Singing with people in the house
JethroDavison
Member Posts: 28
Hi, can anyone give me some advice on singing with others in the house. I'm 17 and live in my parents house and my dad's office is next to my room. I'm not sure how I can practice or record with him next door and dry walls. I know it's gonna be kinda awkward because singing is something I started doing recently so my parents have never heard me sing in my life 😂 and singing is just something that is quite awkward in my family. I have no clue why its like this. I want to be more serious about music but seems so awkward when my family are listening. I know they will likely be like are u singing then laugh.
Comments
are they fine with the noise levels, could your dad work in there with your singing? if so, you "just" need to overcome the awkwardness (i know how hard that is, what you describe is quite common for singing).
you will need to overcome this step by step. what could help is that the practice does not nor is it meant to sound good.
then there is the noise: you will have to arrange your times around your dad's schedule if that's a problem for him.
there are ways to minimize the noise (from technical gadgets to treating the walls, to just go somewhere else for practice), there is plenty of that discussed on the forum, have a look.
some keywords for you to search here: neighbors (might be spelled neighbours too), beltbox, practice in the car
Do your parents regularly watch TV shows together? This could be a great opportunity for you to practice in your room while they have the TV on in another room.
You could buy your dad a good set of closed back headphones that he could wear in his office while you are singing?
It would be cool to have a discussion with your parents and tell them what your goals are and explain that it will take time for you to learn to sing in key and you will be focusing on technique with things like support, breath control, lifting soft palate, preventing larynx from getting to high etc... and so pitch is not the only thing you will be focusing on, in-fact I would say that a big part of being able to get pitch right is learning all the above technique, especially true for the upper half of your range.
Also if you can agree on a scheduled time, it may help.
Other ideas:
Do you have a garage or shed at your place that you could setup for practice? You could even maybe make a booth with some old mattresses in the far corner or something.
There maybe a local community center that would be open to letting you use a room after hours.
Not sure if you are at work or school but there may be the opportunity of using a room there after hours.
Maybe there is a local business that would be open to allowing you to use one of their rooms after hours.
When I was younger I got permission to practice at the local church, I was playing guitar at the time. This was great as it was all setup for music. Even if you don't go to church, you may be able to barter, offering cleaning for use of the room or something.
Regards,
Scotty
if the worst that happens is they make a joke out of it, don't do any of it though, and just let them have the fun
"I know singing and music have never been a thing people do in our family, but it's something I'm really interested in, and I want to be a better singer because it makes me feel good. Nobody sounds good doing scales, so you're going to want to laugh when you hear me practicing, but I would really appreciate your support and at least not let me know you're laughing."
And then talk about how/when you can practice without bothering anyone.
This is a really important thing to deal with because of the way our psychology affects singing. My wife and I had a friend quarantine with us for two weeks, and I had a similar conversation with him (and eventually I started practicing in the garage while he was here). But when you're worried about annoying your neighbors or others in your house, you tend to try and hold back the sound, which can result in improper technique, like forcing extra air to maintain your tone while trying to sing softly. This part is especially true when doing the chest voice stretching exercises. When I had a question about it, @Wigs told me that if you're not yelling but singing loudly enough to make your neighbors in the next flat want to turn the TV up, you're doing it right.