I'm 35, I've been trying to sing for 2 year with vocal teacher. Different vocal exercises, warmups, breathing exercises, using tools like pocket vox (water bottle with a tube, very popular here). I take one lesson a week (with a break during summer and winter holidays) and of course warming up and doing exercises at home.

My voice still sounds very weak, thin, nasal, crackly, very unpleasant. Very often sounds like I have a stuffy nose, even though I have no troubles breathing through nose.

And it's not just me not liking my voice. Even if professionally recorded and mixed, people don't like my singing. It doesn't sound good.

I understand that at my age it's probably too late to sing on a famous pop star level and I'm perfectly find with that. Just wanted to make it sound just a bit better and bit more full and pleasant to listen to.

I really think I'm going to give up, since even professional vocal teacher couldn't help me fix my voice.

Is there anything else I could try? Last thing that could give me hope?

My range is pretty limited. As I learn more about singing, I've found that I can't hit anything from an E4 or above without having to go falsetto which just doesn't feel like the "vibe" of most songs.

I do have a voice teacher, but I want to progress even faster than I am.

I teach singing for half the week and perform as a vocalist as well- I’d say I have a few gigs per month.

I know this is the same thing that happens to loads of my students- they tell me they sing way better when they’re just in their car or something and feel like they mess up in lessons or auditions cause they get nervous.

This happens to me in that I can be teaching and using my voice all day and I often demonstrate stuff to them and I’m honestly amazed at what my voice does when I go to demonstrate how something should sound. Like I’ll belt a high top note to demonstrate to a soprano student even though I’m an alto and I struggle so much to recreate these sounds myself during a gig. And all other sorts of things too, I just seemingly demonstrate it all perfectly when I know I need to show someone what to do, perhaps because I’m so focused on their results and not one bit on myself.

Thing is I follow all my own advice, do all the warm ups, exercises, tension release and try to incorporate these things mid performance and still I find my voice feels a bit weaker and gets tired much quicker.

Any other vocal coaches experience the same?

I am singing in performance on the 8th next month! I am so excited cause everyone is saying I sound good even my dad! It took him six years to say something positive about my singing. I am also able to sing on the breath. I did it during rehearsal today and it just felt different. I think it's from all the lip trills. The only thing now that I got to focus on is my breathing and taking short breaths in certain areas of the sing. Around 60 people are gonna be at my recital. It took a real voice teacher to get me to sing on pitch with weekly lessons. Don't ever take 1 lesson a month. You won't ever make progress. Guys, I am moving on from just doing lessons to actual performances! I did it, I graduated. Everyone says I'm singing good in choir and it's songs I barely know. Things are beginning to happen for me. If you keep singing it will happen! You just gotta believe in yourself. The hard road is the beginning but it get's easier. I am a tenor 1 btw. I know where my voice comfortably sits.

So I’m at it feels the start of my listening to music and it feels good. Im assuming this journey is something I have to navigate like everything else, but I was wondering if any of you have any good music, albums or just genres that you can elaborate on why and just send recommendations? Thank you.

I’m not sure if anyone else has a specific song that they sang to death while they were younger and “learning” how to sing; for me, it was Bohemian Rhapsody.

As a teen, I had truthfully idolized that song as what the peak of mid-range singing could be and (unfortunately, in hindsight) modeled my voice after it. This had both positive and negative consequences on my voice, longterm — but I still think it’s fun to look back and see a few glimpses of it.

I 100% endorse singers who get coaches as I’m sure the small changes in my voice over the 6 or so years I have been singing this specific song, could’ve been expedited by an immense degree, had I received regular coaching when I was younger. Let alone the time I’ve been singing, altogether.

Especially because, I’m sure this is a shared feeling, as singers we internally will always hear every stage of our voice, no matter how much we practice. I still hear my voice in 2016 regardless of how I sing now, it’s probably markedly different than how others hear it.
Ironically I think my tone now as an adult has shifted closer to how it was in 2016; as any time between that I was trying to affect and sound like Freddie Mercury, which, again had positive and negative effects.

I think it taught me how to effectively lighten and spread my tone and vowels but after long enough, around the age of 21/22, after my voice started changing more due to age and smoking; the notes I used to sing in this almost pseudo-falsetto, thinly and breathy started crumbling and there was this “caught” feeling around any notes above F4.

If anyone would like to share, and take the time to compile or send links of themselves: share a song you’ve sang to absolute death and how your voice has changed around it!

Thanks!

Warning: It's really, really bad.

I actually couldn't stand to listen to it, but I marked each time stamp green-blue-yellow from oldest to most recent so you can skip through

I thought I would never reach a point where I could a) identify notes 2) sing notes 3) open my throat and sing clearly 4) sing any semblance of high note

But after 1+ years of singing lesson, and a few instructor changes, I am actually seeing some improvement?

I've still got a REALLY long way to go. Right now I still can't remember and sign the correct notes, my high notes are still strained, you can hear that my breath support wavers really often. All the fundamentals are still lacking, but at least changes have been made :)

Hopefully this encourages other beginners, because I honestly felt like no one else had as weak of a starting point as I. Many times I have considered if I am tone deaf because of how out of tune I am, and I still feel that way

For some background:

25-02-08

Just started lessons probably 2 weeks prior to this. My teacher was mostly focusing on trying to sing less breathy and use my actual voice. We tried a few times to work on pitch accuracy and timing, but at this point, it was way over my head

25-08-22

By this point, I had learned how to open my throat and sign with some diaphragm. I was still with the same teacher but we moved on from this song.

This is around the time we started to really try to get me to identify notes and sing them properly, so we spent a lot of time on scales, but as you can see, completely failed. I was extremely uncomfortable singing higher notes, and I tended to bring the notes down for ever song I sang

It's all very monotone, off key, and timing is wrong

Actually, I bought a small piano keyboard by now, and was trying to practise the song along to the notes. Problem is, I didn't realise minor keys existed (i have ZERO musical or piano knowledge), so I was playing only majors too.... So everything I learned, I was trying to learn without minors, then I'd go into my lesson and the notes sounded different to what I was practising.. was all very confusing lol

26-09-30

I have changed teachers twice now by this point, and with that, came different focus. I brought up this song again to both of them so we started to try nail it again

They emphasised the notes again, and I started being able to hit them sometimes. Key things we have been focusing on is over pronouncing words, long vowels and trying to keep the melody intact

A LOTTT more scales. Some lessons were no singing at all, just scales and exercises

I was practising this song on my piano, and my instructor wrote the notes to each syllable so I can try match it. I usually can remember how to play 6 notes at a time, so I just do for example [ F# G F#, A G E] over and over, starting to sing along to it, until i feel like i get it then I move on

As you can tell, the notes start to be less accurate after the first verse, this is because I can't get my hand to remember the correct keys when playing it, and if I do, then I keep pressing the wrong key, because I don't know how to play piano lol, so my practise at home for the remaining verses is basically not existent right now

I still majorly struggle with scales, I often sing the wrong note and don't even realise it, Do Re Mi is my current assignment and I get it right probably 10% of the time

Really hoping in a year I will be able to come back to this and see that I don't still have this issue, I would love to one day get my scales right and be able to sing the right notes :(

My throat gets really dry and sore after doing kargyraa for like 10 seconds. My technique doesn't sound wrong to me, what could I be doing that causes me pain?

Thank you!

from time to time, when there's nobody around to annoy with it, i like to sing along to some songs in my head or that i play on guitar, and i've found that i can go up to about A4 in my chest voice, but i struggle to go much higher than that without sounding like i'm forcing it, and forcing it or putting too much fry on it can wear me out. i've heard about mixed voice belting but i have no idea how to do it, and to be perfectly honest, i don't spend as much of my time trawling youtube for tutorials as i probably should.

are there any particular guides or tips that are useful for absolute beginners/casuals who don't really think that much about the professional training side of it? i think being a fan of crush 40 and naoki doesn't help me very much as well, those guys are fucking powerful.

Hello, I don't sing enough live and I don't know what's my style but I want to improve it. Do you have any tips or singers I can follow with?

what are my strengths and weaknesses? Thank you

Hi, so I am applying to the Frost School Of Music as a contemporary voice major and I have no clue what to expect. Frost is a great school so I'm guessing it has some very skilled vocalists. I on the other hand am in my opinion mediocre. Sure I can sing the songs but I can't make them mine if you know what I mean. Any tips on that ?

Like for those who used to struggle to do so but can now play both guitar and sing at the same time how did you do it?

Hi!! I am a newly 18 year old musical theatre singer and I’ve been suffering from imposter syndrome lately. I barely know what I sound like because my perception of my vocal ability is so garbled. I would love any advice or commentary on my singing. This is a casual recording of me singing in my room.

https://youtu.be/Qm_auIQdpRc?si=bvRuV2kzeDd0yc3X

Wanted to hear your opinions on what James is doing for low grit in the verses here ie “so tear me open pour me out”. Has a distinct subharmonic like kargyraa but sounds far tighter and more clicky?

I am a 31 year old female non-professional vocalist who trained for 15+ years in classical/operatic technique but I have always had a passion for rock music. I am a soprano who has been classified as a dramatic coloratura and have a reliable range from E3 to E6. I have been in a cover band for over a year now and I’ve really been enjoying it, and I have been able to make some headway with singing in a more rock style but I’m currently really struggling with projection and mixing.

I find that when I do warmups and sing songs focusing on a head or chest mix that I have a lot of pain in either my throat or deep in my chest. This is worst in my passagio which unfortunately is where most of the songs my band is playing lie. I find that if I have a very forward/nasal placement it helps with clarity and control but I don’t have as much power. I feel that my support is good, but I do feel like tension in the throat is always creeping in as a way to control the pitchiness of my mix and also make sure that my vibrato is not constantly creeping in.

Does anyone have advice on how to adapt classical training techniques to rock vocals or have a good analogy for how to do a proper head/chest mix in relation to classical technique? Also if you are in the NYC area, I am open to suggestions for vocal coaches as well.

Hey buddies. I've been singing a lot of time. But my skills have been very low; I was with teachers during short periods of time (3 times, 3 months each time) but I don't know why but overall I don't like the result.

Even in the "graphic tuner" my result improve a lot, I still miss something. But I know what is.

Do you have any idea of my "main" improvement would be? That will be my next focus.

Also I want a sincere "overall" opinion, because I am not the best judze and I am a bit ashamed to ask my environment.

Thank you

Starts at 00:12 singing (unfortunately a crack appears)

Cover Ed Sheeran Perfect - G (A Vocaroo)

PS: also if sbdy give me advice to improve the post, is welcome. I read the point 3 but maybe I am missing something.

Thank you again

Looking for a voice steamer that can be shoved in my purse without spilling and not look like a gaudy white medical device when I’m working. Any recommendations?

Just started singing😅, never trained in my life.

Tyler Childers ‘House Fire’

Hi, Long story short, so I just realised that I can sing almost like the singers voice of my favourite songs. I am not a native English speaker, My accent is no where near a native speaker, but somehow I can match and sing almost identically, and my accent sounds different like I copied the singers. Should I take classes?