I need to learn to sing?

Hi Derek I am learning to sing also and rock like AC/DC is tough for me...at least you can do it!!!

Sing by instinct. I think that is the best.

Man I really want to sing.

but I'm affraid that I'll be an epic fail type of guy.

By the way is this weird, I start playing and it feels almost like I should sing and I make a noise with my through but that's as far as I get for singing.

Whats up with that? And if I give you guys an example of my voice would you elevate it?

Theres something about singing that makes a lot of people very nervous, I'm not quite sure what it is... most people (not including these people who THINK they can sing but clearly cant) hate the sound of their own voice and so will only sing when no one else can hear, but at the end of the day your voice is an instrument... yes some people have natural abilities from growing up in a musical family or something similar, but it takes practice... a LOT of practice, but you didn't pick up your guitar and start playing Clapton right?

The hardest thing about singing is getting to know your own voice; knowing how to make different noises and learning how to hit and sustain notes. On a guitar we know when we are playing the right note as it correlates to the fret board (assuming its in tune of course :)) but its very hard to know what notes we are hitting with our voice, so we need to practice this! Sing scales in tune with your guitar, record yourself and listen back. Did you hit the notes? No doubt you will be cringing at the sound of your own voice... but HOW much do you want to learn? Grin and bear, practice practice practice.

If you really want to learn, you've gotta drop the inhibitions slowly, start practicing when you know no-one can hear you, then when its sounding more musical sing when someone is in the house, but not the same room. Soon enough you'll be singing the house down without a care for anyone hearing you... it'll sound good... it'll be easier for you... and you'll have earnt it.

Now get singing! If you want us to help you more... your gonna have to record it for us :).

Look forward to hearing from you :D
Nath

Derekslide wrote: "the reason I'm so afraid of my voice because people teased me about it during middle school"

Okay, this has now touched a nerve! :twisted: There may be a lesson here from the school of hard knocks. The same thing happened to me. When I was in 5th-7th grades, I had my own band--I was the only singer, and we played quite a few parties and received positive responses. Then I had the opportunity to graduate from the Monkees material done in the band and join a cool band that was playing Cream, Hendrix, Led Zep, etc. When I tried to sing in this band I was immediately told that I can't sing, and that was that--for 40 years I thought of myself as someone who cannot sing. Despite the fact that I wanted desperately to sing, I accepted what I believed to be the truth and simply kept my mouth shut. :oops: For a good part of those years I gave up pop music altogether because not being able to sing took a lot of the joy out of it for me.

Now this is not tragedy--I went on and did other things and I'm fairly happy with the way everything turned out for me. But I never forgot the joy of singing and the trauma of suddenly finding myself unable to sing. Then one day (with the onset of mid-life crisis, I'm afraid) I simply decided that I was going to learn how to sing. Since then, I've been taking lessons and practicing relentlessly. I can't say that I'm a professional level singer, but I do now sing occasionally in public, and I'm becoming pleased with my voice. :D

Two morals from this sorry tale:

1. NEVER let someone tell you you can't sing. Unless you are truly tone-deaf (that very, very rare person who cannot tell if he is off-key, even when hearing a recording), you can sing.

2. If you're not happy with your voice, you can make it better through practice and, hopefully, lessons.

There's an old story about an anthropologist who was invited to sing in a ceremony while visiting a tribe. When he told the chieftain that he cannot sing, the chieftain looked at him as if he were from Mars. There was no conception of not being able to sing in this culture--if you can talk, you can sing. It is only in Western art music beginning especially in the 18th century that standards of vocal performance became such that vast majorities of people were dismissed as non-singers.

There, I've said it. End of rant. Anyone can sing. And anyone can sing better if he or she chooses to work at it.

Good luck with your lessons.

Jack

:wink: Sound Great!

Hope you will benefit from it...
Remember to train up your vocal skill too instead of solely on the band singing skills.

Hi...I was singing the blues too...loud and kinda lost my voice...I just found an LA vocal coach and for the first time I dont loose my voice....He has like 4 DVDs and a website for members only which is part of the dvd deal...but he teaches no stress
natural singing ...dude my voice is so clear all the ....www.thesingingzone.com.....the website is almost built but he just launched the dvds......checkit out....he does like a few stars ......Good Luck

You become nervous when you sing cause you don't have the complete knowledge of singing like I haven't a year ago but then I first learn the basic lesson to learn singing online for free and watched video on the net for advanced knowledge in singing I had buy some e book of Singorama Review, The Pure Pitch Method - Perfect Pitch Ear Training Review and Singing Lessons - Voice Lessons Online Review and now I am with a band name Corsair.

http://lds.about.com/od/singingtime/Singing_Time.htm
http://www.expertvillage.com/video-series/586_voice-lessons.htm?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=yssp&utm_campaign=yssp_series
http://www.learnsingingreviews.com/

I don't have the chestnuts to front a song...harmonies are cool enough, though. However...the BEST advice I ever took was to "run every day". Yep...get your breathing and lung capacity in shape! But, if you also happen to like cigarettes...well, don't waste your time trying to sing!

Cat

The funny thing about singing, I never received one word of encouragement from my nearest and dearest. Strangers, yes; friends on guitarnoise, yes; friends I've jammed with, yes. It put me off singing for years, if I was ever playing guitar I'd just mumble the first couple of phrases of the lyrics and hope someone would carry the tune.

Then I read an interview with Ian Hunter, in which he related a conversation he'd had with Paul Rodgers - they were label mates at the time. Paul asked Ian something along the lines of, "why do you bother singing when you haven't got a great voice?" Hunter replied, "because if I've got something to say, I'll say it. If I've got something to sing, I'll sing it." He was a hero of mine anyway - even more so when I read that. So that's why I started singing again...I'd written all these songs that were never going to be heard unless I sang them.

I may not have the greatest voice, but then again....Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan are just three of many who've been told at one time or another they couldn't sing. Didn't stop them, did it! So I kind of developed a thicker skin and a "the hell with it" attitude - started putting a bit more effort into my vocals, and listened to my phrasing, timing, etc. Now, I just don't care - I'll cheerfully sing along to anything, try stopping me! I haven't got a great voice by any means - but it's the only one I've got, so I'll make the most of it.

Disagree slightly with Cat over the cigarettes - I've been a smoker for, gawd, about 35 years now....if anything, it's improved my voice, there's a kind of husky rasp I've developed over the years. Smoking may not be a good idea if you want to be an opera singer, but for rock'n'roll and the blues - well, I'm not advocating that anyone should take up smoking, we all know it's a bad idea from the health point of view, but would people like Lennon and Jagger and Bono sound any different if they'd been non-smokers?

:D :D :D

Vic