Question for those of you who can sing . . .

[GuitarStv]

I've tried several times to learn to sing in the past . . . once by taking two lessons with a vocal instructor, and once buying a 'Teach yourself to sing in 10 easy steps' book. Both times they gave me a bunch of vocal exercises to do (singing scales, making fire engine noises, crap like that) that were so horribly boring I gave up in short order. Lately I've been trying to learn to sing through a different approach - just finding a song I like and belting it out for a few minutes every day . . . and this seems to be working an awful lot better for me. So my questions:

- Is there actually any value in mixing in vocal specific exercises to my practice? Because it honestly never felt like it was helping the last couple times I tried.
- If so, what are the most useful/effective vocal exercises for general rock/pop/folk type singing?

Thanks!

 

[jeremy]

the singer in my old band used to do silly sounding warmups for his voice. id drive to gigs so sometimes i got to hear the fire engine noises and such. he says it helped him sing easier, clearer, and longer. when i sang in oratorio groups, the whole group would do warm ups together for 5-10 minutes. my uneducated guess is that warming up your voice by doing the silly boring things is probably really good for it. it probably strengthens your voice, helps with breathing, and extends your range. but it also doesnt help ya actually sing a song. i think there is a lot of value of just practicing whatever song you want to sing.

 

[ErikH]

Look at it like this, would go running, or play a soccer game or any sport, without stretching out and warming up first? No, because that increases the chances of pulling a muscle. Your vocal chords work with muscle activity. They require proper "stretching" and warming up before going all out. Sure, singing along to your favorite songs is great for pitch and timing and all that but without first warming up, there is an increase to damaging your vocal chords. And that not only affects singing, but talking as well. It's also no different than us guitar players warming up our hands and fingers before going all out playing songs. Hot tea is helpful too. Don't drink cold liquids when trying to sing. It only tightens up the muscles.

 

[Mincer]

I've met plenty of natural singers who don't do warmup of any kind, and get through a 4 set night with no issues at all. A good teacher sensitive to your specific issues and expectations might be in order.

 

[Clint 55]

I think just singing and finding a style that you can pull off convincingly is the most important part. Later, I think you could identify exercises that you want to use to fix pinpoint issues, but I wouldn't have the exercises take precedence. I think you have the right approach of just belting out songs you like or are comfortable with.

Imo singing with 'proper technique' or whatever has nothing to do with anything. It's all about wether it's convincing or not. Listen to Elliott Smith, he's barely breathing, singing out his nose in falsetto. It's like the opposite of proper technique, but he was ****in good.

 

[jeremy]

no one wants to listen to elliott smith, its only ghosts and ghasts that can hear him

 

[Clint 55]

its only ghosts and ghasts that can hear him

Lol, sounds about right. You don't wanna go to the abyss for a moment or 2?

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Maybe you need a warm up song.

 

[Clint 55]

I think the Elliott Smith is better.

 

[nexion218]

While I don't sing, I am pretty sure that those vocal specific exercises are equivalent of doing technique specific guitar exercices aimed at precefting certain technical aspects of playing. So when it comes to making actual music, your technique isn't limiting your expression and you steer clear of bad playing habits that could be possible culprits of injury. Of course there are certain genres of music or certain players who don't need that. A great example coming to mind is the two guitarists from Megadeth: Dave is a unique and great musician, but most of the time I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he's playing and would struggle mightily outside his comfort zone. Kiko on the other hand thrives in any situation from bossa nova to classical nylon and jazz to metal. Maybe Axl Pose would be a good singer example? He had a unique voice until he blew his chords out with bad technique... Either way, my personal experience in trying to learn guitar tells me that learning proper technique is not much fun, but pays HUGE dividiends down the road and I think it shouldn't be different in singing.

 

[GuitarStv]

While I don't sing, I am pretty sure that those vocal specific exercises are equivalent of doing technique specific guitar exercices aimed at precefting certain technical aspects of playing. So when it comes to making actual music, your technique isn't limiting your expression and you steer clear of bad playing habits that could be possible culprits of injury. Of course there are certain genres of music or certain players who don't need that. A great example coming to mind is the two guitarists from Megadeth: Dave is a unique and great musician, but most of the time I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he's playing and would struggle mightily outside his comfort zone. Kiko on the other hand thrives in any situation from bossa nova to classical nylon and jazz to metal. Maybe Axl Pose would be a good singer example? He had a unique voice until he blew his chords out with bad technique... Either way, my personal experience in trying to learn guitar tells me that learning proper technique is not much fun, but pays HUGE dividiends down the road and I think it shouldn't be different in singing.

See, this is sorta what I was thinking.

I believe that telling someone interested in playing guitar to spend half an hour a day learning to go up and down different scales on the fretboard is totally the wrong approach. It's not that learning to play scales is useless . . . it's that without the musical context of how to make those scales work it's really hard to find any reason to do all that work. If someone is interested in blues for example, explaining how to form a few dom 7th chords in a basic blues progression and showing how the pentatonic minor scale can be used over the whole song is going to get someone going. They can learn more specifics (major pentatonic and following chords while soloing, inversions, minor blues progressions, etc.) as they run into musical situations where they need them later on. But just giving this same beginner a major scale to play up and down the guitar neck initially would be a total waste of time and wouldn't really encourage any musical growth.

It was frustrating that I could sing my do-re-mis perfectly, but couldn't translate that into actual music . . . and I think that's why I largely gave up on singing for so long.

 

[Securb]

I have been told by singers that their warm-ups are more about intonating their voice than warming up the vocal cords. This is the reason why you hear them doing arpeggios.

 

[Clint 55]

Do re mi isn't gonna do shit. You have to be able to sing in tune in a way that is convincing to the listener. Once you can do that, you can work on exercises. Or work on exercises that focus on those 2 things.

 

[ErikH]

Regardless, the exercises serve huge benefits to keeping your voice in shape and able to maintain consistent singing for a long time. This is not rocket science. Learning to sing on pitch is of course important, but doing the do - re - mi exercises is what helps your brain get the muscle memory for being consistent in hitting the correct notes in the scales. A lot of singers only sound good because they are processed through equipment to sound good. If you can sing without a microphone and still sound good, that's someone who learned to sing or has natural ability. A dear friend of mine, and former bandmate, has an incredible voice, always on pitch and sounds beautiful without the need for a PA. I think she took some vocal lessons at a young age but more for breathing technique than anything. She also takes care of her voice and warms up.

 

[Demanic]

And then, there was Lemmy.

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[Clint 55]

Regardless, the exercises serve huge benefits to keeping your voice in shape and able to maintain consistent singing for a long time.

They serve zero benefits. Training or doing this and that to 'keep your voice in shape' means nothing if you can't deliver a listenable performance without falling on ur face. Do re mi is a complete waste of time. The only thing that matters is if you can deliver a convincing, listenable performance. So that's what you should practice. Lemmy mentioned earlier is a perfect example. It fits the music and makes you pumped, regardless if he was singing on 2 notes the entire song or only grumbling instead of holding a syllable. Noone gives a fuck if you 'can sing for a long time' or ur do re mis were really good, or this or that syllable was nice. They just care if it makes an emotional impact beyond embarrassment.

 

[ErikH]

They serve zero benefits. Training or doing this and that to 'keep your voice in shape' means nothing if you can't deliver a listenable performance without falling on ur face. Do re mi is a complete waste of time. The only thing that matters is if you can deliver a convincing, listenable performance. So that's what you should practice. Lemmy mentioned earlier is a perfect example. It fits the music and makes you pumped, regardless if he was singing on 2 notes the entire song or only grumbling instead of holding a syllable. Noone gives a **** if you 'can sing for a long time' or ur do re mis were really good, or this or that syllable was nice. They just care if it makes an emotional impact beyond embarrassment.

And to get there takes WORK, it takes doing the exercises and working to maintain pitch and sing properly. Of course singers want to put on a good performance, but they put the work in to get there and make that possible. The do re mi is not for the audience anyway. It's for the health and conditioning of the vocal chords. If you can't understand that, there's nothing more I can say.

 

[Clint 55]

I know. And for a hobbyist singer who doesn't have much time to budget for singing such as Stv, doing a tech regimen is a waste of time. A regimen I would suggest would be to practice for a good amount each day until you think the song(s) sounds good. This is all the conditioning you need. Then record it. The recording will reveal your issues. Maybe you're out of tune a little bit. That's something you can go and practice. Or maybe you're choking down on a part that needs a lot of air behind it. Go back and practice that. Contemplate if you are approaching the song with a style that you are capable of pulling off. If you want to get a teacher, find one who will approach the process this way and who isn't going to start you on page 1 of Suzy's do re mi singing method book.

 

[GuitarStv]

And to get there takes WORK, it takes doing the exercises and working to maintain pitch and sing properly. Of course singers want to put on a good performance, but they put the work in to get there and make that possible. The do re mi is not for the audience anyway. It's for the health and conditioning of the vocal chords. If you can't understand that, there's nothing more I can say.

I'm not a great vocalist by any stretch of the imagination but feel like the best way to learn to sing songs has to be to sing songs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that vocal exercises can help . . . but actually practicing a performance is way more important. At least to me. I can't translate scales into staying in tune for a performance . . . but after a couple weeks of just practicing this song a few times each day I went from no singing of any kind in years to being able to hang somewhat tune while playing my guitar: https://soundclick.com/r/s8gddq

It's not that I don't believe in work . . .but that I've always found the best way to get good at something is to do that thing. A lot!

 

[Demanic]

They serve zero benefits. Training or doing this and that to 'keep your voice in shape' means nothing if you can't deliver a listenable performance without falling on ur face. Do re mi is a complete waste of time. The only thing that matters is if you can deliver a convincing, listenable performance. So that's what you should practice. Lemmy mentioned earlier is a perfect example. It fits the music and makes you pumped, regardless if he was singing on 2 notes the entire song or only grumbling instead of holding a syllable. Noone gives a fuck if you 'can sing for a long time' or ur do re mis were really good, or this or that syllable was nice. They just care if it makes an emotional impact beyond embarrassment.

You know, as far as the whole "singing" thing goes, you seem to be suffering from quite a bit of transference.

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