Singing questions/tips

[Kanthos]

I have a few questions relating to singing. I'm not a bad singer; I have a reasonable range, can sing pretty clearly, can hold my own part whether or not I'm singing it with someone, and can generally sing in tune, unless I'm pushing the limits of my range. However, my voice is boring and not very powerful. I generally sing along with my iPod as I'm walking (I live in a quiet neighbourhood so I don't get overheard, so no one thinks I'm some kind of freak), plus I sing at church. I can sing, for example, Charlie Brown's part in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown; I've got the range for it. Problem is, I'd need a good microphone so people could hear me, and even then, no one would want to listen.

What kinds of tips do you guys have, particularly the vocalists, to becoming a better singer? Where do I look for that kind of stuff, short of getting private lessons (which I don't have the time or money for at the moment?)

I sort of know what it means to belt something out, but how do you actually do it?

What's the difference, in terms of technique, between a head voice and chest voice? I think that a chest voice is more powerful but can't go as high as a head voice, and obviously one voice comes or seems to come from your head and one from your chest. How do you actually do the two, and how do you know which one you're using? When, rangewise, is it generally a good idea to switch over from one to the other?

Lastly, a question about writing for singers. Obviously, writing sheet music for a singer is easy if you just stick to lyrics and notes. What if you use other effects and wordless vocals and aahs and that kind of thing? Do composers typically write that out explicitly or have some other notation or just trust the singer to add it in? Are particular effects (belting, for example) generally specified explicitly or assumed by the performer given the nature of a section of a piece?

[IsolinearMoogle]

As a private voice teacher, I'd like to claim some credibility on this subject, although I will be the first to admit that most of these questions will get you many completely different legitimate answers, some of which will be more helpful to you than others. I had a lot to say on this, so I am going to make a couple posts, hopefully this will be helpful for you.

Teaching yourself any instrument can be very tricky, and vocal technique even moreso. I would strongly suggest you find someone to help despite the "time and money" situation. I think you will end up saving yourself a lot of time over trying to learn yourself, and it doesn't necessarily have to break the bank. Even a friend or colleague who has had some vocal training and can give you some of their time will be an indispensable point of view, and even legitimate teachers may be more affordable than you think. Often local schools (high schools, and especially colleges) with music programs will have leads on good, inexpensive voice training. (I'm not exactly unbiased on this subject, admittedly.)

Regardless of whether or not you have a teacher, you should read up on singing. I don't know of any free or online knowledge sources for vocal technique, but I can recommend for starters a book called "The Complete Handbook of Voice Training" by Richard Alderson. It is a pretty good book that covers a wide range of vocal technique aspects. It's also nice in that, in my opinion, it contains information that you can apply to any singing style, whether it be classical, Broadway, jazz, metal, etc.

[IsolinearMoogle]

Like I said in my previous post, these are not always "black-and-white" questions to answer.

From the fact that you sing Charlie Brown's part, I'm assuming you're a guy. Chest voice and head voice have different applications for men and women. You are thinking correctly that chest voice sounds to most people more powerful than head voice. The explanation of how the different voices are generated can be quite technical, but I think odds are good that you're already accessing your chest voice. The head voice, which is frequently associated with the "falsetto," is a much lighter sound, usually more easily generated in higher pitches. Most male singers have a break roughly around "high E" (E4) where chest voice is no longer comfortable for them, at which point they are usually able to continue singing upward for a bit using their head voice.

It is a good idea to use whichever voice is more comfortable for you at the note you are singing. While most styles will want you to try to use your normal chest voice to sing all the notes, it is not a great idea to sing in your chest voice in ranges where you are not prepared to go yet, either through lack of training or simple human anatomy. Using your chest voice where you shouldn't is probably what you are thinking of with "belting it out." This is the result when you try to sing loud in registers too high, like trying to hit the high note in an aria you are really not able to do properly, or trying to emulate the guy in the hard rock song screaming at the top of his lungs. Don't do it. It will not provide as clear a sound as what you'd get if you actually trained to sing that note correctly, and it will possibly destroy your vocal cords. You can usually tell when you are "belting it out" because it will actually hurt a little. Unlike other types of exercise, singing shouldn't hurt. If you are feeling the burn, you're probably doing something wrong.

[IsolinearMoogle]

A couple final notes about writing effects in sheet music for singers... and I think most of this applies to writing for any instrument.

There are many standard notation symbols, as you probably are aware. Although, again, I advise against "belting it out," giving a singer a fortissimo on a high note will probably give you the emphasis that you would get from belting. As far as whether or not to notate effects, it is all about what you think will be self-evident to the singer.

The safest rule of thumb for what the singer will already know is to assume the singer knows nothing, and if you have an effect that is important to you to be done exactly, mark it. That goes for dynamics, phrasings, chest voice vs. head voice, etc. I can't say I've ever seen "belt it out" on a score, but if you really really want that, then write it. Depending on the circumstances of the performance, the singer is usually free to ignore your markings of this kind, but the more that is written out, the better the singer will know what you want out of the piece.

And, as far as print music is concerned, "ooh" and "aah" are legitimate words...put them where you would put normal lyrics. If there are no lyrics for notes, the singer will either make them up (which could be cool) or, more likely, give you an awkward silence.

Hope some of that helps!

- Moog

[Kanthos]

That's the exact kind of response I was hoping for. I'll probably start just with the book; as I'm also trying to learn composition, sequencing, and remixing at the moment with the spare time I have, throwing on vocal lessons will be a bit much, plus my wife and I are putting all our money into saving for a house so we can stop paying rent. Hopefully, we'll move this year, and once we're settled in our new town (just outside the large city where we rent an apartment for now), I'll look for a vocal teacher.