How to learn to sing?
general information
Mastering your voice as a musical instrument is a very difficult task that requires an enormous amount of work. However, there are exercises to help you understand how the voice is placed as well as the specifics of vocal performance.
Read below, how to learn to sing at home, give exercises and explain the features of this process.
Vocal types
There are three types of vocal performance – academic, pop, and folk. The mastery of each of them occurs in different ways, as well as the aspects of technique and sound production differ. To generate rappers’ names, get the help of the online rap name generator tool.
Academic
learn to sing the same way of singing that operas and other classics are performed. The main thing that distinguishes this type of vocals from the rest is that singers in it do not use microphones or other ways to increase the volume. Everything is achieved through the singing itself. Because of this, rather stringent requirements are imposed on this vocal technique.
First, you must practice your timbre of voice, because performing academic works requires a wide vocal range in which all notes sound clear and without overtones.
Secondly, academic vocals require flawless articulation – again, the goal is to achieve the perfect sound that would pierce the orchestra and sound good without any processing.
It is very difficult to learn this type of vocal at home, and if you want to master it, then it is best to contact a teacher.
People’s
This is a fairly common style of singing used by many pop singers – for example, Pelageya. Folk vocals are a conversational manner of performance that contains specific techniques characteristic of a particular person.
Another distinctive feature is the almost constant presence in a high singing position. It is thanks to this that this type of vocal gets its specific sound.
Folk vocals today are taught in almost the same way as pop. It has all the basic techniques required for any vocalist. The only question that remains is to understand the specifics of the genre in which you sing.
Pop
At the moment, pop vocals are the most common among all other types. Most of the singers on the big stage use it. Its main feature is that, as a rule, the vocal parts are within a one not very wide range. In addition, the pop singing technique assumes that the artist will somehow move on stage and interact with the audience – this is reflected in the techniques used.
At the moment, it is pop vocals that are one of the most diverse. In this article, we will tell you how to learn to sing in a pop style.
Basic principles
In this section, we will tell you in detail and describe the principles by which you can learn to sing from scratch without leaving your home.
Breathing support
The first thing you need to understand in order to master the vocal skill is that you need to breathe not with your mouth, but with your nose while making a sound like your belly.
Take a deep breath and try to move your abdominal muscles so as to push out the drawn air in small portions. The feeling that is created in the area of the diaphragm from this action is the support. You need to learn to control it and sing with support.
Yawn
Yawn is a trick that came to pop vocals from the academic. The idea is to open your mouth wide on vowels when playing vocals – especially when you have to stretch it out. This creates a spacious and round sound that is not trapped in your mouth. While yawning, you may notice that some vowel sounds, such as “e”, are transformed into “a” due to the fact that the latter is more open. This is fine.
The hardest part here is keeping a yawn when playing sounds in the higher registers. At first, you will really want to close your mouth a little to find the right note without maintaining the roundness of the sound – this is normal, but you will have to get rid of this habit.
Of course, not all songs are good for yawning, but mastering this aspect of vocals will help you create a nice, round sound where you need it.
Vibrato
This term is called the natural vibrations of the voice, which are formed in resonators during singing. It also makes the sound less flat and more spacious. Vibrato cannot be learned separately from the whole complex of vocal aspects, and most often it appears by itself after the correct setting of the voice and singing on support.
Singing sounds
It is about performing not the letters of the words, but their sounds while singing. When you set up a support and a yawn, it will start to work out for you by itself – and you will notice that most often, instead of the usual letters “e” or “y”, you will get the sounds “a” or “o”.
This is because these sounds are more rounded and easier to control on their own. Of course, this does not work in all, especially pop compositions, but this technique is very important when drawing notes, as well as when taking sounds of high registers.
Exercises
Breathing support exercise
Stand up and breathe in. After that, tighten your stomach and try to push the air out of your lungs with your diaphragm, shouting out some sound – for example, “a” or “o”. You will feel that you are wasting less air on each scream, even though it sounds louder than your normal scream.
Once you get used to this sensation, start drawing sounds in the same way. Your belly should be tense and, as it were, squeeze out the air, leaning on it. You need to train yourself to do this with every vocal performance.
Hum
For this and the following exercises, you will need an instrument or sequencer in which you can create a sequence of correct-sounding notes.
Play any note on the instrument and try to hum it to the right tone. It will be difficult at first, but it will get better and better over time. Build a small pattern that you will play and practice on it, trying to smooth the transition between notes.
After you are able to play the notes in sequence normally, try to come up with a small melody and sing along with it.
Vowels
The exercise is similar to the previous one, but the difference is that you will not need to hum, but sing vowel sounds after the melody and notes.
Start with slow parts, where the change in notes is rare and long, without an abrupt change in tessitura, and gradually try to perform more and more complex melodic patterns.
Tongue Twisters
Vocals are also about diction. Train her on tongue twisters, especially pay attention to the last phrases and syllables, which are, as it were, swallowed in familiar speech.
How to learn to sing at home?
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Start playing your instrument
Of course, you can learn to sing without playing any other instrument, but this will be much less effective and more difficult. That is why very often vocal instructors teach the basics of piano playing.
The easiest option is to start singing with a guitar. This will help you learn to hear and listen to music and, over time, develop your ear for music. Such training will be much more effective than simple singing to a backing track.
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Sing someone else’s songs
Sing regularly to someone else’s music that you are familiar with. Listen to what you sing and try to hit the notes with the vocalist. The best option is a favorite song that suits you well in its range and is performed by a singer of the same gender as you. This way you can avoid situations where most of the notes in a song are simply not played by you.
Start taking songs with a wider range of vocal parts later, and gradually train your voice to hit the desired notes. Thus, you will slowly begin to expand your voice.
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Record your voice
When singing with a guitar or backing track, it is very important to record your voice. So you can hear yourself from the outside and understand which things are more difficult for you, and which ones are easier. For this, any microphone is suitable that can record a voice normally and without artifacts.
If you are singing to a studio recording with vocals, then try to put a track with you in parallel with the track of the track. This way you will hear even better what problems you have and where to develop further.
