I'm a slow learner when it comes to singing. I started out by joining a singing group which practiced a couple of hours per week. I also selected a number of tunes I liked and sang at home with them. One thing I found handy was to cup my hands so as my vocals could be clearly heard by myself and mistakes easily identified. Took me years to finally sing on stage, but I got there in the end. You may be a much faster learner than myself, so don't be disheartened.
It really is worth at least looking online for some instruction. A lot of it is trial and error, but there are some foundation things, how to breathe, and stuff, that will keep you from blowing out your voice. My voice hasn't been the same since I shredded it in my grunge phase. I went through a stretch where I'd messed it up so much I couldn't sing without coughing. Learning the basics of breath support will help prevent that (so will not trying to impersonate Kurt Cobain.)
Once you are sure you aren't destroying your voice, it's practice, just like harp. Listen to vocal lines, memorize lyrics, practice with a mic.
I'm not a great singer, but can fake it enough to get by. I get tripped up particularly singing with live musicians. Something in my head won't let me remember words and melody at the same time as I'm working on timing. I can do any two of those things at once, but throwing in a third thing ruins it.
My singing is anywhere from pretty good to down right awful, depending on the song, or rather how long I have been working on it. I've been learning to sing for a few years and still have many to go).
I know a few really good singers and they all are unanimous that it takes a lot of work. They all tell me that they needed to just keep plugging along and working out the kinks of every song they have in their repertoire. I was so surprised to hear that a pro singer I work with needs to practice a new song daily for over a month before he can be happy with it.
I just assumed that once you "learn to sing", you can just sing a song and it sounds like you want it to. Not so.
I started about 12 months ago & have had some lessons. A lot of what we do with the harp is very similar to singing eg breath control, timing, tempo etc. You need to ID what type of voice you have & pick 'beginner' tunes to practice on. Similar to having a C harp and beginners tabs.
Your harp probably sounded woeful until you learn't how to play & so it is with singing.
In addition to the few singing lessons ( much more expensive than harp lessons) I purchased a book from Amazon called 'Singing for Dummies'. It is a good reference book & comes with a CD for vocal training.
Are we talking about the blues? Or singing in overall? Generally, I don't think there's much to learn through 'instruction' about singing the blues...much vocal instruction I received before has to be 'forgotten' when I sing the blues.
It's much less about how well you sing, and more about how you get the audience to believe the words coming out of your mouth
tbang, I'd disagree, but only to an extent. There is a bias in singing instruction towards the operatic I think, but a lot of the underlying fundamentals of breath control, and the pitch training, cross over well. After that, if you want to sound like a blues player, some vocal coaches may not head in that direction, but I'm sure there are ones out there that do.
When you first pick up the harmonica, you don't know where the notes are. If you grow up singing, you don't have that problem with your voice, but if you didn't, you will have to learn where those notes are in your range.
Blues singing really has a lot to do with learning how to do controlled slides and learning the notes that fit.
If you can't carry a tune, you may never have the ability to sing passably. It may take a coach to find out if you're going to be able to make the improvements necessary.
LittleBubba may be right : ( But it shouldn't keep us from messing around with it. I can't carry a tune to save my life, but I can get a note in once in a while. And, I have to say singing a note in tune is one of the most pleasing experiences ever I've had. Even if it's just one note, it's worth it working at it. When I get a pitch right on....I swear I can hear other notes flying around ....like angelic voices. It's wild. ---------- Sun, sun, sun Burn, burn, burn Soon, soon, soon Moon, moon, moon
I have on my list of what I want to work on this year some vocal coaching is on order for sure.
I can sing in key and don't have issues with the groove and time.
But I want to improve and get tips on techniques and finesse. I'd like to increase and understand my range a good bit more. Also I think I need critique from a coach on my enunciation because while I sound ok there is a difference between sounding passable to sounding pretty good.
I don't expect or demand greatness but reaching pretty good is a big goal
I have been singing for many years but only seriously started actually "studying" a year and a half ago. In that time I have taken a few lessons and more recently have been taking serious lessons regularly. I am currently studying Italian Classical technique but from a guy classically trained who sings rock and metal. So we apply it to my genre. Blues, soul/R&B (motown) some classic Rock etc. The techniques are only tools. Once learned you can apply them to your genre.
How I sang blues before, as far as feel applies doesn't change. The emotion or "feel" is something different than technique. But the new techniques I've learned have helped me to resonate better as well as put more into certain notes as well as make lighter notes more controlled and solid which all in turn helps the overall production. And I can now hit higher notes that I couldn't before. And I'm still improving. it takes years. One of the biggest things is breath control which is known as support. This takes awhile to learn and takes allot of practice. You also have to learn to control it in order to control volume. Another big thing is voice placement. Most people sing from their throat which is wrong and it doesn't sound good either. Finding head voice as well as mixed is important. Forward placement really helped get my sound resonating. Sound resonates through your nasal passages. Up and forward.
Even for Blues. But all of this is allot of work. Really allot. I have played harp and I have played guitar and the voice is just another instrument and it takes a long time to develop as well as a lot of practice and much technique. Part of my daily practice is tuning my voice before getting started. I do it before singing also. Yup...tuning! It's all about placement. But without "proper" support (breath control) nothing will work.
Even singing Blues, I don't want to sound strained on high notes. A lot of untrained singers will try to pull chest voice up to get there. Learning how to work into mixed and head voice helps avoid this and sound more free/relaxed and less strained. This also included vowel modification and shading. yes, you have to alter vowels. Yea....there's allot to it. It's like any other instrument and takes work. But it's worth it. So you can sing the blues or you can "really sing" the Blues. You can have the feel and emotion and then you can have the technique to really sell it.
I've heard a lot of good things about the book mentioned above "Singing for Dummies." Lessons are probably best. But if you get some info and start working scales and exercises it helps allot. Breathing needs to be worked hard. "SUPPORT!!" That's first. It's a bit different breathing from harp breathing though. A bit more pressure and tension in the midsection. ---------- Tommy
Some of the above posts I would have to disagree with. In particular statements like 'I can't carry a tune'. Think about it & apply it to your harp playing ie can you carry a tune with your harp? If so what is really different regarding your voice that cannot be learnt?
Another aspect is that some confuse the sound of our voices which otherwise might be coarse, shrill or whatever as opposed to the dulcet, mellow, strong or whatever tones that sound better. Some are blessed with great sounding voices eg. like a BBC presenter but that doesn't make them a singer. It has to be learnt & practised. For some it comes naturally ie fast learners, but they in fact may have been unconsciously practising all their lives eg singing under the shower, or in church, or in a choir or singing along with the radio in a car.
My vocal /singing teacher was formally an opera singer & she wanted me to learn Italian & sing songs in Italian. In my 73rd year I was not about to embark on a career as an opera singer. I was happy to be able to accompany myself playing harp on a few country tunes & ballads that are largely reminiscent of my youth. To each his own.
One thing to keep uppermost is to be determined to succeed. You will get detractors. Practising singing & vocal exercises can be louder & more irritating to others than your practising harp.
There is an error in the HTML in your signature. There are two links there, and the first one reeds (harp joke) fine, but the second one is missing a little bit. I fixed it in the post on this thread, but it's still probably in your signature. It causes the page to not display correctly.
Could you please fix your signature by either deleting the second link or replacing the code with the corrected code? (You can rename the soundclick part by erasing that word and typing whatever you want in there.)
Thanks, Nate
---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2013 4:43 PM
I totally agree with Aussiesucker on this. Everyone who isn't tone deaf can sing. It just takes practice. Harping teaches you a lot of the breath support you need for singing (i.e. from the diaphragm. If your ear is good enough to play harp, you can sing too. But it does take a lot of work, just like playing harp. I find it helpful to find the harp key that my voice feels comfortable in, and practice singing what I play. That is, play and sing the melody line. A few voice lessons to make sure you are breathing correctly are valuable too.
@arzajac That is interesting info from the pros. I thought I was just a bit challenged. ----------
"As Adam sings he says that his singing is a work in progress." I think everyones singing is a work in progress. Why? I had taken a break from jamming and singing, went out last week and sat in, saw the video and Holy $hit, I need to practice... Just keepin it real. Like blowin the harp, you need to keep your chops fresh, and keep learning new stuff.
Heck one of the better sort of joy division ish bands here in town is fronted by a friend of mine who is tone deaf and has a very monotone but definitely black voice. He also has the stereotypical gay effeminate thing happening in his voice.
There would be lots of exceptions but I think most blues songs are fairly simple in structure & range ie not unlike a lot of country, bluegrass or folk songs. Basically anyone should be able to sing them. Sing them well? No. That is where some training, coaching & practice comes into play.
Some blues which may be bordering on jazz might be different and a lot more difficult to nail. But in time, patience & practice who knows?
You may play the harp very well but receive a request to play X next Saturday. Never played or even heard X before so you need to set about & learn it. Depending on your proficiency as a player & ability to learn quickly comes about by how well you know your harp. But you would not want to rock up on Saturday with having to read tabs in order to play the tune. Singing is exactly the same. Singing is just like another instrument. You may even sing well but every new tune needs to be learnt & practised.
Everything is a Work in Progress for me. Harp playing & singing. But don't hold back. Don't wait for everything to be perfect as that may never be achievable.
I play with a Bluegrass jam fortnightly & a Folk Jam each Sunday. With Bluegrass the Harmonica is a lightly tolerated instrument. It's a case of less is more and fit in. There are for me ample opportunities for harp solos & as backing but start wailing away and you are out the door. I am very well accepted but I tread cautiously & I truly love it. I have found that with singing I am able to contribute even more.
As others have mentioned on the forum, if you want your jam members to play your songs you will have to lead and that probably means singing. That is what made me start
My singing has started out slow but I can see improvement. It is taking time but worth it...I get to play my songs now regularly.
I agree that emotion and feeling most often trump technique.
Learn to Sing the Blues By Gaye Adegbalola is an interesting instructional...
I think a lot a folk avoid singing because it's similar to exercising - you have to exhort yourself, make an assertive effort and be disciplined... Just look around and you can see most people avoid exercise like the plague.
I'd look up Singing With The Stars by Seth Riggs. I know it's a cheesy title for a book, but Seth Riggs has an extremely impressive roster of pupils. His techniques are unlike most vocal teachers, but he gets results. I've always said that if I win the lotto, I'll go and take a few lessons with him. Here's some of the people he's taught:
Natalie Cole, Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Philip Webb, Julio Iglesias, David Archuleta, Daniela Romo, Ricky Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, Prince, Jesse McCartney, Josh Groban (First Album Only), Vanessa Hudgens, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Cher, Kevin Kline, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Jeremy Irons, Kirsten Dunst, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, Sharon Leal, Conan O'Brien.
Personally, you're better off getting real one on one instruction from a vocal coach in person, rather than online or with videos or Skype because a good vocal coach will often times notice things that are holding you back and 95% of the time, you'll wind up missing these things every single time.
From the time I got instruction from a vocal coach, the first thing she was looking for were my breathing and relaxation habits and these are HUGE KEYS for getting the best vocal production possible and those who ae teaching themselves often are not going to pay attention to any of these things at all.
some problems can stem from the way you were taught to pronounce your vowels and even your consonants, which means vocal embouchure and manipulation of the shape of your mouth both outside and inside can give you problems, and this was something I found out I had to deal with from having a vocal coach.
Fro practicing at home, you should get yourself a chordal instrument to play, with piano or some sort of keyboard instrument being first choice and then after that, a guitar because you can see where your range is visually and they're more useful than harmonicas are for vocals.
Vocal coaches will also teach you how to properly take care of your voice and many untrained vocalist often do things that causes serious damage and every vocalist fears getting nodes on their vocal chords.
Avoiding alcohol and smoking products helps out a lot, and when thirsty on a gig, avoid all of those, as well as heavily sweetened drinks and best thing to drink is water and lemon with no sweetening in it.
Don't worry about how large a range you need because there are plenty of great vocalists with a surprisingly small range, and for example, Billy Holliday had only a 1-1/2 octave range, but then knew how to manipulate it to get the most out of it.
As you get older, your range does change and you can't change that, but learn to adapt. With male voices, you will have top end loss but at the same time, you will have a wider bottom end range, so you may have to change the keys of tunes you do accordingly unless you don't mind damaging your vocal chords trying to be a macho fool about it. Many female voices, this also happens, tho with some, their voices go in the opposite direction. This becomes noticeable about roughly every 5 years and so this means you do have to check thijngs from time to time.
Getting vocal lessons in person will also improve your tone and stamina for your harp playing as well because they also stress the importance of relaxation and singing with a very open throat, which is especially important for opera singers for both tone as well as projection. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2013 6:50 PM