Your voice has the capacity to be a very wonderful instrument. You don’t have to worry about it falling offstage, load it into a truck, or pack it in a bag. The world’s best instrument is right there inside of you.
The ability to sing is a wonderful gift, but a lot of people don’t comprehend it and think singing is out of their league.
Most people believe that having a wide vocal range or having excellent pitch is something you are born with. As a result, many people believe that singing is a skill that only a select few possess.
A lovely voice is not a talent bestowed upon a select few. Not everyone is born with the ability to produce breath-taking sounds, optimal voice tones, flawless pitch, and strong vocal muscles.
However, with enough experience, you can learn how to construct them.
Everyone has a unique voice and vocal range; they only need to use it effectively. Learning to use the skills you currently have in your toolbox is an important part of learning how to sing and how to enhance your unique singing voice.
It takes a combination of skills to work on your singing voice, including balance, coordination, and the appropriate workouts. It takes time and practise to become perfect.
Having a Good Voice
A good voice is essentially one that is enjoyable to listen to, at least in the traditional sense. A voice that sounds good typically has the following qualities: it should be silky and smooth with a great, bright, and speech-like tone (at least for popular music).
But even if that can be a helpful quality and talent for a singer to draw in listeners, it’s not really the most essential for successful singing.
Despite not having very “pleasant” vocals, legendary vocalists like Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Eddie Vedder are all excellent performers.
Being one demands musicianship in addition to having a nice voice. This requires awareness of things like dynamics, phrasing, rhythm, sensitivity to chords and arrangement, understanding of different musical styles, and awareness of one’s own artistry as a singer, in addition to hitting your notes and pitches correctly (which is extremely Important but not the only factor determining good singing).
This is much more challenging than simply being in tune, in my opinion, and many of us, including myself, are still learning it.
Some Basic tips to Improve Singing Voice
Finding Your Weak Spots
Making a recording of yourself singing a song you are familiar with is a terrific approach to learn how you sing. It’s not necessary for this to be an expert recording.
To get a recording that will work, simply press the record button on your computer or smartphone.
• After that, contrast your performance with that of the original singer.
• Write down all of your errors. Your vocal range was it too limited? Did you make a mistake? Were you breathing too quickly?
Knowing your areas of weakness will make it easier for you to pinpoint the issues you need to address while figuring out how to enhance your singing voice.
Warming up Vocal Cords
Speaking of vocal warm-ups, this is one of the most crucial pieces of advice for preparing your mouth and throat for singing. Keep in mind that, like any muscle, your singing voice needs to warm up before being put through its paces. You have access to a wide variety of vocal warm-up activities for voice training.
Humming is a great little warm-up practise to make your vocal cords flexible and prepared for work, as is practising scales, honing your tongue-soft palate coordination, repeating tongue and lip trills, and practising scales.
Posture
Learning how to strengthen your singing voice and expand your vocal range both depend heavily on your posture. Pitch, tone, and the force with which notes are produced can all be significantly impacted by a slouched back, sagging shoulders, hunched-over stance, and even a tilted head.
When you sing, air moves through your body; as a result, sitting or slouching prevents your diaphragm from properly expanding. Maintaining proper posture might help you hold high notes for longer by keeping the air flowing and keeping your neck open.
You can successfully project your voice by maintaining good posture. Standing upright with your feet shoulder-width apart is the ideal singer position for expanding your vocal range. Try to maintain a relaxed core and shoulders.
You can improve your voice’s power and control while making it easier for you to hit the high notes by slightly lowering your chin. Lying down is a good method to improve your singing posture.
By singing, you can practise maintaining a straight body, which you can subsequently replicate when you stand.
Adding a Metronome
A metronome can be the solution if you struggle to maintain a constant rhythm or are unsure if you do. Metronomes come in many varieties, but they can all be adjusted to a variety of tempos to keep a constant beat while you sing.
Up until you learn how to discover and maintain your time naturally, practising singing with a metronome can help you maintain a consistent tempo. You might want to think about getting a metronome if you don’t already own one.
There are various programmes you can download from the web that will also help you keep a constant beat, however it might be a little more uncomfortable.
Clear Enunciation
If every word is muttered, it doesn’t matter if you’re hitting all the correct notes. Clear enunciation is a quality of good vocalists, who make each syllable exactly as they mean.
Naturally, lyrics are delivered much more loosely in rock and pop music, and you might not sing in precise syllables. Each word should be used exactly as the singer intended it to be.
Improve your singing voice and your ability to communicate your lyrical message by working on your enunciation.
Also Read: What are the Four types of Vocal Registers
Solid Vocal Support
A poor singer can be identified, for example, by the way they sing. You need strong vocal support for your singing in order to improve your singing voice. This enables you to generate strong, steady sounds that are nice and clear.
You become a stronger and better vocalist when you have vocal support.
Additionally, it enables you to sing some portions and songs more effectively by enabling you to create a broad tone as opposed to one that sounds weak and faint.
A skilled singer must also have a voice that can produce a strong broad tone, however you may occasionally prefer to sing with a weak-sounding voice to best suit a particular song.
Having all of your bases covered is preferable. Vocal support results from a mixture of excellent breathing technique, good posture (a bent back is not conducive to effective support! ), and general practise and development, all of which help you sing better.
Over time, this will also help you reach those high notes more easily and they’ll sound better.
Suits the Style
Despite the fact that everyone of us is born with a singing voice and that these voices fluctuate depending on the type of music being sung, the world of music is incredibly diverse.
Have you ever heard death metal being sung in a soft, lovely voice at a karaoke event? Or did someone try to sing a love song in a snarling, raspy voice? The likelihood is that after you stop laughing at the sound they’re making, you won’t think they’re a good vocalist.
Good vocalists are aware of how to modify their expression, loudness, and tone to best fit the musical genre. They also know to stay away from genres in which they haven’t yet had much vocal experience.
Use Your Ear
You must pay attention to several of the points made above. Good singers use their ears as much as their voice, and they can sound better by using their ears as a tool.
Your singing ears allow you to:
- Check your own pitch by hearing it.
- As you sing, adjust the volume so that it is in harmony with the music.
- Listen to your group or other singers, and provide good musical support for them.
- Improve your general musicality and ear for music
Active listening when singing and ear training are needed to achieve all of this. It’s a lot to remember, but honing your hearing in this way will greatly improve your singing.
Knowing Your Vocal Range
Another “know thyself” advice is that no matter how talented a vocalist is, they cannot sing every note. It’s crucial to be aware of your voice range and to stay inside it. In fact, amateur singers frequently strain for notes that are beyond of their vocal range, especially when singing high notes.
This causes several missed notes and odd strained sounds, and it may even harm the vocal folds, which makes it more difficult to sing pitches that are within the range.
Suitable Volume
Another obvious indication of terrible singing is that many people are either belting out every note or singing so softly that you might not even be able to hear them. The listener either goes deaf or gets agitated trying to hear.
In either case, make sure to sing loudly enough to keep their interest.
To sound like a skilled singer, you must learn how to sing loudly enough. In order to complement the other musicians and please your audience, the loudness must fit the song, vary appropriately with the musical phrasing, and be at the proper level overall.
Your ability to sing at a comfortable volume and improve will be considerably aided by vocal control.
Make it Sound Easy
People want to hear a performer who will make it sound simple, with the rare exception of when the song specifically calls for it. Like sounds and phrases are just coming out of them naturally and effortlessly. The listener feels more at ease as a result.
It’s difficult for listeners to fully enjoy a vocal performance if they sense that the singer is straining their vocal cords and throat (or their entire body), or trying too hard for each note (particularly in those high notes). This is because they automatically begin to feel tense.
Looking After Your Voice
Make sure to take care of your voice if you want to have a good voice. The best way to take care of your voice is to warm up before singing challenging passages, learn proper breathing support, take it easy when you have a sore throat, and avoid vocal strain by not trying to sing notes that are outside of your range.
Vocal coaches can give you advice on these topics and other voice care techniques. Vocal health should be prioritised when practising singing so that it lasts a long time.
Conclusion
Some people have amazing voices from birth, while others don’t. With time and practise, you can work on and hone your singing abilities, and you don’t even need a vocal teacher to start seeing results right away.