Hello people,
I've been lurking here for a bit, but finally I've decided to go for it and post my singing. I don't think it sounds great but I don't know what I can do to improve it. I really want to be able to sing, but I feel really selfconcious when I do... I noticed quite a few people on here had that problem. I seem to struggle hitting notes etc, and also breathing :( . I try to breathe through the diaphgram (is that how you spell it?) not the chest but I seem to run out of breath quite a bit.
Well, enough of me gabbing. I chose the song 'Halelujah', although i'd love to be able to sing rock and roll etc as well as ballads, maybe that's an impossible goal, I dunno? Anyway here's the file, thankyou all in advance for your responses.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1530187716cbeb27/
Thanks guys (and girls!)
Alex
I think it sounds pretty darn good. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so I can't really give you any good advice. From what I've been reading, the breathing just comes with practice.
Nothing is impossible, just keep working at it. You sound good starting out, so a little practice and you'll be doing great.
I like it, but it's kinda breathy, mine is to. I think you got the same problems I do. I often think my voice sounds alot better when its breathy, but then you run out of breath and your unable to hit certain notes without strain. (it also causes damage) Take your finger and put it underneath your chin, and when you sing, if it hardens up, your singing wrong and you need to fix it before it causes damage to your vocal cords, it should feel like a soft like a pillow under there. It might sound weird, but try masaging your toungue with your two thumbs this releves alot of tension.. also try rolling your toungue and going up and down scales while doing so.. Let your jaw hang down without any tension when your singing. I've also noticed that going from chest to headvoice while blurbing your lips or rolling your tounge helps. You should go on youtube and find some clips of it. Drink lots of room temperature or warm water!
Stand up straight, and put two fingers just below where your ribcage ends in the middle, then try to breath in from the middle.. if you feel like your body is expanding only where your fingers are your doing it right. You will know when your breathing right. Make sure everything expands.. both your stomach and a bit of your chest, even your back should expand a bit. I can't explain it that well maybe someone can help me explain it better. Try singing lieing down to, because then your forced to sing from your diaphram.
The reason why your running out of breath is because your too breathy... You singing is suppose to sound similar to your speaking voice. And if your still running out of air, its because you breathed in to much on a note that requires less air. If your going past your transision point (chest/head) in your chest voice, you should be sounding louder not weaker.. from what I hear your low notes sound just as loud as your high notes. If it's to high for your chest voice, swith to head voice because your voice can get real tired. When you get your vocal teacher, ask about belting. (Try it yourself when you learn how to breath properly or you can do some serious damage)
Hopefully my advice helps.. btw take off the echo, you dont need it.
Thanks for your replies guys.
JWMartin, thanks!
Ioanian, thankyou for all that advice! My ultimate dream would be to be able to belt out rock songs, anyone heard of Switchfoot? Kind of like them. Is that what you meant when you said "belting"?
Hopefully, once I get enough money together I'm going to see about getting some singing lessons. Until then, any other advice would be wonderful. Cheers!
Open your mouth and sing. Don't worry what people think of your voice. You need to get comfortable with your own voice.
I think that most of your problem with the "breathiness" is the fact that you are very self concious of your voice.
You mentioned that you think you have problems hitting notes. Well friend, if you can hear that you have a problem hitting notes, then you probably are. That however is not a bad thing. It's a bad thing when you CAN"T hear it. (called tonedeaf) You can do things such as ear training to correct that problem. Another problem with being off key, is that you are singing acapella. For a lot of people that is very hard to do. There is no music to sing along to and it's easy to get lost.
As far as the breathing. I'm going to guess that the reason you run out of breath is because you get very nervous when you sing. When people get nervous, they tend to tense up, thus it is harder to breath right. It's hard to sing when you can't breath!
Like I said, you just need to sing, and not worry about what people think. Lots of people do it all the time. And a lot of them can't sing.
You have a good voice. Get over you selfconciousness and let the world hear what you can really do.
Dave
