Any Singers.... Or Wanna-Be Singers Here?

So, not unlike guitar or playing drums tension is the enemy?

Bingo.

It's suuuuuch a pain in the balls because if you allow yourself to really get into the lyrics of something aggressive and you put yourself right back to the place you're writing about, you're ready to take some heads. And that's why often you'll hear guys say they'll do stuff in the studio they won't attempt live because it's not worth the injury. Those perfect takes that a singer HAD to just let it rip and go for it without caring about technique or pitch.

Which eventually translates to delivering the same intensity using just the technique and not the emotion, that's like a whole other learning experience in itself.

I've got like 3 songs right now that I won't track vocals on because I know I'm going to get messy on there, I'm intentionally bottling some things up and when it comes time to track them, it'll be at the very end of all the rest of the vocals on my album. :D
 
Dude! WTF? Not sure what to write to here. First listen as I am typing now,
and this hits me with all of that space and suspense of a Mark Lanegan
track in the beginning..... but with Chester Bennington jumping in on the chorus.

Dig it. A lot.

Impressive. :)

Oh I didn't even see this earlier; thanks man, that made my day!

That song was one of those "It wrote itself" things. The first day I got my Classic 50's Strat, I set it up and sat down on the couch with it, the first thing you hear in that song is the first thing I ever played on that guitar once it was setup. I recorded it in a video on my phone and then started recording it in Logic the next day. All the parts were just waiting in my head. I think I spent maybe a half hour arranging it then just started layering stuff and by the first night, most of that was there.

Wish I could make that happen all the time!

Man, I didn't even think of Lanegan, but I can totally see that! For the verses I was trying to rip off Gilmour more than I already did on the guitar parts, but that dude's got the voice of an angel and mine is more like an alcoholic demon. :D The bridge part I just sang off the top of my head cuz I wasn't sure what'd work and while I really, really want to do it over, there's something so raw about it that I love, so it'll prolly stay.

Thanks again, man. I haven't been sharing much of my music lately because I wanted to wait until I was closer to finishing an album. I tend to forget that I plan on showing people this music some day!
 
"Just stay relaxed, but give it your all."

That's some Zen-level shit there.
My coach describes it a lot like playing guitar - guys like Via are super animated, but from a technique perspective, they're not picking or fretting hard. Emotion doesn't mean force.
I will admit that some of my most emotional singing moments, it's really hard to not 'push'....but when you get enough coaching, you become mindful of when to push and when to relax. And after a while you realize how much better your performance is, when you do more relaxing and less pushing.
I've had my current coach for at least 10 years, and I'm still learning at every lesson.
 
I am wondering if aeorbic/lung capacity helps with singing--since you are essentially just moving air.

Do I need to start running, or better yet..... power-walking with the middle-aged ladies??

 
I am wondering if aeorbic/lung capacity helps with singing--since you are essentially just moving air.

Do I need to start running, or better yet..... power-walking with the middle-aged ladies??


Being physically fit doesn't hurt, but you are controlling air more than pushing it. So not 100% necessary.
 
Oh I didn't even see this earlier; thanks man, that made my day!

That song was one of those "It wrote itself" things. The first day I got my Classic 50's Strat, I set it up and sat down on the couch with it, the first thing you hear in that song is the first thing I ever played on that guitar once it was setup. I recorded it in a video on my phone and then started recording it in Logic the next day. All the parts were just waiting in my head. I think I spent maybe a half hour arranging it then just started layering stuff and by the first night, most of that was there.

Wish I could make that happen all the time!

Man, I didn't even think of Lanegan, but I can totally see that! For the verses I was trying to rip off Gilmour more than I already did on the guitar parts, but that dude's got the voice of an angel and mine is more like an alcoholic demon. :D The bridge part I just sang off the top of my head cuz I wasn't sure what'd work and while I really, really want to do it over, there's something so raw about it that I love, so it'll prolly stay.

Thanks again, man. I haven't been sharing much of my music lately because I wanted to wait until I was closer to finishing an album. I tend to forget that I plan on showing people this music some day!

The heavy stuff you posted is really good, but that 1st clip you did with your Strat is WOW! Just dig that
vibe you created with the tasty wobble-warble on the guitar and the dubbed slide. So cool!

I hope to hear more. 🍻 🍻
 
I have been the lead singer or Co-Lead Singer in every duo, trio and full band I have been in..Always played guitar also.
I imagine a "coach" would be cool and you would learn much. But for me, learning music, as in knowing your intervals, etc is the key, for me anyway.
Also, I never, ever try to sing something that is out of my range. Real bad for the pipes. Then the obvious, you don't sing with your throat.
Practice gets you there. For me, anyway! Been doing this for many decades and still sing and play all the time.
An operation (Cervical Spinal Stenosis with titanium implants in my neck kind of changed things. Some rock songs I use to sing in original key, like Hollywood Nights and others, I have had to lower the key. I think the surgeon hit something he wasn't suppose to during the operation.
My story and I'm sticking to it!
 
I have a good bit of experience being the back-up singer or only singer. I've also tracked a good amount of vocals in the studio.

No one in my family is a professional musician, but everyone in my family enjoys music so I grew up with a lot of people around me singing all the time, it was just normal to me. I wasn't anything (and still am not) anything special, but it was never difficult for me to hold a tune. I'd like to believe my upbringing had a lot to do with this.

When it comes to practice, I think my dad gave me the best advice. "If you want to get better at singing, sing more." That has worked for me both with singing as well as guitar. I'm 100% self taught at both.

I would wager that soliciting private lessons from someone who really knows their craft would help anyone become better at anything, including singing. That's for sure the best advice on this thread.
 
The heavy stuff you posted is really good, but that 1st clip you did with your Strat is WOW! Just dig that
vibe you created with the tasty wobble-warble on the guitar and the dubbed slide. So cool!

I hope to hear more. 🍻 🍻

There's definitely more in that vein along the way!

I was getting really bored churning out the basic song structure songs, like those two heavy ones and there was a song that came about 2 or 3 before that one you dig was written that were more abstract, just went with a flow instead of following any structure and that was a catalyst for others to follow. In turn, making me want to dump half the songs I've written for this album I've been working on.

I really appreciate the kind words, man. You've made my day twice in a row and it's given me a little spark to get back to it. I've been slacking in my studio for....too long.
 
Edit: The only threads I found on singing were rants about "lead singers." This is not that. :)
Yeah, it takes a special kind of person to be a lead vocalist in a rock band. And more often then not they tend to be prima donnas. And prima donnas make life hell for everyone. So I get the rants. Boy do I get the rants.

I don't think I will ever be the world's greatest lead vocalist. I always say I can do everything with music, except sing. I'd settle for being a decent backing vocalist but I was scarred for life as a teen when my family made fun of me singing along to music in my room. These days my experience of singing along in my car have at least taught me the limitations of my voice, and I think I might sound decent if I took some lessons, but the old trauma of being mocked as a teen and just not liking how my voice sounds when recorded have kept me from doing that.
 
Yeah, it takes a special kind of person to be a lead vocalist in a rock band. And more often then not they tend to be prima donnas. And prima donnas make life hell for everyone. So I get the rants. Boy do I get the rants.

I don't think I will ever be the world's greatest lead vocalist. I always say I can do everything with music, except sing. I'd settle for being a decent backing vocalist but I was scarred for life as a teen when my family made fun of me singing along to music in my room. These days my experience of singing along in my car have at least taught me the limitations of my voice, and I think I might sound decent if I took some lessons, but the old trauma of being mocked as a teen and just not liking how my voice sounds when recorded have kept me from doing that.

Yeah, my dad used to give me a lot of shit when he'd hear me singing. Of course, a 14 year old trying to sing Queensryche songs isn't going to be the best sounding thing in the world, but still, while he was always good about complimenting my playing, singing was a different story. Then once I was singing in bands, he'd say shit like, "That's a real singer there, not the crap you're into with all that screaming shit."

But I just kept at it because at the end of the day, he never once wrote a song in his life or did more than learn some cover songs and played in a cover band for a few years. He used to take swipes at my music all the time and it'd enrage me to no end until one day I realized, "Wait a minute, he has no clue what it's like to actually sing, what it's like to even partake in the writing of a song, never mind writing an entire one on his own on every instrument so why the fuck should I care?!" And one night when he was being particularly shitty, I said exactly that to him in a much more...not nice manner.

We've been fine ever since. :D

That said, there's been some stuff that's come up in therapy that's like, "Oh....THAT'S why I've felt like a piece of shit my entire life and why I didn't have the balls and courage to attack the music business like I always intended on."
 
Shame is toxic to any kind of creativity or self-expression.

Only the ashamed will try to shame others.

Pretty sure I stole all of that from a bumper sticker. ;)
 
The instrument I studied in college was voice, so I think I have some experience. 😜 But I found a lot of things with my voice by just playing around and not being afraid of making bad noises, because in practice or by yourself that doesn’t matter. I found that helped me get to know my voice really well and also find its limits and areas I didn’t know I had. The important part to know though is when things don’t feel right, so you don’t do damage to your voice. Oh and breath support.
 
I was late to singing. Wish I started earlier. I‘ve done some lessons, various practice techniques, and then just sung songs. One of the best, simplest tools I’ve found is an app called Voice Master. The ui hasn’t been updated and there are things that irritate me about it, but if I just run through maybe .5 hour of the exercises 3x a week, even in the car, it makes a huge difference in my resonance and pitch stability. Suddenly I find myself singing things easily and decently that were hard a couple of weeks before. It’s deceptively simple, but it seriously helps build vocal strength. Hard to lose as it’s cheaper than a single lesson.

This is IOS link. Don’t know if it’s on Android. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-builder/id537753638
 
Yeah, it takes a special kind of person to be a lead vocalist in a rock band. And more often then not they tend to be prima donnas. And prima donnas make life hell for everyone. So I get the rants. Boy do I get the rants.

I don't think I will ever be the world's greatest lead vocalist. I always say I can do everything with music, except sing. I'd settle for being a decent backing vocalist but I was scarred for life as a teen when my family made fun of me singing along to music in my room. These days my experience of singing along in my car have at least taught me the limitations of my voice, and I think I might sound decent if I took some lessons, but the old trauma of being mocked as a teen and just not liking how my voice sounds when recorded have kept me from doing that.
I hope someday you take the leap of faith and decide to start working on this. The echoes of old familial discouragement and disparagement are the hardest to stop hearing....
 
Use your phone or any handy recording device (nothing fancy) and record yourself singing... It will be clear if/what you need to work on. ;)
 
I was late to singing. Wish I started earlier. I‘ve done some lessons, various practice techniques, and then just sung songs. One of the best, simplest tools I’ve found is an app called Voice Master. The ui hasn’t been updated and there are things that irritate me about it, but if I just run through maybe .5 hour of the exercises 3x a week, even in the car, it makes a huge difference in my resonance and pitch stability. Suddenly I find myself singing things easily and decently that were hard a couple of weeks before. It’s deceptively simple, but it seriously helps build vocal strength. Hard to lose as it’s cheaper than a single lesson.

This is IOS link. Don’t know if it’s on Android. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voice-builder/id537753638

Thanks! Much appreciated. :)
 
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