Singing Tips

I have a question does smoking affect your voice?

Yep. It screws up the throat and also puts that crap in your lungs, which prevents you from having that natural deep breat. It also stops your voice from being as powerful because of that.

Thanks for posting this Jazz, I'm silly enough to sing lying down in my bed when I forget to practice! I won't be doing that anymore let me tell you!

I reall especially appreciate the push my stomache out thing, I always struggled with long high pitches so that should make me a lot better in time.

Ah, by all means try it. I've heard singing on your back can be very useful. It opens up your lungs and allows them to get more air in their lings. I've heard that a fair few famous people do it too. Just remember to be straight. :D

Pushing the stomach in and out also helps put less of a strain on your voice, it hurts less when your voice gets tired from being over used, because it's not using as much energy; the wind is pushing out the noise as fast as it can and creates a louder sound.

Very nice technique tips, thanks...even tho I think ive lost my voice long time ago :D.

Do you know, or do you have favorite tips on mixing you vocals, like how to equalize vocal track or effects you use?...

Cher's...I mean Cheers.

Thanks alot Jazz! I've improved alot this month, but this really did help, my voice sounds better then ever. THANK YOU!

jazz...... hey. thats interesting, i think everyone here would prefer to sing well, than to be in the middle of the crowd...
thanks jazz
u rock

I'm glad it's helped you all. There's never any point in keeping anything to yourself. Everyone deserves a chance.

"Just remember to be straight. :D" - JazzMaverick


haha, does this mean ** people cant sing??
just kidding
nice lesson

if smoking messes up your singing then why does Liam Gallagher have a wonderful voice

Then smoke and you'll find out. But naturally you won't be able to take back what you've done.

haha okay. actually i think smoking might even help his kind of style of singing.

Question: Do drinks affect your voice? like if one was to drink water or soda for that matter before singing?

you should drink when you sing, it keeps your throat from getting dry and sore. theres probably other effects as well

Totally depends on what drink though! I'd always recommend drinking water instead of soda. Besides, fizzy drinks aren't even good for you! (Even though they're amazing.)

Haha yeah Root Beer is awesome XD alright thanks for the tip!

I realy would like to sing better but i don't understand very much of this lesson though.
what do you mean with:
Then, practice repeated stuff; arpeggios, scales, octaves.
i would like to have a good explanation on that then i start practice:)
Thx!

You're going to have to start from scratch if you don't know what arpeggios and scales are. Look at my other lessons, like Music Theory Grade 1, and the Arpeggios lessons I've posted.

Arpeggios are chords, just placed into easier positions for us to play and played one after another instead of all at once. E.G. --> C, E, G, B

An Octave is the same note but played higher or lower. C to C , A# to A#, etc.

And a scale is a group of notes placed together to create a certain mood and feel.

There's only so much I can say briefly, you'll really need to check out other lessons to properly understand it.

"When you breathe in, push your stomach out, when you breathe out, push your stomach in."
I'm not sure, but I think I've read the opposite somewhere. I'm not putting your knowledge in question but could this be a typo cause I keep going back to that line every two minutes two check if I might have misread it (in fact I just did that right now).

No, that's how it should be. :) Just do EXACTLY what it says.
Breath in = slowly push stomach out
Breath out = slowly pull stomach in

Alright then. Thank you.
After I posted that comment I spent about half an hour experimenting with the breathing and in the end I was feeling kinda dizzy. Obviously, I was doing it wrong.
One more question:
Is this just a exercise or do you have to strictly follow this 'rule' when you're singing? Breath out = SLOWLY pull stomach in while singing?

It seriously helps man... keep it up - it should become second memory soon enough.

You're probably not doing it wrong, when anyone keeps doing that for a while they tend to get dizzy. When that happens just stop and try again when you feel better. :)

It's just breathing; you're just using more of your lungs than you usually do - which is very healthy by the way!

Is it possible for people who can't sing to learn how to sing by practising stuff like this?

You can sing, or speak in a singsongy way. Pretend, pretend pretend. Pretend you're Michael Jackson or John Wayne.

Use a cartoon voice or try to sing in a way that you would not normally think of. That might open your experiences a little.

This is a really good lesson Jazz. I wish I'd found it before lol.

Devilchild - yeah dude :)

we're all born with perfect pitch, we just lose it during the years without practice. So all you need to do is practice to get better. :) Record yourself and play it back. Constantly work to become better. :)

@ Tinyskateboard, that was a really weird thing to say! :S

JM: A singing teacher I took a class from used these exercises.

@JazzMaverick

These are great, I use a lot of them myself.

If you can do these everyday for like 30 mins then finish off with some of your favorite song, whole new world opens up for you.

The only problem I have right now is, and I think I have this problem, a raised larynx. If you know anything about this, whys of telling if I have it, and hopefully ways of fixing it let me know.

Thank you.

I already commented on this ages ago - but I'm doing it again :) Any lurkers out there who aren't sure about doing these excercises - DO THEM! I gotta admit I've been home alone today, even nervous to sing around family. But as soon as I tried 'Fluffy puppy' in particular there was already great improvment! (I know that's fast but really I was a flat dull singer). And I did that for a while plus kept improving with all the other ones & when my family come home in the morning I think I may even just sing at them cuz I gots new confidence already lol :D Do it people, you'll miss out if you don't :-)

Jazz, I owe you big! I didn't know my voice could sound as good as it is now.

haha Thanks! :D Glad you like it!

Now with more confidence, I think you should try to record yourself! if you don't have the recording equipment, buy a headset for your computer, get audacity, place the mic down in a good place in the room - make a distance and sing. Play it back and decide for yourself what you need to work on. :)

Hope this all helps!

Oh yey I have a usb mic and audacity! :-) I shall experiment with that. Thanks again Jazz, I really do feel better about myself for improving so rapidly :D

How can I figure out if I'm
tenor
alto
bass
soprano
baritone Etc..?

These are the average ranges :)

Soprano: C4 – C6
Mezzo-soprano: A3 – A5
Contralto: F3 – F5
Tenor: C3 – C5
Baritone: F2 – F4
Bass: E2 – E4

Don't forget: NEVER strain or push your voice - this is BAD!! sing with your stomach, never your neck.

Aye,thank you,time to bust out my trusty keyboard...

good stuff jazzy.

I strongly recommend people who want to learn to song is to articulate the Solfeggio and start off with movable do.