I have always wanted to learn to sing. I have been playing the guitar for six months, and I started doing exercises to sing in tune. The problem, for example using Yousician:
I can hit the pitch (the app recognizes that the pitch is right, and I always get 90 / 95% as scoring) .. but despite that, it sounds really bad when I relisten to it. This is an example:
This is an example, and the app says the notes are right. But it sounds really crap. Why? What's the problem?
I used to sound a lot like you. I hated how I sounded but I liked writing music and had no one else to record my songs, so I had to learn. So what I'm saying is there is hope. You can get better. It's taken me many years to get to a decent point, so it's probably not going to be quick and easy. I'm not a singing coach but these are some things I learned.
I hope you can take something from my experience and learn to sing better! If you're willing to put in the time and effort you will get better.
I don't think it sounds that bad, and I also understand your concern. I think you're noticing two things:
For the second point, you just have to keep practicing. Your ear and control will improve and you'll be able to be better in tune and in tune from the beginning of the note.
For the first point, there are a lot of elements that affect the tone of your voice. The best thing to address both of these concerns is to get a teacher. If you can't afford a teacher, then you can study as much as you can find about proper singing and try to incorporate what you read and see into your practice.
There are many important elements to singing:
In addition to researching how to sing better, I suggest you also research how to take care of your voice and protect it. Some basics are to keep yourself hydrated and to always warm up your voice before practice, and never strain your voice.
Overall I think you've got a good start on learning to sing, and it's a good thing that you can hear that you're not where you want to be in terms of tone quality and pitch. That means your ear is sensitive to be able to develop your skills which is very important.
There were places when you got into the swing of it where it sounded decent. The line "leaving this town to an unknown place" was the best bit. As you work [with a teacher if you can; it really is very hard to learn voice without one], your tone will improve gradually.
One thing that can help you today: try singing with more style. What struck me the most when I listened was that you sang everything the exact same. Same volume. There was [almost] no rhythm. There were no vocal cries or whines or fryes or vibrato or anything.
The reason why I liked the line I mentioned is because you sang it in a way where the rhythm could be discerned. LEAVing this TOWN to an UNknown PLACE. It added some enjoyable musicality.
An exercise to help with this: listen to a song of an artist you like, and listen really close. Get an app on your phone so you can replay little bits again and again, and go line by line and really really really listen to what the artist does. Pronunciation. Some notes shortened, some long, some loud, some legato, etc. And try to mimic them. It should take 5-15 minutes per line.
The reason this is useful is because it gives you a sense of how much musical variation there can be, and gives you ideas on what you can try yourself. I recommend fly me to the moon by Frank Sinatra because it's just a C major scale up and down (so it's easy pitch-wise), and because Frank is particularly musical, so you'll get loads of ideas.
I can hear your voice slowly moving in and out of pitch. I recommend using a smooth organ sound behind your voice-- harmonic conflict is easier to hear than relative pitch when you're just starting off. Practice pitching your voice to the organ sound until you can "lock on" to the note faster. Then go a capella.
But let me commend you-- YOU ARE DOING THIS RIGHT. I promise you if you keep it up, your ear and voice control will improve very quickly.
The other issue is the QUALITY of the voice. You should watch some YouTube videos on how to support singing with your diaphragm, how to project and so on.
Short version-- focus more on singing strongly.
I once attended a course in singing, and the teacher told us to concentrate on the text rather than on the melody of the song. I remember her telling us that you cannot sing the word "love" just the same way you sing "loneliness" or "fight". Her advice sounded strange to me, but has helped me a lot.
Why concentrate on the text? Because singing has a lot to do with emotions. Every song tells a story, and it can be a sad, a happy, a funny story.
When you concentrate on hitting the pitch, you forget about the emotions, and every song sounds the same. When you concentrate on the text, you get in touch with the emotional side of the song, and your singing gets much more expressive.
So I would advise you to put your app aside for a while. You know now that you are quite good at hitting the pitch. Look at the text of your songs, sing because you are happy or sad, sing because singing is fun. You will find out that your singing improves a lot and that you will hit the pitch anyway.
Good luck!
Your tone is fine, the app is correct in that (although you indeed take a bit of time to correct the tone from the initial start, but that is a matter of training).
This app, however, is selling you short by only focusing on the pitch. There is more to a good tone than being in tune. From the short recording you gave, there appeared to be only a little power behind your voice. Improving your singing at this point will greatly benefit from an improved breathing technique, which will make your tone "fuller".
I am rather certain that singing "from the crotch" will improve the tone quality by a lot. It will also have the added benefit of giving you more air to use before needing another breath
It is also important to understand the difference in pronunciation between singing and talking. Listen to any English language pop song and you will realise that singers change the way they sing individual words to make it more musical.
For example, "leaving" would be pronounced "leevin" (don't pronounce the "g") and "town" would be pronounced "tarn" (don't pronounce the "w"). I think this is done to make the works flow together more naturally.
Western pop singing is almost always sung with an American accent. Listen to Adele singing "When we were young" and she sings "...from the way you towk" instead of "...from the way you talk".
I'd like to inject a note of pessimism!
I don't suppose I'll be popular for it but it comes from personal experience.
I'm a musician but I have never sounded good when singing. At my first school the teacher asked me not to sing along with the class. When I finally recorded my voice, I realised how bad it sounded. As an adult I went for singing lessons. After one term, the teacher asked me to stop because she couldn't do anything with me.
Why is this? It's because my tone is terrible. There is a simple physiological fact that some people have a better tone than others - they are the people who tend to become professional singers. Usually from a very early age they sound good without any effort at all.
I would compare the difference with that between a Stradivarius violin and one made by an amateur from a vegetable box. The conformation and the way the instrument is put together make all the difference.
If your anatomy is not set up for singing then, short of surgery, you are stuck with it. I say this as a professional musician who would love to be able to sing and has tried all sorts of ways to improve my voice but without success.
In summary
Try everything but be prepared that eventually nothing may help. That way you won't be too disappointed.
No one likes the sound of their own voice when they start. Tone and vocal strength will improve with practice. And with experience you will be able to alter your tone.
If you are feeling down about how you sound, search youtube for 'Ed Sheeran singing badly'. It will motivate you. Some people have more natural talent, just like in sports, drawing, mathematics etc. Hard work can bring someone without talent up to a high level in any area, including singing.
The problem I see with Yousician is that it rewards that monotone sound of singing very carefully and conservatively (without emotion). At the same time it will be teaching you control. So maybe use yousician for learning to sing the correct notes, then work on expression and freeing your voice. (sing without any self judgement somewhere that no one can hear you) I would be interested to know how you have progressed since the original post.
On a side note, grab the guitartuna app (free) also by yousician. Play an open guitar string, then sing the same note. You will never get your voice to make a clear straight line like the guitar string, but as you strengthen your voice, you will see a more pure line. It is a handy feedback tool.
It's been a long time since you posted your request for information. If you are still singing I believe that you will have begun to learn to tune other features of the vocal instrument in addition to the primary resonator (the vocal cords). The vocal tract has many parts that are tunable. Different parts of the tube resonate at different frequencies depending upon how the singer adjusts the dimensions of the resonating chambers. An important study for the singer is how to make beautiful vowel sounds by learning to focus the sound coming out so that it sounds musical and not just like the way one speaks normally. You can talk (whisper, shout, say words, express feelings) while changing pitches, OR you can sing. Understanding the difference is key to discovering that the singers voice is a complex musical instrument that can be used to accompany poetry unlike any other musical instrument.
