or currently take voice lessons. Brandon Boyd of Incubus comes to mind as an incredibly powerful singer who was good before he took lessons but now he's just incredibly solid, in tune and relaxed and guess what...his sound is still the same! If you're still in high school, join the choir or the band. Playing an instrument always helps your singing because it improves your ear and general musicianship. But who do you go to for voice lessons? You'll find the most competent vocal coach at a university or college that has a music program.
Many people will maintain quite strongly that singing is a natural ability that you are born a singer or you're not. Now I will concede that there are many 'natural' singers in the world and I wouldn't even be surprised if the vast majority of professional singers were naturally gifted. But given will and determination almost anyone can learn to sing.
You see, like pretty much all of the major arts, singing is an extremely technical study. There can be a thousand ways to do something wrong and only 3 ways to do it right and only the eyes and ears of a highly skilled and experienced vocal coach can give you the immediate, actionable feedback you need to correct you AS you're actually performing the act.But, if for whatever reason you can't or don't want to take singing lessons - which, many people don't, and yes, they're very expensive! - then there are still A LOT of resources you can learn from and apply to your singing on your own.
Gig as much as possible while learning to sing. They'll never be a perfect moment when you're perfectly ready to deliver the perfect performance. This is real life. Your voice is going to feel great one day, crappy another day and everywhere in between. Welcome to the emotional rollercoaster, that's what it is. Make your own opportunities and capitalize on those presented to you. Ask your teachers for help. They have connections, experience and want to see you succeed.
Most of them anyway... Expect to run into some really unsavory people. But that's with any industry. As you take voice lessons and/or sing your gigs, keep continually educating yourself on all the different aspects of music: music history, music theory, aural theory, orchestration, arranging, harmony, etc. Essentially, you've just gotta keep working your butt off and growing and more and more opportunities will come your way. Remember, you're your own number 1 teacher. Even a great vocal coach who's your friend and mentor and an amazing singer and teacher can NOT replace your own drive and desire so be careful of emotional dependency, transference and vicarious living through your teach.
To get a physical feel for what your breathing is really like try this. Place your left hand over your stomach, with your thumb on your belly button, place your right hand on top. Now take a deep breath in through your nose and let your hand feel the expansion in your stomach as your belly fills up with fresh oxygen.Now try and hold it there and count to five, it's difficult I know, especially if this is your first time. OK it is time to exhale on a slow count to five release your breath mellow and slow, conserving every last bit of it. Was it difficult?
That's only if you want to do it professionally. But if you just love singing and want to be a better singer, learning singing is going to be a lot less time consuming for you. Of course, I still recommend that you take voice lessons once a week or so because it'll hold you accountable and keep you on track and progressing, whereas if you were left to your own devices you'd probably let your singing stagnate.
One final word of advice as regards breathing properly while singing, When singing proper breathing needs to become second nature to you, you've got to learn to do it without thinking. Get a good technique, learn how to breath properly and you'll be amazed at just what difference it makes to your singing.We've looked at how important breathing is if you want to learn to sing but it's impossible to go much further in an article like this. For those of you wanting to learn to sing you can read more about how a non-singer can learn to sing by checking out the link in my resource box below.
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