To ask any singers on here for tips?

[Fannydango]

Recently started vocal lessons - not because I want to go on the x Factor but just because I love singing. I don't think I'm amazing but I can hold a tune and I'd love to get better.

I'd only just got going but now my teacher is going to be off sick for a few weeks and I've not really had a chance to explore with him what i can do to improve my voice so I'd really love your best tips so I can make progress while he's away!

My main issue is I can't seem to find 'my' voice. Whenever I sing, I always seem to be doing a poor impersonation of the original singer of the song, iyswim. I don't really know what my voice sounds like - how can I find it?

I struggle with the breathing. I feel like I sing from my throat and can feel it tightening and getting a bit sore when I'm singing. I never feel like I'm breathing from deep in my lungs and using that breath to carry my voice.

Lastly - vibrato - I don't really know if I have natural vibrato. I feel like I put it on but I'm not really sure... if I do, it's a habit I can't break! Is vibrato always natural?

And apologies for posting here - blatantly doing it for traffic!

Do t sing along to musicals at the theatre! (Sorry, I had to say it!!)

Practise.

I wouldn't get hung up on the technicalities until your teacher can go through them with you.

Practise as much as you possibly can, start to pay attention to when you are shifting between head voice and full/chest voice and then see if you can do full songs in one or the other, to expand your range.

YouTube can give you some good exercises too.

But honestly, practise is the best thing you can do whilst your teacher is sick. Don't try anything too off piste without him as he's likely got a lesson plan in place, and you may lead yourself in the wrong direction.

Is vibrato always natural?

It should be, at least at first. Too many singers feign it for effect

Thank you! Yes the head and chest voice thing is really tricky - some songs completely throw me and I don't know which to use.

I suspect if I could master the breathing, the vibrato would naturally follow?

I knew someone would mention the musical post!!

Re finding your voice: Sing the tune without the words, just sing aaah. Make words up. Sing really common and popular songs, twinkle twinkle, auld lang syne, Christmas carols, anything where you won't have one particular person's voice singing it when you play it through in your head. don't worry about how you sound or doing techniques. Just sing!

The only useful tip about technique I have, without messing up the plan your teacher likely has for your lessons, is to try out singing how you speak. When you speak it is the most natural thing in the world - you use your full voice as part of the natural flow of speech, and breathe when it suits you. Try having a conversation with yourself where you sing instead of speaking, or reading a text you know well and singing the words. I know it sounds mad but it works!

Those are really good suggestions, thanks @discustard !

I trained as a singer for over ten years.

Don't worry about vibrato, and don't try to put it on. It's either there or it isn't. Same with head and chest voice--ignore it. All you have to think about is breath control, placing your voice, and singing in tune. The rest comes along naturally.

Breath control: you know about breathing from your belly, rather than the top of your chest, yes? And about supporting your notes with your diaphragm? If not, let me know and I'll explain in more detail. When you want to be louder, do not do it by shouting, do it by pushing out more breath. That will help stop you getting that hurting voice that you're experiencing now.

Placing your voice: you do this by bringing the sound up and forward. It's hard to explain without actually doing it, but it means sounding your notes in the front of your mouth and bridge of your nose rather than in the back of your throat. If you make a gargling ahhhhh sound, that is usually in the back of your throat; a hmmmm sound usually comes from the front of your mouth. This is a biggie when it comes to increasing your power and preventing damage and that hurting you've described.

Singing in tune is something you can get better at too, but it sounds as though you've got this covered.

If you want to sound more authentically you, and less like a poor imitation of someone else, try singing songs you don't know and haven't heard before. It means you don't have an interpretation in mind when you sing it, and helps a lot. Sing outside your usual genres, too.

And have fun with it!

a hmmmm sound usually comes from the front of your mouth.

One teacher I had got me placing my voice further forward by humming - "mmmm" - at the start of each word while practising.

If you want to keep singing while your teacher is off, there are some really great vocal warm ups on YouTube that support things like breathing and pitch.
There are also some really good vocal teachers on there, that do reaction videos, who pick apart performances by professionals, and point out the techniques and good and bad bits. Off the top of my head, Tara Simon, Sam Johnson and Rebecca Vocal Athlete are all very good, and do know what they're talking about.

As for breath control, it all needs to come from the diaphragm. If your throat hurts after singing, you probably aren't warming up properly, and are "pushing" too hard from your throat. Put your hands on your diaphragm as you sing. You should feel that area, and your belly, moving as you sing.

As for vibrato, it honestly comes from different places for different people. I don't really think there is a "natural" vibrato. Most singers "put it on" for effect. Some achieve it by physically nodding their head up and down and others do it by working their jaw rapidly up and down. The only way that I can do it naturally, is to produce it from an up and down of my diaphragm.
But remember, a vibrato isn't a sign of a good singer. It's a stylistic choice, that's all. The sign of a good singer is purely someone who can carry a tune with a nice tone.

Echoing all the diaphragm stuff. When I went back to being in a choir after two babies and not singing for ages I found my throat was giving me terrible trouble, because I was attempting to get the same noise as before with a core that was shot to pieces!

(Still haven't retrieved the top C+, but no longer cough horrifically after a G)

Do you know many folk songs? Hymn tunes? Christmas carols? Or how are you with learning new tunes by yourself? (do you need someone else to play it through first?) Hymn tunes are useful because they have a definite metric and you can find different words to fit them, and because they're mostly within a small range so you can concentrate on a single sound.

Forget about vibrato, honestly. Listen to 70's D'Oyly Carte Gilbert & Sullivan if you want to hear how terrible vibrato can be... The right amount of vibrato is the amount that happens when you're doing everything else properly. For some people that might even be none at all. I recommend listening to Emma Kirkby singing early stuff.

Technically... there's a little dip at the top of what in a man would be an Adam's Apple. When you sing it's supposed to go downwards, but when I had some lessons my teacher was flabbergasted to discover mine was going up ("how you're managing to produce a half-decent sound I've no idea"). Concentrating on getting it to go down changed my sound completely (for the better, I hasten to add).

Dee dee-ing the notes of a song helps with placement and stops over articulation which puts too much air through.

Oh wow, amazing stuff here!

In theory, I know about breathing from my diaphragm and using that to push the sound out but in practice, I've no idea if I'm actually doing it! Although I probably do tend to shout when I'm trying to be louder so I'm probably not. @ColdAndSad more detail would be great, thank you!

You can tell if you're using your diaphragm by putting your hands there (I find it easiest to have thumbs in the middle, fingers splayed down, little fingers going out to the sides) so I can feel my diaphragm expanding as I breathe in, then my belly shrinking and my diaphragm going up as the breath goes out.

Finding this thread fascinating.

Question - can anyone learn to sing? I mean sing in tune, not have an amazing voice.

Have a good yawn before starting to sing, and try to keep your throat in the yawning position throughout, very relaxed and open.
Pretend to be a vacuum cleaner and never stop the air flow, think about the air flow first and the words second.

I honestly think a true inability to sing is very very rare. I had an ex who said he was tone deaf - yet enjoyed music and could hum tunes of favourite songs. It turned out he could sing twinkle twinkle little star, and was obviously capable of singing, he just hadn't acquired the skill of doing it at will, if you like, ie singing back a note he'd heard. Most people can do that and the rest follows along.

I think most people who think they can't sing just don't know where to focus their energy. It's a bit like ballet - just because you know what it should look like doesn't mean you can make your body do it straight away. A lot of children don't learn to sing properly in school anymore, they just learn to shout and do actions to loud backing tracks so they never get a proper command of their own voice.

So much good advice here. The vacuum cleaner idea - yes! I want to feel like that - like I have a big open airway from my diaphragm all the way up my throat and coming out my mouth. But my throat always feels slightly tight or a bit closed. Yawning is a great tip.

Have been singing since I can remember
Lessons since I was 9
Did a music degree at Cardiff Uni - voice was my main instrument.
Been singing now for 22 years.

There's some great bits of advice on here particularly from *Coldandsad

Vibrato comes in time. Though some people never develop that and sometimes it's lovely to have a pure voice that doesn't have vibrato.

Do not sing from your chest.
The majority of the work will come from your diaphragm, breathing, mouth, tongue and vocal cords.

If you're struggling to find your voice, try and sing pieces you haven't heard anyone else sing. For example, if you sing songs by Adele, you'll most likely try to imitate her sounds. If you pick a song you haven't heard someone else sing, you might have a bit more luck.

Exercises you can do are scales, diction exercises (repeat the same consonant 3 times all the way through alphabet with as much clarity as you can, almost over the top) and breathing exercises.

With regards to hurting your voice, practise should only ever be at like 80% effort. Never go full throttle. And make sure you are using your diaphragm for power and opening your mouth as wide as possible for the words you are singing.

My teacher used to tell me to lift the back of my throat to sing and I had no idea what she was on about until I went to Birmingham Conservatoire for an interview. The gentleman who met me called it the soft palette. When you yawn, the soft palette at the back and top of your mouth lifts up. When singing you need to try replicate this as much as possible.

For the early days, I would just do exercises, pick some neutral songs to sing to find your own voice, maybe practise holding your breath to exercise and expand your lung capacity. The rest will come with tutoring and time.

Also, please bear in mind that the voice is a muscle. It will take time to build it and support it. Your voice will grow with time.

Join a choir or musical theatre group. Where you can find your voice.

Breathing. Breathing. Breathing.

Work on your breathing, and everything else becomes easier.

Fill from the bottom of your stomach. Keep your shoulders down. Control the sound from your diaphragm.

Notice the difference, if you sing a note with your shoulders down, listen to the quality. Then tense up and raise your shoulders - the sound is automatically squashed because you are restricting the airways.

It's the same with most musical instruments, even strings. Control the breathing and everything else becomes easier.

Look up the straw exercise. I found it really helpful for identifying my cross over point between chest and head voice while doing scales and then using it to strengthen my bridge to avoid the sudden flip from one to another. I'm just getting back to singing after time off having DC2 and must really start doing exercises more often as I'm really weak in certain areas now.

For the sore throat pineapple juice and honey (Manuka honey expensive but works the best) and always drink plenty of water before practicing and while your practicing of singing for quite a while. I would mention the sore throat to your teacher as well as it shouldn’t really hurt every time your singing.

So many things for me to try here - I need to go through this thread thoroughly and look up/try all the different things you've all suggested. Just what I was hoping for - thank you!