Teach Yourself to Sing in 10 Easy Steps

what's up guys it's your boy Matt from Ramsey voice calm and I am super excited today because I am going to teach you how to teach yourself to sing and I think that this is super important because let's face it private lessons are really really expensive for some people and rather than being able to afford private lessons or maybe have access to a great singing teacher out there a lot of people are learning to sing online these days and so my goal in making this video is actually to give you ten different exercises that you can do to teach yourself how to sing guys you're gonna get ten huge exercises out of watching this video that you can use to teach yourself to sing today if you these exercises go really well and you progress your voice a lot maybe one day you'll take a lesson with me and by then it'll be easier and we won't have to work on some of these really basic things however if you're just learning on your own I think that a lot of these simple things that I'm gonna show you today really really help you learn how to sing on your own now Before we jump in you know what you got to do you got to smash that like button you got a comment with the next kind of video that you want to see me do got a turn on notifications and subscribe to this channel and if you want to improve your singing voice through some other online lessons check out my complete singing course master your voice to get on the wait list just click the link all right let's jump in when you're first learning how to sing the biggest difference between learning to sing online and through YouTube voice lessons and stuff like this versus taking lessons with a private teacher is feedback when you're actually here in front of me I can be like hey wait a second like you were a little flat there you were this or that so I cannot emphasize how important it is that when you're teaching yourself how to sing have a way of getting feedback about your singing maybe have some other people who are listening to you maybe record yourself and that way you can get an idea about where you're on and where you're off now I'm going to show you ten different exercises that you can start putting into practice today and start teaching yourself how to sing ready okay the first place that we're going to get started is one of the easiest and that's going to be in posture learning to sing with the correct posture can have the effect of making your voice sound completely wonderful just by fixing a couple small things so the right posture for singing is called the tall posture it's called the tall posture because when I have a tall posture basically you'll see that my feet are kind of equal above my hips my hips are equal below my shoulders and if I'm keeping my chest comfortably lifted and tall it just looks like I'm standing up nice and tall no this is not uncomfortable at all I'm just keeping everything nice and easy and because I'm not just standing too close and I'm not losing balance I'm not too wide I'm just staying right on a nice balance point for my body and everything is lined up you'll also see if I turn to my side that basically by keeping my chest comfortably lifted I've actually got a pretty straight posture this posture is nice and tall and straight and that's one thing that you can test out yourself when you're teaching yourself to sing by looking in the mirror so all the time I'll have students like step in front of the mirror and I'll have them step to their side so they can watch themselves now this can be absolutely game-changing for your singing so start off here it's a super easy place to get started the next step that we're gonna look at and teaching yourself how to sing is how to breathe first singing and in this particular case we're going to be looking at a breathing exercise to help you improve your breath control in case you haven't seen it in other of my videos the correct breath for singing is called the diaphragmatic breath people say sing from the diaphragm or read from the diaphragm all they mean is that as you're inhaling your stomach is going to expand with the inhale so my stomach comes out as I exhale or as I sing the stomach comes back in and that just ensures that I'm not lifting up my shoulders or anything like that going back into the posture so in this particular case you want to just make sure that your tummy is expanding on the inhale it's contracting on the exhale so I'm going to show you my favorite exercise for improving your breath control and it's called the farinelli breathing exercise all we're gonna do is we're going to inhale for a four count we're going to hold for a four count we're going to exhale for a four count and we're going to do it on a loop so I'll just demonstrate that really quick so you can kind of learn how to do it you can look at your watch to make sure that it's going 60 times per minute or you can also if you have metronome set it to 60 beats per minute whatever works for you is great or you can count out loud in your head whichever one works is fantastic so what we're gonna do is we're gonna inhale for four so like hold for four and out for four and now what you can do there is as you get it into the higher counts like let's say like a seven count you're gonna notice that if you inhale really too quickly you're not going to make it to seven instead you need to really control how long you're inhaling for it should be a really really slow and gradual thing so I'll just demonstrate a seven count on my own so it'll be like now notice in no point did I did I just like blowed up all at once and I didn't at the end of it either instead it was very very controlled and I would challenge you to try to get up to like a 10 count or something like that just go until the point that you start feeling the least bit of discomfort and at that point you can say okay that's good for today I made it to a 10 count tomorrow I'm gonna come back to the 10 count see if I can get to 11 and continue challenging yourself this way and you'd be amazed at how this little bit of breath control and a breathing exercise can improve your singing the next step in learning how to sing and teaching yourself to sing more specifically is learning how to sing on pitch and I have to be honest this is probably one of the hardest things to teach yourself if you're off in other words when you're hearing a lesson in front of me I know the moment that you're flat or sharp and I'm able to help you correct it and that's one of the biggest reasons to take voice lessons as a beginner if you're learning to sing in pitch then a teacher can help you like in that moment but if you're learning to sing on your own what you really want to focus on is recording yourself and listening back for any changes that you hear can also download a vocal pitch monitor where you can actually see your pitch as you're singing it to see whether or not you're sharp or flat that has the added difficulty of like you have to actually know which notes you're supposed to be singing so looking at the sheet music for whatever you're trying to sing or a scale knowing the scale pattern and being able to compare that to what you actually see on the screen as you do it however if you just listened back or do a short voice memo on your phone you'll almost always be able to tell the difference but I'm going to give you a very very quick exercise to help you sing in pitch today right now it's one of my favorites it's called the five tone count and the reason that I showed you this exercise is because it's very simple the scale is just five notes up five notes down and what we're going to do is we're just gonna count that out loud on a five tone scale so it's gonna be like up 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 now guys we're gonna do that same thing but we're just gonna start down here on the c3 so it's gonna be 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 and again listen back on your recording were you on pitch on all those were you a little flat below the note or you sharp above the note see if you can take a note of exactly where you were sharp and flat you'll probably see some patterns you may notice that you're more flat on occasion you may notice that you're more sharp on occasion I don't want to pick on gender norms here but I think that you'll see that most guys tend to be flat and most girls tend to be sharp at least in this area of their voice ladies will do the same thing starting on the g3 so it's gonna be 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 and again just keeping everything right on the pitch if I ask to sing em 1 then you want to be right on it or one above it and that's going to help you immensely the next step in teaching yourself how to sing is learning how to project properly and projection means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and people have different ways of going about it but here's what projection means to me and what I think it would help you with projection just means being able to be heard in the back of a theater like if you were singing on stage you want to project your voice in a way that people in the back would be able to hear you so you're not yelling oh you're also not whispering ah you're right in the middle my voice carries so the people in the back can hear that and one of the best ways to do that is to begin by speak singing the words so let's look at for instance like you know John Mayer's gravity has a gravity is working against me and you'll notice that he's quite breathy knees quite light now if you were actually on stage and he didn't have you know several thousand dollar microphone directly in front of him I think that a lot of people would have a hard time hearing what he was singing so instead what we want to do is we want to learn to project on those notes a little bit more and by speak singing them you find exactly the right way to do that so for instance let's just say those words gravity is working against me if you just say gravity is working against me then people in the back of the theater would be able to hear you so let's try that same thing but speak sing the word so same feeling as I'm speaking it but on the word so gravity it's working against me I've basically just taken my speaking voice and I've put it on the notes and all of a sudden I've got a much more projected richer and better sounding tone now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that you don't want to sing breathy gravity sometimes however if you're actually gonna be on stage and you need to be heard on stage you've got a rock band or you've even just got like an R&B sound or something like that you're gonna be competing with other instruments and so you need to make sure that you're actually being able to be heard over that first before you start backing on the tone the next step in teaching yourself how to sing is learning to sing in chest voice chest voice if you're not familiar is the name of the range at the bottom part of your voice so like notes in the lower range of your voice are known as chest voice and if you want to see why just place your hand on your chest and go high if you go high and your hand is on your chest most likely you're probably gonna feel some vibrations against your hand and that's exactly why they called it chest voice any time you're singing low most of the time you're gonna feel some vibrations in your chest whereas you're not going to feel them in another section of your body so learning to sing in chest voice is really really important because it actually makes a huge difference in the vocal tone with which you sing so I'm going to show you a really simple exercise to help you boost your chest voice in your vocal tone immediately guys we're gonna start down here we're gonna go back to our trusty 5-tone scale and we're just gonna do that on GUG GUG like you're saying guts but with the G at the end so it's gonna be like a gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah we'll try that again gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah I'm just saying it gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah gah why did I choose God because that uh uh foul is very very chesty ladies let's try the same thing starting right here on the g3 god Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha Kaakha gah gah gah and again notice that none of them were God to breath in light I know their guy I'm not just testing it too much it's just gah gah gah it's just right at my speech level in chest voice great job guys the next step in teaching yourself how to sing is learning to sing in head voice and a head voice is kind of the opposite of just ways so whereas before a chest voice is kind of like the lower notes in your range your head voice is really for the higher notes in your range and if you were looking for kind of like a feeling of head voice just place your hand on the back of your neck and just go oh just do kind of like Oh from the top down and you'll probably feel a little bit of a vibration on the back of your neck or at the bottom of your head you may even feel it without even your hand there you may just feel some vibrations in kind of like your head cavity or your skull and that's exactly why they called it head voice and head voice is super important to learn because odds are once you've learned how to use your chest voice you're probably gonna want to use it on everything so everything's gonna be ah like just really really loud really really chesty but again we want to find a balance between these different parts of your voice so right now I'm just gonna show you how to find your head voice so that you can learn how to sing that more often so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna be doing it on an octave and a half ooh so we'll be an octave and a half scale like this [Music] so it's basically just going up [Music] and then back down what we're gonna do is we're gonna do that on a new vowel so guys let's start here down on a c3 so it's gonna be like [Music] ladies we're gonna do the same thing starting on the g3 so no strain do not worry if you feel like a big break in your voice or anything like that that takes time to fix and as a matter of fact I'm going to show you an exercise to fix that right now but for right now just allow some of that head voice to come in it and you'll be astonished and how your voice improves the next step in teaching yourself how to sing is to sing with mixed voice mixed voice in case you're not familiar is basically the blending between the chest voice and the head voice together to make one sound so it's not just chest [Music] and it's not just head instead I've got both Giggy Giggy in the chest voice in the head voice mix is exactly what creates that sound of not having to break on your high notes instead it just sounds like one range from bottom to top and it's beautiful so if you want to sing that oh won't you stay with me I'm singing in my mixed voice Rylan stay with me and having just switch back and forth them stay with me every note has a mix between the chest voice in the head voice and one of my favorite exercises to work on mixed voice is the octave and a half game so it's just doing it as an example but now we're gonna do it as an exercise so guys we're gonna start down here on b-flat [Music] [Music] and notice that no point did I good just push up to it or GI Kiki Kiki Kiki ladies we're gonna do the same thing right here starting on the G so again keeping it connected mean nothing good just pushed either it's that perfect blend between both of them and that's what you want to find it every time fantastic job guys in the next step in learning how to sing and teach yourself to sing I want to teach you how to belt in belting is a big deal so if you want to learn how to belt like in Adele's like hello hello from learning to sing with that really strong voice you need to actually first have your mixed voice together first so if mixed voice is a little bit difficult for you go back to the geek Iggy make sure that it's feeling really stable and then start working on this exercise I cannot tell you how much easier it's gonna be once you find your mix voice because otherwise you're probably just gonna just push chest voice and that's a wrong kind of belting the right kind of belting your vocal cords are totally relaxed you're just adding a little bit more volume to them so I'm gonna show you one of my favorite exercises for learning how to belt it's an active repeat scale and basically you're just going to sing it on now like you're saying the word nasty maybe even with a little bit of a bratty sound so guys we're gonna just walk up repeat that top note four times and then come back down so in my voice it would be like this [Music] no notice on none of them did I know and just push up chest instead I'm Nana Nana right on the note and that bratty sound is keeping me right in the right spot ladies let's do the same thing starting on the beat now fight to keep it really sounding bright like that but now it's just pushing for it or yeah backing off too much it's that's right in between and that ugly sound will take you so far it's perfect the next step in teaching yourself how to sing is learning to do simple vocal effects like vibrato and vibrato is a really fun one to learn on your own because it's kind of embarrassing to try it in front of other people first so all you're gonna do to learn how to sing a little bit of vibrato today is we're gonna kind of fake it until we make it we're going to just take our two fingers play some two inches above the belly button two inches below the sternum or the breastbone here so it's right on your solar plexus now if I go and pulsate like that my voice will wobble without me actually trying to make it to it just it's all happening right here from my fingers and that's exactly how we're gonna create our vibrato today so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna sing that on an e vowel and then start to pulsate with the fingers so be kind of like in II now what you're gonna find is that when you go up to that top note if you just push in with your fingers and just kind of pulsate you'll actually get the foot broto to happen II know believe me that is not perfect that is not what we want actual vibrato to sound like but it is a start and that is something that you can teach yourself really easily ladies let's do that same thing starting here on this genie so [Music] and again notice that I just kind of pulsate it on that top one I'm not trying to make it pulsate it's just happening because I'm using my fingers to actually kind of pulse into that and if you start off with that feeling you'll be amazed at how natural vibrato will actually come in as a result of that the final step in teaching yourself to sing is learning how to sing songs and I know that this sounds really obvious because vocal exercises are something that are pretty easy that you can learn to do from YouTube videos and stuff like that however actually learning to sing songs singing songs is tough because the vowel is changing the consonants changing the speed the volumes are changing everything is changing all the time the melody and when you're learning how to sing it often times it's very easy to do that with vocal exercises and to improve your voice however when you're learning to sing songs it's really important that you maintain an eye on that and making sure that you're continuing to progress on them now let's say for the sake of argument that you're learning to sing just give me a reason by pink which is kind of a difficult song to sing because she's belting right off the bat into that just give me a reason just a little bit's enough she's like right in her mixed voice and she's right in a difficult place to sing so let's say that you're having a hard time just give me a reason your voice is breaking or your desk and you're just straining into it instead all I want you to do is take one of the vocal exercises that I've shown you so far one that's been really easy for you to do one that I will call a friendly or a home base exercise and just apply that exercise to the melody so like let's say that the gig Iggy was working really well for you because you were trying to learn how to mix so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna take the melody and we're just gonna replace the words with key can only pick a kick so I've just taken the melody and I've replaced it with ghee with a friendlier exercise for me so it will sound something like [Music] and it's gonna sound totally silly and it's gonna be crazy but that's okay you're practicing on your own you're not actually singing in front of anyone just yet except for yourself so start to do it on an exercise then try to translate the same feeling that you're getting on the exercise git git git git git key into the lyrics just get me a reason and you'll be amazed and how much better it gets because rather than focusing on just okay that's a J consonant with an of vowel and then give is a G consonant with an e vowel and your voice is like having a freakout instead you've just given it one sound to think about get geeky and then once your voice starts to relax into that then all you have to do is sing the lyrics instead and it just couldn't be easier guys however you teach yourselves to sing always remember the most important thing is that you're staying really consistent with your practice so because you're not actually teaching or working with a voice teacher who you see every single week the most important thing is that you make a practice schedule and you stick to it guys I hope that you found this video helpful make sure to LIKE comment with the next kind of video that you want to see me do turn on subscriptions turn on notifications and subscribe to this channel and if you want to teach yourself to sing with my complete singing course check out master your voice click the link to 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Channel: Ramsey Voice Studio

Views: 18,060

Rating: 4.9597807 out of 5

Keywords: Teach yourself to sing, learn to sing, how to sing, singing lessons, singing lessons for beginners, posture, breath control, sing on pitch, learn to project, chest voice, head voice, mixed voice, belting, vibrato, tutorial, how I taught myself to sing, learn how to sing, what to do when you suck at singing, singing how to, tone deaf, singing scales, learn to sing beginner, how to sing for beginners, singing for beginners, matt ramsey, ramsey voice studio, voice tutorial

Id: Bcn98eUsUdw

Length: 23min 37sec (1417 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020