Singing Lessons

[Funka Genocide]

So I've recently quit MMO's cold turkey and find myself with an unnerving amount of free time. To fill the empty hole in my life that was once plugged up with phat lewts I have decided to throw my excess energy into an old hobby of mine, namely music.

I emphasize the word HOBBY. I've never had any formal instruction and the depth of my education is a lot of drunken nights in karaoke bars and a "how to play guitar for dummies" book. That being said I've always loved music and singing. And while I can never tell if I'm any good or just plain terrible, I do enjoy singing when no one is around. (Or my girlfriend is in the car and can't escape.)

So I'm thinking of maybe taking a few lessons from a professional vocal instructor and seeing what I can do to stretch my mediocre natural abilities into something that might feasibly pass for pleasant.

My question to you, oh forumites, is if any of you have ever had any vocal coaching and if so how the experience affected you. Was it helpful or a hindrance? Did you learn things you'd have never figured out on your own? Did you enjoy it? Was it worth the price?

Any general advice on improving one's singing voice would also be appreciated, or even amusing anecdotes of how you were hit with a bottle of beer while doing your own personal rendition of sweet child o' mine on a Friday night in San Diego. (no that never happened to me, I hate the lyrics to that song anyways.)

[Mondt]

I finally learned how to breath about a year ago.

Forgot over summer. =(

[Funka Genocide]

I think I know how to breathe, maybe.

I mean I guess there's a method to it though, that isn't just gulping in enough to get me to the next phrase.

[RickZarber]

Originally Posted by Funka

So I'm thinking of maybe taking a few lessons from a professional vocal instructor and seeing what I can do to stretch my mediocre natural abilities into something that might feasibly pass for pleasant.

Oh man, that's something I've always kinda wanted to do. I enjoy singing but, while not tone deaf, I have a hard time "aiming" my voice to the right pitch and usually have to slide around a bit at the start until I can find it...

[Corel]

Some basic tips that might help you!

• When hitting higher notes, don't tense the throat or anything. Rest your finger on your Adam's apple; it shouldn't rise too much when making notes. Try thinking of just singing "higher in your head". Also learning how to "Open your mouth" is pretty useful. Try over exaggerate your mouth movements when forming sounds (A mirror is good for this). The practise is not really so that it projects well from your mouth but more to practise in opening up your throat to make a richer (and less nasally) sound.
  
• Warming up with some simple vocal exercises will help loosen the voice, a quick google search can come up with quite a few. Good to warm the voice up to connecting the chest voice to the head voice.
  
• Rest your voice; don't oversing or eat spicy foods before hand. Also coughing too much can damage the voice; if you feel you need to clean the throat, lubricate it with water.
  
• I would also look into vocal diction, as this is pretty important. Vibrato (If you don't have it already) will come in time; don't force it.
  
• Oh yeah, breathing is important too. Again there are exercises that can help improve that too (Like making a hissing snake "Sss" sound and controlling the air flow; you should aim to make it last for about 20 seconds at least).

For the record, I have no formal instruction in singing I do however find open voice singing wonderful and a lot of fun to study and practise. Like most arts I think it requires more dedication, researching and practise more so than actual pure talent. I recall Youtube had some decent basic Vocal instruction exercises. (Describing breathing, especially)

Originally Posted by RickZarber

Oh man, that's something I've always kinda wanted to do. I enjoy singing but, while not tone deaf, I have a hard time "aiming" my voice to the right pitch and usually have to slide around a bit at the start until I can find it...

Which is pretty much the way you learn how to hit notes. Muscle memory of them is quite lovely. The hard part is that you have to form that pitch for a specific type of diction then it (can) get ugly!

Edit: Oh yeah, a few more things: Try discover what your vocal range is. There's little point trying to sing a song where the octave is higher/lower than your singing range. Don't be afraid of your own voice, it's pretty hard to make good notes if you're singing too quietly. I find recording my singing and then listening to it again is also useful, not only so you can see mistakes in your singing but to give you that "pressure" when singing which will help when you are singing in front of other people.