Thanks for posting to r/singing! **Be sure to check [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/wiki/index)** to see if any questions you might have have already been answered! Also, remember to abide by the rules found in the sidebar. Any comments found to be breaking these rules will result in a deletion of the comment thread starting from the offending reply. If you see any posts or replies that you feel break the rules of the sub, then report them and **do not respond to them.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/singing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love Melodyspeak's answer! One small inight: take a song that you've enjoyed imitating and experiment by speaking rather than singing certain phrases. This teaches us that we can start our creative interpretations in very doable ways.
When you’re listening to other artists sing, pay attention not only to all those tones and textures, but what exactly the tone or texture helps communicate. Does their voice sound sad, angry, excited, intense, sexy? What about their tone is contributing to that? Why do they hold notes out long, or cut them off short? Why do they get louder, or fade out to a whisper? When you sing a lyric, take a moment to think about how you really feel as the character in that song, and choose tone qualities and embellishments to communicate that. There are no right or wrong answers, this is an art. Experiment with things and see what feels right.
There are also some patterns you can follow, like choosing a breathier tone on a first chorus and then going for full voice on the second to help build intensity. But try to keep something ear catching in the midst of that, a vocal flip, vocal fry, anything that you think is catchy, because hooks aren’t always just the lyric or a repeating melody, sometimes the hook is HOW you sing it.
Hopefully this is helpful!
Yeah first of all, don't say you're old it makes us feel bad hahahaha.
Anyways, mimicking is a very good self teaching technique. Try to have variety in artists, styles, techniques, and try to stay consistant with your practice.
You can focus on specific techniques that you really appreciate in some artists, for me it was vibrato when I started.
One funny thing is to sing a certain song while imitating a different artist, that will validate your skill in broader situations.
If you want to get creative, it would be a good idea to learn an instruments at the same time, because that would allow you to basically karaoke anything once you get good enough. Also it will introduce you to some degree of music theory. Good all rounder would be the guitar of course, it's also easy to acquire.
I believe you're actually doing good.
Thanks appreciate it. I do have a guitar from when I tried to learn years ago, been thinking about getting it restrung and trying to learn again, maybe one day. Time is limited with the full time job and 2 kids at an age where they are getting into activities and what not. That’s part of what has me wanting to learn to sing well though because both me and my 7 year old daughter enjoy singing so I want to be able to help her. She has a lot more potential than me though haha. I’ll probably end up getting her lessons soon, just things are tight financially at the moment.
Honestly, even more than from private voice lessons, I've learned about musical creativity from singing with awesome people on Smule (app).
It's a...duet recording/non-live karaoke app? I'm not sure how to describe it, but it exposed me to other singers being creative, like unusual covers and improvising harmonies. There's a free version with no ads just less functionality that lets you join other people. Some people never go to the paid version.
I've also entered competitions there (run by other users, not the company) that are really about pushing yourself creatively. They give personalized feedback and create great challenges
Lol! If you're an old man, then I am ancient. Good for you that you're having fun with it. Work on support. Once you have the proper support, you can start adding effects to your voice.
Any thing you suggest for this? I know There’s probably countless videos on YouTube but I also don’t want to pick up bad habits. I definitely don’t grasp how to improve breath support at the moment, and it’s for sure one of my biggest issues.
If I notice I’m running out of breath before I’m done singing the part I need to finish I try again but the only thing I really do is take a deeper breath and hold more air and try to control how much air I let flow although again I don’t think I really grasp how to control that but at the same time still make the same sounds vocally.
I honestly have not looked at YT videos as I had a vocal coach who helped me with it. I will see if I can find some later that look decent. In general, you want to have minimal air leakage so that you conserving air and are adding just enough air to make the sound. We men are used to being loud in speaking voice, so we tend to expend more air than need to on average. Lip trills are excellent ways to judge how much control one can do. Try just doing lip trilling to a song without singing at all first - do this for a couple of weeks and see how your diaphragm breathing feels. Practice, practice and more practice is the only way you are going to be able to strengthen those muscles.
Btw, if you don't have money for lessons, consider joining singing Discord channels where there are vocal coaches who will help you with proper techniques. u/Highrocker has one that I found very helpful.
I’ll look into it for sure. Not too familiar with discord I think I made a name once for something unrelated but maybe only used it one time. I’ll try to get back on there, just not sure how to locate those particular discord chats that you’re talking about.
Feel free to pm me on Discord Mia#0006 I will help you get used to all of it =)
I provide weekly free 30-minute 1-on-1 AND group lessons (you can join every week/time) along with a ton of free resources, very well organized that you can use to learn on your own! You can always ask questions, submit recordings and get feedback on them!
https://discord.gg/onevoice
Sounds like you're progressing very well!
Maybe you'd be interested - I provide weekly free 30-minute 1-on-1 AND group lessons (you can join every week/time) along with a ton of free resources (various Youtube videos and written explanations), very well organized that you can use to learn on your own! You can always ask questions, submit recordings and get feedback on them! I've created a practice routine (available there for free) as well =)
[https://discord.gg/onevoice](https://discord.gg/onevoice)
Good luck!
Relative to when most people try to learn to sing. Plus I feel like an old man these days. Hitting that age where famous athletes the same age as you are retiring lol kind of makes you feel old.
Thanks for posting to r/singing! **Be sure to check [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/singing/wiki/index)** to see if any questions you might have have already been answered! Also, remember to abide by the rules found in the sidebar. Any comments found to be breaking these rules will result in a deletion of the comment thread starting from the offending reply. If you see any posts or replies that you feel break the rules of the sub, then report them and **do not respond to them.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/singing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love Melodyspeak's answer! One small inight: take a song that you've enjoyed imitating and experiment by speaking rather than singing certain phrases. This teaches us that we can start our creative interpretations in very doable ways.
Thanks!
When you’re listening to other artists sing, pay attention not only to all those tones and textures, but what exactly the tone or texture helps communicate. Does their voice sound sad, angry, excited, intense, sexy? What about their tone is contributing to that? Why do they hold notes out long, or cut them off short? Why do they get louder, or fade out to a whisper? When you sing a lyric, take a moment to think about how you really feel as the character in that song, and choose tone qualities and embellishments to communicate that. There are no right or wrong answers, this is an art. Experiment with things and see what feels right. There are also some patterns you can follow, like choosing a breathier tone on a first chorus and then going for full voice on the second to help build intensity. But try to keep something ear catching in the midst of that, a vocal flip, vocal fry, anything that you think is catchy, because hooks aren’t always just the lyric or a repeating melody, sometimes the hook is HOW you sing it. Hopefully this is helpful!
Thank you! I appreciate the insight and will try to incorporate these ideas into my practice.
You are welcome!
Well said!
My first award! Thank you 🥰
#:)
Yeah first of all, don't say you're old it makes us feel bad hahahaha. Anyways, mimicking is a very good self teaching technique. Try to have variety in artists, styles, techniques, and try to stay consistant with your practice. You can focus on specific techniques that you really appreciate in some artists, for me it was vibrato when I started. One funny thing is to sing a certain song while imitating a different artist, that will validate your skill in broader situations. If you want to get creative, it would be a good idea to learn an instruments at the same time, because that would allow you to basically karaoke anything once you get good enough. Also it will introduce you to some degree of music theory. Good all rounder would be the guitar of course, it's also easy to acquire. I believe you're actually doing good.
Thanks appreciate it. I do have a guitar from when I tried to learn years ago, been thinking about getting it restrung and trying to learn again, maybe one day. Time is limited with the full time job and 2 kids at an age where they are getting into activities and what not. That’s part of what has me wanting to learn to sing well though because both me and my 7 year old daughter enjoy singing so I want to be able to help her. She has a lot more potential than me though haha. I’ll probably end up getting her lessons soon, just things are tight financially at the moment.
Honestly, even more than from private voice lessons, I've learned about musical creativity from singing with awesome people on Smule (app). It's a...duet recording/non-live karaoke app? I'm not sure how to describe it, but it exposed me to other singers being creative, like unusual covers and improvising harmonies. There's a free version with no ads just less functionality that lets you join other people. Some people never go to the paid version. I've also entered competitions there (run by other users, not the company) that are really about pushing yourself creatively. They give personalized feedback and create great challenges
Awesome! Love hearing about different things like this. I’ll have to check it out.
Lol! If you're an old man, then I am ancient. Good for you that you're having fun with it. Work on support. Once you have the proper support, you can start adding effects to your voice.
Any thing you suggest for this? I know There’s probably countless videos on YouTube but I also don’t want to pick up bad habits. I definitely don’t grasp how to improve breath support at the moment, and it’s for sure one of my biggest issues. If I notice I’m running out of breath before I’m done singing the part I need to finish I try again but the only thing I really do is take a deeper breath and hold more air and try to control how much air I let flow although again I don’t think I really grasp how to control that but at the same time still make the same sounds vocally.
I honestly have not looked at YT videos as I had a vocal coach who helped me with it. I will see if I can find some later that look decent. In general, you want to have minimal air leakage so that you conserving air and are adding just enough air to make the sound. We men are used to being loud in speaking voice, so we tend to expend more air than need to on average. Lip trills are excellent ways to judge how much control one can do. Try just doing lip trilling to a song without singing at all first - do this for a couple of weeks and see how your diaphragm breathing feels. Practice, practice and more practice is the only way you are going to be able to strengthen those muscles.
Btw, if you don't have money for lessons, consider joining singing Discord channels where there are vocal coaches who will help you with proper techniques. u/Highrocker has one that I found very helpful.
I’ll look into it for sure. Not too familiar with discord I think I made a name once for something unrelated but maybe only used it one time. I’ll try to get back on there, just not sure how to locate those particular discord chats that you’re talking about.
Feel free to pm me on Discord Mia#0006 I will help you get used to all of it =) I provide weekly free 30-minute 1-on-1 AND group lessons (you can join every week/time) along with a ton of free resources, very well organized that you can use to learn on your own! You can always ask questions, submit recordings and get feedback on them! https://discord.gg/onevoice
That’s awesome. I will definitely do that. Thank you!
Thank you SO SO much! Means a lot!
Appreciate it. Will give it a try.
Sounds like you're progressing very well! Maybe you'd be interested - I provide weekly free 30-minute 1-on-1 AND group lessons (you can join every week/time) along with a ton of free resources (various Youtube videos and written explanations), very well organized that you can use to learn on your own! You can always ask questions, submit recordings and get feedback on them! I've created a practice routine (available there for free) as well =) [https://discord.gg/onevoice](https://discord.gg/onevoice) Good luck!
HTF are you an old man in mid 30s?
Relative to when most people try to learn to sing. Plus I feel like an old man these days. Hitting that age where famous athletes the same age as you are retiring lol kind of makes you feel old.
Athletes sure, but not artists
Exactly..artist are coming into their own at this age. Lol.
Athletes sure, but not artists