How to sing any song? There are multiple ways to answer this and I am trying a little too hard at the moment to think of all the possible ways to make this as easy to reply to this question. Sometimes even when you know the answer, it’s hard to put it into words.
You can sing any song if you have a strong ear to break down your chosen song into its parts. What it’ll allow you to do is perfectly reverse engineer this song to its bare bones and then practice your way back up.
There is a lot to unpack here and I’ll try my best to explain everything in words and make sense of it for you to understand. Let’s begin!
Knowledge
I speak an awful amount about knowledge here, the reason is simple. It’s important. It’s very important to give a vision of what you can do with deliberate and thoughtful practice and believe me if you’re that 0.5% of people in the population who are just naturally good at ear training, I already kind of don’t like you.
For the rest of us mortals, there is a constant struggle. But, a sweet one. You see, without knowing what the singer is doing, you’d be left in the dark. I mean, if the singer is singing in falsetto, you ought to know. For the time being.
The reason is simple and this is quite unorthodox but, you don’t need to be able to sing in falsetto in order to determine if the singer is. This is the knowledge you actually ‘use’ in music. It’s repetitive, you being able to discern the subtle intricacies of which technique the vocalist is using matters a lot.
Why?
Because you’re about to copy it.
It is only when you know what the singer is doing that you’re able to copy it perfectly. It’s like cooking really. You look at the recipe and try to follow it along. The difference is in cooking you can look up the techniques online and almost follow along whereas in music and singing, you have to practice to get to that level.
Once you know or even understand the fundamental basis of the technique in singing, all there is left to do is practice. Consistent practice toward the goal will result in you getting the part that allows you to sing any song you’d want.
Compound Practice
In the pursuit of small skills like these, you will find you will start compounding. In other words, the more you practice the more songs you’ll cover with ease. Taking the example of the falsetto from earlier, do it once and master it, and doing it again won’t seem all that difficult.
Unless you take a long break and you let practice get away from you.
Breaking it Down
Building up on what is written earlier about knowledge and how it will help you. The breakdown of the song needs to be done on more than a vocalist level. It needs to be done harmonically (chord progressions to give an example), rhythmically (time signatures and changes) and to pull it off correctly you need to have a good understanding of music theory.
Period.
No, there is no other way around and no, this is not arranging (the skills in music where you write and organize how instruments are to play) and I will explain exactly why.
Why There’s No Way Around It
Music theory encompasses how time and harmony work. It’s a well-established system that can not only tell how fast or slow a tempo is but also how many beats there are in a measure. Which will change the feel of how you’re perceiving time.
Along with telling which notes are being played if a lead sheet is provided, which will also tell you which chords are being used.
Why It’s Not Arranging
Arranging is a different game altogether, although you use the same skills to make an arrangement, the idea is to make the original sound something like it wasn’t before. For our conversation here, we are trying to establish ways to break the song down for us to be as good as the song we’re trying to copy.
Custom Exercises
Once you have actually broken it down and know what notes are being sung and in what key you’re in and have recognized which technique is required of you to be able to copy what the singer is doing.
You can now break it down even more by doing custom exercises regarding the pitch you need to reach or the technique you need to master.
The strongest point of doing this is you are in control of the difficulty now because you have broken it down successfully. You can not build up to the pitch and the time if it is too fast. Both of these things can now be practiced simultaneously.
If you’re creative enough, you can also find creative ways to practice to not make your practice sessions feel boring.
Quality Control
Then after all is said and done. It is time to refine it to the core.
Focusing on making your notes sound crystal clear along with the lyrics is probably the last step and then repetition of it until it becomes effortless. Remember not to overdo it to the point of straining your vocal cords.
Practice safe and practice a lot but always be aware of your limits.
Online Vocal Lessons
I have written two articles and I believe you need to read both to understand how it works.
Firstly, it’s why you ought to get an online course.
Secondly, the one you should purchase.
Take your time because the courses are going to be here when you’re ready.