I want to learn to yodel but when I try it hurts my throat and I start to cough. Are there some folks who just can’t do it?
i don’t think you’ve got it.
No, I’ve got it.
But those were elocution exercises, not singing lessons.
they were on the soundtrack.
It’s sung, but the point of the song is to teach Eliza how to properly pronounce the words, not sing them. They’re only sung because it’s a musical.
Can singers who have a vibrato you can drive a truck through be taught to sing in a “straighter” tone? (And what determines how much vibrato a singer has anyway?)
Interesting. I can vouch for the tension, which has been a permanent part of my life. I’ll have to ask my aunt about this ‘elevated larynx’. (She’s sung in choirs and even a little bit professionally for many years.)
You can’t fool me with that old chestnut. The rain in Spain runs mainly down the drain, of course.
Say I wish not to take actual voice lessons, but I would like to be able to sing well enough to generate mild applause at karaoke.
How should I proceed in order to improve to this modest level (from ground zero)?
mmm
How important is it to be able to read music in vocal training? It is a lost cause unless a student can look at a note on the page and translate it to a sound, or technique-wise can you teach with equal effectiveness by playing the demonstrations on the piano instead?
I know being able to sight-read is a must for a professional who may need to learn or rehearse on their own, from the sheet music, but it never quite stuck with me. I reproduce music entirely by ear. I’ve never had voice lessons, but I’ve always wondered if I’d wash out immediately because of that.
I took classical voice lessons for a few years as an adult, mainly focusing on early music. I have never really developed my chest voice, and I am leery of trying much belting or other chestyness on my own, lest I ruin my high notes. What do you recommend, short of taking more lessons?
I cannot carry a tune. I can’t sing a scale, I can’t make my voice hit pitches, even in songs I know by heart. I’m in my 50s, and I’ve never been able to sing.
And yet, I have a perfectly good sense of pitch. Well, relative pitch. I don’t have perfect pitch. I’ve played guitar for years. I can tune it just fine. I can hear when one string has gotten just a tiny bit off. I can tell the difference between a third and a fifth. If you play a scale, I can identify it (major, minor, some mode or other, or some kind of altered scale).
Can I ever learn to carry a tune?
Vibrato is a huge subject in itself. It’s production, intensity, desirability, etc. are subject to all sorts of opinions. The most important thing to understand about vibrato is that it is not a thing you do; it is a thing that happens. A natural vibrato is a side effect of a well supported, evenly produced tone without excess pressure or tension. A well produced tone will be produced with an open throat (so the sound has room to echo around in there) and has a balance between the breath pressure and the resistance against air expulsion produced by laryngeal action (what we call support) A “wobble” (which is what we generally call what you describe) is usually caused by a lack of complete connection between breath and sound (lack of support), or incomplete closure of the vocal cords. It is actually somewhat easier to fix than the other end of the spectrum, when you get a sort of bleating or machine gun effect from too much glottal pressure.
Here is a good overview of the subject of vibrato (I don’t entirely agree with the final point about straight tone singing, but it is overall an excellent treatment of the subject).
These are really difficult questions to answer. It’s sort of tantamount to saying “how can I find out what’s wrong with me without going to the doctor?”. Without actually hearing you and getting to know your voice, it’s more or less impossible to say what you need to do to get where you want to go. So, while you don’t want to hear it, the answer is: take some lessons.
The ability to read is a useful tool when it comes to learning repertoire, but it isn’t particularly meaningful to learning to sing. In fact, I find it can be a distraction. I use a piano and my own voice to demonstrate what I want students to do; I don’t use exercise books or any of that stuff. If I did, I would still play the exercises for the students to hear.
Probably.
Can you move your voice around in pitch? Can you discern when your voice is on a correct pitch or not? If so, play a pitch on the guitar. Hum, starting low in your range and move up until you feel like you’re on the right pitch. It might help to have someone else to help you out. Or record yourself to see if you did it right. If you can do that, you can work yourself up to being able to do it without all that rigmarole. It’s all about muscle memory, ultimately.
The thing is, the muscles that control pitch aren’t really something that you have any conscious control over. They are also extremely small, and the movements that are involved are extremely subtle. Learning to match pitch is sort of like learning to walk; you can do it as an adult, but it was a lot easier when you were a baby when you didn’t have all the distractions that come with being a grown up.
Doesn’t mean it can’t be done, though.
There are some teachers online who will let you send in a recording of your voice and give you some basic pointers from there. That might be something to try before actual lessons. There are also forums for people who will help each other out, though those are usually for people who already know the basics.
You can do lessons online, BTW, and for pretty dadblasted cheap.
I actually take lessons with my teacher over Skype. She is not, however, dadblasted cheap.
My problem was that I was horrible at memorization, and my teacher expected me to have my literature memorized (the four pieces you mentioned) before anything else. I’d know the notes, but not the words. And, yes, we had only 30 minutes.
I had no method of memorizing other than what I’d been using in choir, where repetition just meant I’d eventually know the words by concert time. But that was too slow for this class.
Do you have any tips for that sort of thing?
EDIT:
Yeah, but you aren’t a novice, either! I’m actually surprised that Skype’s audio quality is good enough for your level of singing.
I was skeptical at first, too. Also of many of the things she was having me do, which were in direct opposition to everything I’d been taught. But damn if it doesn’t work. (I teach with her method now, since damn if it doesn’t work).
(I’ll try to answer the rest of your question in more depth when I get a chance. I have to go teach, and then I have rehearsal; Verdi Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony. Long week.)
You’ve got me curious. Can you give me a brief example?