The Complete Idiot's Guide to Singing

by Phyllis Fulford, Michael Miller

An easy-to-read guide to becoming a singer (or a better singer)-from finding an ideal singing range and how to practice, to gathering enough courage to sing in public.

€ Includes an audio CD with examples of different techniques and accompaniments for the singing exercises outlined in the book
€ Tips on how to stand and breathe properly
€ Techniques on singing in various styles
€ Resources for finding a teacher
€ Also The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Songwriting

Genres: Music

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Lachlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book on vocal technique!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through how to produce a great sounding singing voice as a complete beginner. The authors cover all the important bases and use simple language to convey fairly tricky concepts. The challenge with describing how to sing is that everything is hidden in your body, so you have to feel and hear the differences in technique. While I am no great singer at all, I feel this book provides a fantastic starting point on which to build. The authors state early on and a few times that there is no substitute for a good teacher, no matter how good a book is. To that end, this is probably one of the better books to read if you don't have the money for a teacher.

[Charles]

I bought this book at the Stanton library book fair for $2 - what a bargain! I am interested to develop my voice for public speaking and this book has a lot of exercises as well as a CD. Now I am working through the book, discovering my vocal range (it happens to be in the lower ranges of tenor / upper baritone).

The book recommends recording your voice so you can play back and analyse, which I am doing using my Microsoft LifeCam Webcam which has quite a good build in microphone.

[Stephanie Kurisunkal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me improve my singing!

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay book. It seemed like the author expected the reader to know a lot about music and singing before even reading the book - like being able to read music and understanding terms like "head singing" which was not explained until later. The book might have been planned out a little better, with more explanation before using the terms. Not everyone who reads the book has been in choir.

Also there was an odd comment about a "cure" for allergies being available over the counter but no further information. Really? A cure? Having dealt with allergies most of my life, I'd love for there to be a cure. Pray, dear author, what is it?

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very happy that almost none of the information in this book conflicted with what I have been taught so far in my three years of voice lessons. Also, it made me happy and more determined to stick with practicing and learning the classical style of singing, since it is so much easier to move into other styles than it is to move into classical singing from other styles. The most essential point from this book is that good singing requires a good imagination (being able to imagine the sound of a note and its placement in your head). So, it makes even more sense now why my voice teacher spends so much time on trying to find mental imagery that works for me. I may refer back to this book to listen to some of the suggested singers from various genres and maybe for some of the exercises, since that is one disappointing thing from my lessons - I don't have a book of exercises/warm-ups.

There was quite a large chunk on how to read music and very basic music theory, which I didn't need, so I skimmed over it, but it really is amazing that you can almost always learn something even about topics that have been a natural part of you for most of your life. I never knew that the sharps and flats of a key signature are written on the line/space that they sharp or flat. I just thought that the pattern different key signatures are always written in was just for aesthetic purposes!

The other take-away from this book was to stay as healthy as possible, since the body is your instrument! The author highly recommends yoga to help with posture and breath control, so I may take basic yoga up soon. I will definitely stick with my daily work at becoming a runner so that I can increase my lung capacity. I also need to get back to my healthy eating practice too. The few weeks I was following The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good! a couple months ago made a noticeable difference in my voice!