Can you sing better if you're NOT a natural?

For many years I thought great singers just 'had it' (whatever "it" is) and I was someone who just didn't have what it takes to become a better singer.

That there was something wrong with my voice, maybe a muscle, maybe my brain - something just didn't work in the same way as a great singer.

I resigned myself to singing everything an octave down, speaking through songs, and really accepting that my voice didn't have the power to get through a full set of songs without becoming hoarse and blown out.

This was confirmed by one of my first vocal teachers who point blank told me I "didn't have the voice for it"

Imagine paying someone $100 an hour to help you sing better, just for them to tell you it's not possible...

It wasn't the last time a vocal teacher really questioned my potential as a singer.

It really left me with the question; "Can you sing better if you're NOT a natural?"

The answers just weren't there for me in conventional vocal training - clench the belly, sing forward, yawning; this stuff just made me push more and become even more frustrated with my voice.

After far too many years of vocal lessons, I really felt like I was a WORSE singer - my confidence in my ability to make it as a singer were severely shattered, my fears were confirmed, my doubts became reality.

I just wasn't a natural - and all of this technique and the exercises out there were made for naturals only.

So I started looking outside of vocal technique and singing texts for answers about what was really going on with my voice.

Instead of being given an exercise that didn't work and getting "huh, that should have worked..." from a teacher when they heard me cracking and breaking again and again; I even studied acoustics and sound production at SAE for two years looking for answers.

What I learned shocked me to the core.

I'd been singing as far 'forward' as I could possibly push my voice - but the truth is, the first formant of your voice (body, pitch, depth) actually rings in the BACK within the space from the vocal folds up to the back of the tongue and up into the space created by your soft palate.

^ instead of singing forward, you need to aim your voice into the BACK of your head.

I'd been clenching my belly hard trying to 'support' my voice - but the truth is, the diaphragm triggers the vagus nerve which sends a signal via the superior laryngeal nerve dictating which muscles are controlling the vocal folds; TA muscle for 'reaction' and the CT muscle for 'expression'

^ Instead of clenching your belly like you're being punched in the gut, you need to RESIST the recoil of the diaphragm in the opposite way. A resisted diaphragm sends the right signal to the vocal folds and allows you to pitch the vocal folds with tension (stretch) instead of pressure.

I'd been singing every word as AH or UH and had been told that all vowels are created out of AH with the mouth wide open - but the truth is, 75% of the vowels/words you sing in contemporary songs are actually FRONT vowels, meaning the tongue is slightly raised to create a smaller space between the middle of the tongue and the alveolar ridge behind your top teeth; these vowels 'ping' in the front with with a bright frequency and are actually deeper/darker in the back.

^ Instead of singing every word as AHHH (and sounding like I was choking on a whole apple), I learned how to sing all five vowel sounds; AH/AA/AY/EE/OE and started defining my words as one of these vowels, then modifying these vowels for frequency and range as I ascended in pitch.

I'd been over complicating everything. It all seemed like rocket surgery. It was all too hard - but the truth is, singing is a natural bodily process, and a natural acoustic process. You don't need to manipulate your voice or do anything contrived - you need to work WITH these natural processes and acoustics.

^ Instead of doing 100 things at once, you just need to find the natural space for your voice to resonate, and then all of the tricks/techniques/tools out there will start working in an intuitive way - even if you're not a natural singer!

This is SO simple that I've boiled it down to three simple steps that you can start applying in your singing right now! I've created a video to show you exactly how to become a better singer even if you're not a natural.

Watch the video here <<