Singing is good for your mind, body, and soul. It's been shown to improve your physical health and boost your mood. In studies, it's been shown that learning to sing can strengthen your vocal muscles and make you less likely to snore!
There are plenty of other benefits to singing, too, but today we're going to be focusing on one of the ways you can learn to sing without necessarily needing vocal tutors, voice coaches, or singing teachers.
We're not suggesting that you should learn to sing without proper teaching, but a lot of people are quite nervous about singing in front of others when they first start learning how to sing and apps and digital tools can offer some fairly good alternatives until you're confident enough to sing in front of others.
Using Karaoke Apps for Learning How to Sing
Karaoke is a Japanese invention that's hugely popular across Asia and around the world. Whether it's in karaoke bars, a karaoke machine in your home, or even the popular singing video games, you have a lot of options when it comes to singing along to your favourite music.
Karaoke apps can be used to learn how to sing as they provide you with feedback on your singing performance, even if it's just in the form of points, stars, or a rating at the end of each song.
There are plenty of Karaoke apps that use your smartphone's microphone and allow you to sing along to a huge archive of different songs. Here are just a few of our favourite karaoke apps that you can use to help you learn how to sing.
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Singplay: This is a free app for converting .mp3 files into karaoke tracks, which is great for any aspiring singer with a particular taste in music.
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StarMaker Lite: Sing Karaoke: This app used to be a tie-in app for the popular TV Show "The Voice". The app lets you sing along with friends and a massive list of songs to sing along to.
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Smule: Karaoke Songs & Videos: Another app with a free version and premium features. You can choose from over a million different songs, duet with artists, host a karaoke party, record your performances and share them (if you want to).
- Yokee: This is a free app, but there are premium features and in-app purchases that can add up if you start paying for them. There are a lot of tracks on the app and you use vocal effects, too.
Other karaoke and singing apps of note include Red Karaoke Sing & Record and StarMaker. There are lots of them so choose whichever ones work for you and your singing.
The biggest benefit of these apps is that you can record your voice while singing, add effects, and share them. This will all make learning to sing more fun and help you improve your self-confidence when you sing.
Downloading Karaoke Videos to Help You Learn How to Sing
Karaoke smartphone apps aren't the only way to improve your voice and start learning how to sing. You can always sing along to online karaoke videos.
There are quite a few ways to download karaoke videos and in a matter of minutes, you'll have everything you need to practise singing or to host an evening of singing and party games!
While you can always just sing along to the music video, what you want is the instrumental version of a song with the vocal track removed and the lyrics appearing on the screen for you to sing along to.
Karafun, for example, is a platform with plenty of karaoke videos and with a subscription, you can access their library of tens of thousands of karaoke videos.
It's fairly common for karaoke and singing sites to let you download or save karaoke songs and videos into your collections or libraries so you can have all your favourite songs immediately accessible.
Here are a few others that are worth checking out:
- Kanto Karaoke is more of a karaoke studio program than a karaoke game. You can record your singing over the top of a background track, convert midi to mp3, and create a playlist from various file formats.
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Siglos Karaoke Player/Recorder 2: This is another software package for karaoke and one of the best features is that you can use it to change the key of a song, which is great for songs that you like but aren't necessarily in your range or key.
Improve Your Singing by Using Digital Tools to Record Your Voice
One of the best exercises for improving your singing is by recording your voice. Many singers will do this while doing singing exercises so they can listen back to it and correct any mistakes.
Whether it's through karaoke, a performance, or practising, get into the habit of critically listening back to yourself. This won't be too much fun when you first start singing, but once you're used to correcting your tone and pitch, it'll just be part of your singing lessons or practice.
If you want to start recording your singing or singing practice, here are a few things that you'll need. While you can record yourself singing on your smartphone, we recommend the following equipment and gear:
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Microphone: This is the smartest thing you can invest in if you want to get better at singing. The built-in microphone on your laptop won't cut it. Instead, choose a dedicated microphone that's designed for singing, a stand, and a pop filter (though you can cheaply make one yourself).
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Headphones or speakers: There's no point in creating a high-quality recording of your singing if you don't have something to listen to it with. You'll want to hear your singing and all its flaws so you can improve it over time. You can quickly spend a lot of money on audio equipment so try and match your budget to your level and aspirations.
- Audacity (or another audio recording program): Audacity is the most obvious choice because it's a free program that many people all over the world use to record .wav and .mp3 files. There are also tools and functions you can use to make your recording better.
Here are a few tips for getting the most out of recording your singing:
- Record in a quiet place with no background noise. You want to be able to hear your voice clearly and each of the notes that you sing.
- Test your microphone before you start. There are various levels and settings you'll need to adjust before you get started. Before a lesson, exercise, or recording, do a few tests at the volumes and pitches you'll be singing at to make sure your equipment will pick it up as intended.
- Film yourself if you can. Things like your posture won't be picked up by a microphone when you sing. Performance and stage presence are also important things for aspiring singers to work on.
The Best Sites for Singers to Learn Music Theory
While vocal exercises, practising singing, and doing some karaoke can help you become a better singer, you'll get so much more out of every singing session if you understand the underlying theory and how you can improve.
While you don't need to learn music theory to become a great singer and there are plenty of naturally talented singers out there, music theory is just another tool in your singing toolkit that will make you a better singer.
You'll also want to learn how to read sheet music. This is particularly useful as you'll be able to learn the notes that you're supposed to be singing rather than listening to a recording.
There are plenty of music theory websites where you can do exercises and activities to practise music theory or read articles and lessons on music theory.
| Website | Content |
|---|---|
| One Minute Music Lesson | This site is one of the best around. It includes short video lessons covering even the most basic concepts of music theory. |
| Metronimo | You can learn music theory with games thanks to this site aimed at children. There’s an app you can download for free. |
| MusicTheory.net | This site has interactive music theory activities for you to practise what you’ve learnt. |
| Teoría | This site includes varied resources on music theory and tutorials. There are also exercises for training your ear. |
| ToneSavvy | This site (which was formerly known as eMusicTheory) includes a plethora of music theory resources for both students and teachers. |
While these programs and apps will help you become a better singer, we wouldn't recommend making them the only resource you use. You'll learn how to sing much more effectively through singing lessons with a singing teacher, vocal coach, or a private singing tutor.
Not only will they tell you what you need to know, but they can also adapt lessons to you, what you want to sing, how you sing, and ensure that you're singing in tune!
Singing well starts with good singing habits, too. Here are a few things you should make part of your singing routine:
- Articulate when you sing
- Do breathing exercises for singers
- Focus on your posture
- Warm up your voice with vocal exercises before every singing session
- Work on expanding your vocal range
Without the help of a dedicated vocal coach or singing teacher, you run the risk of picking up bad habits. While some of these might be innocuous when you first start learning how to sing, they may hold you back as you improve as a singer and it's much harder to unlearn them than not learn them in the first place.
If you're looking for a dedicated singing tutor or vocal coach, just search for singing tutors where you live on the Superprof website. Not only can they help you to become a better singer, but they can even recommend even more useful apps, programs, and tools to help you improve your singing voice!
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