Sing Without a Vocal Coach
Perhaps one of the most difficult things to learn to do completely on your own is to learn to sing. Some people have grown up singing their whole lives, while others have the option of paying for a vocal coach. However, others of us do not have the option of paying for a coach, either because a lack of vocal coaches in our area, or because we simply do not have the financial capabilities to pay for lessons. This article, then, is for you.
Steps
- Resonate. This is how you make your voice sound full. The most important part of resonance is knowing where you resonate. When you sing, there are two places where you should feel resonance: in the sinus cavities, right under your nose, and in your chest. You should be able to put your hands to these and feel them vibrate. This will help your voice fill a room. On a special note, singing in your sinus cavities can be difficult. When you hear that it's around the nose, a lot of people then try to sing through their nose, resulting in a very nasally sound, as if though they were singing with a stuffy nose. Rather, you want to feel a vibration on the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth. Also, make sure you drop your jaw and your tongue in your mouth, to make sure that the sound has the most room to bounce around and build up.
- Consider your pitch. Being able to match pitches correctly is going to be another important part of singing. If someone sings perfectly, but out of tune, no one is going to want to hear them sing. Practice recording your voice along with a song, or while playing an instrument. When you play it back you should be able to hear whether your voice is too low, too high, or just right, and then you try singing a tiny bit lower or higher to make it right.
- Focus. Focus is what will determine whether or not people can understand you. Make sure you enunciate every word, and sing out of your mouth. If you just sing for the sake of singing, you will be very quiet and will sound like you're mumbling. So sing to something. If you're driving, sing to your steering wheel. If you're in the shower, sing to your brush or shampoo bottle. Just make sure you have somewhere to place your voice, because if the sound has nowhere to go, then it will just sit in your mouth and will not go anywhere.
- Improve your quality. Now that you know all the rules, you can break them. If everyone sang the exact same way, completing each step just the same as everyone else, then there wouldn't be much variety of sounds. Everything I stated above about resonance, pitch, and focus can be slightly altered to sing how you want. If you want to sing for country music, well then it is okay to resonate through your nose a little. However, do not think that you can then just ignore anything stated above. Just like an athlete, you will not use every muscle when you play your sport, but you still need to keep them in shape to make sure everything else works smoothly. You need to know how to do these steps in order to know how to not do them.
Components
- Work on your breathing. The most essential part of singing is breath control. Most of us have been breathing improperly our entire lives. This is an easy fix however, as breathing properly is something you can practice every time you inhale. When most people breathe in, their chests puff out a bit, and their shoulders raise. However, the diaphragm muscle that regulates the intake of air is located directly under our lungs, not in front of them as our breathing habits suggest. So, instead, when you take in a breath, what should happen is that your stomach puffs out a bit instead, as when you flex your diaphragm, it moves downward towards your abdomen. Try to act as if though you're pulling air into your stomach, rather than your lungs. If you're doing it really well, you should even feel your back puff out a little bit.
- Focus your energy. Another important part to singing is singing like you mean it! If you do everything else right, but if you sing without any energy, then you will be giving a lackluster performance. Even when you sing quietly, you can still be energetic by slightly over-emphasizing each word, and projecting your voice to the front of your mouth (more on that later).
- Work on your confidence. This is probably the hardest hurdle to overcome when one first begins singing. Make sure to smile and never look down to let everyone that not a shy type, It is safe to assume that if you are looking up tips on how to become a better singer, then you acknowledge that you are not a great singer. If you want to learn how to sing, however, then you need to sing like you're the best singer that the world has ever had. Naturally, this is hard for the more modest of you, but that doesn't mean you always have to practice voice in front of people. Sing in the shower, sing in your car, and sing when nobody's home. And then, when your ready, start singing in front of your friends and family. Before you know it, you'll have enough confidence to give a grade A performance in front of a large crowd of people.
Tips
- Remember: Your voice is your own. It won't sound like anyone else's, and you probably won't like it at first, even if you do already have a decent voice.
- Practice. Even though you can be shown the proper steps of how to sing, you're going to need to practice it in order to become good at it, just as you would practice playing a sport to become good at it. And make sure you record yourself. Your voice will sound different from your own perspective than it will from outside your head, so you have to keep that in mind when trying new things.
- Sing along to songs and until you get comfortable with your own voice.
- Don't strain yourself! When you first start singing, you should find that your voice might get sore (just like a muscle gets sore when you first start exercising it), but singing is supposed to be a natural, free sort of feeling, so if you feel like you're straining, you're only hurting your voice.
- Avoid dairy products. Milk, cheese and ice cream will all contribute to extra mucus building up in your throat, making your ability to sing deteriorate. Some things that are good for your voice include green tea and honey.
- It's okay to have a technique when you're singing. Try putting your hand over your mouth (not on it) and you can hear yourself better so you can make adjustments.
- One step at a time. There are so many important things that you need to keep track of that you couldn't possibly do them all at once. Focus on one aspect at a time, and over time, it will become second nature, and then you can focus on another aspect.
- Group are best when you want to get a really good effect but remember to sing as well as listen to each other. Make sure your group knows how to harmonize.
Things You'll Need
- Tape recorder or recording software.
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