How would you like to totally transform the way you sing and accomplish that in no more than three months? How would you like to sing with an ample vocal range, hitting every note impeccably? How would you like to anticipate practice sessions that are more like fun than hard work? You may not believe it now but you even might end up being able to sing like an expert nightclub entertainer or recording artist. It's inside you: You merely have to express it and, to accomplish that, you have to discover how. I'm talking about training your ear to get perfect pitch and about singing from your soul, not merely your mouth. How about learning to hit each note with expert precision? What do you think? Does that sound great to you?
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.
A lot of times, even great self-taught vocalists are sent to take singing lessons in preparation for recording and touring because unless you know how to use your voice properly, it's going to disappear on you and maybe even get seriously damaged. A lot of pop and rock singers especially seem to feel that it's somehow selling out or compromising your "sound" by getting vocal lessons but almost any professional musician will tell you that more music education only HELPS your chances at becoming successful.
You'll be given lots of original songs and audio exercises for you to learn with. These include solo singing, singing warm-ups, singing in harmony, singing for auditions and very much more. The included Singorama "Mini Recording Studio" software features many tools including a virtual piano for working on scales and songs. Just imagine adding a WHOLE OCTAVE to your vocal range! Imagine how others will be blown away by your pitch-perfect singing. Just imagine how much your self-confidence and stage presence will soar! You'll be singing from your heart, not your mind, and your audience will see that right away.
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.
But how does a 'non-singer learn to sing. Well it's down to three main elements: training, technique and above all else practice. Don't think for one moment that professional singers walk on stage and start singing. They don't, they've all got their favourite warm up routines, most of them will clear their throats and give it a good wash by drinking a large glass of water. Nothing more. Watch a singer on stage and see how often he takes a sip of water, water is oil for the vocal chords and when they are not on stage they practise constantly.
Even just the act of sitting down in a room with some music playing and mindfully singing along to your favorite songs can help you gain awareness of your body, voice tone, range limitations, etc. On top of that, there are TONS of books on singing. Many of them have really great advice, although some of them can get a little technical with information about anatomy, acoustics, etc. I'd say that Richard Miller's "Art of Singing" and most books about SLS (speech level singing) are great places to start to begin understanding the fundamentals of healthy vocalism, although chances are good you already have a somewhat intuitive understanding of what good singing is and bad singing is; what sounds brilliant and what sounds god-awful.
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.
It's easy to get dogmatic about what constitutes correct singing and I definitely have some strong opinions on the topic, myself, but everybody has their own musical ambitions and who am I to impose my preferences on you? That's why I say that these learning tools are complementary pieces of your overall singing education. Just like Bruce Lee said: "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." If you think of singing sort of like a martial art, then that's great advice.While most of the items I talk about are online vocal training courses proper, there are a few that can be legitimately called "singing software". Some software, for example, visualizes your voice on-screen on your computer or iPhone/iPad and let you see whether or not you're singing in tune, how steady your vibrato is, and other parameters.In my opinion, these are extremely useful tools, especially for people who are visual learners, as I am, and as many singers I know are. In fact, more and more vocal coaches are using them in their studios now because actually SEEING a visual representation of your singing on screen helps you adjust what you're doing when you sing more quickly and accurately. It's immediate feedback and cuts the learning curve big time.
The above breathing exercise is the most basic breathing exercise you can get, it is one you should do every day - four or five times a day. It's something you can do on the train, walking down the street, standing looking in through a shop window and no one will ever know you are doing it. Given a little time and practise you will soon learn to master your breathing and as you do start to increase the breathing count - eight, twelve, fifteen and as far as you can go.
I remember my somewhat progressive choir director (she was hot, too) telling me that "singing is singing" and I was like "pfft, not it isn't. There's right singing and wrong singing, my opera singing books told me so!" Man, what a jackass I was! Pardon the language, but it illustrates how easy it is to drink the "my way is better than your way" kool aid.The point is, she was right. Singing IS singing. But with that said, every singer needs to learn how to sing in tune, how to sing high notes with ease, how to keep their body relaxed, how to listen, etc., regardless of your favorite style of singing. These are just fundamentals.After leaving my singing career, I began to see singing education more objectively and democratically and now I realize that the modern singer can and should add as much as possible to their singing toolbox and even the best teacher in the world will be wrong sometimes and it's good to consult with other sources. One person can't know it all, especially when it comes to something as incredibly rich and complex as singing.
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.
A lot of times, even great self-taught vocalists are sent to take singing lessons in preparation for recording and touring because unless you know how to use your voice properly, it's going to disappear on you and maybe even get seriously damaged. A lot of pop and rock singers especially seem to feel that it's somehow selling out or compromising your "sound" by getting vocal lessons but almost any professional musician will tell you that more music education only HELPS your chances at becoming successful.
You'll be given lots of original songs and audio exercises for you to learn with. These include solo singing, singing warm-ups, singing in harmony, singing for auditions and very much more. The included Singorama "Mini Recording Studio" software features many tools including a virtual piano for working on scales and songs. Just imagine adding a WHOLE OCTAVE to your vocal range! Imagine how others will be blown away by your pitch-perfect singing. Just imagine how much your self-confidence and stage presence will soar! You'll be singing from your heart, not your mind, and your audience will see that right away.
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.
But how does a 'non-singer learn to sing. Well it's down to three main elements: training, technique and above all else practice. Don't think for one moment that professional singers walk on stage and start singing. They don't, they've all got their favourite warm up routines, most of them will clear their throats and give it a good wash by drinking a large glass of water. Nothing more. Watch a singer on stage and see how often he takes a sip of water, water is oil for the vocal chords and when they are not on stage they practise constantly.
Even just the act of sitting down in a room with some music playing and mindfully singing along to your favorite songs can help you gain awareness of your body, voice tone, range limitations, etc. On top of that, there are TONS of books on singing. Many of them have really great advice, although some of them can get a little technical with information about anatomy, acoustics, etc. I'd say that Richard Miller's "Art of Singing" and most books about SLS (speech level singing) are great places to start to begin understanding the fundamentals of healthy vocalism, although chances are good you already have a somewhat intuitive understanding of what good singing is and bad singing is; what sounds brilliant and what sounds god-awful.
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.
It's easy to get dogmatic about what constitutes correct singing and I definitely have some strong opinions on the topic, myself, but everybody has their own musical ambitions and who am I to impose my preferences on you? That's why I say that these learning tools are complementary pieces of your overall singing education. Just like Bruce Lee said: "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." If you think of singing sort of like a martial art, then that's great advice.While most of the items I talk about are online vocal training courses proper, there are a few that can be legitimately called "singing software". Some software, for example, visualizes your voice on-screen on your computer or iPhone/iPad and let you see whether or not you're singing in tune, how steady your vibrato is, and other parameters.In my opinion, these are extremely useful tools, especially for people who are visual learners, as I am, and as many singers I know are. In fact, more and more vocal coaches are using them in their studios now because actually SEEING a visual representation of your singing on screen helps you adjust what you're doing when you sing more quickly and accurately. It's immediate feedback and cuts the learning curve big time.
The above breathing exercise is the most basic breathing exercise you can get, it is one you should do every day - four or five times a day. It's something you can do on the train, walking down the street, standing looking in through a shop window and no one will ever know you are doing it. Given a little time and practise you will soon learn to master your breathing and as you do start to increase the breathing count - eight, twelve, fifteen and as far as you can go.
I remember my somewhat progressive choir director (she was hot, too) telling me that "singing is singing" and I was like "pfft, not it isn't. There's right singing and wrong singing, my opera singing books told me so!" Man, what a jackass I was! Pardon the language, but it illustrates how easy it is to drink the "my way is better than your way" kool aid.The point is, she was right. Singing IS singing. But with that said, every singer needs to learn how to sing in tune, how to sing high notes with ease, how to keep their body relaxed, how to listen, etc., regardless of your favorite style of singing. These are just fundamentals.After leaving my singing career, I began to see singing education more objectively and democratically and now I realize that the modern singer can and should add as much as possible to their singing toolbox and even the best teacher in the world will be wrong sometimes and it's good to consult with other sources. One person can't know it all, especially when it comes to something as incredibly rich and complex as singing.
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