How to get better at singing without anyone hearing you?
Hello! I wanna learn how to sing better, but unfortunately I can't cause I don't feel comfortable with people hearing me sing. I don't even know if I sing good or bad. I live with 5 other people and my apartment is super small and you could hear through the walls. I've tried humming at different songs but it can still be heard and I sometimes need to get louder to reach certain pitches. Plus I'm never home alone. People are always opening the doors without even knocking. There's not one time where I'm alone so I can practice singing. I've tried everything. I really don't feel comfortable with people hearing my singing without me knowing if my own singing is good or not. HELP ME PLEASE!!! I WANNA IMPROVE MY SINGING!!!
How can some people instantly harmonise when singing? Is it a natural thing that involves the brain?
I remember when I discovered harmonies. I was young, probably 8 or 9, but I've been singing as long as I can remember, so singing wasn't new. I didn't know then that I had good relative pitch, I just knew I could sing what I heard. Like everyone else, I always sang the melody.One day, in the car, my mom was playing the radio (oldies station) and Simon and Garfunkel was on. Sound of Silence. Something about how they start each phrase in unison and then separate made it click in my head, and I started singing the harmony (Paul Simon's) part. When it was over, I couldn't wait for the next song, which was Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth. Harmonies on the chorus! They were suddenly everywhere, and every song I heard after that I tried to sing a harmony to it.After years, decades really, of doing it, I can naturally find harmonies to almost anything. But it isn't just a natural talent. It took years of work. Of actively listening, separating the vocal parts in my head, learning which harmonies worked well in which key. I was in choir from 5th grade through 12th, and I almost never sang the melody (I had a deep voice, at least compared to other middle and high school boys, so ended up singing baritone or bass parts). So that was 8 years of structured practice for 9 months of the year. In high school and after I was in bands, and continued to sing harmonies, depending on my role in the band.It is very definitely a skill that I developed over many years of intent practice.
If you lose your hearing, does your ability to speak deteriorate?
One of the most pernicious myths that have been perpetuated about Deaf people is that if you learn to sign, your speech skills (whatever they may be) will deteriorate. I am Deaf, and was born that way. My parents chose to teach me to speak orally, and I was one of the few for whom this method was successful. I developed quite good speech, to the degree that many Hearing people, if they hear me talk, don't realize I'm Deaf (which is part of the problem and reason why I rarely choose to allow Hearing people to hear me talk, but that's off the point here). When I was 13 (I'm 50 now), I entered a school for the Deaf and began to learn American Sign Language. My parents had been resistant to the idea of my attending a Deaf school, because they were afraid of that myth they had been told -- that learning to sign would cause my speech to deteriorate. My speech did not. Some time in my 30's, I stopped wearing hearing aids -- effectively making me permanently (audiologically) Deaf, rather than just hard of hearing. I have not had auditory feedback regarding my speech in that whole time. But my kinetic memory remains, so I maintain the patterns I learned in order to produce speech. And today, my speech is still just as clear as it was when I was 13. So, no, going Deaf does not mean you will necessarily lose your speech skills. However, if this is a concern for you, you can go to a speech therapist who will work with you to help you maintain your spoken language abilities and teach you the patterns of producing speech so you can become consciously aware of what you are doing when you speak and how to make sure you are speaking correctly. Be warned, though... As I indicated earlier, being Deaf and speaking like a Hearing person has its own set of pitfalls, as I have learned over the years. There is nothing wrong with learning to sign, and indeed many advantages. And you CAN get along quite fine without speech, as many Deaf people will tell you.
Is it normal to be be afraid of losing hearing?
I am deaf but sever to profound in my left ear and I can hear some out of my right ear. My family thinks I can be able to hear all my life but I warned them not to get their hope up because I may be deaf like happen to one of my friends who went from hard of hearing to profound (can't hear at all. No or very little precentage of hearing left). I am kind of scared because I got use to hear some noises like tv very loud and dog barking or whatever... I know I will be okay if I lose my hearing fully but yet again, I am afraid of losing my hearing. Is this feeling normal even I am deaf but can hear some?
Why does my voice sound beautiful when I sing, but when recorded, it sounds horrible?
An element worth noting in all of this is that you may be tuning your voice to what you're hearing, rather than to the acoustic of the room. When you sing, a certain percentage of the sound that you hear in real time is heard through bone, which can distort things. You may need to retrain your singing to ignore the effect of the bone, because it could be throwing you off.There's a cool trick that I love for doing this without having to record yourself all the time. Put your hand on each side up to the tragus of your ear (that little cartilage flap that's right on top of the ear opening) on each side. Put your hand there in the same position as though you were karate chopping, if that makes sense (but, obviously, gently). Then curve your fingers so that they outline the rest of your ear. You should look kind of like you're giving yourself Mickey Mouse ears if you're doing it right. Now try to speak. And try to sing, for that matter. Your voice should sound different but not THAT different. This is a pretty good approximation of what you sound like to people who aren't you. It's also a useful tool for where you should be recording your voice. Walk into a recording studio that you're thinking about using (or a room you're thinking of recording in), and try this out. If you don't feel good about the acoustic, record somewhere else!
OK I believe that I'm a tenor!... Second opinions please..?
Alrighty, I know you guys are probably sick of hearing about my voice questions ^_^ Well here's what I thought at first but I'm still a little confused, well I can go pretty far into my upper modal range before going falsetto (I can keep up with Ne-Yo in Sexy Love) but because I could also drop down into my lower register (I read somewhere that true tenors couldn't hit low notes) then that meant I was a really high baritone or countertenor. But I've heard people that I know were true tenors hit lower notes than what was in their normal range and I thought "I could be a real tenor then." My high notes can sound a little strained but not as awkward as when I sing low, (As far as low notes go, I can hit that note that Clay Aiken hits at the beginning of Bridge Over Troubled Water). I wish I could give you guys my actual notes but I don't know them, I only know what sounds I can match. So what am I, a tenor or something else in that vicinity? Oh btw, when I sing really high for a longer amount of time, my voice does this thing were it becomes disturbingly high, and I can't go into falsetto when its like that, what am I doing wrong there?
Can anyone condone Bocellism after hearing this?
a very good question! (if we can call it a question) I can't agree with you more! The very first time I heard Bocelli sing years back, I didn't like it. To my opinion and with my limited knowledge of classical music, I feel there is no passion in his singing, there is no TRUE feelings in it, it's almost like the feeling you will get if you ask a 5 year old to say "I love the new medical insurance policy that will pay off our bills"! I can't be touched by his "nesun dorma" or "che gelida manina" etc as how I would clap my hands off for Pavarotti. Some people argued with me that maybe because he's blind which as we have been reminded all the time, he might not get the feeling as we do. I don't know how or since when he's blind, but can we use it as an excuse to make him the "great tenor after Pavarotti" as some addressed him? while there are many many other better ones who studied hard and worked hard to be at where he is? so they will be able to achieve it only if they pop themselves blind? I feel very unfair for others. And just for the record, one of my musician friend who is a great violist, was in the orchestra where Bocelli came to sing, he told me "gosh Bocelli got NO voice, it's not like when we play for Pavarotti, you almost have to use ear plugs if you are near him...." why not his PR or himself see the truth (come on, I do think they know he's no good as Tenor) and try to promote him as broadway or pop singer? I guess I will never get a satisfying answer to this one. This is just my very personal opinion, whoever don't agree with me, please don't take offend.