The basics of singing….. What are they? How do I achieve learning the basics so that I can pursue singing as a hobby or maybe even use it for something more than a hobby. Many people have questions like these when they want to learn how to sing. To help make it easier for anybody out there to start singing I’m going to address the the question of singing basics in the way that I see it.

In my opinion, as I’ve stated numerous times already on the website, good singing is something that can be achieved by anybody, or at least most people. Probably even those who are absolutely terrible at it can achieve it as long as they know where to start. So with that in mind I’m going to tell you, perhaps quite ironically, that the ability for you to be able to sing well doesn’t lie so much in your present ability to sing as much as it does in other factors. Weird huh? Well I think it to be true. Let me tell you what I think is important here and you can go on to make your own decisions from here.

One of the first basics of singing that I am sure is overlooked by most, if not nearly all singing teachers and voices coaches is the ability to be confident. Now, I understand that this may sound a little silly when you first hear it but it’s absolutely true and if asked, I’m sure any vocal coach would agree, confidence is everything in singing. Can you remember what it was like back in school? I can remember people in school that I would talk to frequently at lunch etc. Those same people whan called upon to speak in front of the class reacted in different ways. Some would speak quietly, others would have their voice change into something I didn’t recognize, others would look at the floor. Of course on the other hand there were those that loved to get up and speak to people, they maybe even thrived on it.

Well, it’s exactly the same for singing. When people want to sing, but are (to varying degrees) afraid to do it, they can react in a number of different ways. Most often though, they’ll react in a way that causes their voice to become shy and squeaky, cracking on the higher notes etc. Most often you need to be at least somewhat louder on higher notes so to hold back at that time almost guarantees that you’re not going to hit it. As in anything, if you’re filled with self doubt, you’re simply not going to be the best you can be.

Listening is the single most overlooked tool when it comes to the basics of singing. It’s funny that of all the lessons I’ve paid for over the years, I’ve never really had a teacher come out and say that I should be listening, and exactly what I should be listening for. The only reason I’ve been able to figure what I need to hear is because I play guitar so I have a decent understanding of pitch and tuning. I talk more in depth about this in my e-course but basically it goes like this: When you’re singing you need to be really listening to each note that comes out of your mouth and compare it to either the note you’re following (i.e. singing scales in a warm up). When you’re singing on pitch there is no difference between the note you’re singing and the note that is being played, therefore you cannot hear that you’re out of tune, obviously because you’re not. If you start drift away from the note being played you’ll notice that a sort of resonance occurs that sounds like a “waaaawaaaaawaaaaa”.  It’ll increase in frequency the further your voice gets from the note being played and is obviously easier to hear when you’re playing/singing notes that are being held for a longer period of time. I have some good examples of tuning played on the guitar in my e-course that you can hear. Eventually, once you know what to look for, you can recognize that drop in pitch even in shorter notes, and this is a huge step forward in your singing ability.

It easier said than done but basically , if what you’re singing doesn’t sound right, the only thing you can do is fix it. You can hear that it’s not correct, so it stands to reason that you should be able to correct the notes so that they do sound right, or at least sound more correct.

“But I can’t sing that high… I strain to hit the notes…” Well my answer to that is simple too. Learn to use your head voice when you need to, and your mixed voice when you need to. It takes some practice, especially the mixed voice. Using the head voice is not only easy but very liberating. Suddenly you realize that you can hit these astoundingly high notes that you never thought you could hit before, only suddenly you can do it with ease. There’s plenty of info the net relating to head voice and mixed voice and a simple Google search will yield all kinds of results. However my best recommendation is for you to check out a singing course like the one below...