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So You Think You Can't Sing?
Western society has 2 strong myths that I'd like to debunk:
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About 18 months ago I sat in a course with 9 Speechies who identified themselves as confident singers and 9 Speechies who said they were dreadful singers. Very quickly we were singing songs together in a variety of styles with a beautiful blend- nobody's voice stood out.There was no difference in ability (singing in the keys we were singing in) between the Speechies who had sung for ages, and those that claimed they couldn't sing. Mostly it was a difference in belief about own abilities and past experiences of their abilities.
I love music but I'm tone deaf!
True tone-deafness (amusia) is a pretty rare condition (~4% of population). People who ARE tone deaf do not enjoy music. So if you enjoy listening to music, you can't be tone deaf. You may not have had a lot of experience controlling the pitch/quality of your voice outside of your talking range. So the few times you get brave enough to give it a go, you are a bit wobbly. The fact that you can hear that you have been a bit off, means you'll soon be able to gain control and sound however you would like to sound. Here Ben Zanderman talks about how well tuned our ears are.
Have you ever had the following experience?
Driving along in the car, singing at the top of your lungs along with the stereo, you turn the stereo down and realise you are completely off!!
Again, this is a good sign!!!! If you can hear the difference between how you want to sound, versus how you do sound, then you'll find it much easier to gain control of your voice. When the music was turned up, you couldn't hear your own voice, so you weren't able to control it. It's a bit like handwriting out sentences while looking the other way, you'll get the rough contours of the words and letters right, but it will be fairly messy. The shock of hearing your voice when you turned the music down very likely lead you to stop singing very quickly. What you need is time and space to concentrate on listening to your own voice, tuning in to it, experimenting with lots of different sounds.
It's really easy to sound bad and mistakenly assume you can't sing
Were you in the right key for you?
Changing how high or low you sing a song, by even just one or two notes, can make a huge difference to how easy a song is to sing, and how good your voice sounds. You've probably noticed some songs are easier to sing than others. Brilliant!!! Those other songs either need a key shift for you, or you might need to do some work on extending your range/getting control across a wider range of notes (e.g. you want to sing along with Katie Noonan or Kate Miller Heidke). Either way, there a huge number of songs out there that you can sing with very little training, just a bit of confidence.
Were you the tiniest bit nervous?
Usually people have a story that they were put on the spot to sing and they sounded awful (usually in childhood). We know when we are stressed or nervous, our voice often sounds a little bit higher. It's a rare person that doesn't get nervous and have difficulty controlling their larynx/voice box when they feel they are being judged. So while you were singing perfectly fine along with a group, the minute you get singled out, everything seizes up.
Tips to sounding awesome (with very little training)
1. Find songs that you find easy to sing, and feel good in your body. If you feel any strain, put them aside for now, or at least those parts of the songs that cause the strain
2. Sing along with the artist, turning the sound down so it's about 50/50. You can hear yourself as much as you hear them
3.When you're feeling comfortable, turn the volume down so that you can hear enough of the recording to stay in tune, but mostly you are listening to your voice.
4. DON'T JUDGE, just notice!!!! Experiment and Explore to see what feels and sounds right. You may not get it on the first go, but the body normally figures it out on the second or the third
From the American Speech and Hearing Association: Why you cringe at the sound of your own voice
And if you want to read more, check out this fantastic blog: Don't wait for the Celestial Choir, Sing Now.
Copyright (C) 2012 Elizabeth Savina. All rights reserved.
I love music but I'm tone deaf!
True tone-deafness (amusia) is a pretty rare condition (~4% of population). People who ARE tone deaf do not enjoy music. So if you enjoy listening to music, you can't be tone deaf. You may not have had a lot of experience controlling the pitch/quality of your voice outside of your talking range. So the few times you get brave enough to give it a go, you are a bit wobbly. The fact that you can hear that you have been a bit off, means you'll soon be able to gain control and sound however you would like to sound. Here Ben Zanderman talks about how well tuned our ears are.
Have you ever had the following experience?
Driving along in the car, singing at the top of your lungs along with the stereo, you turn the stereo down and realise you are completely off!!
Again, this is a good sign!!!! If you can hear the difference between how you want to sound, versus how you do sound, then you'll find it much easier to gain control of your voice. When the music was turned up, you couldn't hear your own voice, so you weren't able to control it. It's a bit like handwriting out sentences while looking the other way, you'll get the rough contours of the words and letters right, but it will be fairly messy. The shock of hearing your voice when you turned the music down very likely lead you to stop singing very quickly. What you need is time and space to concentrate on listening to your own voice, tuning in to it, experimenting with lots of different sounds.
It's really easy to sound bad and mistakenly assume you can't sing
Were you in the right key for you?
Changing how high or low you sing a song, by even just one or two notes, can make a huge difference to how easy a song is to sing, and how good your voice sounds. You've probably noticed some songs are easier to sing than others. Brilliant!!! Those other songs either need a key shift for you, or you might need to do some work on extending your range/getting control across a wider range of notes (e.g. you want to sing along with Katie Noonan or Kate Miller Heidke). Either way, there a huge number of songs out there that you can sing with very little training, just a bit of confidence.
Were you the tiniest bit nervous?
Usually people have a story that they were put on the spot to sing and they sounded awful (usually in childhood). We know when we are stressed or nervous, our voice often sounds a little bit higher. It's a rare person that doesn't get nervous and have difficulty controlling their larynx/voice box when they feel they are being judged. So while you were singing perfectly fine along with a group, the minute you get singled out, everything seizes up.
Tips to sounding awesome (with very little training)
1. Find songs that you find easy to sing, and feel good in your body. If you feel any strain, put them aside for now, or at least those parts of the songs that cause the strain
2. Sing along with the artist, turning the sound down so it's about 50/50. You can hear yourself as much as you hear them
3.When you're feeling comfortable, turn the volume down so that you can hear enough of the recording to stay in tune, but mostly you are listening to your voice.
4. DON'T JUDGE, just notice!!!! Experiment and Explore to see what feels and sounds right. You may not get it on the first go, but the body normally figures it out on the second or the third
From the American Speech and Hearing Association: Why you cringe at the sound of your own voice
And if you want to read more, check out this fantastic blog: Don't wait for the Celestial Choir, Sing Now.
Copyright (C) 2012 Elizabeth Savina. All rights reserved.
