Singing Guides and Resources

The way singing works is that you breathe air from your diaphragm through your vocal cords and out your mouth. The air makes your vocal cords vibrate which produces a sound which is then shaped by your mouth, tongue and jaw.

The way you produce different pitches also has to do with the way your vocal cords are shaped when the air passes through. These cords are essentially a muscle and can be contracted and released to produce various pitches and sounds.

Do you sing? Then you’re a singer. If you want to take your singing more professionally there are a few things you have to focus your life around – practice, creation and marketing. You have to constantly be student, artist and entrepreneur. You have to always work on improving your voice and creating music.

That doesn’t mean you have to write and produce your own material, but you have to be making songs. And finally you have to promote yourself as an artist, getting your music in front of a potential audience. All of the tools to do these things are right at your fingertips. Start with the guides here on Deviant Noise and start putting in the work today.

If you don’t think you sing well, there’s good news – you can improve your voice. You’re not stuck with the voice you get right out of the box. But it takes a lot of work and dedication. You have to practice daily and possibly make a few lifestyle changes. There are techniques to help you master pitch, tone high notes and more. Start with the “How to Sing Better” guide here on Deviant Noise. It’s a comprehensive guide that shows you everything you need to know to become a better singer.

If you’re trying to sing a particular song the best thing you can do is set aside time everyday to listen to the original version over and over. You don’t have to practice along with it, but you can. The point is to really memorize and internalize not only the lyrics, but the way the singer is singing – their inflection, tone, pronounciation, etc.

If you’re having trouble with the melody you can also try to play the vocal melody of the song on the piano. Once you’ve got it down, sing along while playing it on the piano. And of course, the most important thing to do is practice – LOTS. You should be sick of the song and so well-versed in it’s intricacies. There’s no short-cut, you just have to put in the time and effort.

Whether you’re trying to sound like Adele, Ariana Grande, Johnny Cash or Marvin Gaye, the best thing to do is listen to a LOT of their music and pay special attention to the singer’s tone and inflections/pronunciations. Try to mimick what you hear over and over until you get it right.

It takes time and practice, there aren’t any shortcuts. But always remember, it’s important to simply borrow traits that inspire you, and not jack the artist’s whole style. As a singer, you need your own style, sound and identity. Never forget that.

To a large extent, yes, the voice you have has to do with genetics and development. Your genes and how you develop from birth plays a role in how your vocal folds form, how big or small your mouth is, all the way up to how your lungs work with air. All those things have an impact on how you voice works and how your vocal cords vibrate.

That directly shapes your singing voice. BUT – you’re not stuck with the voice you’re born with. You can train it to become better – especially in terms of hitting correct pitches and singing technique. So you’re not “stuck” with a voice that can’t sing. If you practice enough you can even impact and consciously shape your tone and style.

Absolutely. Good singing lessons are the best investment you can make when it comes to improving your voice. But only if you have a great teacher or purchase a great lessons. Not all vocal coaches, singing teachers, and singing tutorials are equal. But lessons are the best way to improve your technique in a structured and progressive way. It’s one of the only ways to truly improve your voice as a singer. Check out our list of the best singing lessons available right now.

Yes, absolutely. Your vocal tone and style is something that happens naturally, but the techniques great singers use to perform on a top level can be learned. But the important thing to know is that practice is what will actually make you a better singer. You have to learn the techniques, but you won’t get any better until you put them into practice on your voice. It’s the boring practice that really changes your ability to sing correctly. Check out our favorite singing lessons guide above for a great selection of the best ways to really improve your voice.

Yes singing can cause enlarged or swollen lymph nodes, vocal nodes or a sore throat – especially when using incorrect technique (breathing, posture, etc). That’s why it’s extremely important to not push your voice too far – if you feel any pain STOP immediately. You should never have to strain to hit any notes. If you find yourself straining, you need more training and practice. You don’t want to ruin your voice and cause lasting damage. Also remember to always warm up properly before singing anything, even during practice.

Singing does use up quite a bit of energy. Aside from the performance aspect (you’ll burn calories by dancing, running or jumping during a performance), singing does burn calories. A 150 pound person would burn 140 calories or so if they stood up and sang for an hour straight. It goes down to 100 calories per hour if you’re sitting and singing. So it’s probably not the best use of your time or energy if you’re just trying to lose weight. But hey, dance around and sing and you’ll get some pretty good cardio out of it!

Yes, to a certain extent singing can be helpful for relieving anxiety for some. It can help you reduce stress or improve your mood. According to Time Magazine, singing may actually release endorphins that are associated with feeling good. It’s also thought that it can stimulate the release of oxytocin – the same chemical that makes you feel good when you hug someone. Oxytocin is known to help relieve anxiety and stress.

Actually, yes, the human voice is able to break glass. But it’s extremely difficult. It requires an extremely loud and powerful voice and the ability to sing at a frequency that matches the resonant frequency of the glass. Trained opera singers are able to sing 100 db (120 db would make your ears hurt badly). And if their pitch range is large enough to hit that super high frequency, they may break nearby glass. But if the conditions aren’t exactly right the glass will just reflect the energy back into the room.

To find out what type of singing voice you have you need to find your vocal range. Once you know the lowest and highest notes you can comfortably hit, you’ll be able to classify your voice type (i.e. Soprano, Alto, Bass, etc). Check out our full guide on how to find your vocal range above for a step-by-step walkthrough of what to do.

You’ll “feel” it in a few different places in your face and upper body. If you’re breathing correctly, you should feel your stomach and diaphragm working with the air, along with your lungs. And since the sound is created by your vocal cords and folds, you’ll likely feel the vibrations near your chest, throat and mouth areas. But remember, you should never feel strain. If you feel any pain or strain at all you’re singing incorrectly and should stop and take a break.

Proper breathing when singing is done with your diaphragm. This type of breathing is one of the most important skills you can learn to help improve your singing and voice. You should be taking deep breaths in and you’ll feel it in your mid-section. We have an entire section of our “How to Sing Better” guide dedicated to breathing. Check it out above!

A run is a fast series of sung notes that are either ascending or descending (or both) in a particular musical scale. It’s used to add embellishment, emotion and energy to a performance. Think of when you hear singers like Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey sing fast ascending or descending notes during the high-energy moments of a song. Runs are also called “melisma’s” in music theory.

The best place to start with singing is learning all the fundamentals of proper technique. It’s boring, but it’s important. You have to learn how to stand and breathe if you want to produce the kind of vocal sound professionals do. Check out our guide on “How to Sing Better” for everything you need to know. A more exciting thing to focus on as a beginner is pitch. You want to train your voice to hit notes correctly – not off-key or out of tune. We show you how to do that in our guide, too!

The singing voice with the highest pitch range is the Soprano. Typically a Soprano will be able to sing from C4 to C6, covering two very high octaves on the keyboard.

Falsetto isn’t actually a “range” in singing per-se. A vocal range is what notes you’re able to comfortably cover. Falsetto is actually a vocal register – it refers to how your vocal cords, folds and muscles are used in order to create the impression of a higher pitch. Falsetto quite literally means “false” voice.

To find your singing voice type you need to figure out your vocal range. You need to learn what the highest and lowest notes you’re able to comfortably hit with your voice are. Once you determine that, you’ll be able to classify your voice as either alto, tenor, soprano, bass or baritone. Read our full guide on how to find your vocal range, above.

Music in general has many health benefits – especially when concerning mental health. Singing is also great for mental health. It’s known to relax you and release chemicals associated with feel good and reducing anxiety, stress and depression. On the physical side of things, standing up and singing can burn 140 calories an hour. Add in the fact that if you’re really into the song you may be dancing along with it, giving you a pretty good cardio workout.

There are a few things that affect how you perceive your voice when you’re singing in the shower. If you’re taking a hot shower, then the air is much moister (and heavier) than normal, so your voice is travelling through that air before it reaches your ears. Of course, you hear yourself inside your head too, which is why most people don’t like hearing themselves on a recording. But beyond all that, the acoustics in bathrooms are very distinct, and you voice reflects and echoes off those hard surfaces. Those reflections from all the surfaces add a certain characteristic to your voice. That’s likely why you prefer hearing yourself sing in the shower.

Yes, singing more will improve your voice. Practice is literally the only way to successfully refine your singing voice. But it’s important to remember that you need to be singing and practicing with proper technique. If you simply repeat bad habits or incorrect methods, you’ll make your voice worse. You may even end up damaging it. That’s why singing lessons are your best bet for truly getting better.

The first thing you need to do is learn the proper techniques to singing. Then it’s a matter of practicing those techniques. There are many different exercises that you can use to tackle each area of singing. Most practice sessions for singers involve doing a warm-up then several sets of exercises that help you sing different sounds and hit different notes. Some exercises will also help your vocal dexterity and other areas of singing. Check out our “How to Sing better” guide above for a complete practice plan!

We’re not doctors, and this isn’t medical advice, but it probably isn’t the best idea to sing while you’re sick or have a sore throat. It’ll be easier to strain to hit notes, and that can damage your voice and vocal cords. It’s always a good idea to listen to your body and rest when needed. Things like tea can help soothe a sore throat.

Singers can make money in a variety of ways. If they have a strong fanbase, they can make money from recorded music through streaming royalties from services like Spotify. But the majority of the money most singers make will come from a combination of live performance fees, merchandise sales (t-shirts, vinyl, etc), and licensing their music to film/tv/ad companies.

Becoming famous is something that either happens naturally through a virally growing fanbase, or through an expensive marketing push by a well financed record label. Sure, it can be a single viral moment, but that’s akin to winnipeg the lottery. It’s not something that’s repeatable or planned. Nowadays, fame is always relative anyways. There are so many acts and so much content to pay attention to, very few people are world famous, household names anymore. A lot more people, however, are a little bit famous in specific genres or scenes.

You may be surprised to learn that not all singers write their own songs. And oftentimes even if they do, it might be a collaborative process. Not all singers are songwriters and not all songwriters are singers. But every songwriter has their own process for how they come up with their songs. Some freestyle lyrics or melody ideas and string things together for various sections of the song, others may do things differently. Check out our section on Songwriting to learn more!

To maintain your singing voice, you need to incorporate good habits into your lifestyle and performances. Never sing without warming up your voice. Don’t strain your voice often by yelling. Stay well hydrated all the time. Drink warm liquids to help sooth your throat. Stay away from things that can affect your voice – caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Take care of yourself and you’ll also take care of your voice.

When you see a singer earing headphones it can be for a few reasons. If they are in the studio recording it’s to hear the music they are singing over and to get a better idea of how their voice is actually sounding through the microphone. We hear ourselves differently through our skulls. Your recorded voice will sound different to you the first time you hear it. If the singer is performing it’s a similar reason – often it’s hard to hear the music and your own voice through the speakers when you’re on stage. That can cause performance issues. Having an earpiece helps you hear exactly what the audience is hearing.

It’s very difficult to hit every pitch you’re singing spot-on. You may be extremely close, but you’re probably not hitting the EXACT note. There is often some flatness or sharpness to a singer’s pitch. Autotune is a pitch correction software that can help the notes be closer to the exact pitch the singer is trying to hit. If you use it too heavily, you get the robot-style sound as an effect. If you use it lightly, it will nudge your voice towards the pitch center of the note you’re trying to hit.

Not all singers lose their accent when singing. But some are able to sing like their favorites/influences that may not have an accent to begin with. Also, when you’re singing you often pronounce words differently than when you’re speaking. The way in which you pronounce the sung word can make it seem like you no longer have an accent.

The way you hear and perceive your own voice is quite different than how other people hear you. That’s why people often get surprised the first time they hear their own voice in a recording. Holding one ear when singing can alter the way you hear yourself through your skull. Also, if there is music playing along with the singer, holding one ear can help you hear yourself better so you know you’re hitting the proper notes. The music may be loud and drowning out your voice to yourself.