Can you sing? If yes, was it natural?

[TERF4Life]

The skill/ talent of singing perplexes me. How are some people naturally good at it yet others can have years of lessons and still be terrible?

If you can sing, how did you know you could? Do your friends know you can sing? Are you shy with it?

Because you should sing from the chest not the throat. That bit does need to be taught .

Hi, yes I have always been able to sing from a very early age. I often had my mum parading me around to her friends often gloating about how well I sing lol. As the years have gone by my voice has matured and I still get alot of compliments about my voice. A few people have said I give them goosebumps when I sing, in a good way. I am shy though which makes people more stunned as when they hear me sing they tell me I shouldn't be shy and should share my gift with the world.

People assume I can sing because of my job, I also studied music growing up to the kind of level people hope their children achieve in as much as it's given me a lifelong ability to play and I enjoy having the skill.
But...aside from having reasonable pitch and an understanding of music theory, I can't actually sing. I'd absolutely love to be able to and I paid for lessons as an adult. My singing teacher asked if I'd suggest in a rock band when I was younger because my voice sounds so damaged, one whole note just doesn't come out!
I sang to my daughter's singiteacher and she was very far from complimentary!

To me, it's the same as sports or painting.

Some people have a natural ability, so they then tend to get involved and learn from coaches, and practice more and improve their skill set and technique.

Everyone can sing at some level, same as everyone can run at some level or draw at some level. We naturally gravitate towards things we are good at, and then that tends to lead to us improving all the more.

When I was a small child ioved to sing. Then I became aware I wasn't very good at it and spent the next 40 years of my life terrified of anyone hearing me sing. I totally believed that you either was born with this ability or not and it was just something I would never be able to do.
Then last year I started taking singing lessons. My voice has improved a lot and now I can happily enjoy singing around the house or join in at karaoke with friends.
I work hard at it. I have a lesson with an amazing teacher every fortnight and I practice my lessons daily. I love practicing and it has been an amazing therapy during a stressful period in my life.
The proportion of people who are actually tone deaf are tiny and most singing teachers say they have never met one. If you can talk you can use your vocal cords so you can sing.
You wouldn't expect to pick up a trumpet and start to play beautifully. It's the same with the instrument of the voice - good instruction and good practice skills will lift your level of skill hugely.
I'll never be the next Beyonce but I'm so happy to have found this hobby which gives me so much joy. If I want to warble quietly to myself while walking down the street that's up to me. I'm not seeking anyone's attention, I just have melodies I have to get right before my next lesson and if someone hears me I don't care. And that's a very happy place to be.
So if you think you can't sing but want to, go take some lessons. It's the most fun ever.

Where did you find your teacher, and what kinds of things do you sing? My therapist recommended singing lessons to me (I have a strange, trauma-induced tendency to hold my breath for long periods when upset or frightened, and singing is excellent practice in breathing well), but when I looked around locally it all seemed to be in stage schools and with a musical theatre repertoire! And I did not see myself doing jazz hands and carolling ‘Anything Goes’…

Just to add to the post above, my throat used to hurt terribly after singing just one song. It can still get a bit tight when singing high notes with power but the sore throat thing basically got cured with a good singing teacher. I can easily singing for an hour straight now without a problem.

My first teacher I found online on Fivr. The teacher was abroad and lessons were online. I basically did is as it was super cheap. She gave me a lot of confidence but I was getting a really sore throat and didn't find her teaching great. So I found a teacher (by searching locally on Google) who specialised in vocal health:

www.corinnecowling.com/

She was classically trained and is an opera singer. I loved my lessons with her but she moved away. She still offers online lessons but I wanted to do it in person.

She recommended the Ritz Music Academy in Richmond as I was interested in singing jazz/RnB/blues /soul type stuff and there I found my current teacher. This was a game changer because now I get to really explore the kind of music I'm interested in. He pushes me to be creative, not just try and copy the artists but to be the best version of myself.

All these teachers offer online lessons and recently I've had some online lessons with my current teacher. I would say it's maybe 90% as good as doing it in person. So look at some reviews and try a trial lesson with a few different teachees and see how you get on.

If you are interested in singing contemporary music find someone who offers that because if they are classically trained they may not be as familiar with the scales and note structures used in contemporary music. However they are likely to give a very correct and healthy approach to using your voice as an instrument.

Yes I can sing and yes it’s natural. There’s a fundamental difference between singing a song in tune, and being able to belt out a song with a vocal personality and individual identity and I’m lucky enough to be able to do this.
It is something I was born with, my entire family are musical and can sing (we’re the Von Trapps without the nazis).

In singing terms belt is something I hope you don't do with every song, all the time though or it's going to be pretty one-dimensional @Strokethefurrywall 😉

Apparently you sing from the diaphragm.

Im tone deaf to can’t even hit a note but I’m in awe of those who can project and warble at the same time

@CurlyhairedAssassin by relaxing the throat, jaw and tongue and lowering the larynx. Not everyone has the same range though so some people can comfortably sing much higher notes than others who will never be able to sing them, whatever training or exercises they do.

I find it depends on voice in general. Everyone's voice is slightly different, in the strength, tone, and the range. If someone sings a middle range, soft tune they could sound phenomenal, but try and force their voice to do a powerful, high Aretha Franklin number and they could sound like a strangled cat. So I think honesty about where your voice is at and its ability is key and singing songs that honour your voice can make most people sound OK even if they're not those natural singers as they're not forcing it to do something it's not trained or able to do.

Confidence is also a big one. If your nervous it really shows in the voice, it won't hold the notes, wavers and will just go out of tune.

Some people are "tone deaf" i hate that word it sounds awful and I don't know how to explain it.

But most people i think can be ok with training.

I too have only in day to day met a handful of natural phenomenal singers. But I think i instinctively equate phenomenal singers with power and think that's an ingrained bias I've learned not reality.

I can sing. I was noticed by a teacher when I was 9 and she went to see my parents to encourage them to get me a piano and lessons. Which they did. It was quite a surprise to my non musical family that I was musical. I went on to get Grade 8 in voice and learned to play a number of other instruments. I sang solos with a number of choirs, some really good, and competed at festivals and eisteddfods as a solo singer. I started with a mezzo voice and a very large range. My lower range disappeared over time but my upper range went up from a top G to a top B. Weird! I became very much a soprano. Singing was a big part of my identity. A few years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and a series of operations left me with a whole lung missing. I can still sing but my voice is a shadow of what it was.

I can carry a tune but have a limited range. I was in the choir at school and was in the school production of The King and I which I loved. I’ve always gravitated towards musical theatre. It’s the big numbers I wish I could do - watching Marisha Wallace singing Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret sent chills down my spine, what a great song and what a talent.

Oh that’s so sad that you stayed quiet for so long! Glad you’ve got back into it though.

My best friend is an amazing, natural singer. I can't sing for shit.

I’m a soprano, sung in choirs since I was a child. I think your voice is like any musical instrument you can learn to play it.

I think I’m a shit singer but I keep being told I can sing and getting asked to sing solos in choirs I’ve been in and I get asked to sing solo in a fairly high brow concert every year (my work has a music department) which is absolutely mortifying and takes tonnes of practice so I don’t look shit.

Apparently my voice is unique but I lack timing, proper training and I can’t read music for shit. I’ve joined choirs on and off in childhood, work and during covid on line. I’ve never had individual lessons so if I can sing it is largely natural ability.

My eldest can sing beautifully and could do so from the same time she could speak, she was a child chorister with no lessons or training at all. My middle one has a lovely voice but couldn't really sing in tune until about age 10 and has had some lessons to achieve how she can sing now. Youngest has a sense of tune in others but would never voluntarily sing herself. So to me it seems pretty inherent?

I have had to be told all of this because I am so tone deaf!

The voice is an instrument, which means it can be trained. Of course, some people have better instruments than others but almost anyone can be trained to sing even if only at a basic level. I am a trained pianist, violist and violinist. I also have perfect pitch. All trained musicians should be able to sing confidently to a reasonable level but most of us are not solo singers. I took grades 5 and 6 in singing a number of years ago and obtained good merits in each. Even so, I consider myself to be someone who has a useful voice in a choir but, yes, by every definition of the word l can sing.