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If you
would
like to
learn to
sing
karaoke
(or anything else) well, singing lesson will help. Exceptional
singing lessons will encompass
vocal mechanics, breathing mechanics,
breathing techniques, breathing exercises, vocal exercises,
ear training and
more. Learning, and then learning to apply these techniques is a lifetime
journey. And I am sure that
there are many excellent teachers locally that provide basic singing lessons
for voice conditioning, voice improvement and voice
tone improvement. Local
schools often have voice teachers that are willing to give private voice
lessons and music stores are also a good resource. Singing lessons are
not cheap but may be worth the price, if you get what you are searching for.
There are also
many options available for less expensive, or even
free, online singing
lessons that you may also wish to check out. You will find some ideas below.
Let’s face it; most karaoke enthusiasts are not doing this to become
professional singers. But there is often contest money involved, so why not
learn to sing well? Even if you have the best karaoke song to sing, it would
really help if you have some knowledge of the basics of singing.
There are many excellent
downloadable e-book
(electronic) courses on the web that teach you how to sing - for those of
you who know that you can't sing. Purchasing these guides electronically
is very inexpensive, compared to purchasing the services of a music teacher.
Of course you do not get the one-on-one time personally with an instructor.
But on the other hand, you cannot generally attend a singing class in your
pajamas.
There are some basics to learning to sing. Of
course, the most important lesson in singing is breath control. It is
imperative to learn diaphragmatic breathing. It is also important to learn
the difference between your chest voice and your head voice and how (and
when) to make
a smooth transition between to two. This information is readily available in
the free online singing lessons at sites like
The Voice Place. This
is a good placed to start
learning the basics.
Wikipedia
goes into great detail to explain what singing is and how the physical parts
of the body influence the sounds that come out, etc.; so I will not take you
down that road. Feel free to click the
Wikipedia
link to read
about the anatomy and physiology of singing.
 I have done quite a bit of research in this
area of online singing e-courses and will share with you a little of what I
have found. Some of these are very thorough courses geared toward the
serious singer.
Singorama
is a
complete step-by-step system for learning to sing to a professional
standard. It includes a Mini Recording Studio (this feature is really
cool) and many other bonuses. It is actually quite reasonable compared to in-person music
lessons and some other online singing lessons. I have personally purchased
this course and am currently using it.
Have you ever
heard someone sing karaoke that sounded just terrible and didn’t seem to
have a clue how bad it was? It happens all the time. I started to think,
“How is it that these
folks don’t know how bad they sound?”
After
some research and discovered some
interesting information. When we listen to someone sing (or talk, for that
matter) we hear with our outer ear. When we sing, we hear with our inner ear.
The sound difference can be substantial. The other -perhaps bigger-
factor is that some people do not really hear, or better yet, simply do not
really listen to the music.
This brings me to
pitch recognition, commonly
referred to as relative pitch (the ability to hear and comprehend the
relationship between one note and another) and absolute pitch
(ability to hear a musical note or chord and name it). In order to
comprehend a pitch relationship, you have to really listen to the music.
I’ve found a couple of inexpensive online e-courses that teach you how
to develop these skills. In both of them, they begin with singing exercises
that require the learner to really pay attention to the sounds of individual
notes and the relationship between those notes.
Pure Pitch is an advanced level system that teaches pitch recognition (trains the student to start hearing notes in their mind
and connecting them to note names).
Pure Pitch has a much
narrower focus than
Singorama, but can really expand your vocal
ability. (You will also find a couple of very
inexpensive programs below, that are also pitch related:
Secrets of Singing on Pitch
and
How to Tell the Key in Music by Ear or by Sight).
The
Wikipedia
article says
that anyone that can talk, can sing (well, at least hum). I used to believe
that anyone could learn to sing, if they would just pay attention. I have
since changed my mind about that. A singing voice can definitely be
developed and there are methods that offer singing voice conditioning and
singing voice improvement. I used to hear someone say, "I
really
cannot sing." I would encourage them and say, "Oh sure your can. Let's hear
it." But now, I have come to believe that some people just do
not have the gift of song - or maybe they just cannot
hear the note variation.
Whatever it is,
these folks couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket but that doesn’t stop them
from getting up and belting out a song. And not being able to sing well,
doesn't mean that they shouldn’t sing karaoke - although, I am sure that there
are some people that would disagree. Karaoke, despite everything discussed
here is
really about fun. Besides, how are you going to know if you are really good, if
you never try? If you have never stepped up to that microphone, why not give
it a try. It actually might change your life.
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