? for the halfway decent singers here

[Phish0742]

Just wondering how awful some of the alright singers here were when they started singing. Did you already have a decent voice or were you terrible, like me, and just practiced or took lessons?

Thanks
Brett

[Appfro]

i think praisedave is the biggest success story here. when he first started, you could tell he had potential, but he needed a lot of practice. a few years later, he's much much better now. everyone who sings has to practice. if you don't practice, you lose it. but there are those w/ potential who need to practice, and those who should probably be happy playing guitar w/o a mic infront of them

[TimmyJ4140]

i think praisedave is the biggest success story here. when he first started, you could tell he had potential, but he needed a lot of practice. a few years later, he's much much better now. everyone who sings has to practice. if you don't practice, you lose it. but there are those w/ potential who need to practice, and those who should probably be happy playing guitar w/o a mic infront of them

Yeah, it really does just come from practice and listening. I remember when I started singing, I really wasn't very good, but it was all I did for years, and now I'm a LOT better than I was. So yeah, just keep singing, everywhere, all the time.

[bassman462]

I use to be really bad. I want to major in acting, and go on to act in musicals, so I've really started cutting down on practice with the piano and have gotten much better. what's really hard for me to do is sing and play guitar at the same time without other musicians. I tend to speed up then I stop concentrating on my breathing and my voice starts going off.

[whatshername]

I'm the biggest advocate of "practice makes perfect" when it comes to singing. When I first starting to sing while playing, I sucked. I gradually got better and better. And it was obvious, too. I gained the confidence to post some of my stuff up for people to critique. Almost seven years later I'm known in my group of friends for having a good voice, my friends make me sing for them. One of my friends even tried to get a local radio station to my play my stuff. People ask me for copies of my CDs, there's an entire prep school in Connecticut who knows my music now. It's sort of crazy...I went from sucking to being listened to by strangers. Seriously, just keep practicing. Sing in the car, sing in the shower, sing along to whatever's playing on your iTunes. It will just come to you. Keep it up!

[sunglassesatnight]

I think that I have improved greatly in my singing through lots of practice and more practice. I fully subscribe to what Whit said. I've only been concentrating on my singing for a year or so, but the improvement just in that time has been pretty remarkable, and since I first really sang about two years ago it was horrendous. I would not characterize myself as a "good" singer yet, but I hope to be somewhere near there before too long.
The concentration on singing well seemed to come to me when I started really trying to write my own music, and be serious about it. You can't really fake a voice, which I had a tendency to do on covers, etc. on your own stuff. Plus, I have aspirations of performing and I'll never do that in any capacity without the ability to sing.
Best of luck. I find little more rewarding than singing well, especially considering where I was not long ago.

[rockyall107]

im improving, but i still suck with a full band and i am better by myslef or with another guitar player

[mangold]

I sucked worse than anyone. staright up. i like to think i can carry a tune now. If you want me to i can post some old stuff and you can laugh at me.

i really appreciate what you said though mitch, i really do work everyday to improve.