[gtrdr]

GD's tips for singing. My credentials: singing seriously for 17 years, lessons for 3 years during high school. Sang in every select choir from middle school through college: NJ High School All-State Chorus (twice selected), Emory University Concert Choir (all 4 years), Emory Jazz Ensemble (sang for 2 years, guitar for all 4). I've sung in premier jam sessions and complimented/asked to return by hosts and listeners, including the Blue Note and BB King's in NYC. And I sang for my rock band in high school (classic rock covers). Now I would like to share some tips with you all.


#1 - sing in tune. Even the greatest voices sound like shit if they're off pitch, and because the human ear will dwell on a single mistake from 1000's of notes sung in a given night, make sure you don't waver. It's harder for some than for others (i.e. "tone-deaf"), but any musician can improve his/her intonation with work, no matter how good or bad the baseline is. It's all about the feedback from voice to ear and back and forth - you train your voice and your ear simultaneously, and the whole is only as good as the weakest link.

NOTE: You don't need perfect pitch - you are developing your RELATIVE pitch. I don't have perfect pitch but I have dead-on-balls accurate relative pitch (it's an industry term). I can do and have repeatedly done everything I am about to mention, and I'm not a musical genius. You can do it too.

Basic - sing along with everything, and have someone tell you when you're off. Record you voice, play it back and ask "Is this in tune?" Rinse, Repeat. Go over scales or arpeggios, make sure the octaves line up, then go to intervals, than individual notes. DO SCALES WITH PIANO, and don't settle for a bad run. Keep practicing.

Intermediate - listen to everyone else, and hear when they're off pitch. Get into the quarter-tones and slight sharps and flats (more often flats). Tune your guitar compulsively and WITHOUT A TUNER (those things fucking suck anyway). Sing along with your tunings to 'tune up' your voice. Try singing a capella and really listen to yourself while singing and on playback. TRY to sing sharper or flatter just for the sake of knowing how and when it's happening. Sing chromatic and whole-note scales in tune.

Advanced - Don't settle for anything; be obsessed with your pitch. Try to transcribe tunes by ear directly into notation using only your voice to guide you. Try to identify blind intervals (have a buddy play on piano). Sight-sing - there are many good books for this (i used Melodia). Try to really hear and sing the pitches between the half steps, go by quartersteps or smaller - one of my conductors could get us to sing in eigth-steps: C, semitone, quartertone, semitone, C#, semitone, quartertone, semitone, D, etc - it helps to have someone guide you in this, or have reference pitches to help you (do it with piano). Sing harmonies slowly in a live room and hear the intervals ring - and then SING the OVERTONES (i can whistle 6th and 7th harmonic overtones from my acoustic, because I listen for them). Then sing the harmonies quickly and make sure you keep listening, keep staying in tune. Make sure your vibrato is centered on pitch or oscillates sharp of pitch (flat is a NO-NO, and you;re asking for the vibrato to pull you flat overall). Scat/Improvise in tune - scat bebop melodies in tune - SCAT FAMOUS BEBOP RECORDED SOLOS IN TUNE! Sing along with every solo, every instrument (including drums - IN TUNE), sing the really deep tracks, the bass, the piano fills, the back-up vocals, the crazy stuff (a la The Wrecking Crew, Pet Sounds sessions stuff, Pink Floyd stuff, Radiohead stuff). SING IN TUNE ALONG WITH BOB DYLAN RECORDS - this one is fun and you can actually do it, including matching his dives and swells, and try to do it in your own voice as much as possible (i.e. don't sound like a bad imitation).

Good luck, and feel free to add suggestions and feedback/criticisms.