[Crazy 9.5 Fingers]

I think to a large degree the voice you are given is the voice that you have. So when Ray LaMontagne started singing at some point early in his life someone said to him "Damn you have a sick voice dude!" Either you have that or you don't.

However,there are things you can do whether you have that innate tone or not that can make a world of difference. Take a few vocal lessons to learn the mechanics, the breathing, working the diaphragm (yet another sexual reference), and keeping your tongue pressed down to the bottom of your mouth (numero dos) when applicable.

Those two things make a huge difference in the quality, clarity, and power of your voice. The biggest complaint I got from people when I was signing was that I mumbled a lot. I thought I was just fine so I took about 5 vocal lessons and things improved immediately. It's a craft like any other and I am a firm believer in having a professional education of the fundamentals for any craft.

[ELPManticore]

FYI - this is a pretty 'abstract' post, but I'm listing out what's helped me, personally. I've tried not to overlap other people posts. At face value, I think crazy 9.5 is right, some are born to sing and some aren’t, but most people (IMO), if not completely tone deaf can at least get to a point where dogs won’t howl and people will be entertained. Maybe this sounds a bit too motivational, but I’m convinced that if I was able to pick up a decent singing voice, most other rukinders should be able to as well.

One thing I find most people struggle with is what a buddy of mine called 'finding your voice'. This is really a rough combination of being comfortable with your self, knowing 'where' to sing and in what voice. This probably sounds pretty confusing by the way I worded it, but its not that tough. I've found I almost have a different persona when I sing - probably 90% of the time I have a southern accent/twang (despite being out of New England no more than 5-7 times in my life). It’s just easier for me to sing in that dialect, or a British one. I terms of where to sing - two things I guess - in terms of octave range relative to where you speak. I tend to have a pretty high, nasal voice speaking, but I sing way down in the bass notes, again more comfortable and it sounds better. And then where in your body you sing from. When I first started, I tried to sing from the top of my lungs, kind of where you would speak from. To be effective you really should be singing from your belly/gut.

Airflow is important too, people tend to run out of air leading to voice cracks and other ugly stuff. This isn't just talking so make sure you're breathing a full chest of air, make sure you know where the breaks in the vocal line are, and make sure you both remember to inhale enough to get you to the next break, and that you inhale at each break, even if you don't feel like you need it.

Knowing the song, not simply on guitar or musically, but also on the level of: this song is about x and the writer's emotions were y. Helps a lot too, I don't know why but it does.

When you think about it, there are a lot of great 'singers' who aren't classical vocalists - Neil Young, Mick Jagger, Jerry at times, Dylan (might draw flack, but there are some good vocal periods in his career), Clapton, Petty, John Forgerty, etc. My point is there are plenty of people who don't have good voices who are good singers - that’s what I mean by finding your voice.

And no matter how crappy/embarrassing it sounds keep at it - practice is the way to get better. Frustrating, especially at first, but remember how hard guitar was starting out? You’ll know the minute you latch onto it, even if it slips away the next. Just keep at it and have fun.

[DenverEd]

Great advice. Thanks.