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[Harmen]

Sooo singing gaf!

I am consifering singing as a new hobby. One of my goals with this is to control my breathing better, as I can be quite bad at that. However, the main reason is I really want to do something with music. I absolutely love all kinds of music, and vocals are quite often the parts I enjoy the most (I'm one of those guys that loves listening to isolated tracks).

So here is my question: how does a 24 year old male with no experience/proper technique approach learning to sing? I want to get the hang of the basics and discover my natural voice first.

So, private singing lessons first? (are there different types of teachers for different techniques? Even for basics?). Are there group lessons out there for beginners? Choirs? Are there things I can try at home prior to taking lessons? (foolproof exercices, not necessarily singing itself).


Some personal info (for those that want to know my wishes/capabilities):

I do not have a big range (nor do I expect to get one). I do think I have a proper sense of melody and rythm and that my voice can have a pleasant sound, however. Now for my main two problems when attempting singing: I strain my throat too much and get light in the head (too much breathing? Or not enough?). Both, however, are not always to the same extent and I feel that after I trained hard or talked much (sports), singing feels better (like a warming up?).

I notice my breathing is very bad/inconsistent. When I am excited, I can even get a soar throat from just talking a lot on longer term. I usually speak very loud (as people tell me), speaking more quiet for a long time feels off and can give me a soar throat as well (moreso, actually). I also have a tendency to hyperventilate a little bit or just stop breathing when doing intense actions (lifting heavy stuff, for example). I always imagine that singing requires good control of breathing and that this may also translate to the usage of my voice in general.

Singing also might be a suitable alternative for sports or just doing random stuff for my ADHD (I need something to do as I always have this "urge" Usually this results in running/walking around while listening to music. This is relaxing to me).

Would be cool if you guys have some experiences/advice to share!

 

[thefro]

Your voice shouldn't be strained when you are singing... your throat should be relaxed like a yawn.

Taking voice lessons from a decent teacher would be your best bet. You're not going to learn much technique in choir and learning stuff on your own can give you bad habits.

I really like this breathing tutorial from DDP Yoga. It's not explicitly a singing one but it'll help you learn some breath control and you'll expand on that whenever you take voice lessons.

 

[Harmen]

Your voice shouldn't be strained when you are singing... your throat should be relaxed like a yawn.

Taking voice lessons from a decent teacher would be your best bet. You're not going to learn much technique in choir and learning stuff on your own can give you bad habits.

I really like this breathing tutorial from DDP Yoga. It's not explicitly a singing one but it'll help you learn some breath control and you'll expand on that whenever you take voice lessons.

Thanks!

And yes, I know strain is bad. Actually, my mother is a well trained singer. She actually ruined her voice in her 20's and had to recover and retrain singing from the beginning due to bad technique. Took her years. So I know a story of what can happen if I just go with it now.

I will ask her for advice too, offcourse. But for now I am first doing some research to see which options I have (teachers, locations, costs as well).

And thanks for that vid, will try that! It is exaclty what I meant. I do not expect to learn singing from watching yt, but I figured there could be some instruction vids with some safe and simple exercices to train/control certain muscles.

 

[Harmen]

Not that many people will read this, but for those interested a small follow up bump (this is allowed, right?).

So I recently had a professional intake lesson at a music academy for orientation. And it was quite positive to my surprise. Apparently I was in tune, have a good low reach, warm tone and my breathing technique was decent. I assume she was speaking relatively for a beginner offcourse. My main problem as of now is that I use too much air (giving a slight hyperventilation effect after a while) when I sing whole sentences. She said my first note is often very good and then I gradually shift towards adding too much air and breathing along the way. When I sing louder this problem was less apparent.

Funnily enough when I was there focusing solely on my vocals, doing everything step by step it all went better than my usual "shower" singing and I felt no strain. So all in all this convinced me to seriously look for a way to get more experience and better technique and eventually become good enough to make it a hobby (alltough getting the hang of something can be fun too).

 

[Baron Von Beans]

This is a wonderful idea, subbing right up. Great OP, it definitely was great to read a little more about how it works, I've never really looked in to it.

I never used to sing seriously, but close to a year ago the funk band I am in lost a key vocal member, so everyone has had to really step their game up. I've heard big improvements in everyone, but I am still not happy with my own voice. The videos you posted will be watched later, and I know much work needs to be done still. As with all music, practice & vigilance is key...one thing I need to work on more :\

But through the course of today, and the following days I do plan on giving this thread a very thorough going over, and really examining the links that everyone is posting. I want to really broaden not only my physical capability to sing, but to broaden my general understanding of it as well, through a myriad of talented vocalists. Thanks for putting this together!

Edit. Jeez just looked at the dates. I've been frazzled all morning. My bad.

Not that many people will read this, but for those interested a small follow up bump (this is allowed, right?)

I don't see why not, but I'm new to this thread, what do I know Look forward to reading about what made you get to what you just did with the professional assistance. That is one thing I have looked at, but likely wont due for a bit due to other resources potentially at my disposal (luckily)

 

[Vibed]

Good on you Harmen! Stay on this track and you'll be chirping away in no time! I haven't often heard of someone using too much air, were you feeling like you were exhaling while singing? Either way, it'll all come with more control. EDIT: Wait. I'm stupid. When singing quietly duh you're gonna be using more breath lol

If I had a few tips on breathing (though she probably will tell you these soon enough) it's to not raise your shoulders when you breath in, but instead focus on it filling up your stomach, chest, and especially your back. To avoid sounding like you're hyperventilating, take your breaths right at the end of your phrases rather than at the beginning of new ones (this also helps keep you in rhythm and not let your tempo drag when you fall behind a beat for your breath) and take a wide mouthed breath.

I've barely ever posted here, but an update for my singing: I just finished a 15 song Senior Voice Recital last weekend. It went superb and I had a large turnout and an amazing reception, but now that its over, I don't know what to do with my time. Make preparations for college, I suppose. Although if I ever go into a music major, I'll have some experience under my belt with this recital, considering it was apperently on par with a fully fledged college Senior Recital. God, two years ago when I started lessons with ASI, I never thought I'd be able to put on such a big event on such a short time. Most people in the Suzuki Institute prepare for it throughout practically their whole life.

 

[BlueBadger]

Been having a lot of vocal problems these days, and it's sort of stressing me out.

I've been singing live and semi-professionally for years (released an EP recently as well), and I've always been prone to vocal fatigue, despite the years of training I've had. The only thing I can think of is that there must still be something wrong with my technique. Even talking for a while gets my voice kinda rocky.

I had a polyp removed from my vocal cord when I was 16 (they suspected I was born with it), and there is I guess a slight little divot on my fold where it used to be. That might be part of the reason for fatigue. (Here is a video of my polyp when I still had it])

Just gotta figure out how to sing and talk properly around it, I suppose :S

EDIT: for reference sake, this is what they looked like about a month after surgery]

 

[Vibed]

And good luck to you man! Singing fatigue is awful, so hopefully you can take it easy enough to weather through. Maybe it was the stress getting to you? I was a little sick right before my recital, and so AS A ONE TIME ONLY MEASURE I took a lozenge during it to numb my throat, but I always worry if I'm pushing myself too hard that I might get a polyp.

 

[BlueBadger]

And good luck to you man! Singing fatigue is awful, so hopefully you can take it easy enough to weather through. Maybe you're stressed? I was a little sick right before my recital, and so AS A ONE TIME ONLY MEASURE I took a lozenge during it to numb my throat, but I always worry if I'm pushing myself too hard that I might get a polyp.

Definitely avoid that polyp if you can :/ surgery and recovery is scary stuff.

It's especially bad in the morning, so we suspected reflux (I got the 24 hour tube in my nose down into my stomach to test for that). It's not as bad as we thought though. I'm worried because I have a 1-hour gig this Sunday, and it's outdoors, in the morning. Just a recipe for disaster. I'm gonna try to wake up really early to sorta get my voice going and just hope for the best X_X

 

[Mumei]

Not that many people will read this, but for those interested a small follow up bump (this is allowed, right?).

So I recently had a professional intake lesson at a music academy for orientation. And it was quite positive to my surprise. Apparently I was in tune, have a good low reach, warm tone and my breathing technique was decent. I assume she was speaking relatively for a beginner offcourse. My main problem as of now is that I use too much air (giving a slight hyperventilation effect after a while) when I sing whole sentences. She said my first note is often very good and then I gradually shift towards adding too much air and breathing along the way. When I sing louder this problem was less apparent.

Funnily enough when I was there focusing solely on my vocals, doing everything step by step it all went better than my usual "shower" singing and I felt no strain. So all in all this convinced me to seriously look for a way to get more experience and better technique and eventually become good enough to make it a hobby (alltough getting the hang of something can be fun too).

It doesn't surprise me that you have issues with excess air when sing quietly, but not when singing more loudly. If I'm remembering correctly, one of the reasons that inexperienced singers tend to have excess air when singing quietly is that they don't use the same energy for support on soft notes as they do on high notes, because they think they don't need the support (when in fact it requires more support to sing quietly with a clean tone). This is why it's harder to sing quietly than it is to sing loudly, assuming you are doing both properly: You have to maintain the same support, while simultaneously holding the breath energy back, which requires more muscular effort.

Mind you, I have no idea how this is actually achieved in practice. But the effects are spellbinding.

Spoiler

That's a D6 at 7:24 - 7:28.

Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy has some great information about the physiological aspects of singing. It is probably not the best pedagogical tool for learning how to sing, but it is great for learning about singing, and might be of some interest.

This is a wonderful idea, subbing right up. Great OP, it definitely was great to read a little more about how it works, I've never really looked in to it.

Why, thank you. And no worries. This thread just has a tendency to die and revive as people who are interested post. It's gone through multiple boom-bust periods over the years.

 

[SonofdonCD]

I can't believe it's been damn near a year since the last update to this thread.

Well, anyway, I decided to bump this thread cause I didn't see any other appropriate thread and didn't want to create one just for this video.

So here is a YouTube link to a performance I did on Good Friday. We do a passion play, like a lot of churches do, but it's not all solemn and filled with Bach. It's called Good Friday Blues, and the name gives you all the info you need to understand what to expect. I did this gospel tune called All The Way. Used my Lumia Icon to capture it (the audio, while not perfect, is so much better than any other phone camera I've ever heard). It takes 2 1/2 lines before they turned on my microphone, unfortunately, but otherwise it was a pretty good performance. Keep in mind that I also had a cold and was very congested. You can sing through it, but it is tough. I had another solo later in the service, and the first half of the first verse I had a HUGE lump of phlegm that I had to clear. I must've sounded like I smoked 10 packs of cigarettes during that time! But most regular people just thought it was an effect or done on purpose, so what can you do?

Check it out, and let me know what y'all think!