BetterThanFine

Hey Amine, thanks so much for the response.

I am in a similar living situation with my parents in an apartment while I'm at university, but I recently started not giving a care about singing at home! I asked earlier today if they could hear me singing (and I can sing really loud sometimes, up to 5 AM in the morning!) and they said they didn't know I was singing. Then again, a living room and kitchen separate my room from theirs.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice. It is nice to finally be able to feel like I can improve upon something I've always wanted to do well. When I was younger (I'm only 21 now), my mom and everyone else would tell me I didn't sing well and that kind of got me down, so I stopped. I've been sort of "practicing in secret" and improved a bit. As I said in my original post, I've still got a long way to go, but even this incremental improvement gives me hope that I can one day become a powerhouse like Bobby McFerrin one day. That would be a dream come true.

Thanks again!

Hey all!

First of all, here's the recording. It's a cover of a great song by Fiona Apple called "Waltz (Better Than Fine)" from Extraordinary Machine: http://soundcloud.com/betterthanfine/waltz .

(Can I get in trouble for covering and uploading songs to SoundCloud or is that protected by fair use copyright law?)

I've loved singing since I can remember (when I was 3, my mom said I used to belt out Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing"--gay!) but have never had singing lessons and only recently became confident enough to believe that I could strengthen my voice/that my voice is worth strengthening. In the little time that I've started looking up online vocal lessons, my voice has improved a bit. I have considered maybe getting a professional vocal coach or joining a choir once I've gotten to a point where I'm comfortable performing.

No doubt, I've still got a long way to go... Specifically, I think I have kind of an ugly sound sometimes and I want to widen my range. If you listen to this recording, the ugliness I'm talking about really comes out during the "No, I don't believe in the wasting of time" part. Is this something that can be resolved through training, or am I stuck with it?

Any and all advice welcome. If you want some other covers to see where I could improve/see where I'm having problems, I am happy to sing something for you--like maybe Generous Palmstroke (Bjork) or Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra) or something from an old Regina Spektor album?

Thanks! :)