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question on octaves

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ilovemyself

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Hi!

I just started following a CD with singing lesson. The teacher is a woman. This means that she will sing an octave higher than I should sing as I am a man. How do I deal with this? If I were to imitate her it would sound like I'm singing an octave too high. What should I do?

I am aware that asking a teacher irl is good but I haven't find my teacher yet. I am searching for irl lessons.

and one of the first exercices was sounding like a siren. Is that what people do when they take singing lessons? And the cd include a book with lyrics and chords but not notes that you're suppossed to sing. As a piano player I read sheet music. It also sounded like her singing wasn't exactly a melody that could be written down. I guess it's only when you sing music like Bach chorales that sheet music is needed. What will happened if I take singing lesson?

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Explain why she should sing an octave higher than you or you an octave lower than her. Sounds like you have made several assumptions that need to be abandoned.

 

I agree. Just because she is a woman, that does not dictate that she HAS to sing an octave higher then you and you HAVE to sing an octave lower then her... that is not an absolute truth. Why are you doing that?

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You mean?

I don't understand the need for different octaves. I am trying to understand your assumptions or presuppositions. I think you can truly learn about singing once you let go of assumptions and simply see or hear what there is to learn.

 

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Imo singing along to a CD without much of an idea how and why is probably not going to go anywhere too great. You'd probably be better off singing songs.

But as for your question, when in doubt, learn how to sing octave intervals. It's the easiest interval aside from unison, and sing the note you can currently sing? Take whatever note it is, 12 notes up or down and most likely it will fall into something most people could do. When you get advanced, you will probably have enough octaves to sing whatever you want, (whether they sound good is another story) but as a beginner it's good to have a 'zone' you're in that is stable.

I don't know what kind of CD you're talking about, but a lot of the ones I've seen toss a random exercise (of thousands of possible ones) on a scale, and act like if you do the thing over and over again you'll get good, but in most cases you'll just repeat that thing over and over again and possibly incorrectly.

So my real advice to you would be to take steps into singing. There are good coaches here if you need a coach. You mentioned you have a piano. Move vowels to pitches there. You can invent your own exercises. Explore different vowels, explore your voice. Even if you get a good vocal program and a good vocal coach, who makes sense and is clear with you, most of the singing stuff will be on you to train so the sooner you can get independent. This CD that you have, whether you do it an octave up or down, it's probably not the answer.

The answer will be predominately you. Go to a comfortable middle note on your piano (middle C?). Sing every vowel on it. Go up and go down from there. And if it's not working those are the signs of areas you might need to keep training with support, strengthening, rethink how you're singing those vowels, or just get actual help. If you're directionless enough you don't even know what octave to do something in. You're kind of swimming around in the dark chasing secret fish or something. If you're in the water you might as well learn how to swim. 

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Hi!

I just started following a CD with singing lesson. The teacher is a woman. This means that she will sing an octave higher than I should sing as I am a man. How do I deal with this? If I were to imitate her it would sound like I'm singing an octave too high. What should I do?

I am aware that asking a teacher irl is good but I haven't find my teacher yet. I am searching for irl lessons.

and one of the first exercices was sounding like a siren. Is that what people do when they take singing lessons? And the cd include a book with lyrics and chords but not notes that you're suppossed to sing. As a piano player I read sheet music. It also sounded like her singing wasn't exactly a melody that could be written down. I guess it's only when you sing music like Bach chorales that sheet music is needed. What will happened if I take singing lesson?

Just start that scale in the octave that you are comfortable with........If it happens to be the same pitch as her fine......If an octave lower also fine. The point in exercising is to find the correct coordination and to get your vocal apparatus moving.  Do not forget to sing real songs.

    Sirens are part of a singers exercise regimen along with other scale patterns.  Start in the octave you are comfortable with and Stop at the note that things get uncomfortable.

   We all have different ranges. You total range will change with time and training.

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