Singing

Do you want to learn how to sing or just how to sing better? You may not be aware of it but it’s likely a case of learning how to sing better for most of us. It’s not that absolutely everyone can sing, but most of us can if we take a sensible approach to trying.
There is a wealth of information available on the internet offering lessons and scales and claiming to reveal the “Five least known Singing Secrets”. Well here’s something to ponder, there are no secrets. The ability to be a good singer is nothing more than learning how to listen to yourself, being able to correct you pitch if it’s off, breathing for a continuous supply of breath, and muscle control in your throat and body to produce the best tones, not to mention, tons of practice. Proper practice that is, not practicing mistakes.
Singing lessons will certainly help guide you to being able to recognize how all of these things go together but the reality is that you can quite likely do it yourself with only a little help.
Have you ever seen advertising that claims you can increase your range by an octave? That to me is a very big claim. Personally I would have to see it to believe it. I’m not saying that it’s impossible but it’s not as possible as some would have you believe. The only real way to increase your range is to practice properly, without hurting yourself, and building your range up over a period of time. That’s the only way to do it safely and still keep a rich tone about your voice. My sense is that anything else would be falsetto singing and in my world, there’s no real room for that.
This practice is where scales and such come in handy. You sing ascending scales and descending scales in a variety of phonetic phrases. It’s a controlled environment and you can make improvements in your range for sure, but it will take time if you do it properly. Naturally the more you practice, the greater your improvement.
You may need to consider that range is not the be all and end all of being a great singer. When you listen to your favorite songs it becomes apparent that at least most of the song stick to a certain range and doesn’t go too much higher or lower than that. Most of those notes are quite reachable by the average human so don’t kill yourself trying to do something super-human when it comes to increasing range.
Instead of range, worry about pitch. It really doesn’t matter how high or low you can sing if you can’t hit the right notes in between. Stick to the easy stuff you know you can do and work up from there. Use your ears. If you sound like you’re off, correct it and don’t be shy about it. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you stop singing wrong notes. Your ears are the greatest aid you have to being a great singer, you should learn how to use them first, then decide if you need lessons.