How should I sing?
You should choose a singing method that works for you. You can find singers and teachers who are quick to recommend their method, claiming, “It’s the best.” A good method is one that can teach you the basics of singing such as breathing management and articulation.
My voice doesn’t work, did I do something wrong? What do I do?
Your voice might stop working for many different reasons, and they can all be fixed. Thinking too much about how you sound as you sing can make you nervous and you may not sound your best. Not getting enough sleep can cause your voice to feel sluggish and not respond as easily as it normally does. Your voice will feel tired if you’ve spent too much time singing the day before. Your signing muscles are very similar to the other muscles in your body. The muscles need to be worked out, but they also need their rest. Emotions can have their affect on your voice as well. Crying can make the cords swell and feel puffy, too.
Do fat people have bigger voices?
Nope. Your voice has nothing to do with the size of your waist. If this were true, then large people would be natural singers by default. Actually, having extra weight around the middle makes it harder to move your body and to breathe. If moving like this is second nature to you, then you have nothing to worry about. To be honest, the size of your head and throat make a larger impact.
My voice is really scratchy, do I have nodes?
You need to put your vocal cords through a lot of abuse to get nodes. You won’t get nodes by yelling for a day. Naturally they would swell, but it would take much more abuse to give them nodes. Nodes are basically like calluses. If you don’t abuse the cords, the problem will not exist. If the scratchy sounds continue, try vocalizing high in your range. Nodes will for the most part only affect the high part of your voice. If the sound is husky only in the middle part of your voice, you probably have another kind of swelling other than nodes.
What’s the difference between a singing coach, voice teacher, and an accompanist?
The coach is a person that can play the piano and will give you good advice on singing. A coach will teach you many different things, such as a singing style that works for you, and finding places to breathe in the song. A coach gives you the basic, and compliments your voice teacher.
A pianist or accompanist is someone who plays the piano for you to practice singing but doesn’t offer advice. An accompanist is not cheaper than a coach though.
The voice teacher is the most important and will show you your technique. Although the coach may have knowledge of technique, the voice teacher should be the pro and expert. While the voice teacher may not be a great pianist, they do have a great amount of knowledge. For any voice session, you will probably spend half of it on technique, and half on repertoire.
Want to learn how to sing like a star but don’t have the money for expensive private singing lessons? Then I highly recommend you check out Singing Success from Brett Manning.
