I want to train my voice now. Just being able to play the piano is no good, I have to be able to sing as well. So anyone here at DOA:K a vocal beauty? Can I get advice and such, like what the poo singing from your stomach is. I can't tell if I am. Also listening to yourself? How you really sound? I sound different from recorded voice to singing to myself. It's kind of annoying lol. I could ask my 20-years-of vocal/piano instructor mother......Her voice is amazing, but I don't exactly like her "ways" of teaching.



Bye.

Your sig sucks. *pokes tongue out*

You know, I'm being really nice by not cussing you out or anything... You like, totally killed my father.

Well, I have never actually learned to do vocals, so my advice is sure not professional. but maybe I can help you out a bit.
First of all, if you in some kind feel uncomfortable while singing -like getting hoarse, or feeling like you're tensing up muscles to sing-, you're probably doing something wrong.
This is all about air management. You can read about that a little at the "Vocal Solutions" section on www.melissacross.com
She's more like a metal singing/screaming instructor, but much of that applies to clean singing as well.

Concerning hearing yourself- It's kinda natural to hear yourself differently when singing, than from when it's recorded. Because you actually sing "away from yourself", that means your voice is directed somewhere else and in addition you hear yourself resonating in your body as well. Sounds more "bassy" usually.
If you really want to improve your singing, I'd recommend getting some (more or less) professional recording equipment pretty soon. Because recording with your random PC mic will just suck and you won't be able to hear the quality of your singing as good.
Then it's just trial and error. Sing and listen to it. Wherever you hear there's something "wrong" in your singing, try to improve it in the next try.
When trying to cover songs you should take care to sing with your own voice and not trying to sound like the original singer of the song. You want to hit the same notes and everything, but you don't want to imitate another's voice.
Also you shouldn't try for like extremely high pitched songs in the beginning, because have to build up to that from you original pitch.

and and and. uhm. whatever. waiting for next reply for more input. :D

Thanks SO much for the reply Lostelei, I've read through it but I have to leave now so I will edit this with what I am thinking when I get back.

Thanks again! Mills smells!

Well, Lostelei, I took your advice and did trial & error for like.... 2 hours and I am sore now xD But I did hear improvement.

Is professional recording instruments expensive?

Oh, I have a question! Do you know how people do that resonating effect at the end of lines? I can do it well, for a short period, it really doesn't last long like a lot of others can.

Thanks again Lostelei!

It's not too expensive.
My vocal equipment consists of a Shure SM58 Microphone and a M-Audio Fast Track USB Audio Interface. Basically you need the audio inteface, because your soundcard doesn't have a professional XLR audio input, which every microphone above headset quality uses.
I think I paid like 220€ for both, including the XLR cable and a mic stand.

And I'm not sure if you mean what I think you mean, but I think you mean what's called "vibrato" - that's basically just changing the pitch of your voice slightly but pretty fast, I guess it takes some training.
I think I myself can't really do it, and it's not what I want to get into my singing anyway. XD
But maybe you can practice it by singing random vocal ("ooooooooo~h") and starting raising and lowering pitch alternately, first slow then getting faster. or something like that.
If that is what you actually mean, that is. :D

yeah...that's vibrato. while it's something you have to actively work to achieve in instruments, it's a natural occurance in the human voice...and can't really be taught; it's something that you just do, and i imagine that every singer achieves it using a different technique. so there's not much i can tell you that can help with having more vibrato. since you are already doing it for short periods i would just keep practicing it and eventually you should be able to keep it going for longer periods of time.

also, if you aren't already doing it -- make sure your voice is resonating near the front of your mouth. (yeah, it sounds weird...but i don't know how else to say it lol.) basically your lips and nose should feel like they're buzzing a little when you sing.

there's a little warm-up excercise to try this -- start by singing "oo" and then close your lips without changing the placement of your voice. if you do it right your should feel a sort of buzz around your mouth and nose, and your lips should feel like they're about to pop open to let the sound out. from personal experience i found it a lot easier to extend vibrato once i had my voice in the right place.

sorry this is written so confusingly, i don't know how else to put it. :X

oh! and personally i wouldn't drop the money on professional recording equipment just yet, if you are just learning. if you have a small, enclosed room in your house i would just practice there, since in a small space your voice will 'bounce back' to you and you can hear how you sound, and then you can make adjustments.

the important thing though, is to make sure you can hear yourself while you're practicing -- listening to yourself after you're done is not as helpful, because while you can still pick out problem spots it's harder to remember what you were physically doing while you were singing, and that makes it harder to pinpoint what you are doing wrong.

...singing from your stomach is simple...you can FEEL it when youre doin it right ^^

how you can do it, I can't exactly coach you on o.o
(I had my dad and his make-shift studio to help me, so i had a musician AND a way to hear myself)

Just kinda...take a nice deep breath and start singing from yo inside parts >.<