Why does my singing sound like talking? (Singing Lesson For Beginners)

Why does your singing sound like talking? No matter what you try, what you do.

When you listen back to your own recordings it doesn’t sound any remotely like the way good singers sound.

Let’s talk about 3 reasons why this is happening AND I’ll share some exercises on how you can overcome it.

REASON 1: Singing off pitch

Being able to sing on pitch is BIG part of sounding like you’re singing. There’s a reason why most modern music/performances will have tuning softwares that help singers get really tight with their pitch.

This also means that when you’re not on pitch. Your singing won’t hit the spot.

Now singing off pitch can show up in a few ways.

The main one I tend to notice for my students is singing songs the octave below.

[See video @ 1:10 for example]

Or maybe it’s more specific to certain notes. For example, you tend to just fall flat on the high notes.

Regardless, let’s talk about ways on how you can improve your pitch.

For me personally, I find that it’s incredibly useful to build the fundamentals of the voice, especially learning how it feels to STRETCH the voice.

The reason why, is often when we’re singing the octave below, or we just fall slightly flat of the high note. It’s not always because your EARS need work. But rather voice isn’t familiar with how to stretch the voice and adjust for pitch.

A very simple exercise here is learning to find some of the notes in a falsetto first. Most likely it’d be easier to hit.

And notice, where the sound kinda of sits.

From there you want to try to sing it with a fuller sound WITHOUT losing that position.

[See video @ 2:33 for example]

Real quick! If this first tip was useful, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Ivan, I’m a Voice teacher who works with students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

REASON 2: Singing with the wrong colour

Now maybe you are hitting the right notes. And you’re spot on.

But it still sounds flat.

If that’s the case, you could potentially be singing with the wrong colour.

What I mean by colours is that as singers, we’re kind of like a painter.

Painters have all these different colours, red, blue, orange.

And it’s how they choose to put these colours together that allows them to create a captivating piece of art.

Likewise for us as singers

We have a lot of different vocal colours available to us. Volume, textures, vowels, sustaining or not sustaining notes.

Often when we sound flat it’s

1) We’re maybe not changing these colours at all.

We’re just singing everything at the same volume, textures, intensity. So that everything starts to feel monotonous

2) We are changing colours BUT it’s not tasteful.

And so how do we improve this?

Start off by listening back to that recording you have.

And ask yourself, what sort of vocal colours are you incorporating?

Are you actually incorporating vocal colours?

Or potentially are you keeping everything the same?

If you notice maybe your volume is exactly the same OR maybe it’s too soft. Try varying it up.

It’s as simple as this.

REASON 3: You’re being hard on yourself

Now I’ll keep the last one short. You’re being hard on yourself.

Even I think your singing can always be improved (be more on pitch or have better colouring). This is a genuine possibility. I’ve had many students who felt like they “talk sing” when in fact they sounded great.

What I would suggest here if you feel like this is the case. Stop asking your friends/family if you sound good. Find someone objective like a Voice Teacher and let them assess your voice.

Anyway! I hope this episode was useful. If it was, please support this channel through all the usual social media stuff. Like, comment/subscribe.

If you’re from the podcast, leaving a 5 star would really help us grow and mean the world to me.

Last but not least, if you’ve always wanted to improve your singing faster and with less confusion. Remember you don’t have to do this on your own.

I’ve got ways to work with me in the description down below. Make sure to check it out. Apart from that, my name is Ivan, I'm your voice teacher, and I'll see you for our weekly tutorials every single Thursday or Friday.

Take care.

Extra Links/Resources

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🌍 Step By Step Singing Course: https://www.singingsimply.com/courses/singing-fundamentals 

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