You know what I wish I'd done 15 years ago? Voice lessons.

[midwayfair]

I recently started taking voice lessons again. I took them a little off and on a few years ago but decided to be a little more regular about them this time around.

So my teacher is one of my old bandmates. (She was on the early Midway Fair albums.) We ended up not really getting along properly musically so I asked her to leave the band, but she really is a fantastic voice teacher. We've been working on mixed voice stuff since December and it's made almost everything I do sound a little better overall. I was banging my head against the wall trying to get one of my FAWM songs from this year to have the right vocal quality over the last few months, and she basically helped me fix it in 45 minutes, and I got a great take in a single recording session.

I really wish I hadn't been so proud of being an autodidact musically, because this really would have just made my early recordings sound better. Like I was always a pretty good guitarist and was a competent vocalist when I started the band, but I can't help but feel that if I'd just sucked it up and gotten lessons (or even better, taken my high school keyboard teacher up on her offer to let me join the choir and get vocal lessons that way), it would have made things easier on the people who had to listen to me stumble my way through.

[EBK]

Sadly, I have no idea what my singing voice really sounds like. For my entire adult life, I've been too timid to figure it out.

[benny_profane]

I agree with you 100%. I'm glad you're getting good results now, though! During AP Music in high school, I really suffered with sight singing. Instead of working on that properly and developing the skill, I did enough to do a passable job with sight singing/the class—but I never used that as an impetus to focus on voice training like I should have. In bands, I've never taken a singing role (frankly, I've avoided it). I don't sing regularly in anything organized now, but this is another kick of encouragement to work on my voice and stop avoiding singing.

[harryklippton]

Same for me but with guitar lessons/ music theory. I didn't start playing guitar til I was in the tail end of college and I thought that taking lessons was dumb. Finally started taking lessons about two years ago and it's been so great.

[jimilee]

That's fantastic to hear man. No matter how good you are, there's always one better. Glad you decided to do it.


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[rockola]

I recently started taking voice lessons again.

Took some voice lessons 10 years ago. That ended when the teacher said "I've done all I can" and gave me the number of a speech therapist.

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[culturejam]

I took voice lessons for about 6 months during my senior year of high school. It did not help. 

[madbean]

My singing voice is terrible and has always has been. But, my pitch recognition and relative pitch has always been decent (it was really on point when I was in music school). Never took voice lessons but there was a point where I was doing a lot of walking for exercise and it actually improved my singing tremendously. I would practice deep breathing when walking and that seemed to translate into a lot of extra lung power after a while!

Anyway, since you started the thread it is now required you provide audio examples of your singing

[Max]

Anyway, since you started the thread it is now required you provide audio examples of your singing

I was afraid you were going to ask for a gut shot 

Anyway, I actually took voice lessons 15 years ago, but I still suck at singing...

[midwayfair]

My singing voice is terrible and has always has been. But, my pitch recognition and relative pitch has always been decent (it was really on point when I was in music school). Never took voice lessons but there was a point where I was doing a lot of walking for exercise and it actually improved my singing tremendously. I would practice deep breathing when walking and that seemed to translate into a lot of extra lung power after a while!

Anyway, since you started the thread it is now required you provide audio examples of your singing

Working on an album, you'll just have to wait (Rerecording some stuff from FAWM this year, and some songs I've never quite gotten around to recording.) It's tricky right now, for obvious reasons.

[Willybomb]

I'm the same.  I wish I'd taken lessons and could sing decently so I wasn't so reliant on finding band members...

[matmosphere]

I wanted to make a joke about how we're all glad you are taking voice lessons too

But in reality, I've listened to your bands stuff and you aren't a bad singer at all IMO. It's always good to keep working on stuff and be open to help when you hit a wall.

I'm the same.  I wish I'd taken lessons and could sing decently so I wasn't so reliant on finding band members...

I feel like I should learn drums for this very reason.

[midwayfair]

So one thing we've moved onto doing is working on my songs, either just on the song or actually stepping through a take. It's amazing what just having another person watching and listening who knows what to look and listen for will do. Like I spent 5 days with a couple hours each trying to get a decent vocal take for a song, the first things she says after watching me do a take is: You're not standing up straight, and also it looks like you're standing on your toes and leaning your head back. Well damn. I had the mic set about 2-3 inches too high (which didn't matter when it was angled down toward my nose slightly for a more distant mic technique, but really mattered when I was doing a super close take) and was slouching. Fixed that and worked on articulation on a few lines and finished the song in another few takes.

The other thing this has kind of forced me to do is write out the lead sheets for my songs. Really only one other band member sight reads so I haven't bothered for several years, but it's been good practice of just forcing myself to get the notes right.

Have 10/13 songs done, things are moving along nicely.

[matmosphere]

Can't wait to hear it