I have been singing since I can remember, I can still recall my brothers telling me when I was three or so to "shut up, you’re screwing up the words." As I was growing up I taught myself how to hear my voice, find mistakes and fix them. The first thing anyone who wants to be a vocalist needs to learn is their vocal limitations. Mine being I’m an alto. I’m never gonna be a soprano and this was a difficult pill for me to swallow because I wanted to sing like a bird, but I soon learned that having a low range is an advantage, first of all I don’t sound like anyone else, second my range is lower than most females so I can get into this low growly range. Of course there are definite advantages either way your range swings, I just had to learn to like my voice. Know your vocal limitations and learn to take advantage of the best parts of your voice.
There in lies the second thing you have to learn, you have to get used to the sound of your own voice. The best way to do this is to record your own voice. I did this the really hard way when I was a kid because i didn’t have access to a studio then. I had two tape players, yes I said tape players, one had a blank tape and a microphone, the other had the tape qued up to the song I was working on. I would record my voice singing with the music in the background over and over until my voice and pitch were just right. I also always had the lyrics written down with little notations of vocal changes in front of me so I wouldn’t falter when recording.
Today of course you can go to a karaoke bar and most can record you singing the song. This in no way makes up for the experience of actually recording in a studio environment, but it will give you somewhat of an idea of where you are making mistakes, or if you are completely tone deaf. If you are tone deaf, there’s not really much you can do about it as far as I know, don’t take my word for it, but chances are if you are tone deaf face the fact that you will always probably sing flat, not a pleasant sound. I’m not being mean here, just honest and I don’t believe in lying. This is just the baby steps, now go home and practice, practice, practice until your throat bleeds.
Once you feel comfortable and if you still believe in your heart of hearts you were meant to be a singer it’s time to start finding some musicians to work with to help you get over the fear factor of singing in front of people. Find someone you like and trust that plays guitar and ask him/her to get together with you for a jam session. If you are lucky enough to find someone to play with for fun take full advantage of it and start building up your song list. Practice, practice, practice. I can’t say that enough.
You should, at this poimnt be checking out your local jam sessions that are held at clubs. Jump in there and try a few songs out, make sure that you know the structure of the song, the lead breaks, bridges and more importantly the key of the song. This is usually the first note in the first verse, but not always! For instance I do Stormy Monday in the key of G. When you get to a jam session the band will ask you the key, you can wing it and say standard, but really you want to know the key you learned the song in because some bands change the key to fit their lead vocalist and don’t remember which key it was originally done in.
Look for more on this later.
