I never went to a music school, or a voice teacher to guide me as a singer. Singing came naturally to me and like the birds I do not know who taught me how to sing, but I have been doing a fairly decent job of it for over thirty years! The points below and the tips suggested are what I have learned the hard way, and may prove useful for aspiring new singers and vocalists.
1 Remember - there is no such thing as a “voice.” You only get to replicate/duplicate/mimic with your voice what you hear.
2 It means, if you are not hearing right - you are not singing right. It is how good you get to hear the key/notes/frequencies that ultimately sums up how good you will get be as a singer/vocalist. Deaf people for instance, can never sing!
3 Protect your ears from water and keep them clean. Use ear buds (very gently) after a shower - everyday.
4 Shake a match box near both ears - and check the difference in your hearing. If in one ear you hear the sound less than 30% than the other - you have a problem. You need to see an ENT immediately i.e. if you are really serious about singing.
5 Remember your ears combined are stereophonic, but your voice is monophonic. There are therefore limits to what your ear hears and what your voice can replicate/duplicate/mimic. Make sure you understand the “limits of your limitations.”
6 The vocal cord is a muscle - and just like any other muscle they have to be “worked on” – exercised gradually. If your voice sounds sore, splatty, hoarse, harsh or off key it means you have stressed it more than it can handle. God has blessed you with two ears and one mouth. Please use them in those proportions - get the drift? You can’t become a “vocal Schwarzenegger” overnight!
7 If your throat hurts, don’t go on a gurgling spree because the pressure of water in your throat combined with the grrr grrr frequency damages your voice more than it helps. Instead, try pain killer - any pain killer. If pain killers can remove a headache - it should have no problem taking off your “throat ache.” Don’t go for mint or throat lozenges (candy) available in any shop if you have a sore throat. Any candy will lubricate your throat and ease any irritation.
8 Don’t hurt your ears, for they are your most precious possession. Use cell phones, headphones and earphones as sparingly as possible. The frequencies, these devices emit are very dangerous, especially when you hear them in high volume. The damage that is imminent from overuse of these devices will become apparent in the next five years if you don’t stop.
9 Singing should be fun with no stress to the voice or your throat at all. In fact the best singers use their voice with the same ease and comfort - as they would, when they talk. That’s called “speech level singing.” Get yourself a great speech level frequency that you hear well and make sure others can hear it too. The first 20 seconds of a song decides whether the audience is going to be with you - or plain ditch you. You will rarely get a second chance unless you are very lucky.
10 Last if not the least - no matter how bad your voice sounds or whatever state it is in, don’t worry too much about it when it’s time to go to sleep. If you do, remember subconsciously your voice doesn’t get to sleep and the stress continues. It’s a muscle after all and needs rest too. Give it rest period.
Good luck!