How to be talented in singing
“Talent Counts, but Effort Counts Twice.”
Angela Duckworth
So you want to be a talented singer, and you are not sure how to get there? I’ll take you through some of my top ways I train singers daily to become talented singers – without natural talent.
The biggest mistake of all
Talent: natural aptitude or skill. – according to the Oxford Dictionary.
Talent is simply a natural ability to pick up a skill quickly, that doesn’t mean anything else other than that a person finds it easy to start, but a natural ability can only take you so far.
Find the music you love
There is nothing less “motivating” than singing music you don’t enjoy, find the music that you really love, that you get excited about practising and start from there. You may want to get help from a trainer to help modify some of the songs in the beginning, because not all music is perfect for the start of your journey.
Set realistic goals
Aim to work for the long haul, set yourself a goal for the short term and the long term. For example, short term could be “get into a regular singing practice”, long term could be “perform at an open mic in 12 months time”. I am all about a stretch goal, by all means make one of them “to win a Grammy”, you have to make is believable for yourself.
Start a regular practice routine
If you want to become a talented singer, then I want you to start setting a regular, achievable practice routine for yourself. Think about the time that you are able to invest in your singing and make it manageable for yourself.
Reality check: you are going to need to practice for at least 30 -45 min, 5 days a week to see real results to become a professional singer. Of course, you can sing less, but the progress will be slower. If you want to achieve your goal, then put in the time.
Work on your weaknesses
No one got better by working on what they were good at, start your practice sessions with what you are good at and then move onto the challenging parts of your work. Singers need to be able to be good at pitching, breath control, and controlling the different parts of their voices. Work on what you can’t do right now, and record yourself to improve. You can always check out my post about how to know you are making progress if you aren’t sure.
Stop changing your exercises and songs weekly or daily
In order to really work on your singing, you are going to want to work on the same song or exercise for at least a month to 6 weeks in order to see growth. Work on the pitching, the story, the performance, the tone, changing the vocal colour. There are so many ways to keep growing in a song, I want you to know it so well you couldn’t possibly sing it incorrectly. Staying with the same song will help you go deeper in your understanding and have it go from short term memory to long term, which helps your performance work.
Find a trainer
I know, these things are hard and expensive, but if you are really looking to improve your singing, and you are serious about it, then I want you to go and find yourself a singing teacher. You are going to be directed in your learning, and you will go so much further than you would have done working on your own. A singing teacher can provide you with resources, but also emotional and technical support for your singing.
Don’t give up
I love the Angela Duckworth quote at the top of this blog post. I am a huge advocate for working hard and getting your goals. This is not going to be easy, but I have seen singers go from not being able to pitch a single note to in one year singing an entire song absolutely perfectly. Just think about Ed Sheeran when he played his first recordings and talks about how hard he worked. This is a simple reminder that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to, and you will achieve it. You just have to want it badly enough.
Can’t afford a trainer?
Most of us singing teachers are self-employed solo business owners. My advice to you, would be to approach someone what you respect and offer something you could do for them in exchange for lessons. Edit their shorts, edit their videos, write blog posts, clean their studio. Something that you can exchange that isn’t money, but can help them and they can help you. I babysat my singing teacher’s children for singing lessons, I would look after the kids for the first half of the afternoon and have my lesson at the end when everyone else was finished. I actually earned money weekly rather than paying on top. Where there is a will, there is a way.
