This post here is for everyone who likes instant gratification. Building up your skills with singing has to do with muscles, and just like getting fit at the gym, changing muscle habits and strength takes time. Learning to sing takes time.
However…
That isn’t to say there aren’t things we can do to improve our singing that we can do in the same instant we learn them.
This is one of them!
If you prefer to watch this in video-format, here you go! If not, feel free to read on!
Effort in Singing
When people are sing with an untrained voice, they tend to use a lot of force when singing.
When I say force, I mean they try too hard to make their voice sound powerful or loud in an attempt to sound better. When people have trouble singing high notes or singing with volume, they tend to overcompensate with pushing their voice harder, rather than changing what they need to change. That could be learning to breathe from their diaphragm (which you can learn about here!) or learn vocal placement (and you can learn about placement here!)
You can instantly see this happening when someone strains to sing. Sometimes, however, people try just a little too hard, so it doesn't sound exactly bad, it just sounds like too much.
The effort you use while singing is something you can change right now, and it might be what's been standing in your way!
I'm sure we've all seen that little bar on computers or music editing software - anything using a microphone - that shows you how loudly you're speaking into the microphone. When you start speaking into a microphone and you look at that little level, you'll see the dots light up to show that it hears you.
Take the one from my computer for an example:
Here, you can see in those darker dots where the sound level, or volume, is.
Begin to think of the effort you use to sing as a volume, or in this case, an "effort" bar.
Consider the left side of that level as 0% effort, and the right side 100% effort. You may already know this, but you don't usually want the sound input on anything to go all the way to 100%. On most software meant for microphone recording, you'll see that close to 0%, the light is green for good. Then as it gets too loud, it begins turning yellow. And when the sound is overloading it, it turns red.
Let's look at another example of that, this one from a music editing software, Logic Pro x:
See how pretty that green is? We're staying at a good volume here. Enough to be heard well, but it's not too much to overload it.
But, check out this next one:
OOF. That's going way overboard. It's red because it's angry.
And often when we record things that are too loud, like this photo above, you'll also hear it. It'll get all muffled and the sound will even begin to distort a bit.
Think of your voice the same way.
If you add too much effort, you're going to begin distorting the sound of your voice. It's simply too much.
Notice that the sweet spot in all of these microphone levels/gauges is at about 75%. That's the most you want to do.
Just because we can get to 100% does not mean we should.
So, just because you can sing with 100% effort, does not mean you should.
I never sing with my full effort. Did I used to? Oh, yeah. Definitely. When I didn't know vocal technique, I overcompensated with pushing so much. Not only that, I used to be under the impression that singing is supposed to be physically difficult, or physically taxing. And I especially thought so when it came to belting. When I learned that belting actually feels as easy as all singing, my mind was blown.
Always think of the effort you use with singing as that volume bar. We don't ever want to hit 100% in physical effort. You don't need to push or force your voice to sing. And often, even if you're at 75%, sometimes that's going a little too hard for a very soft ballad. If you find that something is off in what you're singing and can't find the culprit, it might be that you're still trying a little too hard.
So, you don't want to go past 75%, but that doesn't mean you can't go LESS than 75%. This is how you add DYNAMICS in singing (how you make it interesting so the whole song doesn't stay at the same level).
Play around with this!
Record yourself singing a song the way you normally would, then sing the song again with 50% less effort. Or even just 10% less. Experiment. This may just be what you needed to change!
Leave any questions or comments below, and if you need any more help, I offer online voice lessons over here!
Happy Singing!
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