The guys i play with have been wanting me to sing more. i don't like my voice. and it really messes with my timing. any one have any tips other than practicing that could help.
heres an example of my singing. i wrote the song but i don't know if its original or not. my timing is all off and my playing is all messed up. its a work in progress. hope you enjoy it.
I know what you mean. Do you feel like a phony and think that you sound horrible and people will tell you to shut up or laugh?
GOOD NEWS sir
you sound good. my advice is keep singing and practice lots. You might take some lessons. I have taken a few and they have helped heaps. I still don't like my singing but I do feel more confident. ---------- The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
Bro great blues voice don't train it,,,,just sing the Blues,,,,keep within in your vocal range don't go to high try and singing like a canary:)
just listening now you sound just right in your range, you could explore a bit lower,,,, or put a bit of growl on the end to add some color,,,, play around but don't try and go any higher:)
your voice is Good try and suit your voice or vocal arangement to the song,,,, ie. don't try and sing it like every one else does,,,,Bro stop being Shy,,,, Thats all it is poeple will apreciate your voice:)
You want to see a Poor basterd that can't sing go check out me out on YT user (nastyolddog) you will see one poor basterd that can't sing,,,
But i have a go,,,, and smile inside when Poeple come to talk to me and my Bro after sing at Jam Nights,,,, comenting on my voice,,,, comparing me to Harp plays they are familiar with,,,, so Bro give it a Blow:)
You sound good - your timing is great. You are mostly on key.
Relax your throat. I can't see you, but I imagine you are really tense from the waist up. The goal I would suggest to you is to try to sing exactly the same way, except only use your diaphragm to get the air out. Relax your shoulders.
And *don't* tense up your throat. Your vocal cords will make the sound, but constricting the muscles around them will not make a better sound, it will only prevent the air from getting out - not to mention wreck your throat. More air is better - let the air come out. Whenever I am off-pitch, my teacher tells me to try again and use more air.
As an exercise, try singing those lines again and pushing out as much air as you possibly can with each phrase. Think of how your are hitting each note that way. Don't forget to relax.
The only muscle you need to squeeze is your diaphragm. Visualize your whole torso as a cement tube and your diaphragm is a rubber disk moving up and down on the bottom of the tube. Nothing else moves.
I know what you mean. I have tried to learn to sing but just don't have the nerve to try it out in public. I had an offer to front a pretty good blues band but, I'm just not satisfied with my sound.
A lot of successful singer/harp players have voices that would not be well thought of by conventional standards. Rick Estrin? Strange. Gary Primich? Too high. Charlie Musselwhite? More like talking. There are many more examples. But they are (were) successful anyway. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR VOICE SOUNDS LIKE. GET OVER IT. What matters is what you do with your voice - and the most important thing of all is sincerity. Oh yea, and pitch. You DO need to be able to sing in tune.
There ARE some truly great vocalists too. Curtis Salgado. Billy Gibson, Kim Wilson.
I'm just naming singing harp players but there are dozens of other examples. I suggest you listen carefully to them. For me, actually performing their tunes is what allowed me to hone in on some of their technique - you have to be way past just knowing the lyrics and the melody before you can hear what they're really doing over and above that. Listen, copy, imitate - your style will still be an amalgam and most importantly influenced by your own tastes - but you'll learn some tricks. ---------- /Greg
I think your voice has some interesting qualities to it. you have a rough quality to it and a relatively high pitch, which can be appropriate for blues music (or some other styles as well.)
You might want to work on your timing which can be sometimes off beat (practice with a metronome)
You might also might want to experiment with different levels of vibrato and stretching your notes (instead of singing ''Oh! Baby'' you might want to sometimes try ''Oh! BabyYyYyYyYyYyYy''). As a reference, Elmore James has this amazing vibrato and stretching ability (see reference video: I'm getting up soon in the morninNnNnNnNnNng'' or I'm gonna write a letteRrRrRrRrRrRr)
Also you might want to experiment with different levels of ''breathiness'' or ''emotionality'' to your voice. You don't always want it to sound over emotional and ''breathy''
All in all, I enjoyed your performance very much. Good harp. You make me want to try a little bit of harp/voice youtube action myself. Maybe I'll post something soon just for fun.
Nasty, I disagree! Great voices certainly train, in any genre, they just need to train for the genre they want to sing in. There are basics, like breath support that all singers should learn. After that a good teacher who knows how to teach the style you want to learn is priceless. Knowing how to growl without straining your vocal chords, how to slip into falsetto for a whoop... you can learn that on your own, if you know to do it, but I've seen people blow out their voices just because they didn't know how to do proper breath support.
I highly recommend going to a vocal coach for lessons and one of the very first things they concentrate heavily on is breathing technique for vocals and just taking the breathing exercises alone are well worth the money spent not only as a vocalist, but also for playing harmonica as well and I've never regretted it. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
One of the exercises my teacher has me do is take a big breath and exhale as slowly as possible. This helps your brain learn how to control your diaphragm all the way through your lung capacity. The goal is to be able to exhale for 80 seconds.
Exhale without pursing your lips - you need to make your diaphragm control how fast the air gets out.
Once you get to the end of your breath, squeeze your stomach, butt, thighs and calves to get to the very end of your breath - that part alone of this exercise will help you get through singing long phrases without running out of air.
The first time I did it, I got to about 40 seconds. Set yourself a goal of 80 seconds. I can currently do 90 seconds easy and my record is 120 seconds.
That's not holding your breath, but exhaling continuously (and slowly!) for that amount of time....
Theres to schools happening here those who say Train the Voice me i say Tame the voice,
what the Trainers are saying is most relavent,, but not always relavent to every persons needs,, the best advice from the trainer is:)
take a big breath and exhale as slowly as possible. to control your diaphragm all the way through your lung capacity. you need to make your diaphragm control how fast the air gets out:)
Bro's BUTT!! im not to sure about the next info,,singing on stage like this will look Funny and Painful ,,,but hay you may end up haveing that classic Joe Cocker stance it might work for Him give it a go i say:)
Once you get to the end of your breath, squeeze your stomach, butt, thighs and calves to get to the very end of your breath:( Ouch!!:)
The first time I did this:( i lost it in my Dacks:)
BBQB often talks of Breath control this exersise is a must for Harp players,, i did sort of the same praticing Harp to be able to hold those long sustained notes,,
by practising 1st postion scale i would start with blow draw up the scale back down,,then Blow Blow Draw Draw, then Blow Blow Blow,,Draw Draw Draw and so on up and down the scale,,,top tip:)
Then there's Me and the Old school Bro's Get out there jam sing every chance you get Practise at home with the Bro's,,sing But don't over sing or shout straining your vocal cords,
you know like when youv'e yelled at the Kids so Hard it's Hurt your throat,, you say i won't do that again you found out quick smart you could yell that Hard but it hurt,, so next time you let fly at the Kids your yelling was much more controlled but it had the same effect:)
I wonder who gave singing tuition to
Howlin Wolf Sony Boy Williamson Papa Light Foot Sun House Robert Johnson RL Burnside ect ect ect?
Old School Schooling Bro way to go be Honest to your self Be Honest to the Blues Be Honest to your Band Be Honest or Be Dammed:)
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2010 6:49 PM
On what Jim said, I've found both with singing and harp that you should establish the simple line first and then add more complexity on the next pass. Sometimes that means deliberately not doing the thing that sounds really cool on the first verse so that when you pull it out later it sounds better and new.
Howlin Wolf Sony Boy Williamson Papa Light Foot Sun House Robert Johnson RL Burnside ect ect ect?"
Most of them spent a lot of time performing. I guess those who couldn't do it naturally never got far. That doesn't mean it's wrong to learn from a teacher.
But since you brought up Sonny boy, look at around 1:50 of this video:
Look at his posture, especially his shoulders. The only muscle he's using is his diaphragm. During close-ups, you can see that he is not tensing his throat at all.
If you don't want to learn from a teacher, learn from Sonny Boy.
Bro you might want to look at his Butthole i bet he's not tensing his Sphincter either:)
just what part of my post upset you man,, i'm not going to dance around saying sorry if iv'e upset you,, if theres something in there that says I've attacked you and said you are wrong man keep reading them words it's your own interpretation..
I'm sure theres are those of us that can see my post is in no way offensive to you,,then you post some Inuendo clip with the Header Keep it to your Self real smart real smart,
Day By Day i get to know persons vindictive ways of cowardise in attactting with inuendo, keep up the good work Bro:)
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2010 8:38 PM
Nasty, please don't attack Americans. British Petroleum already has that covered for the moment.
Breathing from the diaphragm is really important. I used to have really good breath support back in my choir days, but I've gotten out of shape. That's a bad thing for an asthmatic to do. I blew out my voice though, back in the days when I used to turn Nirvana up and scream back at the speakers.
Ironically, sometimes you have to sing quieter to get that growl sound, at least if you want to keep your voice. With YouTube out there there it's really easy to look up a couple videos on breath support and projection.
Yo Nate i been out patting my Dog and working in the shed on some speaker boxes and just came back into to omit my slures:(
can't say im sorry i was just a little off key with the smart ass back hand reply:(
i don't dissagree with any of the info posted just pointing out there are 2 trains of thought,
Ok yes i do dissagree with the Butt Clenching,, BUTT Hay if your lady is around she may want to crack some wall nuts:)
Last Edited by on Jun 13, 2010 3:47 AM
Sir I'm not the one to ask how to refine it but I think your voice has strong potential ---------- "Although there is no progress without change, not all change is progress." — John Wooden
Last Edited by on Jun 12, 2010 10:28 PM
Can't sing a lick. Very deep monotonic voice. But at a gig last night, we sand J. Geil's "Love Stinks" and I did the "Love Stinks" echo. Crowd liked it. It's not much, but it's a start, I guess. I've thought about taking a lesson or two, but I have very little range and am curious if I may be someone who just shouldn't even go there.
Stickman could you please tell me where in my post 906 posts Jun 12, 2010 6:46 PM just where i have been offensive to a point a can be told by some Girlyboy in some back handed bitch inuendo comment, KEEP IT TO YOUR SELF:(
IM A MAN,, Nate respect fully dissagreed with me Like LIKE A MAN. i gave him some R E S P E C T,
he didn't run up and Bugger me while i was bending over not looking with some gay boy comment:)
No Mate i got a 50/50 thing happening some like me some hate me,
i can't be all good i got to have some Bad some people make me Happy some people make me sad, Mad enraged, confused mentaly abused :/ :(
please poke my intellect anytime but please leave my butt alone:)
OOPS my Dark poetry was comeing out didn't mean to scare you Bro's:)
Sirsucksalot: you don't have a bad voice at all, but if you sing like that - from the throat - on stage for any length of time you're going to get hoarse. Once you get hoarse, you'll probably find that you HAVE to sing from the belly (ie diaphragm) in order to make any noise at all - but that your singing will sound a lot more authentic. Now don't get fooled into thinking you have to get hoarse to sing with soul; start from the diaphragm in the first place and you will be able to sing hard and loud for hours, and enjoy it more. Just remember to keep taking in water, as you salivary glands are the first to dry up when you're stressed or dehydrated. Also, don't pitch songs in keys you have to strain for; strain in the voice should be a choice.
Get a CD of voice scales and practice in the car every day. The aim is to smooth out or even eliminate the break between your normal 'chest' voice and your falsetto. When you can do that without thinking about it, your voice will be under control.
blogward, picking the right key for your voice is great advice that get's overlooked a lot. I've just recently started singing in Bb a lot. It me a chance to sing without straining my voice and then even jump up an octave if I have to.
edit: That's just general advice, not specific to this post.
---------- Nate Facebook
Last Edited by on Jun 13, 2010 10:48 AM
Picking the right key for the voice is advice I totally agree with and another thing to remember along with that is your voice does undergo changes and they become more noticeable every 5 years. In male voices,you do lose the top end range, but at the same time as the voice deepens, you often also gain a lower end range you never had when you were young
I'd avoid trying to sing like Howling Wolf because for most people, it's unnatural and can severely damage your vocal chords if you're not careful. That's Wolf's REAL voice, and his speaking voice was even deeper and more raspy.
I also recommend sitting down with a guitar or better yet, a piano and check where the top and bottom ends of your range are COMFORTABLY and without straining. Some straining can be caused by incorrect formation of the inside shape of the mouth orthe the outer lip shaping when using the vowels and here's where a good vocal coach can really help.
A big thing that you will learn that also is very important with harmonica playing as well is not only proper breathing technique for singing, but also having the body and all of the facial muscles needing to be physically RELAXED at all times so you get not only the best possible vocal tone, but also best support and projection without strain.
When doing vocals, avoid dairy products before singing and watch your alcohol intake and keep that down to a very bare minimum. The best drink for a vocalist is not alcohol, but water with lemon UNSWEETENED and the sugar is something rto avoid because that can add to the problem.
Why avoid dairy products of any kind before vocals?? What you don't to build up on your vocal chords is a layer of mucus, which will make things more difficult for yourself. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
