There could be a lot of confusion and self-doubt to understand if you are able to actually sing or not. Putting in time where it matters would go a long way to take away such doubts.
Practicing, understanding, and actually singing is the only way to know for sure if you are able to sing. Understanding how music as a whole works and how well you’re able to understand it will allow you to know your own place as a singer. Practicing things that are fundamental to music will allow you to know if you can sing.
First, we’re going to begin by looking at a simple singing skill, and then we will dive deep into other things that will surely help you to determine if you can actually sing.
Pitch
Everyone knows what pitch means in music. It’s how high or low a note is. While the understanding of it may be quite clear, there are several instruments in which if you have tuned them right, you will not have to worry about playing a note that’s off-pitch.
For example, take the case of a digital piano. Unless you do something special every note is exactly how it’s supposed to sound like. Any instrument that has frets can be put into this category as long as it’s set up properly and within its tolerances.
But there are some instruments that don’t really adhere to this. For example, a violin. If you’re not good at the violin then you may not be able to make notes sound like it’s being played perfectly.
You will hit notes that don’t sound good (poor execution of technique) and you definitely won’t make them sound like they are on-pitch.
The singing voice is the same.
It has a lot more in common with fretless instruments and woodwinds than it does with guitars and pianos.
Matching
The biggest struggle for beginners in singing is developing the ability to match their voice to a particular note. It needs to happen and it’s not that hard of a skill to learn if you know what you’re doing.
The ability to do this perfectly will take you one step closer to becoming the singer that you’ve always wanted to be. It’s a basic skill but a fundamental one that will follow you everywhere.
Doesn’t matter when what or how you’re singing something. Singing on-pitch is something you’re going to be doing all the time. It doesn’t matter who you’re performing for or how much, singing on-pitch is something that is going to be an integral part of you and soon, if it isn’t already, something that you will do naturally.
If You’re Struggling
If however, you struggle with this part of singing then I suggest that you need to read this. Another article that I cover in-depth on how to sing on pitch.
Remember, the difference between singing the correct note and the wrong note can be very minute, but your ear and your voice should be able to find the mistakes easily.
If you’re able to match your pitch effortlessly, then you have one of the strongest skills as a vocalist and you can be assured in your skills that you are able to sing.
Technique Execution
However, singing on-pitch isn’t the only thing that you’ll be using. It’s a skill and not really a technique.
A technique is what is used by you to make a sound in music. It’s the way you do it. The starkest contrast I can make is between thinking about singing a really sweet love ballad and comparing it to death metal singing.
Yeah, they’re not the same. Both are technically singing but they’re not the same because of the techniques they’re using. They don’t sound the same because they are using different techniques.
This is true in all genres, yes while if you learn to create really powerful rockstar vocals, you may be able to sing pop as well.
If you are able to pull off the techniques that you wish to, then you know you can sing.
Why The Goals of Music Depend on You
The answer to this is simple.
If you want to sing pop and nothing else then you will learn that genre thoroughly and be able to execute the techniques that are required.
Don’t get me wrong but technically speaking. Learning how to growl and scream is far more demanding. I am not saying that it’s better but making you understand that learning to get one is harder than the other. That’s all. Technical difficulties.
If you wish to pursue a certain type of singing and even something that is a mix of the two, you will need different techniques. When you breathe, how much and how you alter your tone to sound a certain way are all nuances you must master.
If you’re able to do it successfully, then you know you can sing.
Do You Know?
Becoming a singer isn’t just about knowing how to sing though. A little knowledge of the whole is highly important. I believe that singers become too focused on their roles and what other singers are doing in different bands that they forget how beautiful every other aspect of music as a whole is.
Listening to other parts of the song, like the bass or the drums will allow you to know more about the arrangement. Knowing general things about music will allow you to communicate yourself to other musicians better.
I am obviously talking about music theory.
Music Theory
Music theory is going to allow you to understand how we understand music. Even if you are not going to compose on a daily basis, having this knowledge is super important as it allows you to not just communicate with other musicians but also how to use the working knowledge of harmony and manipulate it for yourself.
It will also take away the misconceptions singers have about pitch and other music-related false beliefs. A common example is not being able to sing a certain scale. Well, if you’ve put critical thinking into it. You can sing any scale if you would understand how ranges, octaves, and other notes work in conjunction with each other.
What’s more is that once you understand how music theory actually works, its applications are universal. You can easily use it in music production software and the best one is the use of music theory to hear and analyze sounds, which is known as ear training.
Ear training’s effectiveness can only be harnessed if you understand music theory. How else would you rationalize sounds? You can only do it if you are able to understand what particular sounds sound like and what their relationship is.
The best part is that if you are consistent in learning about music theory, you’ll learn it.
Singing
The other knowledge kind of understanding that you must grasp is of singing itself.
There are two sides to it.
One side is the general understanding of things, like how practice ought to be done. The other side is how a singer would practice. These blogs help you out with the general side of things and as you can imagine teaching someone to sing through the written word is a tad bit difficult.
I have written about the best method for you to learn how to sing in today’s time and it’s through online courses. If you don’t like it, I’d understand but not checking out the benefits would mean you don’t know what you’re saying no to.
Why Ear Training is Important
Ear training for singers is easier than for other instrumentalists.
Even when people are first starting out in ear training, they are asked to sing the notes and match their pitch to the note they’re singing so they can internalize the sounds, and that in turn allows them to understand the relationship of notes much more easily and allows them to further practice the distinction of various combinations of notes that allows them to discern what they’re hearing.
That’s ear training.
The better you are at it the more you’ll be able to discern in music and the sooner you master this the better your musical journey is going to be. Because when it comes to listening and singing something, you should be able to do that. Mix that with matching pitches and now you are able to hear what someone is singing or playing and able to replicate it perfectly.
Which, if you’re able to hear then you will be able to sing as well. So if you’re able to do this then you know you can sing.
Self-Analyze
What comes with a trained ear is to listen to the nuances clearly. With that being said, if you record yourself and hear it back then your ear should technically tell you how well you’re singing.
If your breathwork is good, if you’re singing with the intended technique and if the notes you’re singing are right and on time. This self-analyzation allows you to propel your singing forward by making you aware of the things that you are doing wrong.
But of course, experience goes hand-in-hand as well. The more you sing and self-analyze yourself the more you will understand, and the better you will sing. It’s a self-feeding cycle.
Not a bad one either.
If you’re able to do this, then you know you can sing.
The Most Foolproof Way to Know You Can Sing
Of course, initially following this cycle will end up to slow progress. There is a way to fast-forward your progress and I have written about it as well. But you will also notice that I had talked about why online courses are better previously.
To build on that, I have also set up a page that will take you to lessons you can buy and start learning. The reason I say this is the most foolproof way of getting better is that you’re learning from people who have figured out how to teach singing and by knowing how to sing themselves.
Teaching is supposed to primarily be a one-way street, the student is the happiest when they are taught something they’re passionate about. So, if you’re passionate about learning to sing then, check out this page.
Practice
The other thing it’ll allow you to do is practice.
Practice is where it’s at. If you know what to do and how to do it, then the only thing remaining between you and getting better is putting in the time to practice it.
Even marginal gains are worth it. In reality, all practice is just minute gains. They may come in the form of being able to do something a little bit easier and don’t always have to be this grand thing where you can improve your range.
I have written an article in which I talk about how 30 minutes of practice can help. You would be surprised how much something as little as 30 minutes a day for five days a week can help.
The more you practice and the smarter you practice, the more you will realize where and what kind of singer you would like to be but above all everything, practice is the only determining factor that will make sure if you are able to sing or not.
Before we end, let’s take a small analogy.
If you train for something for two years, could be anything, a cycling marathon, drawing faces, or even pottery. Would you be as bad as you first were when you started two years prior?
Obviously, no.
Then why can’t we think the same way about singing?