[Harp-L] Learning to Sing

[Bill Hines <billhines4@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hopefully this is on-topic because I really think it has a lot to do 
with harp players. It's pretty clear that a harp player would get more 
opportunities to be in bands if one could front or at least contribute 
vocals, and perhaps even play percussion on numbers that don't work for 
harp.

I used to think people were either born good singers or they weren't. If 
you watch the shows like American Idol (yeah, I know, let's not go there 
and dilute what I hope will be a good thread) they seem to dismiss those 
that "don't have it" and encourage them to take up something else, as if 
they can never learn to sing. I know that's on a whole different level 
and they are looking for extremely talented vocalists, but still it 
gives the impression that you "got it or you don't."

However, I've been attending jams enough, and even seen many concerts by 
superstars like Neil Young, Dylan, Tom Petty to think "if I didn't know 
who these guys were and heard them sing, I'd say they weren't good 
singers or at best don't have good voices" but of course to see them 
live, and hear their music even recorded, you know it "works" because of 
their passion and the music surrounding their voices being so keyed in. 
(Ok Kris Kristofferson really does have a bad singing voice no matter 
how you look at it, haha). I'm a fan of Young, not so much Dylan and Petty.

So I guess no matter what kind of chops you are born with, you can 
"learn to sing" at least as far as the key things like projection, 
holding a note, being on key as best possible for the songs, and most 
importantly picking only songs that "work for your voice", etc.

Any tips on how one goes about that? Are there any good self-training 
materials out there? I know folks will say "get lessons" but that can be 
problematic if you travel or depending on where you live. And how would 
one identify a good teacher anyway? I'm sure it's like the harp world, 
there are good teachers and bad ones.

Anyway, I'm curious and I thought the thread would be helpful to others 
now and in the future. I'm sure many on the list have dealt with it, 
what was your path and how would you get there differently now?

I'm curious about the percussion aspect too, if anyone wants to throw 
stuff out there for that too. I'd like to get a set of some common 
percussion instruments that aren't too crappy if anyone has 
recommendations, same with learning DVDs, etc. I'm learning some 
acoustic guitar to help me with the music theory part and maybe someday 
to do some racked accompaniment.

I'm not looking to form the next Cream, just want to maybe supplement my 
income in retirement and have a little fun. Maybe even before that.

Bill Hines