Singing out of tune

[Emerald Tablet]

the coin has three sides. just like the truth has..

sorry i go ot
but nifty man !

made me think about if 2d realy exists
how many sides does a atom have
or the universe - or the multiverse
or how many deees do exist

interesting mr triplewee
haven`t noticed you around, but welcome

Wow, like, the cosmos maaan!

did you know cosmos means jewel
did you know i cut my hair 3 days ago
are hippy`s allowed to have short hair and brainwash themselves with your music ?

answer : no but dutch c**ts are

so i heard you use pitchright or autotune
well unlike me atleast you got your mic-tech together

[farlukar]

Hmm... not too many female non-singer-singers out there, are there?

Kim Gordon

[e-modic]

Phaedo, everyone has its pitch where he can sing in, where it feels comfortable. Senseless to try something what Dave Gahan sings when you are more the Lional Richie freak. Find out which one is yours.

When you record, e.g. a verse, you sing 4 x the verse at once, make 8 sessions. Then you have 32 parts. From 'cold' voice to 'warm' voice, listen to the words and cut the best out of the files. In 32 takes you can be sure you have enough words to put them together to one verse. I know that sounds perverse but thats the way many profs are working.

[Ja.x]

The bad news: unless you take lessons (and even then) you'll be a lousy singer forever.

The good news: never heard Brian Eno singing, have you? (Here Come The Warm Jets, Before and After Science, etc) Why is he brilliant? Because he stopped doing it; now he makes only instrumentals

The bottom line is: stop singing, and the world will have a better opinion about you

[xander]

Yeah, I'm an idiot, but it matters to me.

For some reason, this gets marked as spam every time I receive a reply notification. Anyhoo, I shall try the imitation thing, but then I suspect part of the problem is that I'm really rather a fan of Dan Stuart, who couldn't sing in tune to save his life.

There really is no substitute for paying your dues in real life.

On my very first gig when I was thirteen, I was backing up an old accordion player on my cello.

In front of everyone at the picnic, he yelled at me to keep better meter. I was devastated. What a prick he was. Later, when I was 25, I saw him walking down the street and beat the shit out of him with a rusty tire iron... (just joking)

So, I suggest Karaoke, and I am like New York serious... Practice is EVERYTHING!!!

[Lunch Money]

Dunno how I could have done that! Whoops!

Greg

[Lady J]

I am not joking here but i recommend Karaoke. The more the better. The pressure to perform will give your singing a better aspect to it AND you will know by people's reactions whether or not you are in tune or not. Also having songs that you are familiar with, with which to measure yourself against really helps you 'hear' your voice tuning, tibre and inflection. You also learn how to interact with a crowd, and one that is used to bad singers.

Karaoke.


(edit)
Whatever you do, do NOT practice with Autotune/Pitchright/etc. Not only will it give you a false sense of security but it will keep you singing OFF key since the Autotune is doing the work *you* should be doing to focus your voice on the notes like a laser beam.

Do you sing everyday? If you don't you better start. I sing in the bath or shower every morning. I used to sing to the radio when I first started. Now I just sing acapella. I'm not a great singer or anything but people seem to like my voice around here and elsewhere.

Oh and allow me to introduce you to the K-v-R of your voice. There you will find excercises to help you. Practice some of their excercises for a month and compare the recording at the end of the month to the one at the beginning. You are recording aren't you? Better start if not.

http://www.vocalist.org.uk

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

I suppose a fair amount of it depends on how off pitch you are. There's a big difference between a little of (A few cents) and a good 5 or 6 NOTES off.

My manager at my last job would always sing whenever a song he liked would come on, and it was always unbelieveably bad. The note he should have been singing would be half way across the octave, and no, he wasn't harmonizing.

What really struck everyone is that he would sing in front of people, including customers, and no one ever had the heart to tell him to stop. We were pretty sure that he actually thought he could really sing, otherwise he wouldn't do it all the time in front of total strangers.

I really don't think he will ever be able to sing, regardless of how much training he may ever take in his life.

If that is the boat you are in, then perhaps you should persue other alternatives. From the description you've given it sounds like you are like most people and have a little difficulty staying completely in-key from time to time.

Another part could be that you aren't sure what sound you are aiming for. Not the notes, but the style, know what I mean?

I myself am still strugling to find my style. Most of the music I listen to has a lot of shouting, but my voice just will NOT make that sound. I can sing as loudly as I want, but it doesn't really break up until I lose my voice alltogether. So I'm always toying with different styles to see what I can do in order to work around my voice's shortcoming.

Come to think of it, this is probably a good time to ask: Is there a method to the screaming thing, or is it just something you are born with (Or without)?

[TrekStar]

many people have the problem to sing in tune. me included. so you're in good company.

do you hear it immediately if you're wrong or is that also difficult for you?
if you don't hear it then I would say that you can't change much. sorry to say that.

if you hear it then I am sorry again that I have no other recipie than constant practise. that is no empty know-it-all advice....I experienced it myself. not long ago I was quite active with music, live-singing, bands etc... . singing perhaps 4 times a week. several hours. I never had problems to sing in tune. now I am no more active and I sing perhaps once in 2 months. and each time I fight a time-consuming fight against my more or less slight out-of-tune takes. straining.

seems like the voice needs a kind of constant good shape similar to that what the athlets try to achieve.
otherwise it is not 100% controllable.

Lady J tips are good! try it out. I know it's not easy. begins with the necessity of a undisturbed place to sing.

[xoxos]

phaedo, my suggestions - sing in the most private location available for psychological reinforcement of being the only person to evaluate your performance.. if you're having trouble hitting notes, make sure your mental image of the pitch sequence is concrete, eg. no imagined intervals et c. and then progress from pitch to pitch slowly, not changing until you are certain your voice is within a cent or so. just practice the note changes..

w repeated self observation you'll notice which progressions are more difficult for you, et c. all just biofeedback.

[munchkin]

A lot of good advice here but I think it's important to find the right type of music that suits your voice. I've given up trying to sing like James Brown, Robert Plant or Mariah Carey.

You might find that others actually like your voice. It's a bit like when you see a photo of yourself and think OMG! We're so familiar with what we think our voice sounds like that when we hear a recording of it it never matches up to our expectations.

Practice singing the song over and over until you can sing it in tune. There is no such thing as being tone deaf - everyone can sing in tune with practice. Singing is about conveying emotion so try to feel the emotion you are trying to convey.

At the end of the day one mans meat is another mans poison so to speak, to coin a phrase and other cliques...

There's an example of my voice in the link below...

[Lady J]

A lot of good advice here but I think it's important to find the right type of music that suits your voice. I've given up trying to sing like James Brown, Robert Plant or Mariah Carey.

This is very true. I have all but given up trying to belt like Beyoncé or do crazy tills like Christina Aguilera. Don't get me wrong, I would -LOVE- to do either and maybe someday my proficiency will be up to that task but right now my voice is more plain. I've been compared to the Sugarbabes. And I guess I can live with that. In a world full of Aretha Franklin wannabees perhaps the time is right for a new Olivia Newton John or Sade type singer someone who as very fine control over dynamics rather than just crazy trills.

You might find that others actually like your voice. It's a bit like when you see a photo of yourself and think OMG! We're so familiar with what we think our voice sounds like that when we hear a recording of it it never matches up to our expectations.

Totally. I felt this way for so long and I thank K-v-R people for helping me to realise my voice was not bad. It has been a long road to the level of confidence I have now. It is all about becoming comfortable with the voice you have and conveying what you want people to feel,

[xander]

A lot of good advice here but I think it's important to find the right type of music that suits your voice. I've given up trying to sing like James Brown, Robert Plant or Mariah Carey.

This is very true. I have all but given up trying to belt like Beyoncé or do crazy tills like Christina Aguilera. Don't get me wrong, I would -LOVE- to do either and maybe someday my proficiency will be up to that task but right now my voice is more plain. I've been compared to the Sugarbabes. And I guess I can live with that. In a world full of Aretha Franklin wannabees perhaps the time is right for a new Olivia Newton John or Sade type singer someone who as very fine control over dynamics rather than just crazy trills.

You might find that others actually like your voice. It's a bit like when you see a photo of yourself and think OMG! We're so familiar with what we think our voice sounds like that when we hear a recording of it it never matches up to our expectations.

Totally. I felt this way for so long and I thank K-v-R people for helping me to realise my voice was not bad. It has been a long road to the level of confidence I have now. It is all about becoming comfortable with the voice you have and conveying what you want people to feel,

Always sing from the bottom of your chest - NEVER from your throat.

When we fear we might wake up the neighbors, or are too shy, we muffle our natural voice by clamping up in our throats.

Throat singing taken to successful extremes can be heard in people like Pheobe Snow, Danny Jo Brown of Molly Hatchet - and even Bob Dylan on the NAshville Skyline album. It sucks to hear it (for me anyway). But if you wanna sound like a muppet, then go for it..

Never sing with your throat, but use your throat to give vibrato - vibrato can help you keep your voice on key. Practice practice and practice.

Practice screaming from the bottom of your gut. Get in your car, drive down a lonely road with your fav songs playing and scream it all out. I mean really loud screaming - it will build strength. Then learn to practice controlling that scream. A voice is nothing more that a muscle - exercise makes it stronger. The stronger it is, the better the control. I am dead serious about the screaming. Scream loud and often, like in a horror movie. Don't be afraid of hurting your voice, it will just get stronger. One of the best singers I know screams his ass off - like he was being murdered - just before a show.

Karaoke - one of the few places you can actually belt out any vocal you want and no one is gonna put you down. Excellent practice for most people who don't have a private vocal booth/studio.

Karaoko Karaoke Karaoke!

*spelling*

[Lunch Money]

Always sing from the bottom of your chest - NEVER from your throat.

Liam (or is it Noel?) Gallagher made a decent run of ignoring that advice. I agree, though.

Karaoke

Yeah! Love it! Plus, it's a hell of a lot of fun. No matter how bad you suck, as long as YOU look like you're enjoying yourself (ie. not pretending to be king shit singer), the crowd will love you and cheer for you regardless. What a hoot!

Greg

[Wopelka]

Practice screaming from the bottom of your gut. Get in your car, drive down a lonely road with your fav songs playing and scream it all out. I mean really loud screaming - it will build strength.

singing from the bottom of your chest is a good advice.

however, practicing screaming isn't such a good one. you can really destroy your voice if you abuse. loudness and power require technical skills.