I love singing, but my voice isn’t great. It’s not* horrendous*; I can hit all the right notes, my timing is superb, and I don’t veer into strange, off-key interpretations of perfectly good songs.
My voice is weak. Even my speaking voice doesn’t carry well. My theatre arts coach used to yell at me, “From the diaphragm!” But I could never seem to find it. I’m not nasal, though.
Very few people have heard me really singing, and those that have are often stunned by what they hear - it’s pretty good, and certainly not what anyone would expect to come out of me; my speaking voice is actually rather dorky-sounding, and it doesn’t seem to gel with the singing voice I occasionally bust out with.
I auditioned once back in high school for a variety show, and I made it in - the judges who were screening the auditions all knew me well, and were stunned that I did as well as I did (but it was mostly because, as I mentioned above, I have a really geeky speaking voice) - however, I chickened out, because there was a rich girl who hated me also entering, she chose the *same song * as me, and she’d had vocal training, and she was amazing. I dropped out of the lineup and stayed in the audience the night of the show.
Ever since that night, I wondered: Can anybody sing? The rich girl’s speaking voice wasn’t anything to write home about, either. If one was to seek out vocal training, could they become a good singer? Or is it an impossibility for some? Are there any vocal coaches here (or anyone who knows any vocal coaches) who have had students who justcouldn’t sing?
I used to have a roommate who just couldn’t sing. I don’t really understand what the problem was, but if you hummed a note to him he was totally unable to hum it back, or even get close. Very strange.
I’m the opposite of you. I have a rich, strong voice, but I have a tin ear. Songs I know very well, and sing often (this is mostly church songs) I can do OK at, but if I’m not intimately familiar with a song, I’ll be all over the clef. Probably, I could train myself, if I put in the effort, but I’ve never thought it worth the time.
I was a professional musician for 30 years. All that time, and in fact, in my whole life, I have only met three people who could sing. They just opened their mouths and it fell out - it seemed to take no effort on their part, and it would just make you swoon.
Everybody else, including me, had to work at it, with varying degrees of success. I can breathe right, and my phrasing is good, but I am not a lead singer. I sang on my demos, in multitrack harmonies, because there was nobody else I could call who was any better. The ability to carry a tune isn’t special. The ability to sing is a gift. Not many have it.
I think most people, with some training, could manage to be okay. I’ve got no vocal training and, I’m sure, no technique. But just from practice I’ve gotten a lot better in the last few months. And I spent most of my life prior to that point figuring that I sucked horribly.
Some folks are tone deaf (my dad was, probably jackelope’s friend as well) and can’t hit a note if it’s right in front of their face :). That’s clearly not your problem. Find a good vocal coach who will teach you to breathe properly and support the notes. You’ll do fine.
What exactly does it mean to be tone deaf? I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I can tell when someone else is off key. Am I tone deaf or just a sucky singer?
Tone deaf means that you can’t differentiate one note from another. You can’t sing a song and stay in the same key, and you can’t tell whether you’re sharp or flat, or wandering.
If you can tell that someone else is off, then you aren’t tone deaf.
Anastasaeon, you and I could be separated at birth! I’ve been through just about the exact same things. Same strengths, same problems. I’m pretty good, and I generally surprise people with my voice because I don’t sing regularly anymore.
I quit after high school because of the pressure and the competition. It seemed that, at the college level, I was good enough to impress people at karaoke or for general choral singing but not good enough to make it into any competitive groups. I didn’t want to be a face in the crowd in a larger group but an integral part of a small group–helping choose the music, arrangements, and styles. But everyone in the small, competitive groups had vocal training or was naturally amazing (not me), and I was just singing for fun, not making a career of it. So I quit and have barely looked back. I miss singing (HS choir, show choir, musicals, etc.), but I don’t miss the bitchiness that seems to come with being around singers…and I get my fixes somehow. Now and then, it’s fun to go to a divey karaoke place with friends and be one of the best kids in there.
Anyway, what I was going to say was that I think that fishbicycle is on to something. Many people can be taught to sing passably. I’m sure I could improve with lessons, maybe even be good enough to get into a competitive group someday (though I’m out of college now and don’t know where to join)! However, some people are just born with it. With those people, you just know you want to listen to them, as soon as the first breath comes from their lips. It’s something special. Very few people have that.
I wonder this too. I have a very good ear for relative pitch. Play something and I can tell you the intervals and chord families and (before I fell out of practice) I could even tell you what inversion they’re in. But this ability goes out the window as soon as I open my mouth. I am just not aware of the pitch of my own voice, and I can’t tell if I’m even close to the mark when trying to sing. It’s extremely frustrating. :mad:
My husband and I write music, but it’s nothing special - we make beats and mess around on our moogs and grooveboxes. We just picked up Reason 3.0 and are having a blast with it.
It would be nice to sing on some of those tracks - it’s mostly for fun, but maybe we’ll actually do something one day - anyway, I would just like to improve upon what I have rudimentary skill at. I don’t need to be great, but I’d like to not grate on people’s ears. I’ll never sing Ave Maria, but I’d like to have some technical skill, breathing control, etc.
When I do sing, especially in front of others, I’m unsure of myself, and it shows. I’d like to gain a little bit of confidence, and have a little shine in my performance.
I sing. I was in various groups in high school and in the course of my singing “career” I became skilled at sight reading/singing and having a trained ear to hear intervals. Six years later in college I’m in a choir and a women’s a capella group and even though I went so long without singing, all that training stuck with me. In fact, all the years later I’m a different person (as anyone would be) and I’m a much more confident performer. You can be trained in sight-singing and not be good at it. I happen to be fairly good at it.
My older sister is a professional opera singer who went to college and grad school to study her craft. She happens to have perfect pitch, which means if you ask her to sing any note, she can without the help of an instrument. She’s always had the innate skill of singing but like acting, she’s learned and worked to improve her craft.
I’m not really sure what I bring to the discussion, but I thought I’d weigh in.
I’ll never sing Ave Maria, but I’d like to have some technical skill, breathing control, etc.