Learn to sing with Matthew Stiff
Read professional singer and ex-G4 member, Matthew Stiff's top tips for singing.
Matthew Stiff didn't experience his first singing lesson until the age of 17. However by the time he had reached his early twenties, he had become a professional singer as a member of classical crossover group G4. Discover the basics of learning to sing in our exclusive video lesson, plus take a look at Matthew's Top Ten Tips for getting started....
Watch Matthew Stiff's video singing lesson here
Matthew's Top 10 Tips
'I don’t profess to being a teacher of singing but here are a few tips that have helped me through my 12 years of singing.'
1. Remember, anyone can learn to sing and it doesn’t matter when you start . Of course it does help if you are young, but I know of many people who started later in life and they said that it was one of the best things they have ever done. It’s never too late.
2. Find yourself a good teacher . Ask around your local area as there will be many teachers who will get you started and won't cost a fortune.
3. Along with all the technical things, the ability to read music will become a very important part of your development. I would suggest looking into learning some basic music theory, as this will help you to progress faster with your voice.
4. Breathing when singing can feel a little strange at first and hard work. My key rule is that everyone is different. Of course there are good techniques that can help you, but through practice you will learn to breathe in the correct places and it will very soon become second nature to you.
5. One of the problems that new singers have is being scared of high notes . The key to singing high is being able to imagine notes as being next to each other rather than a distance apart. Think of singing as a journey with each high note only a step forward along the road.
6. Tension in the body can really hinder the quality of sound that you produce, so make sure you relax . Do not lock your knees and never raise the shoulders when trying to sing high.
7. Join a choir as you will progress a lot quicker than if you sing alone. Singing a lot of music with a quick turnaround will develop your sight reading, which is a valuable skill to have as you enter the world of music.
8. Practice makes perfect . Natural talent can take you so far, but the true greats of our time have spent many hours of every day for many years learning and practicing to be able to sing the way they do.
9. If you ever get to a good enough standard start auditioning, be it a local production of a musical or even a major opera house. The thing is not to be disheartened if you get rejected and believe me you will. Take on board the comments that they give and you never know the next one could be it!
10. Above all things singing should be fun. As well as being very uplifting it can be a great social event. I myself have made many great friendships through music and singing and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.
Happy singing!
Matthew xx
