Anyone can learn how to sing well. However, with that said, people have been circulating some really bad advice about how to sing. Some of the advice that is going around can damage a voice so badly that this damage can become permanent. Here are five of the most common myths about how to sing well, that might potentially damage your voice rather than improve it.
-
- One of the biggest tips you will hear is to sing constantly so that you can develop a powerful singing voice. This myth has some truth behind it; you do need to do a lot of practicing to maintain your voice. Singers need to practice more than almost any other musician in the industry. As you are practicing you will notice that your throat muscles are becoming more powerful, which makes your voice more powerful. Even though you need to practice you should take a least a day off per week, and you need to start out slowly. It’s recommend to start out by only singing about an hour day and then you can gradually work up to singing a few hours per day. You need to make sure that you are taking frequent breaks and that you take a least one day off a week.
-
- The next myth that you might hear is: singing should hurt because it means your muscles are getting stronger. If you are having pain then you need to stop singing immediately and give you voice a chance to rest. Do not continue to sing until your muscles stop hurting, if you continue to sing this way you will damage your voice permanently. If this is a recurring problem get yourself a voice coach to try and figure out what the problem is, but don’t keep singing – as you will only hurt yourself more.
-
- Learning techniques like vocal breaks and vibrato will come naturally with practice. Well this is not true. Learning both of these techniques takes a huge amount of work and practice. The best way to do learn these techniques is with a voice coach. These skills are not abilities that comes naturally; they take a lot of hard work and dedication to singing in order to master them.
-
- Another common myth that you might hear is that singing vibrato will hurt your singing voice. As long as you know how to control the vibrato you won’t hurt your voice. As long as you know how to control the vibrato you have nothing to worry about. Vocal cords are constructed to make different sounds, so our voices should not be damaged by changing the sound.
- You need to always be singing from the diaphragm. This particular myth has been around for years. You will always hear someone saying that you need to bring the sound up from your diaphragm. The main thing you should worry about is learning how to control several different muscles groups; you will gain more out of singing this way. Sometimes if you force too much air up from your diaphragm it could potentially hurt your voice.
Listening to everything other people say is not always a good thing, the best advice that you can get is from a qualified vocal coach. If you hear a tip from someone other than your coach, ask your coach before trying out the tip.