[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
There’s a lot of nonsense out there about what it takes to be a singer.
The fact is, you already are one! Let’s unpick some of the myths and misconceptions.
I believe that everyone can sing.
“Hold on a minute! What about my Uncle Bob? He can’t hold a tune to save his life!”
This is my response to that: “Everyone can sing” – What the hell does that mean??!!
A lot of people will say that you don’t have what it takes to be a singer if you haven’t got natural talent or you don’t have a hit record or you haven’t had singing lessons or you don’t put the work in.
But for every comment like this there is always an example that contradicts it.
There are plenty of well-known successful singers who don’t have “nice voices”. There are thousands upon thousands of the most beautiful singers out there who you will never hear of because they aren’t famous. For every great singer who has taken loads of singing lessons and put the long hours in, there are those who just came into the world with an amazing voice and didn’t have to work at it.
Most people who worry about being a ‘good’ singer or need to know if they have what it takes are out to be famous. They want to be a big success and become a celebrity with millions of record sales.
But that has nothing to do with singing. That’s about being famous which is a whole other story. It’s about people who need the validation of the world to feel good about themselves.
If you’re worried that you don’t have what it takes to be a singer, you might want to check out these articles.
Is how you label yourself as a singer holding you back? – you might have put yourself in the wrong box or have an out-of-date view of yourself. Time to change that!
Want to sing but are scared of being judged? Here’s what to do – everyone can sing and you have an amazing, unique voice, but may be nervous about sharing it. Here are some hints to get you started.
If not now, when? – start singing NOW! – this is for you if you’ve always put off singing until tomorrow, or until that day when you feel ‘ready’
Never let the fake perfection of pop singers put you off singing – many of you compare yourselves with your favourite pop singer and find yourself lacking. But most modern pop songs have Autotune and many other tricks to make the singers sound better than they really are.
How do you get to the truth of what your singing ability really is? – here are some ways of finding out what you really sound like as opposed to what you think you sound like.
What makes a ‘good’ singer? – it’s all about context – ‘good’ depends on whether you’re going to make a recording to sell or if you just want to sing to your friends.
Never tell someone they can’t sing – it is brutal, damaging and untrue – you may well have been put off singing by someone’s casual remark on your singing ability. So be careful what you say to others – it can hurt and last a lifetime.
One unkind word can put you off singing for ever – how to protect yourself – and if someone has made nasty comments about your singing, here are some ways get over it.
Be the best singer you can, but don’t forget there’s more to life – we all want to be great singers, but don’t get fixated on the fame thing, find a balance to your life.
What to do if you don’t have a ‘nice’ voice – it’s not up to you to decide whether your voice is ‘nice’ or not, and remember one person’s ‘nice’ is another’s ‘terrible’!
Singing the wrong note is not the end of the world – we can be very hard on ourselves and maybe even want to give up if we’re less than perfect, but it’s inevitable that we’ll make mistakes as we develop.
The only thing stopping you from being a better singer is ... you! Get your head out of the way and let your singing voice do its job.
Your singing voice: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! – if everything’s going well, you like the sound of your voice and it never becomes hoarse, then you don’t need singing lessons. Just sing!
Can I call myself a ‘singer’? – all those preconceptions about what it takes to be a ‘real’ singer just get in the way of us singing and thinking of ourselves as singers.
Putting the hours in – are singers born or made? – you may have heard that to be an expert at something you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. But maybe you’ve either got it or you ain’t. What do you think?
How to be a confident singer – easy: stop caring what other people think about you!
Learning to love the sound of your own voice – weird isn’t it that most of us hate how we sound when we listen to a recording of our own voice? You can get over this though.
Why can’t I sing? – a list of many of the (false) reasons why people think they can’t sing and some useful counter-examples.
How do I know if I’m singing in tune? – and when you’ve figured that out, you can go on to Learn how to sing in tune
Chris Rowbury
website: chrisrowbury.com
blog: blog.chrisrowbury.com
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