DZJavalas.lt - Improve Your Voice!

What if your voice is not improving after trainings?

If you are taking musical trainings to improve your voice, but there are no results, you are definitely doing something wrong. If you have a good training plan and you are doing everything by it, you should see some results after a while. So here are some possible reasons, why it is not happening.

First and the most common possible reason is that you don’t really know what exactly you want to reach, so you are training everything. If you know that you want to become a better singer, but doesn’t know what exactly better means, you can’t reach that goal. First you need to figure out what you want to change about your voice. Be very specific on that. You need to have a clear vision on how it should sounds like and only then you will be able to make an appropriate training plan. If you can’t do that by yourself, go to a vocal coach. He will help you understand what is wrong with your voice and also will help to make an appropriate training plan.

The second most common reason is lack of practice. The only way how to improve the voice is by practicing. There is no other magic formula, so if you are not practicing enough, don’t wait for positive results. Stick to your training plan and practice every day. If you will skip even one training, the results might be a lot worse than planned.

The third reason is inappropriate practice. Unfortunately, you might not reach your goals even if you do practice enough, because you need to do it the right way. It is not enough if you put on any song and sing along or warm up your voice and then do some typical voice trainings. The theory must come along with practice. That means you need to watch your voice every time you sing and concentrate on your mistakes and bad singing habits to fix them. If you won’t do that, you will keep singing in the same manner forever. The better way is to take separate trainings for each singing issue you have and concentrate only on fixing that one thing. If you need to focus on all the mistakes at once, you will probably get confused.

However, in some cases singers think their voice hasn’t improved, but it actually has, they just haven’t noticed it. It is hard to hear the changes of your own voice, beside the improvements are made gradually and singers are not able to notice the difference, because of that. So if you have a good training plan and you are regularly practicing by that, but still doesn’t see any improvements, than ask others if they have noticed any differences in your voice. Again, this is the reason why you should use a help from a vocal coach. Professional in this field could tell you the truth right away.

Vocal recording tips

You can be a great singer when it comes to live performances, but the vocal recording is another story. Just because you can sing well, doesn’t mean you will sound good at records. It really takes a lot of preparation. To become a recording artist, you need to learn a lot before doing that. So here are some vocal recording tips for beginners.

The first and most important thing when it comes to recording is the diction. Be prepared that your voice will sound a lot difference in the record, than it does in real life. The most common issue is that when pronouncing some sounds a strong blast of air is being expelled. Those are such sounds as p and b. When you are talking in a real fife usually no one notices that, bet at the record these blasts hit the microphone and they are very outspoken. Something similar happens when pronouncing such sounds as f and h. So you need to exercise your voice so it wouldn’t blast so much air when pronouncing these sounds. Of course, there are some filters used to avoid this problem, but still, they can be heard, so work on your pronunciation while singing.

In record every aspect of your voice will sound lot more specific. That means you need to work on your voice even more. Every singer needs to know how exactly he wants his voice to sound and work on that, but if you want to become a recording artist, be sure you will have to practice a lot harder. Breathing, tone, register, height and all the other aspects of your voice will be on the plate. So before real recording in studio, practice your recording voice at home.

As the nuances of voice are so important in recording, be sure that you have the best vocal health while recording. If you have some minor voice problems that are not disturbing you while singing at live, you won’t be able to record. So if you know that you will have to record songs soon, protect your voice in any possible way. Don’t talk much, drink a lot of water, eat healthy, sleep well and train your voice every day. As it was mentioned before, your voice in the record will sound very nuanced.

Beside the technical aspects, it is also important to make the song sounds emotional. In live performances it is lot easier, because the audience sees the emotions of the singer, but in the record it’s all about the expression of voice. For example, if it’s a sad song, than to need to really feel that. You can sing slowly, but if that won’t be inlay and there will be some playful manner in your voice, no one will believe the lyrics. Dispose yourself before recording.

The last thing that should be taken into consideration is the posture. If you’re a live performer, you’re probably used to gesticulate with your arms and clap the rhythm, but you can’t do that while recording. All of that makes some disturbing sounds that can ruin the record, so get rid of all these habits.

Songwriting

Songwriting is a very complicated task. On one hand it is very artistic process just like writing poetry. There should be no rules, destructions or boundaries in songwriting, because its way to express your feelings or ideology in creative way. On the other hand, you need to make the songs catchy so the audience would like them. This part of songwriting, however, can be learned and there are some rules to make songs favorable. So you need to be familiar with key aspects of making high standard songs, without losing the creativity.

There are lots of ways how to manage the song writing process. Some of them are more formal and others are more creative and chaotic. Formal way means to sit down and write a song by the music theory and songwriting rules, but creative way means putting together some random poetic lines with music. The formal way usually leads to some standardized and predictable results, but the creative way, however leads to very unpredictable results. There is no right or wrong methods, but if you want your songs to be creative and meaningful, but at the same time it would be pleasant to listen to them, you need to find the balance between all the ways.

When writing a song, you should go through several song writing phases. This might sound very formal and you might think that it completely excludes the creative and artistic part, but that’s not how it works. There are three phases. First one is the idea phase, which is the creative part. The next one is projection phase, which is the formal part and then there is the development phase which could be considered as editing of the song.

The idea phase basically means the same as complete creative way of songwriting that was described before, but the difference is that this process doesn’t end with that. Idea phase means recording of all the chaotic ideas. Take a scrapbook or recording device with you anywhere you go, because you can’t know when some good lines will come up in your mind. Collect all the melodies, lyrics and other good ideas for songs, so you would have the artistic material.

Then, go to a projection phase. This is the most formal part, but still you need to put in some emotions in it. Take all your collected ideas and sort them out. Maybe you can put something together and supplement it right away. This refers to both, melody and lyrics. Try to find what would be appropriate for versus, what for chorus and what for the bridge. Project all your ideas to make a systematic skeleton of the song. Just try to not to lose the emotions of the song by this process.

The last phase is development phase. Usually most of the songwriters skip this one, because they think song is good enough after projection phase, but in lot of cases they come up with regret when the song is already released. Don’t let that happen. Go through song many times in from different perspectives. Read the lyrics several times to make sure they are logical and fluently. Do the same with the melody and listen to it carefully. At the end put melody and lyrics together and make sure the song sound exactly as you want to. If something is wrong make some editing until the song is perfect.

What musical instrument to play?

A good way how to expand horizons in a field of music is by learning to play a musical instrument. The multiplicity of musical instruments is incredible, so the hardest task might be to choose the right instrument for you, not to actually learn how to play it. Fortunately, there are some advices that might simpler this task.

First thing you need to consider is what kind of music you like or what music you perform. It seems pretty obvious that you need to choose an instrument that matches your musical taste, but you should consider this very carefully. Look deeper in this question. Be very specific in your musical taste and think of instruments that might help you create music you really enjoy.

Also you need to think of your abilities. Consider what you might be good at? Maybe you already have some experience in playing some kind of musical instrument or you consider some of the instruments easier for learning. Even some minor knowledge can be helpful when it comes to musical instruments.

After you have considered your musical taste and wishes, you need to think of some more practical aspects. Think of the actual playing. Where you want to do that and how you want to perform? If you want your musical instrument be a part of your singing performances, choose something that you can take with you any time. If you need an instrument just for your own entertainment and you won’t play it to any audience, you can choose anything that fits in your room. Think of all the aspects, so the instrument could perform its functions according to your wishes.

Also you need to think of the place of practice. If you will practice only at musical school or other establishment, that won’t be a problem, but if you want to learn at home think if you will have enough space and you won’t disturb your neighbors. For example, if you live in a flat, drums probably won’t be the best choice, because the possibilities to practice will be limited. Sometimes you need to adjust your wishes to your possibilities.

Practical part of choice also includes the possibility to find a teacher or learning instructions. If you have chosen some very unique and rare musical instrument, be prepared that there might be no one near you, who knows how to play it. Of course, you can try to learn it by yourself from instructions found on the internet, but it will be a lot harder, beside there is possibility that you won’t find useful instructions as well.

So if you consider all these aspects, the choice should be limited until few instruments or in the best case just one instrument. If so, you have found the best musical instrument for you to play and you can start practicing right away.

Is it possible to become a good singer without knowing music theory?

Music teachers will probably say that professional music starts with a theory. Only after learning notes and other aspects of music theory, it is possible to sing well. However, there are some good singers who don’t know anything about music theory. They don’t even know the notes, but their voices sounds well anyway, because they can learn by listening. So is it really a necessity to learn music theory to become a singer, or is it just imposed rule.

The biggest issue is that if you want to become a better singer, you will need to do the music trainings and mostly they are based on music theory. For example, one of the most common ways to train the voice register and height is to hit a note on the piano and try to sing it. If you don’t know the notes, you cannot do this practice. Also other trainings are based on similar principles, so to do them singer need to learn the notes and music language. Those singers how can tell the difference between sounds just by listening can try to manage without knowing notes, but it still restricts the learning process. That means training your voice will be lot harder without knowledge about music theory.

If you really want to start professional singing career without knowing notes and anything of music theory, also be ready that you will need a help form assistants. It will dramatically complicate the practical part of your work. You won’t be able to sing any song, you haven’t heard before, because notes mean nothing to you. So you will need someone who translates this music language. It will definitely encumber your work.

So you see that not knowing music theory really complicate the task of becoming a singer, but actually there are also some benefits from not knowing notes and learning by hearing. Lot of singers admits that knowing music theory interfere to their ability of improvises. If song is not written on the page with notes, they don’t know how to sing it. Any singer needs to be able to improvise and sing in their own, unique manner, otherwise their singing gets boring. Then maybe it is even good to knot know the notes?

Actually, it all depends on the singer itself. If you don’t know the notes and it doesn’t disturb you to become a better singer, you don’t need them. If your voice is really good, it is improving and also you don’t have any practical problems with singing the songs, because of not knowing the notes, then you really don’t need them. Even if the representatives of academic music will deny that, it is possible to sing without knowing the music theory.

However, if you feel that lack of this knowledge disturbs you in any way, start learning it. Most of the people are not so gifted to sing perfectly only by listening, so if you have serious attentions on singing, than take some time to learn music theory.

How to choose the vocal coach?

To make your singing trainings more productive you should hire a vocal coach. Professional vocal coach can help you understand what should be improved in your voice and help you to fix that. There are many people who offer their help to singers, so it’s complicated to choose the right one. Usually singers choose them by recommendations or high profile, but how can you be sure that you will be able to work with him? There are better ways how to choose a vocal coach.

The qualification is not as important as mutual understanding. You won’t learn anything if your coach will make you feel uncomfortable. Vocal coach must be truly open and tell you the truth, but in the right manner. If he makes you understand that you are not talented and you are not able to sing, than that is exactly what will happen. You need to trust your coach and have a good connection. A good vocal coach don’t do their job only to get paid, that really care about their students and are interested to teach something. Unfortunately you can’t figure out if you will gave a connection by recommendations or descriptions, so you must try many couches before choosing the right and only one. That might take some time, so better choose the minimum possible lesson time at the first time.

When it comes to qualifications, just make sure vocal coach knows the music theory and is able to explain all the aspects about singing. High qualification usually doesn’t mean anything. There are lots of vocal coaches with several higher educations in music, but who doesn’t have such thing as empathy and without that he won’t be able to teach you what he knows. At the same time some vocal coaches without any certificated education are able to teach everything student needs to know and help to reach the best possible results.

One other aspect that should be taken into a consideration is a music style. Some vocal coaches specialize in one specific music genre or style. If you are sure that you want to sing only in one specific genre, than you can choose a vocal coach that is specialized in that one genre, but choosing a vocal coach that is familiar with wide range of music genres is usually more efficient. A good vocal coach will be able to assist any singer, no matter what is his singing style. That will give a wider understanding about the range of voice, not only focus on what you want. Maybe your voice is meant for different kind of singing, you’re just not aware of that.

So the plan for finding a vocal coach is quite simple. First do some general search and find vocal coaches who has some knowledge and professional experience, but at the same time who seems reliable to you. All the further choice must be based on the experience, because you can’t know with witch one of them you will have the best connection before you have met them.

Everyone has an authentic voice. Lear to use it!

If you have ever watched any singing competition, you probably have noticed that one of the most common comments is about the uniqueness of the voice. Some singers with good voices are being criticized, because they sound boring. Their voice sounds just like thousands of others. With that kind of voice they can become average singers, but they will never become world famous with that. The good news is that everyone has his own unique authentic voice; you just need to find it.

The biggest issue is that singers are trying to change their voices completely to sound like some idealized standard. That is exactly what you shouldn’t do. Of course, practice and voice trainings are needed, but the aim of them is to exclude some spoilage from your voice and improve the diction, breathing and other aspects, not to change it or standardize it. Find the right training approach to improve your voice, but not change it. There is no such thing as bad voice, just uncultivated voice.

This standardizing however leads to imitation. That means singer is trying to imitate other singers with good voices. At the end singer completely loses his unique voice. You can’t let that happen to you. Imitating other singers is not a bad thing. It can help you train your voice and see what your voice can do, but you should get to imitation only when you have found your own voice. If you know how you sound, then you can see if you can sing like someone else or not, but don’t try to copy others. Your own voice is a lot better than imitation of other singers’ voice.

If you don’t try to sing like others, then the next thing you need to be aware of is that your own voice has many shades. There is no one authentic voice, there can be many, but you need to understand which one to use. Every human can make a huge range of sounds with his voice, but they are all authentic. To find your best authentic voice, you need to practice and experiment. Sing in many ways and evaluate all of them. Consider which one sounds better and which feels most comfortable while singing. Also try to record your voice to hear every detail. That will help you hear yourself like others hear you.

Of course, it is not an easy task. It will definitely take a lot of time to figure out what your authentic voice sounds like. Maybe you will realize that only after many years of singing, but be sure that you have it. Only if you will use your authentic voice, it will be possible to become a great singer.

Voice registers

The biggest challenge for many young singers is to understand the difference between the voice registers. Not knowing what they are and how they should be used while singing can cause some uncomfortable transitions in voice. That however makes singing a lot harder and voice doesn’t sound as good as it should.

Basically, voice registers are different types of producing the sound. Every human has specific range of voice – it is possible to talk or sing higher and lower, but there are barriers for a voice. This range is measured in notes and it can be divided into voice registers. Basically they are divided into two registers – head register and chest register. Some notes can be sung in one register and some in other. Those who are singing should know, which register to use every time.

The chest register is lower and heavier voice. This voice is produced from the vibrations from the upper chest. This register is used in everyday speech. When a person is normally talking or screaming the sound is sensed in the chest. It can also be used for singing, but it is hard to make high sound using this register.

Head voice is the higher register. It is a lot lighter, so it is usually uses as a basic register for singing. In this case the sound is sensed in the head not the chest. That is possible, because, when the higher register is used, the vocal folds lengthen and voice cords can vibrate faster.

Singers should use both of these registers. Professional singers know very well when which of the registers should be used and they can even sing some of the notes in both of them. That means there is no gap between them. Beginners usually use one of the registers at a time or even don’t change them at all. That restricts the notes that can be sung. The ability to successfully combine both of these registers and to sing wider range of notes can be trained.

The easiest and the most common way to train the voice is to sing along with the piano. It is good training, because singer can clearly see which notes he can sing in the normal range. This training should be started with singing in the normal chest voice and then hitting higher notes step by step. When the singer starts to feel strain in the voice, he has reached the maximum height of the voice, but repeating this training many times can help the voice get higher and the transition from both voice registers can become a lot smoother. That is possible, because the voice chord is being trained this way.

To get a better understanding about what voice registers actually sound like and where are the breaks of them, it is very useful to listen to voices of many professional singers. Start with listening to pop and R&B artists, because in these genres the brakes of registers can be heard very clearly. When you will have a clear understanding about usage of voice registers, you will be able to become a lot better singer.

Can anyone learn how to sing?

Usually a passion for singing has only those who are naturally gifted and have a good singing voice. Those who can’t hold a note and sing any song doesn’t even bother themselves with this activity, because it is believed that singing can’t be learned. Is it really so? Is singing only a Gods’ given talent or just a skill that can be learned just like any other?

Many singing experts claim that it is impossible to sing good if you have no talent at all, but at the same time there are a lot of proofs that singing can be learned. Studies have showed that singing can be learned to completely anyone, at least to a decent standard and in some cases even with really great results. It is possible to develop the voice, but it takes time and a lot of trainings. So if you are willing to learn to sing, start training.

Unfortunately it is not easy to find the right approach for that. There can be lot of examples for singing trainings found on the internet or in books, but every voice is unique so there is no guarantee that these trainings will work for anyone. Usually this is the main reason why people think it is impossible to learn how to sing – they are just training wrong. So there are some things you need to figure out before starting practical trainings.

First of all, before trainings, you should explore your voice. Record your voice and listen to it. You need to figure out what is wrong with your voice and what you want to accomplish with these trainings. For example, you need to understand either you can or can’t control your voice and hold a note. If you can’t then you need to start trainings from the very bottom and learn how to hit a note. If you can control your voice, then you need to find the specific aspects of your voice that should be improved and train these aspects. There can be such aspects as voice register, breathing, height of the voice etc., which should be improved.

The basic exercises for improving your singing skills would be singing along musical instruments. The best one is the piano, because than you can see which notes exactly you can sing and which can’t. Don’t sing a whole song, just hit the note and sing any sound along it. By doing this, you will learn how to hold notes in a song.

If your singing skills are at least in a level to sing simple songs, you can work on specific shades. For this you can use books or articles with examples of trainings, but look for the trainings that can fix your exact problem. If it is too complicated to detect the flaws by yourself, you can hire a vocal couch that can help you.

Don’t believe if someone says singing is not meant for everyone. They are wrong. It is possible to learn how to sing. Of course it will take a lot more than just one day, but if you will practice and work on your singing skills regularly, after few months your they will be a lot better.

Basics of singing

Any of us can sing, but takes some knowledge to sing correctly. Of course some of the singers are naturally gifted and the sound of their voice is stunning without any kind of practice or knowledge about singing, but those are rare exceptions. Most of the people need to train their voice and other aspects to sing better. To do that, they need to understand the theoretical aspects of singing.

There are five basic components of correct singing. Those are pitch, breathing, rhythm, diction and voice. Any of these components can be subdivided and there are a lot of things that should be taken into a consideration if you want to become a good singer, but let’s start with the very basics.

Pitch is one of the key aspects of success when we are talking about singing. Matching pitches means to sing in a tune, so if the singer is not able to hit the pitch, the singing will sound awful. The reason why some can hit the pitch, but some can’t is because people have different development of hearing. Some people are tone deaf, which means that they can’t tell the difference between the notes. To become a good singer, you must learn to hear the difference between notes and that can be done only with serious practice. Try to play the notes on the piano and notice the difference.

The next thing every singer needs to know is how to control the breathing. Actually it is not a hard task. Breathing is a natural process that is controlled by a diaphragm and muscles around it. These muscles can be controlled just like any other muscle in our body, but to control them more efficiently, you need to train them. That can be done very easy with some breathing exercises. Just take some deep breathes with pauses on each aspiration.

The next aspect is rhythm. That is very important so the beat and the singing would be synchronic. Unfortunately the sense of rhythm is something that can’t be learned so easy. Either you have it or you don’t. You can try to improve your sense of rhythm by clapping hands to a certain rhythm, but there is no guarantee that it will help.

Also diction is very important for singing. It is not enough to know how to produce a good sound. Singer also has to pronounce the words correctly, so the lyrics would be understandable. If your diction is not great, it’s not a big disaster, because it can be fixed very easy. Just train your voice every day. You don’t even have to sing. Just try to pronounce correctly each word in your everyday speech.

The last aspect is the voice itself. This is the aspect you should really focus on. Figure about everything about your voice register and try to learn how to use it. Train your vocal cords by singing high notes. Hire a vocal coach if it’s needed. That will help you produce a good sound with your voice.