Singing From the Nose??

During the early stages of training, one may inevitably sing from the nose. However, that is not desirable for performance. To sing from the nose on purpose like a chipmonk is way off. But to sing from a nose because you are trying to place the voice correctly then there is nothing really wrong. Actually singers are supposed to place the voice (placement is the place the voice emanates or resonates from) between the eyebrows at the tip of the nose bridge and not on the nose itself. This will enable you to get a bright, forward, ringing and even a full operatic sound. As long as the sound is pure, it has potential to be channeled by the diaphragm. So if you find yourself singing from the nose, use hand actions or pinch your nose bridge to tell yourself to send the sound all the way up instead of halfway up. You can better do this by using more of your diaphragm ie. intensifying to muscle just below your rib cage.

When you breathe you breathe as deep as possible, way below your belly buttons. This only means your lungs are expanding and not that you are breating into your stomach cause that is physically impossible. Thus you pressurize the diaphragm area using adominal muscles (but in actual fact your are activating your diaphragm muscles too) and send the sound up and out through your nose bridge. Another reason why people may sound nasal or singing from the nose is because they are overdoing what I just described above. If you push too hard with your diaphragm your sound will lose its focus. The focal point of your sound is once again your nosebridge. The kind of focus you should feel is the vibration suspended (sound suspended) just behind your nosebridge, yet it is not protruding out. Why do we do that? so that you sound natural and not obstrusive.

Regarding Vibrato

Never try to do this. Never force it. The idea is one fine day, when everything becomes so natural, when you become so powerful, it WILL happen.

Vocal Techniques For the POP / Chorus / Classical Singer

My answer is that it is for everyone. The vocal technique will never be different, only the way you choose to stress on the sound. eg. when you sing new age pop ballads you don't put as much empahsis on producing thick rich vowel sounds as when you sing classical arias. However, your diaphragmatic support, placement, and tonguing technique remain the same.

I wish I could sing...but it's okay, I play drums/guitar.

I think those errors (dehydration, screaming, etc) could be a bad thing for easy listening music, ballads, etc, but I´m not very sure if it can be used for any singer. What would have been of Nirvana, Pantera or the Sex Pistols if their singers had had a perfect technique?. Very commonly rock music are confronted to rules and this also means singing rules, don´t you think?

Anyway some heavy metal singers need to have a clean, clear and, loud voice.

To a certain extend yes, some rock songs and popular songs are best sung without proper technique. However when I say proper technique I only mean the conventional ones, they may have their own other techniques. Some popular singers don't have very long singing careers because they damage their vocal cords when they scream or ues an incorrect technique. However, considering how much fame and fortune they would have already earned, no one's complaining. Its rather sacrificial actually, that to contribute to the trueness of whatever genre of music they are doing, the abstain from using "proper technique" which kinds of kills it.

hey liauce, or anyonw else who could help, I want to make music on my mac in garageband, I want to create metal/rock type of music, while most rock bands I hear dont have very much talent (or so it sounds in their music) some do sound great, I want to sound great in an agressive hard rock kind of way, is their any tips you could give me? Thanks a million.

By the way, I've never done much singing, and my voice is a little deep. Thanks again

Wow, this post is totally great. I definetely agree that the techniques used by vocalist vary by genre, especially when the vocalists really know / have studies in music. Take Chester from Linkin Park as an example, I saw the dvd the other day and he was asked what he does to have the voice he has. His reply was, I probably do everything a vocalist shouldnt do. Which is where I think he gets his really heavy voice from, though he already made his millions, I think thats why the second album was more soft than the first one.

And a tip for bmxpunker2005, if you want to sound great, I really recommend you take a few classes in school or something. Atleast so you can get the basics, people on the net can give you advice but it will never compare to taking classes. What I would recommend is you start tuning your voice with the guitar or any other instrument. First tune your instrument, (there are lots of programs on the net to do this), then hit the third string of the guitar (G on standard tuning) and say its name. After a while of practicing that note youll hear how your voice blends with the guitars sound, then try with A and E and B.

Thanks for the advice FLaKes, I think the part you wrote on tuning my voice with the notes is a great idea to help me. And taking classes really would be the best way to get my singing better. The problem is im scared or embarassed to go and try. Because I've never really sang before. But I'll get some balls to take a basic class, and then take the rock world by storm..lol Well thanks again everybody. Cheers!

It also depends what style your singing, what you define as singing. . .
Screamo music style for example. . . very shouty and ugly vocals lol
but thats what its all about. no notes, no tone. . . jsut shouting

Then that wouldn't be music.

Also, liauce, where'd you learn all that...? You probably know more than me. I'm actually in the vocalist career. Heh.

Also, if you want to become a vocalist, I recommend you to study the 'piano', not drums or anything else, study it for like 5 yrs. Then start trying to sing. You will know alot. Eventually, start taking vocalist lessons. That's how I got myself started. It ended up great.