Anyone Can Learn to Sing Better

Would you like to learn to sing better? Short of maybe Barbra Streisand or some other such vocal luminary, who wouldn't?

My singing career is notable for its futility. In seventh grade, three of us were permanently excused from any effort to raise our voices in song. Our teacher labeled us 'hopeless cases' (although one of us later found fame as the subject of an "America's Most Wanted" episode; ironically, he was captured as a result of his natural falsetto voice which was identified by a viewer!).

To continue the ironic theme, I later married a conservatory trained singer and pianist who once traveled with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. I wanted to be able sing at a tolerable level of skill, and asked her to teach me. After all, she was earning big money teaching other people.

I can't say she didn't try. Still, my singing lessons were a fiasco, and my humiliation and her frustration led to their early demise. We eventually divorced, and I continued to dread birthday parties and avoided karaoke bars like plague.

Then, around Christmas, I was talking with a co-worker who had won a karaoke contest at a local pub. He was going to perform again, and invited me to attend his performance along with the gang from the office who were psyched up to have everybody give it a try. I told him my history and explained that I didn't want to face the needling that was sure to come up when it was my turn to take the mike.

He was understanding and told me that he'd always been able to sing well enough to avoid smirks, but decided to learn to sing better. He has a wife and six kids, and found that the cost of private singing lessons just wasn't in the budget. Then, he decided to check the internet for some kind of on-line singing lessons or learn to sing software.

He told me that he'd been amazed at the resources available to teach yourself how to sing. There were even a number of sites that offered free advice on how to improve your singing voice, and plenty of tips on vocal techniques. He started off with the free offerings and practiced vocal exercises. He learned that a simple change of posture made a significant difference in his singing voice.

He worked with freeware that showed him on his computer screen how far he was off pitch, and did the exercises to train his ear and his head how to hit the right notes. Eventually he invested in learn to sing software and taught himself how to sing at home. He got up the nerve to try karaoke and made tapes of himself to learn to hear how his voice sounded outside of his head.

Well, I took a pass on the karaoke outing, but I did follow up with the learn to sing at home resources I found on the internet. I only practiced when I was home alone, with the doors and windows closed, and have kept it up over several months. I learned singing exercises and singing techniques and applied them.

Then, last week came the acid test. My son had his thirtieth birthday party and invited his singing teacher mother and me to attend. When the time came to sing "Happy Birthday" I had to strain to remember all that I'd learned, and let it out. I saw his mother looking at me as I sang, and she smiled; not smirked, smiled!

Afterwards, she complimented me on my singing, and said she could hardly believe it was me making those sounds. I have no delusions about a singing career, but it sure has made me happy to get this far. My experience has really taught me something. With some simple adjustments, and a little bit of guidance, anyone can learn to sing better! Who knows? Maybe someday I'll make it to one of those karaoke get-togethers.

If you, like me, have struggled with getting your voice to do what you want it to do, you should not just give up and sit silently on the sidelines. Check around for helpful resources like those I mentioned. There really is help available for people who want to Learn to Sing [http://www.startsinging.info]

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