This is really helpful, not only in my singing but it somehow increases my self esteem to get through other people's discouragement upon my singing! Thank you so much!
Byzantium Crusader yes you will most likely still be a tenor after puberty. after puberty the voice has a tendency to drop and most males will start to speak with vocal fry(which is unhealthy for the singing voice if done unnecessarily). You just have to tell yourself to remove any traces of pushing your voice and start forming the habit of speaking in higher pitch, sometimes you can inflex your pitch when speaking. this will ensure you don't press your voice and eventually you can regain back the brightness and lightness of your prepubescent tone(albeit it will most likely still be lower)
Haha thx! I'm a tenor as well and when I broke my voice I did the common thing of speaking with fry, eventually my teacher broke me out of the habit and my voice is much lighter and retains the tamber of a tenor
I'm 64 this month been a guitar player since 1964 just taken up singing which I prefer got a young voice so some refuse to believe it's me. I having lessons but your videos are great backup as lessons are every 2 weeks. long way to go
Good for you! I just watched another of Dr. Dan’s videos and can relate to “use it or lose it” and I bring that up because I was sick for many years and stopped singing by a huge percentage so now I’m 52 and regaining my muscle memory - First, by voice therapy then (now) coaching. It’s returning but it’s work. I can relate a bit to you because I just started playing guitar a couple years ago (for me, when my voice was extremely difficult to control). I MUST create music somehow - it’s in my DNA right?!? :-) Now, I’m thankful I am gaining in both skills. Stick with it - the work is worth it! My dream of picking up my Tak and singing a few tunes without sheet music is happening ✌🏻🎶
Just discovered you last night. Absolutely making your content a part of my music days. You are an invaluable resource, and I'll plug the hell out of your channel to friends.
Thanks Dr. Dan. My problem is that ..even tho i am a nj native...my voice was still young n vibrant before i moved to California and then wen i moved to California...it was my saving grace but then after i got a bit older....i started using my jersey voice because one of my friends i reconnected with is SUPER nasally ....i started tawkin like him..and then of course tawkin to my mom...fa get about it....my voice has taken a toll..got to get out of that habit and articulate my words, aGain. and this master my intonation
At 66 years of age, do I even have a chance? In other words how long does it take to sing properly? Say, in hours, (dream on!) days, ( Again, dream on,) years, or lifetime?
M new in a college and hostel on a new state and I've been singing like for months since is so boring to be alone because of him i am really improving i literally wanna thank you so much ❤
Hey I having been in this channel for awhile it's been a long time I graduated from highschool and now I'm still playing the piano and singing and working on it
Hi, Lowkeymizzles. You may find my online singing course helpful - drdan.co/onlinesinginglessons. Feel free to check it out sometime. The first module is free to preview!
semi accluded vocal track , not sure what that second word is but the pressure is there with out an additional physical motion that would activate the break in the voice
Thanks for these, Dan. I have a student who really struggles with pitch. I've been teaching them on and off for almost two years but they only seem to be improving by tiny increments. I have been drilling them with scales, intonation exercises, and various different sounds/articulation, but I think we're both getting quite frustrated at the slow progress! They have an interesting speaking voice which seems to regularly shift back and forth between vocal fry and a light high tone. Their bridge/muscular shift is pronounced and happens anywhere from C4 to G4 depending on the day/exercise. Also their sung voice tends towards too quiet rather than the excessive pressure you've described in this video, although they do have a chronic cough which could be causing chronic vocal fold damage/swelling. Do you have any tips? I'm definitely going to try these exercises with them, but I'm really struggling and wondering if I'm just a bad teacher!
Dr Dan's Voice Essentials: Thank you! It's good to know you think there might be something going on that just can't be fixed with singing lessons, rather than me just not being able to teach well enough!
I have one of those too and it is driving me crazy. I've mainly got her singing on pitch but every so often she just loses it. I've notices she mumbles terribly and on the bad days her pitch is awful too. Thank you Dr. Dan, You might have saved my sanity.
...if she's still out of tune 4 years later maybe suggest basic tunes on a stringed instrument like guitar or uke, just daily tuning takes some practice.
Hi, Dr. Dan, I suffered a brain injury and I'm rebuilding my technique...well basically learning my voice all over again😔. Thank you for your videos, they are so detailed. I notice a difference before I acquired my injury vs after... even my entire person has changed.😣 I have a question, when taking a breath, do I breathe through my nose or mouth? Thank you in advanced💙
You were singing an A4 on your demonstration of singing on pitch/flat which is the A above middle C. Your statement was right. The correction was actually incorrect. You were singing A3 when you demonstrated singing an A in the middle of your range.
No problem. Great video. In fact, this explains my biggest frustration. I have very good hearing pitch, but I tend to sing slightly flat in my lower register on certain vowels (ah and o). Some people tell me it's a support thing, but I don't have a problem with "I" "u," "ng" or humming. To fix this would always sing light and airy on those notes. I always felt it was a placement and weight problem. I thought my vocal cords were in an excessively thick position and singing louder made it worse. After my voice was really warmed up and if I sang high, it would sometimes resolve. Most people can even hear it, but I hear, feel and see it - software confirm this. Because of my compensatory practices, I wasn't encouraging good cord closure or resonance in that area. Now I'm focusing on resonance without blowing air (I hold back more air/inhalare la voce). In short, I totally relate to what you're talking about. Maybe I'll send you an email. I really enjoy your videos. Very comprehensive. Singing is both a science and an art.
That note is A4 where A4=440Hz. Different people refer to middle C as either 4 or 3 or even 5. Relative to the piano, it's the fourth C so I call it C4. Either way, that wasn't 880Hz!
I would appreciate that too, as I've been told that my singing tends to be pretty nasally, and even when I hold my nose, my singing is still very nasally, so it's not necessarily the air coming out of my nose but they are traveling at least to the nose or something like that. I don't really know
Hey, thanks for the great exercises! I'm practicing these too now! The problem I have is I get too much of "natural imperfection" when hitting notes. :( I discovered that I don't hear slight flat note when singing it, only later on the recording it shows up... How can I improve here? Re-teach myself on matching pitch I hear? Actually, I noticed that in the second exercise you hit a similar problem: your A note was sightly below the piano tone (about 1/3 of semitone). And I could hear this only because I was practicing on this myself for some time... Any ideas how to overcome this? It feels like going through a concrete wall for me now...
I'll try to rein down my nudie runs. 😅 People has been commenting that I sung through my nose. But nobody ever explained how to NOT to sing through the nose. I find that holding the nose while singing allow me to keep this problem in check.
Same. I have a friend who is a guitar teacher and has a musical ear, and he had me try to sing a note, and he kept saying little higher, little higher, and it to me sounded like the note, not pitch, was getting higher, and took like 2 minutes to try and get just one note correctly, and to me it sounded the same pitch as I had been but a reasonably higher note altogether instead. I was so lost and confused.
I was wondering how comes that my singing and pitch accuracy got so much worse in the last month, even though I've been taking lessons for half a year, doing all the vocal exercises and trying really hard, my voice getting stronger and better... and suddenly it got so much worse and I was so desperate, ashamed to ask my teacher what's going on... and just when I stopped looking for the answer, you gave it to me! I hope the problem is what you're saying, that first it gets worse and then better, and I'll get back in shape soon. Thank you for your advice!
Dr Dan's Voice Essentials why does sometimes do i sound flat when i go do ray me fa so la te doh then i keep trying eventually until i get it then boom it dissapears im back to the basics.
With trumpet, it's normal much pressure is required to play so it could be that the mechanism for high notes working on trumpet, make my voice too stiff and tense. If I record myself I don't sound flat. It's when I try to sing straight interval notes without vibrato looking a tuner that I get shocked.
MEanME well yes genetics can cause vocals to be better and stronger BUT I’m not saying that you shouldn’t practice if you already can sing better and don’t give up if you don’t sing good practice
Dr Dan...is it possible to learn pitch accuracy by slowing down songs and practicing each note if that song to perfection? In other words...are scales and other vocal exercises necessary to learn the skills needed to sing well?
susan smith - Yes! In fact, that is the way to get it done in the least amount of time. The question is, how can you tell if you are accurate and when you aren’t? You will need either a program or a teacher with a trained ear to tell you.
Hello Dr. Dan, I am supportive of your amazing channel as well as your gorgeous tenor! We spoke before and you honestly gave me great advice. I currently take private lessons for about a year and a half with a former college Dr. that teaches Opera. I can breath from my diaphragm and keep my larynx down but, i sound classical and cannot get my sound forward. I am perfecting my rhythm skills and doing ear training as well. I am a lyric baritone so, my voice is naturally dark but i have no brightness. Also, my vocal teacher said I am too dependent and should stop taking weekly lessons. I have not mastered falsetto and he suggested we stop working on it for awhile because of vocal tension. I feel like I am not progressing like I should and considering taking voice lessons with a teacher that does not only sing opera. So I can sound more like a contemporary artist instead of a classical one. My instructor also said I am in a "vocal rut" and have been stuck on my current level for awhile and the progression has slowed down. He also said my favorite artist Chris brown sound is monochromatic and he strives for me to have tone like Sam smith. It is a very confusing and overall a tough situation because he also taught me so much. What would you advise?
Thank you sir for the feedback! In my area there is not many contemporary teachers only SLS teachers but, i will definitely see what they have to offer.
Every time I sing and then the high pitch one comes by and when I have to do that my voice stops. I think I should practice more or maybe it’s not that.
a much more accurate way to do this is to wear headphones and play your source reference note, then have a TUNER APP and see exactly how flat or sharp you are so u can know exactly wht ur problem is - if u find urself always goin sharp then it means u need to calm it down a bit - aim for +- 10% max off pitch - a nice natural fluctuating
@@knrtn439 I am also a semibaritone but I learned to use a mixed voice so that I can hit higher notes without using a falsetto. But for dr dan he can use his chest voice to get there which means he can even go higher than that🙃.
A better way to save turtles would be to also not eat seafood. Most of the plastic in the ocean comes from plastic fishing and trawling nets, _and_ these nets catch five unwanted animals for every one fish they were aiming for (this is called "by-catch"), so for every one fish you eat, you've killed 5+ sea creatures and polluted the ocean.
Thank you so much for the nice video. Here's a question Dr Dan. How do I sing in tune / with accurate pitch when I'm singing live? How do I train my ears to sing in pitch regardless of any kind of acoustics or ambiance in the place I'm performing? Hope to hear from you. Thank you.
This isn't really addressing the innate problem with singing along with a piano, that with every note you hit with tempered tuning it's going to be altered. In other words aiming for the center of the pitch doesn't really work because the center is moving. Most singers aren't really going to be bothered with that unless they have perfect pitch but it's still a problem. Not quite as easy as it sounds.
I know this problem too good especially when I have bad day and I practise on this day. I suppose the best exercise is to listen to your records carefully. :)
Hi Dr Dan I'm also having vocal coaching and find your coaching a great help, I'm trying to become a tom jones tribute act thanks I'm working hard Marc from UK
I’m in bed and my girlfriend is annoyed that I’m doing singing exercises right next to her. I actually enjoy winding her up so that’s two birds with one stone. Thanks for the tips 😁