While not everyone can learn to sing like the greats, it’s certainly true that everyone can try to sing like them.

If you don’t make up the estimated 3% of the population born with a condition called Amusia, otherwise known as tone deafness, then there’s every chance that you can learn to sing, even if you don’t necessarily go on to make a career out of it and become one of the greatest singers of all time. In fact, it’s highly likely that you won’t!

Check out the following 9 tips for becoming a singer:

1.Define your style 
What, or who, would you like to sound like when you’re singing? Madonna, Robbie Williams, Dolly Parton or Frank Sinatra; once you’ve chosen your favorite singing voice and music genre, you can start trying to emulate their tone or style.

2.Practice regularly
In the case of learning to sing, practice really does make perfect, and by focusing on singing a little every day, you can become better at it, quicker.

3.Be open to sounding bad!
It’s quite likely that while you practice, you’ll sound bad. But, as with many things in life, sometimes you have to be bad, before you can become good, so it’s best to get used to this fact!

4.Avoid singing over other voices
Doing this might give you some confidence, as can karaoke, but neither method allows you to hear your own voice properly, and you won’t be able to make the adjustments necessary.

5.Train your ear
Being able to hear a note and sing it back, is what’s referred to as ‘training your ear.’ An effective way of doing this is by learning to play an instrument, as you’ll have to train your ear to develop an understanding of music, meaning that in theory, you should learn faster.

6.Learn breathwork
By working on your breathing, you’ll eventually be able to master singing while moving around, and breathing from the diaphragm is an effective technique to start with. This involves placing your hands on your tummy and feeling it expand, instead of breathing from your chest.

7.Practice the scales
Practicing your scales helps you train your ear, practice on a daily basis, and get used to breathwork. A great place for beginners to start, major and minor scale vocal warm-ups also help you expand upon your range.

8.Try not to force your voice
If your throat or chest are hurting when you sing, then you should definitely stop and only start again once the pain has subsided. Singing for more than two hours a day can damage your vocal chords. So, while practice is essential, it’s important not to overdo it.

9.Practice singing into a microphone
When you hear a recording of your voice, it will almost certainly sound different than when you hear yourself talk normally. Because sound travels in a straight wave, others hear your true voice while you don’t, as when you hear it, your voice has had to travel around your head to reach your ears, which can cause frequency shifts. This doesn’t make your voice sound bad, but it will sound different, so singing into a microphone and listening to recordings of you singing, can help you hear your true voice.

With these 9 tips, you could soon be sounding just like the top female singers, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on who you want to sound like!

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