How to teach yourself to sing - for the tuneless -in 5 minutes a day.

For some people, singing comes naturally. And can sing perfectly in tune without ever hitting a bum note. For other people it can be much harder. If you've ever really wanted to sing but have found you can't carry a note, there is still hope for you. And you may be surprised that with just a little effort, within a short period of time you'll be able to sing whatever songs you like, and impress family and friends. Even win someone's heart, if that's what you're after.

To begin. It helps if you can play an accompanying instrument, like the piano or guitar but you don't need to be able to play an instrument. Guitar is an easy enough instrument to learn to play. It usually takes only a few weeks to master the basics. For the minute, you're trying to learn to sing. Remember while doing this, you're learning, not preforming. Like an athlete trains for event, they're not running a marathon every time they train. They just do a little practice.

Now. Pick a song you like. Something that you don't love, as when you're finished with it, you're really going to hate it. It doesn't matter how hard the song is, or how high some of the notes are. You're not going to hit them first go. Trickier bits may even show you how much you're improving.

The song you pick will be the song you use to learn how to sing.

The important bit: You are going to use only one song. You are going to learn it inside out.

In the ideal situation, you would have some place quite to practice, where no one can hear you. You're not going to sound pleasant, you're likely not even to be in tune. If you can't find a place suitable place, you'll just have to work with what you have. 

You may annoy your family or housemates. They may tease you. This won't last very long, and you'll be over the worst bits soon. Then you will impress them with your progress. They let them get to you. Practicing where you know people can hear you, even if you're bad, can build your confidence and control. Singing out of tune is often caused by nerves. Once you're over your nerves you'll  be surprised how easy it is to stay in tune.

This sounds nearly too simple to work but it works. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest and the complicated way of doing things just leads you around the long way.

Take your song. Write out the lyrics or print them out. Take the sheet to your practice place. You can explain to anyone who might hear you, what you're about to do. If they laugh, do not let them put you off.

Make yourself comfortable. Stand, sit or even lie down. It doesn't matter. You're trying to learn this from as many angles as you can. Try to sing the song. You will be out tune, your voice may crack at the high bits, you will make all kinds of mistakes and sound terrible. This is all good and ok. It's all part of the process of learn. Like learning to ride a bike, expect to fall off many times.

Spend anything from 5 to 15 minutes trying your best to sing the song.Try singing it loud. Trying singing it quietly. Speed it up slow it down. Try it high and low. Any way you can think of. It doesn't matter how silly it sounds. You're just trying to get comfortable with controlling the sounds coming out of your mouth. You'll find your limits quickly. As you practice your limits will stretch.

And then leave it for the day. Go and do something else like watch television or whatever else you feel like.

Return the next day. And repeat the exercise again with the same song. You will not notice any improvement in your singing.

But. If you do this every day. Or at least every two days. You will notice within 3 weeks to a month that you have improved and have more control. And that longer you practice this technique the better you become.You will find that songs that were impossible for you to sing before now become easy. You will be able to sing them without embarrassment or bum notes.

Yes it does. It's a technique used by professional actors and performers who have to learn to sing for their work. I have seen it work for absolute hopeless cases.