New to singing : voice "stuck in throat" or speaking

Question

I have been playing the guitar and some other instruments for quite some years but I have never really sang before. I am trying to train my voice for something fun next year at the end of the summer.

With me I have people that have sang as soon as they were able to talk. They can easily tell me what my problems are but they are no pros and I need some help to fix those.

When I try to sing I have several problems :

1. My voice get stuck in my throat. Meaning that I am singing but the sound is muffled/distorted by my "closed" throat.
2. If I force myself to try to open my throat I am not singing anymore but talking.
3. I can go pretty high as I can go pretty low but I cannot find my proper range / tone.

Do you have some advice and/or exercise (warm-up or otherwise) to help me fix those issue. I know it takes practice and that's not a problem, but as long as I can't actually sing I won't be able to try to sing right.

Answer 1

Sounds like you're tensing your throat up when you sing, that's what's creating the effect of your voice being "in your throat", however, it sounds like when you speak, your throat relaxes. I'd echo what was said above and look for a good voice teacher (Brett Manning, for example - just google his name ! ) so that that teacher can teach you properly. As far as your diaphragm, place your hand on your stomach, now breathe out, your hand should move out with your breathe, not your shoulders. That part of your stomache that moves out with your breath is your diaphragm. Typically, singers will tense this part of their body (not too much) when singing, it adds support by giving the singer a steady stream of breath which is needed to sustain notes and keep them on pitch!

Answer 2

First off, you do not know what you are doing. Sorry if that seems harsh but you are going to hurt yourself. You friends who seem to be able to sing w/o lessons maybe are not as good as you think.

I can address some of the causes of your described problems but my advice is...

Get lessons from a trained vocalist ASAP.

The muffled sound could be due to a few things. I am guessing because your description is not enough to diagnose. It could be that your mouth is closed too much preventing the sound from getting out. Trained vocalists will sing with a kind of "smiling" or "snarling" face, with the cheeks pulled up. That's not to look happy or evil (in the case of metal singers) that is proper mouth posture. Second, if the sound "feels" stuck in the throat then you are not properly supporting the sound with your diaphragm. When you learn to use that you realize that the THROAT DOES NOTHING. Your vocal folds are like reeds, you don't tighten your throat you blow air over it and sound comes out. Trying too hard to FORCE your throat to do anything will create tension that will (1) generate crappy sound, (2) potentially cause damage to your vocal folds (chords), (3) Cause pain in the larynx and back of the neck. None of that is good.

I would not suggest any warm ups for you at this point as I think they could be misunderstood. It sounds like you need some basic vocal lessons and to learn how to support sound with your breath, how to relax the throat, and how to avoid "covering" the sound with the mouth.

As for range. It takes time to find your full range. As your technique gets better you find that you can go higher and lower. When I started I had a 2 octave range and now it's 2 and a half, going down to D2 I think and a 4th above high C.