/ot/ - off-topic

Knowing your vocal range is important, which would be song-dependen (practice!). A few off-notes can be changed to better suit your voice if your audience likes it (makes!). Otherwise, you can always shift the key, which sometimes works beautifully (as-perfect-as-needed!).

fuck if I can help. I've always just been flat. Horribly, horribly flat. Nothing ever sounds good when I sing.

>>202205
I haven't taken proper singing classes since I was 16 and in my high school's choir, but most of what I remember from then + videos I've watched since is:

>sit/stand up straight (roll your shoulders and move/massage your face to release tension first)
>breathe into your whole body (shoulders shouldn't rise, rather your stomach, sides, and even back should expand)
>open mouth wide enough for two fingers to fit vertically between your teeth
>soft palate (soft part of the roof of your mouth, toward the back) should lift when you sing (and your soft palate lifts when you yawn so you can do that to find it)
>the more you exercise your voice, the stronger it will become

I can't remember much else because I haven't sung seriously in years. The part about exercising your voice is pretty important though – I remember my freshman year of high school my voice was pretty strong by the end of the year. Then I didn't sing at all during the summer and tried to sing with the same intensity as before when I resumed school in the fall – my throat was SO sore after that because the muscles had weakened.

What actually makes a good singer is an interesting question. >>202229 is all reasonable advice, but you can follow it perfectly and still sound boring. I've heard plenty of singers with perfect technique who I just don't want to listen to. On the other hand, there are lots of very 'bad' singers who do sound like something you want to hear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLq7Aqd_H7g for example, Leonard Cohen is an awful singer technically speaking, however if you listen to one of the many covers of his songs by technically good singers, the songs just sound boring and you go back to listening to his original version. Other examples include Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Jimi Hendrix etc etc…

So it's hard to say what makes a good singer good. The best I can come up with is to only train your voice in order to, for example, not damage it in any way with bad technique, and otherwise focus on sounding interesting rather than 'good'.

I'm not good at singing at all but my mom sings jazz and soul in a couple of bands and she's a really great singer.
What I mostly learned from her is that (younger) girls who want to sing either stay in their comfort zone too much when it comes to reaching notes, or they overdo it trying to impress people and trying to imitate the fancy singing styles of professional girls they hear in songs.
It's probably best to take lessons before making those mistakes or learning it the wrong way. You can damage your voice by singing a lot with the wrong technique.

>>202246
Very good point, I'm >>202229 and my voice is really boring. Which is fine because I usually sang in groups but it's not the only type of "good" singing. I love The Violent Femmes and Car Seat Headrest and their leads are technically awful singers, but it works for their music.