Acapella / A Cappella (Italian) – adverb, adjective:
Hey friends! Did you ever notice that when you are singing without playing an instrument you usually sound much better? That’s happening thanks to the fact that you do not split your attention between singing and playing an instrument. Sometimes, especially with singing amateurs, when you’re also playing the guitar, your singing tends to get a “mumbly” tone and diction, lower volume, etc. Here’s the solution!
It’s a cool singing hack that I discovered by total coincidence a few month ago. It helped me a lot, and since then I have had a lot of time to toy around and improve it before I share it with y’all and let you guys and girls enjoy it as well:
In order to sing much better when you are accompanying yourself on the guitar or piano – start singing the song first without playing the instrument!
Table of Contents
ToggleStarting Acapella Has Many Benefits – It Lets You…
- Focus 100% of your attention on the singing and giving everything you got! Get the vocal part of the song under control!
- Working on perfecting your diction and actually feeling and thinking about the emotions that the lyrics talk about – which of course is very hard to do when you are focusing on the chord you are playing right now, the next chord, the strumming patterns, your fingers and so on.
- Start the song with a great balance and not when singing is just a “side” for the playing. Therefore – your singing will be way better.
- HEAR yourself better, pay attention to your mistakes and points you need to improve and adjust your singing accordingly.
- Focus on correct singing technique fixes that will “stick” when you start playing your instrument a few seconds later.
- ONLY when you feel ready and “balanced” – you let the guitar join in or you restart the song with a better grip on the vocal parts.
So How Exactly Do I Do It?
- Strum just the first chord or few chords of the song for yourself to know which key and what pitch you should start in. If it’s too high or too low, change it with a capo or by transposing. Ultimate Guitar, for example, lets you transpose songs very easily with just one click.
- Stop the guitar / piano completely. Ignore them. Now – start singing the song and sing acapella for at least a few seconds. Bring on 100% of your singing skills!
- You will immediately notice how your singing sounds so much better. More vibrancy, more volume, sweeter tone, more everything. It’s amazing!
- When you feel ready, join in with your guitar or piano, or even go back to the beginning and restart the song. Amazing difference huh?
You can record yourself to see the differences immediately.
There you go, great “trainer wheels” technique that you can noodle around with and improve your singing results starting from today.
Have fun singing!