[A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
When you think you’re not singing well, you’ll often blame yourself. But what if it’s something else, something outside yourself that you can fix quite easily? 
Here are some reasons why you might not think you’re a good singer and what you can do about it.
It takes a long time to become a good singer. I’m sure you get impatient when you’re not improving quickly enough, and when you do, you start to blame yourself for not being a good singer. Give it time. Enjoy the journey of discovery. Many professional singers take a good six months or more before a song is really under their belt and they continue to do warm ups and vocal exercises throughout their career. You never ‘arrive’.
It might be that the songs you’re trying to sing are just not in your range. Yes, it’s possible to extend your range gradually over time, but there will come a limit. You may have to accept that you’re a low singer or that your range is not as big as you’d like. If you can’t hit a note it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough, it just means it’s the wrong key or the wrong song.
Make the most of what you’ve got and don’t see it as a limitation. Apparently Billie Holiday had a range of just one octave and look what she achieved.
Many of us have favourite singers and would love to sound just like them. But we’re not them. As Oscar Wilde said: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Celebrate your own unique voice and stop trying to be someone else. The singers you admire got where they are because they sound unique so why copy them?
You are not that important in the grand scheme of things, none of us are.
Some people are thrust into the spotlight and become ‘celebrities’ in our modern culture. We then look upon them as something different, something special, something that we aspire to. But it’s very, very unlikely that you will ever reach those giddy heights (and, perversely, the more you try to reach them, the less likely you are to succeed). You, like the rest of us, are a mere mortal.
Enjoy who you are and what you’ve got and stop trying to be something special. Simply accepting your ordinariness can often allow you to become the ‘star’ that you really are. Stop chasing things and just get on with singing.
You might also be interested in reading these other articles.
But I can’t sing that high!
How to make a song your own
How to enjoy singing and not worry what others think
How to improve your singing voice
The secret to great singing that teachers don’t tell you
Be the best singer you can, but don’t forget there’s more to life
What makes a ‘good’ singer? – it’s all about context
Never let the fake perfection of pop singers put you off singing
How to sing – the definitive guide
Is how you label yourself as a singer holding you back?
Making the most of your singing voice – it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it
Chris Rowbury
website: chrisrowbury.com
blog: blog.chrisrowbury.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisRowbury
Twitter: Twitter.com/ChrisRowbury
Monthly Music Roundup: Tinyletter.com/ChrisRowbury
