Singing Tips for Guys

Although singing is amazing and equal at the same time for both men and women, voices are different and what’s good for women isn’t always applicable for men. The opposite is of course true as well. This post aims to give you some valuable tips for singing. You are going to learn about how you can improve your voice, hit the high notes, hit the low notes, and hopefully everything in between as well. Ready for some personal singing tips for guys? Let’s get started!

Wake Up and Warm Up

The first singing tip for guys is in fact something that a lot of men in my experience can’t be bothered with. Warming up and getting into a good headspace for singing. I understand where it comes from and to be honest, I also can’t be bothered warming up. However, after not warming up a few times and going straight into the recording studio I have made so many mistakes that I always warm up before I sing.

Whether the mistakes are cracking notes, not being to reach the notes I want to, or even hitting bum notes, all of these are because I just haven’t warmed up.

So please, warm up!

Check out how to warm up with this post.

As well as this, I feel that it’s important to shake the cobwebs off your body. You don’t need to do any strenuous exercise, but you do need to feel fully awake and ready to sing. Jog on the spot, do some jumping jacks, it doesn’t really matter, just get your body moving and you will feel better for it and ready to sing.

Getting the Breathing Just Right

It’s important to know how to breathe correctly. This is especially true for guys who often aim to get way more power than women. Perhaps it’s just chauvinistic but it’s what I’ve found over the years. What you are aiming to do is to sing from your stomach.

To do this you have to ensure that instead of your chest rising up and down as you breathe, your tummy does. If you are having trouble doing this, lie down flat on the floor and put your hands on your abdomen. This should help. If you are still having issues, check out this post to ensure you are breathing the correct way.

The reason why this is such and important singing tip for guys is because in general, men sing using their chest voice. This is the normal, powerful, area of singing and it therefore needs more support to do it correctly.

As opposed to women, who often sing with their head voice or mix where support isn’t as important there, in order to really access your chest voice, you need to be breathing properly.

Know Your Vocal Range

There are so many songs that you may want to sing. But, if you don’t have the range to do so, then you shouldn’t even try. Or at least, if you want to, you have to sing them either lower or higher than the original. The only way to know if a song is really going to fit your voice is knowing what you can actually do. And this is knowing your vocal range.

There are going to be some songs that you just won’t be able to sing. However, it’s important for you to realize that this isn’t a bad thing. If you can sing the songs that you are good at well, you will be able to perform them with complete confidence. It is like any other activity. If you are good at it, you want to continue doing it.

Once you know your vocal range and perform inside those boundaries, you will find that you will have better tone, more confidence, more skill, and more ability than you originally thought you had. This can only be a good thing. If you want to learn exactly how to determine your vocal range, check out the steps that are outlined in that post

Never Trying to Force Your Voice beyond What You Can Do

Going hand in hand with what I’ve written above, don’t try and sing outside your range. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t experiment and test your limits. Because of course, you can increase your range if you follow the right steps.

However, you shouldn’t overdo it. And, you should never do it in a concert. In truth, if you listen to songs by recording artists and then again in concerts, you will often notice that they are singing slightly lower than they have done so on the actual album release.

And the reason is because they are often not confident of getting there in the actual live event. It may be uncomfortable for them.
So, when you are singing in front of crowd, just stay in your zone and don’t go outside it.

Choose Suitable Songs for Your Vocal Type

It’s important to select songs and include them in your repertoire that fit your voice and show it off in the best way. Whether you can sing that note or not, it’s important to give the audience the best version of you. And your do this by selecting the songs that are in your tessitura. What that means is that they fit into your “normal” range. Not the highest notes and not the lowest ones.

But in general, the more notes that fit into that pretty narrow band of notes, the better. Even though there are six different vocal types, there are so many gray areas and overflows from one to the other it’s important to know where the song fits in with you.

There is a simple way of finding this out.

Listen to the song you want to sing.

Record yourself.

If it sounds good and didn’t hurt, then we are in business and you’ve probably found a song that fits for you. If not, just move on.

Improve Your Listening Skills so You Know How You Really Sound

This is one of the most important tips that you need to know. How you actually sound and how you think you sound are often two very different things.

Sound reverberates and bounces off every surface differently and it only gets to your ears after that. You don’t really hear how you sound unless you record it and play it back to yourself.

Get a sound recorder, use your mobile device, whatever. As long as you can record yourself and then play it back. You must be able to critique yourself and really know when you are singing correctly and when you are not.

Record, listen, improve and repeat. This is how you’ll get bet better at singing.

Remove the Tension to Let Your Voice Go!

The more tension you have, the less you’ll be able to sing. Try and relax, take some deep breaths, and open yourself up as much as you can. Ensure you get enough sleep and just try and relax. It will improve your ability to sing correctly and really get you in the frame of mind that you need to be in to sing properly.

Get Enough to Drink

No, not booze. Sorry about that. That’s something to stay away from as it will dry out your throat and vocal tract. Drink plenty of water as it lubricates everything to do with your voice. You should aim to drink at least three liters of water per day. This may sound like a lot but in my experience, nothing can beat it.

I love drinking coffee but unfortunately, it’s not great for my voice. What I do therefore is not drink it in the afternoon before I have to perform. In the morning, for sure, no problem. Drink it. But keep off it for a good amount of time before you have to sing live. As well as this, try to stay away from any kind of drink that increases your phlegm.

These things include milk and milky products, sugary treats, red meat, alcohol, and many others. If you want to learn about how to remove mucus, check out the post I’ve written about it.

Ensure You Are Practicing Properly

Practice makes perfect. You need to practice your songs, practice your technique, practice your breathing, and then practice some more. Singing isn’t always naturally easy but with continued practice it will be get easier and, in the end, you will reap the benefits of it.

Just one little exercise that I find to be very helpful.

Pant like a dog.

That’s it.

Just keep doing it and it will increase your cardiovascular ability as well as warming you up nicely. AND…. it only takes a few minutes!

Know What You Are Singing

The last tip that I’ll offer here is that you have to know the song that you are singing. Really well. Every word, every note. This is the ONLY way to go about singing. You must respect the music and if you do so, then the music will respect you and allow you to put over your personality into the song. And the audience will hear this and react in kind.

When I first started singing operatic areas I didn’t understand Italian. However, my teacher at the time impressed upon me to learn it and understand the words. The more you understand about the song and the story you want to tell with it, the better you’ll be able to sing it.

In Closing

I hope you have enjoyed and gained from these singing tips for men. This is an area of singing that, being a guy, interests me greatly. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Till next time!