singemonkey wrote:
Atherie1: Anyone can sing with the correct training. But you're at a disadvantage if you get to adulthood without ever having learned at all. Singing is not an inherent talent. We can see that clearly in SA where white culture has almost entirely given up singing for pleasure (fewer attending traditional hymn-singing churches, tv, x-boxes, etc.). So, surprise surprise, most white people are useless to mediocre at singing. While singing - harmony singing - is still an incredibly important source of entertainment among a great many black South Africans. Consequently the ratio of can-sings to can't-sings seems to be the reverse.
I learned to sing because my ma used to sing in the car... to entertain herself. I learned from that that you could entertain yourself by singing (boy genius ?). So I started doing it when I was wee.
I sing at home. I sing in the car. I've done it my entire life.
Now what if you'd never done it? You didn't start when you were little. Then you were a person who "couldn't sing." Now you're 25 or whatever and you want to learn. It's much harder. But it can be done.
It's a lot like guitar playing. How come some people were virtuosos when they were 18? Turns out they used to drag their guitars everywhere. Never put them down. Hendrix apparently used to play on the toilet. Putting in those hours when you're older and have competing interests is much harder.
Singing is easier in a way though, because you need nothing but yourself to be there. If a person is trying to learn to sing later in life, lessons are important. But so is singing at every possible opportunity throughout the day to catch up.
It's just fascinating that my culture has developed this myth that singing is like some internal switch that some people have on and others off. There's a reason that most pop bands in the '60s had two, and usually more, members who could sing really well. Because most people back then could sing a bit.
I have been singing since 2006(properly) I would watch how bruce dickenson would sing and mimick him. I sang nearly everyday to this day I still sing. I would sing for about 2 hours a day.
I would let the concert of one of their old days play while I sang a long. I wanted to be just like him. this was before I picked up the guitar. I can hold my notes quite well thanks to bruce ?
I learnt a way to sing that would not hurt my throat. In the beginning trying to sing like bruce killed my throat but I learnt how to sing without putting strain on my vocal cords.
