Hi

You need to learn technique for singing, first and foremost. It's all in the breathing, the amount of air you allow to pass through your vocal chords, the ability to open your voice up and let the air flow through easily. If you sing in your throat, you're less likely to have a decent range and less likely to be able to sing for a sustained period of time.

The voice is, as anyone will tell you, an instrument. If you don't practice that instrument and treat it with respect, then it'll start to fail you. Don't drink cold liquids while you're singing as it'll constrict the muscles and cause problems where you'll have to force the vocals. If you want to keep your throat lubricated, make sure the liquids are hot (or lukewarm at least) and aren't fizzy… Personally I like to drink peppermint tea or chamomile.

What I will also say is that you need to make sure you don't let your voice lapse… I used to sing in a band, used to sing around the house constantly, and was actually singing for most of the day. When I quit the band, I was losing the practice along with the mic and I ultimately stopped practising around the house. That was four years ago and since then my voice has got gradually worse, to the point where I've gone from around a comfortable three octave range to something which must only be around 1.5 octaves at best. Even then, the tonality and actual control has suffered greatly. It's not that I've lost my passion, but I've just forgotten to exercise my voice on a daily basis. It's important that you try to sing as often as possible, but not so much that you're damaging your voice… Don't strain, don't force it… Work your way around the scales gradually and if you find that you can't get to a particular note comfortably, just try it a few times a day until it gets easier.

I've heard some good things about the Seth Riggs vocal course on DVD but haven't taken a look at it myself. That may be something that you can look into until such times as you can source a dedicated local vocal coach. At least that way, you're getting an insight into how the singing voice actually works.

You're saying that your voice is shaky – that could actually be lack of confidence. Also, if your voice is very loud then it could be that you're not actually singing with power but leaning more towards shouting instead. There are certain singers who have incredible power without actually taking themselves to the level of actually shouting, and there are others who are incapable of singing softly because they've become used to singing too strong. Look for a song called "Broken" by Scott Stapp… This is a perfect example of singing too strongly when the song calls for something else. The song is very delicate at the start, with muted piano and then we have Scott growling and grimacing over the top of it… Entirely unnecessary.

Above all, you need to concentrate on control and breathing. As long as you're able to take in enough air, the notes will flow more easily. If you start to sing a line and you don't have enough breath, then you're more likely to move to the back of the throat and strain yourself. It also depends on what kind of vocal technique you want to lean towards though… Some people prefer to sing in their throat whereas others prefer the open throat technique.

I've probably not been much help, but I hope it's given you some starting points for improvement 🙂

M.

Everybody knows how to sing…. I'ts just a matter of practice and discipline to make a difference…. You don't have to take singing lessons, try it in your own way listen to Cd"s and Dvd's there you'll get key points on how to sing… I know how to sing that's why im tellin you girl!!! You can make it! And that's what I did….. Just practice………… And you'll be able to copy even mariah carey's whistle…

One way to learn vibrato is to sing two notes from a half step in stacatto, slowly at first and getting faster and faster until you don't have any gaps between the two notes, or similarily just singing back and forth from one note to the other until your voice gets used to doing it.

From there, you have to have very good breath support to get something like operatic quality virbrato, with enough air singing back and forth should give you enough for a slow virbrato, but techniques only work for some people. My advice is just to play around with your voice, and see if you can figure out what works for you.

I was taught the above technique, but the way I learned it, is by singing in my room until it became natural to me.