Karaoke Forums

Several weeks ago a few friends of mine invited me to Karaoke, my first time ever, and well I ended up really liking it. Been wanting to do more since then...

Now of course, at that time I ran into two issues. #1 major issue, me singing was roughly the equivalent of scraping fingernails on a chalkboard.

Since then I've been practicing and in the meantime know one song, as far as lyrics go, reasonably well. I can try to sing along reasonably ok without missing any of the lyrics.

For reference, here's the song (note, it's in japanese):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjop_F2jXXg

However, I know my voice is way off. I can hear that it isn't right, but I don't know what to do about it. I've considered possibly taking some lessons but at $130-$140 a month, it's a bit out of my budget right now. So any suggestions?

Thanks!

sing songs you enjoy and can get to feeling comfortable with, and keep recording yourself so you can review the recording and adjust yourself where you hear any "off bits". basically practicing alot is the key.

I'm sure you can find vocal training lessons on youtube too if you wanted and could save the $$$.

I haven't watched the video you had on your post, so please don't take anything I said personally, I was just giving a thought/opinion on where people can start to make improvements if they feel they need to.

koda kumi has a beautiful voice...just keep comparing recordings of yourself to her and try to match her in any places that differ. You're on the right track...listening to recordings of yourself is , bar NONE, the BEST way to evaluate your singing and improve. Once you get comfortable- post one of those recordings here and let the SS see what they think! I also suggest finding a more up tempo song to do in addition to this ballad. Slow songs showcase a singers voice much more so you may find yourself more comfortable (and get a better crowd response) singing a danceable song at shows. When you sing that sort of thing- people tend to "groove" with it and concentrate less on your singing and more on just enjoying the song. As a beginning singer- I can;t see how that can do anything other than help to put you at ease on a stage. And being comfortable is the first step towards being a good performer!


best of luck!

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Excellent advice here. One more thing that may help -- I like a LOT of hip-hop records. If I know my voice doesn't have much to work with on a given night, I'll forget about singing and go with hip-hop entirely. It's also helped at times to warm up, as it were, and enabled me to sing where my voice may not have initially felt up to it. If there are any hip-hop songs you like enough to consider doing, this might help you, too.

You could also try singing without the music, or with the backing track turned down so you can hear yourself. I have done this with a number of songs and it really helps because you also get used to the sound of your own voice and to an extend, it's limitations.