Talk about it, techniques, live performances, exercises, the how to's and what not to do's, be creative

I'll kick things off...i've been taking vocal lessons for a couple months now, one of the things thats annoying me is learning how to project or "belt", i know it's a hard technique to learn, but anyone got any tips or comments about it?

also, whoever's familiar with this book, do you if i can get the pdf file online somewhere?

The Phenomena of the belt/pop voice

in relation to this thread... im the man.

ur supposed to act like your using the bathroom its a stupid technique but it works, it excersises ur diaphram! once u get used to it, it should feel more natural.


p.s. just be careful not to fart lol!

Learning to belt might actually be one of the simplest techniques.

Sing something. Then, pretend your singing in a crowd of maybe 20 other people singing the exact same thing, but theres someone in the audience that you really want to hear you, and sing as if you were really trying to be noticed out of the crowd.

Thanks whoopie goldberg.

I've learned to drink lots and lots of water, i forget are you suppose to go over or under the tongue? I can't rmember been a LONG time since I've touched a mic.

If I put my mind to it (diet, exercise) I'm pretty sure I'd have a really good voice

I'm trying to stop drinking soda though, which is huge for me.

this actually did help me to project a bit more...but it's definitely not belting yet, i can still feel myself straining as i get higher

I also heard drinking honey works alot.

millienand1's tip actually made sense (the diaphragm and what not), haha

Well of course it does, you are supposed to sing from your diaphragm I am pretty sure. If you are ever in like chorus or anything, one of the first things they make you learn are like diaphragm exercises and such.

so, im the best thing that has ever happened to bass (choral)

I used to sing with my throat which was very bad because I struggled to hit high notes and had no stamina but then I taught myself how to breathe properly, like you have to push the air with your abs kinda, or diaphragm. It does wonder seriously.

Edit : my bad I meant wonders haha

wondering seriously will not get you better technique



drinking too much water is a bad thing, rookie

i'm good at imitating vocalists. never really had my own singing voice though.

I have a feeling the majority of you 'vocalists' kind of suck nuts at singing.

this is the problem with singers in bands. its all about belting and being loud and powerful.

dynamics are a beautiful thing, as is a good dose of music theory and plenty of practice. learn to sing in every part of your range (head voice/falsetto, chest voice, deep diaphragm singing, etc.), then build from there. also, a good tip i learned that lets you sing stronger in a higher range, is to drop your jaw down when hitting loud high notes. most people tend to open their mouths in a smile like way, but that closes off your airway, causing your voice to crack.

dont drink alcohol, dont drink too much water, make sure you have food in your stomach, and always warm up before practicing/playing shows. you also might want to consider coating your throat with milk or honey, but thats only if you're going to be screaming or belting. not doing so could really bring your range down a few pegs temporarily, which fucking sucks when you're on stage performing.

the most important thing is learning the ins and outs of your voice. a lot of singers have a problem listening themselves, seeing as unlike a guitar or drums, your instrument is 100% you. confidence is fucking key. the better you feel about your voice, the better it will sound.

EDIT:
and if you're going to scream/belt, dont use you're fucking throat. i know a shit ton of people who've done that, and ended up ending their "singing careers" by spitting up blood or ripping up their esophagus.

Im a singer it should! lol....i hope. my problem is breathing tho, always an issue!

www.myspace.com/lissamillien check me out!




are u good??

Ok, so on the topic of belting and projecting your voice, my vocal teacher has told me i have to move just the right muscles in my mouth to make my soft palette hard, and when i'm finally doing it right, i'll hear a high pitched buzzing, or squeal, inside my head (he's given me several tips and things to help me get it, and says i'm making progress). Anyone here ever achieve this? I knew about the soft palette thing but never about the high pitched buzzing.


*for any of you who are doubting his abilities because that sounds stupid, he graduated from Berkley, and sings beautify with out ever straining *

That's called head voice. It's not an actual 'buzzing', it just seems like there are vibrations in your skull.

yeah that! lol.

I had this vocal coach (for four months) who couldnt stand Mariah carey apparently. I sang like her at the time cuz i idolized her vocally. so i think to spite me he would make me sing opera song in freakin german! Pissed me off, i didnt learn a damn thing! lol. then at the end he told me to go take piano lessons and come back when i can read music! DAMMIT WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF TAKING VOCAL LESSONS IF IM BEING TOLD TO GO PLAY PIANO?? whatever i was 16....im not bitter!

In chorus at school, our teacher show us this DVD called "The Zen of Screaming"
It's about this lady who teaches screaming to Hardcore bands
He showed us the DVD cause it had lessons on regular voice stuff, but I intend to burrow it for other purposes haha

i had a good amount of trouble watching that dvd. watching a 50 year old woman barking and crying like a baby, then having keith buckley tell me shes fucking awesome didnt quite click with me in a helpful way

anyone know where i could find a good vocal coach in southern CT? I'm in the Fairfield area and I've been teaching myself for a while now but theres just some things I need help on

Look in the paper or whatever for ads, if you can't find any, maybe ask your music teacher at school if they know of someone, or possibly, a music school that offers voice lessons. But i'd say push for private lessons, i was at a music school for a month and hated it, i think you get a lot more out of private lessons.

...what do you look like?

you're throwing me off.

Anyone got any tips to writing a melody for a song?

Depends on your ear.
I can listen to a song and instantly hum out a theoretically correct melody, it normally sounds pretty ballin too. I can barely read music and I don't know nearly as much theory as I should for having taken piano lessons for years, but my ear is a fuckin beast and it gets me by.

However I know alot of singers in bands who have to find all the notes in the scale the song is in and then plot out the notes from there.
That must suck

My advice if you have an decent ear would be to listen to the song and hum out some notes that compliment the instrumental work.

My ear, is pretty decent, it's the (possible, most likely) singer for my band who i feel is having some trouble writing a melody. But i think it might be more of a pitch thing now that i think about it, 'cause he's got the basic idea of what he wants, he just has trouble with his pitches sometimes. I guess i'll see how it go's next practice.

Ya the way to do it if your ear isn't good for it is to learn scales/chords and all that. Then to line it up so it works with the music. Scales are key to writing.

Weird out of nowhere today I started being able to sing high notes without sounding like a 4 year old kid, aka doing falsetto the whole time, that is pretty cool.

You learned how to project/belt maybe?

It's possible as I get better with it maybe i'll record something with it and post it. Right now It's not perfect as I just figured out how to do it today and i'm a little between doing it proper and doing falsetto at some points. But it's cool to do no doubt, i've wanted to be able to do it for a long time.

Do you know around what note you can hit when you're doing it correctly?

IDk how it works exactly but on a guitar on the high e string I can at least hit the F note and i'm pretty sure I can go higher. Like somewhere between the 2nd to 5th fret on the last string in standard tuning.

the 5th fret in standard tuning would be an A, which is fairly high, the singer i was talking about before, has just begun to learn how to project, and his high note at the moment is an A

For my chest voice (belting it), my highest note as of this moment is a high D. I've found a way to mix my chest/head voice (like Ant and Cove do) and I can hit up to an F# doing that.

As far as true, rich, chorus-type quality, I peak out about a B.

i'm truly jealous, seriously


it's frustrating trying to learn these techniques, even with a vocal teacher's help, haha

I never had help. I just listened to people do it, did my best to emulate, and found what works with my voice and what doesn't.

I just all of a sudden stumbled upon it yesterday singing to a song that was all screaming, which don't really make sense.

thats awesome, man

tomorrow i'm doing an acoustic cover of Come Close at my school's talent show, so that should be fun, i hope i don't fuck up

So how'd it go?

I'll find out in a couple hours, talent show starts at 6:30, haha


Edit: ok, soooooo

it went pretty horrible in my opinion, lol

the chorus' and ending went pretty well, but the person playing the lead part kept fucking up the verses and it kept fucking me up

i'm gonna do a recording of it myself next weekend, though, i'll post it for anyone who wants to listen/give me feedback

Bump

I can now hit a high D, pretty proud of myself, but it's still not perfect, i can't do it with every vowel sound yet, I's A's and O's are my best right now

but the real reason i'm bumping the thread is 'cause of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVyyhHFKI8E

Kongar-ol Ondar

basically, a village somewhere practices this thing called "throat singing", where a single person can sing 2-4 notes at a time, it's pretty weird/cool/interesting, never herd anything like it before

Holy shit, that's cool. How would you even do that?

Old news.

Obviously, it aired in '99.

I love to sing, but too bad I suck at it.

i figured you would have herd him by now, you're a lot older then i am jesse, it's new to me =P haha



so just as an attempt to keep this thread remotely active, anyone have any recording/video of them performing?

me and some friends did two panic at the disco covers about a month or so ago for our schools talent show (not the best, instrumental performance at all, but the vocals were pretty decent, haha), check it out, i'm the one in the full out panic costume

I Write Sins Not Tragedies
There's a Good Reason These Tables are Numbered Honey...

so everyone sucks at posting in this thread =P


i posted this before in the saosection, this dude is incredible

are you guys serious? is that guy serious?
how is this cool at all.