Hey all,
Went for a run a few weeks ago with my mp3 player and was singing along to a song during cool-down and it actually suprised me how much better it was to sing along to a song using earphones.

It changes the way you hear YOUR voice because it changes the mix of your external v internal hearing and I could hear my voice in a whole different light. I have been experimenting with this since and I really think it helps to get the seperation of what your singing to/with and what your own voice is doing.

Has anyone else tried this ?

Anton

when i sing along with headphones my pitch becomes very accurate probably because i hear the song better that way. i dont make as much mistakes.

Make sure your recording yourself singing this way from time to time. Often times, when we hear our voices along with a singer on a CD, we start to hear their voice over our own and it sounds like a perfect blend and thats not always the case. When I first started out singing I always sang along with the CDs. As soon as I would sing without the CD or with an instrumental track, i'd be lost again without the guide vocal.

Since singing is all about training co-ordination and muscle memory this has to help even when you take away the guide later...

It does help, i'm just saying people need to record themselves if they practice there stuff like this so that they can go back from time to time to make sure they aren't developing bad habits, and are actually sounding as good as they think they are :)

When i'm working on a song, I put the CD into my Tascam Vocal Trainer and sing along with the artist to learn the basic melody, but then I remove the vocal track or work on it a cappella so I can do it my own way.

I agree completely with Austin on this subject. ALways record yourself when you're singing a song. What I do is record myself singing along with a cd, then listen to both myself, and the original song with one speaker up to 1 ear playing me, and the other on the other ear playing the original. This lets me know if i'm ever Flat, sharp, or straining. This has helped me greatly in the past to find the right pitches when I was a little confused.

Ah okay I get you. Never heard of this Tascam thing will read up on it.

I guess what surprised me listening to songs directly in - ear was how much eaiser it was to get the pitch and feel your own pitch if it was off.

well i do record myself a lot, and my pitches are actually more accurate with the headphones on. but i dont do it as often because it kinda messes with the way my voice sounds to me. so i use headphones when im consistently making mistakes in pitch while singing a particualr song. that way it speeds up the learning process for me.

i read somewhere that mick jagger and steve tyler do this while running so they dont gas out on stage...seems to work well for them

Tyler's vocal coach told me a while back I believe that Steven Tyler used to (or maybe still does) run 10 miles a day when on the road... thats insane but I can see it being true. I saw Beyonce interviewed and she said she did 8 miles a day, most of the time while singing, to build endurance so it works; it's just not that beneficial if its the ONLY way that you practice.

Yes this does work and I heard that Beyonce does this along with tons of scale work.

The challenge is to sing LEGATO(smoothly) while running, it creates control over the breathing. As opposed to singing staccato, which is what you'd expect due to the usual breathing pattern that takes place while running.Also, your running posture needs to be aligned, so I recommend you study correct running posture.