need singing critique and advice

[davekllawre210]

i've jsut recently been able to sing and play guitar. however, i can't sing to well. i through togehter a little clip. just curious for some advice on the singing and how to sound better. ignore the small guitar mess up at the begining of the verse. im just concerned about the singing. thank you very much.

http://s44.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=32I9 ... IXBTSIZ95K

[HumbleMonkey]

first of all, welcome to dmbtabs! and for my second first of all, it was hard to even hear anything in that clip. but that is part of your problem. it seems you are holding back from singing, very quiet and monotone. try to put in more energy. sing a little louder and put emotion into the song. thats all i could really say right now, just reallly get into it and go for it.

[Delicate Genius]

It's hard to get a read on how well you sing because the song doesn't sound very vocally challenging.

Based on what I can tell, I personally prefer vocalists who enunciate and phrase a little more. I don't know how well you play guitar, but singing should be like playing a guitar solo. In a guitar solo, hopefully you don't just play the notes and that's it; sometimes you do things really staccato, sometimes you do slow vibrato, sometimes you do wild vibrato, sometimes you slide into things or slide out of them, etc. Singing is the same way. With regard to every instrument, this generally separates professional quality from amateur quality. So work on phrasing your lines and not just blandly reciting them in key.

Of course, this takes practice, and the only way you're going to get anywhere is if you push yourself. I don't know what you're singing (I'm not a DMB fan at all; I just found this forum by accident and read your thread), but you need to try something more challenging. It sounds like you recorded this with your mom in the other room, embarrassed that she might hear you. You need to find some music by great vocalists and work on that; push your range. I like singing along to Muse, Radiohead, and Nirvana, personally, because each one of their vocalists is all over the place in terms of range. I mean, Kurt's voice sounded cracked as hell (which was cool, in my opinion), but if you can sing a lot of Nirvana stuff in pitch (cracked vocals or not), you have a pretty good vocal range for rock. If you want to hear excellent vocal phrasing and range, listen to Muse. Matt Bellamy is a rock-vocal-virtuoso, in my opinion. Better yet, sing along. Just don't be embarrassed to belt it out. And you never know, unlike guitar playing, you can almost automatically be a good vocalist (some people are born with it), but you wouldn't know that unless you tried.

Hope this helped.

[HumbleMonkey]

DG, Welcome to DMBTabs

[xan.]

I dont have a good voice but if you put energy behind your voice and enthusiasm you will sound a lot better. you sound like your dead and your singing in the same tone throughout the whole sound. Just get into it, the more you sing the better you will get just like everything else. just dont be shy about your voice.

[davekllawre210]

thank you all for the comments. i might try another and post it again

[jaxmahoney]

You're whispering into the mic. Alot of beginning guitar players watch their fingers and mumble (instead of sing) as they play. I would suggest recording your guitar and then singing overtop of it to help wih your singing style, and only to help with your singing style. After you get better at playing then try to match your singing style from the tape while you are playing. I also suggest to talk to yourself while you play guitar, it will get you used to singing while playing. Good Luck!

[Delicate Genius]

You're whispering into the mic. Alot of beginning guitar players watch their fingers and mumble (instead of sing) as they play. I would suggest recording your guitar and then singing overtop of it to help wih your singing style, and only to help with your singing style. After you get better at playing then try to match your singing style from the tape while you are playing. I also suggest to talk to yourself while you play guitar, it will get you used to singing while playing. Good Luck!

I find playing and singing very difficult if it's not just chords with a generic strumming pattern. The thing is I can do both separately quite well (not to sound cocky) and for recording I'd have no trouble, but I'd be afraid to do my stuff live. For example, I'd love to cover "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead with a band live at some point, and I can do it fine vocally and the guitar is really simple, but both aspects go to pieces when I do them simultaneously

I guess I just need to practice. The majority of the time I spent becoming proficient at the guitar my only goal was to be a good guitarist, not a singer at the same time, so I guess I have to learn now.