A Friend Of Mine Need's An Opinion On Her Singing, And How To Improve

Ok a friend of mind who will remain nameless believes she is a horrible singer, but if fact she is good but needs a lot of practice to hone her voice and she will be better then ever. Of course she doesn't believe so she ask me to ask a few people what they think about her voice.

Now this isn't American Idol so I don't want stupid remarks saying she is bad because that would be insulting me and my friends, and I don't like it when my friends or I get insult. So keep your Simon Cowell comments to yourself, and be helpful by saying how she can improve and all that stuff. She has a good voice but with the right practe and maybe singing the right songs that could help match her voice might be useful as well.


She is doing a brief part in Piano Man:

so here is the original just to get an idea how it sounds.

Here is her singing

Ah, I love this song. Anyway, moving on to the critique. I honestly think that yout friend has a very nice voice, it just seems inexperienced. Her rhythm was a little off for this specific song, and there were some misplaced accents, but that's easily fixed with practice. Her pitch accuracy was pretty good (she didn't hit the same notes as Billy Joel at certain points, yet it still flowed melodically) but there were a few awkward jumps here and there. That also can be fixed with practice (tell her to try looking up some tonal memory and ear training exercises). Overall, again, a pleasant-sounding voice but lacking in technique and experience. I would recommend to her that she either look into private vocal lessons or join some sort of organization (like a school or community chorus or glee club) that will teach you how to sing properly. She's probably got lots of room to improve in terms of singing technique (things like proper breath support, opening up the throat, increasing chest/head, resonance, etc.) but that's something that really requires a teacher (I don't know anyone, including myself, who could really teach this stuff to themselves). And tell her not to give up. She's got a nice voice which with some practice and guidance can be cultivated into a beautiful instrument.

Piano Man.. Sing me a song Old man making love to his gin and tonic... Love that song....

Anyway back to the topic, your friend has a really lovely voice but this is what I noticed from
the audio :-

1. She seemed a bit strained or forced in a few places.

2. In some places she seemed like she was hurrying through the lines thus causing her to lose her rhythm.

3. She seems very conscious of her voice, maybe because a lot of people are going to hear it or something but yeah I could definitely notice that she was conscious of her voice.

I used to be a classical singer as a kid so I can only suggest to your friend what I was taught :-

1. Start practicing the Solfege (Do re mi) .. before you start singing.. Spend at least 15 minutes warming up your voice.. Remember Solfege is to help you tune your voice so do not go over the board and strain your voice.

The best way I can suggest is to

(a). Inhale a nice normal breath

(b ). Sing out Do.. This note should be sung as slowly as possible i.e stretch out the character until you run out of that one breath you just took in.

(c ). Do the same for the rest... Continue this for 2 or 3 times.

(d). Then start increasing the tempo bit by bit until you are singing the whole solfege in one breath

Never take a shortcut in this exercise, always start from the slowest to the fastest or else you will strain your voice faster. Trust me because I learn t this the hard way .

2. Focus more on the Do re mi . Keep singing the Solfege whenever you get the time.. Dont increase your pitch but merely keep the pitch at a constant but walk while singing,write while singing.

This way you can pay attention to when your voice changes due to your breath and then work on it Always remember to do the Solfege before the actual song

Once you do that you will be able to sing the song with much ease and more confidence. You have a lovely voice and if you are a teenager, it is the best time for you to be singing as your voice can be trained and tuned very easily if you are a child.

I would recommend that you consult your music teacher more on which vocal exercises should be practiced and let him/her point put your weaknesses.

Hope I did not ramble too much And best of luck for with your singing

OK then, here we go.
First of all, it would be interesting to know how old your friend is (helps to give an even better opinion).

However, from what I have heard (recording quality was not that great, I must say), there is definitely something there, but it is going to take commitment and practice to improve things (which is certainly not going to be impossible).

First of all i would recommend some vocalising exercises (singing notes on different syllables) to train both intonation and ear.
Also, some breathing exercises would not go amiss (if required, I can supply more specific details about this, and which particular exercises to do and how to do them).

Some work is also needed on the development of the strength of the voice (at the moment, the sound is a bit on the weak side, but that could also have something to do with the quality of the recording).

Then, remember, the key word here is regularity, ie. practice evrey day without fail. If you have a bit less time on certain days, then do a bit less, but do practice nevertheless.
Another tip: it is better to practice 3 times 10 minutes than once for half an hour. Do spread your practice out over the day as much as you can.
Also practice singing with dynamics, they are the soul of music, do not make your singing sound monotonous and monovolumic. I always compare music to a picture in that respect, when you play or sing a piece of music as it is, you have a black and white picture, but when you add dynamics to your music, that is when you add the colour.
Diction needs to be worked on too (always extremely important if singing is to be done properly). After all, a singer wants his/her audience to understand him/her, wouldn't you agree?
I know, it is a whole list, but that is singing for you, singing includes so many aspects, so many things to think of all at once that you have no choice than to practice all those bits bit by bit and then string them together.

There you go, that's a start. I am always willing to help out further. Good luck.