Starting with simple song choices will complement your singing in so many ways.
Easy songs help you to build up your confidence as a singer as there is less room for it all to go wrong and leave you feeling exposed and tone deaf.
Practicing with simple songs will help you to concentrate less on techniques that could trip you up, and more on the basics of good singing practice – things like learning how to breathe correctly, standing upright, relating chords and lyrics, projecting your voice, and all the other factors that will form a foundation for your singing.
Minimizing stress in these early days is vital for those who want to stick with singing. If you can focus more on getting the basics right, then there is all the time in the world to build your voice and progress to more complex popular songs and music later.
Knowing what makes a song easy to sing is the first step in narrowing down the list. It will also help you to understand how a song is built.
Simple Melody: First and foremost, you want a song that has a simple melody that is easy to follow without too many changes. Well-intervals in-between notes is another gold star to look for when finding easy songs to sing. If you think about child songs like nursey rhymes – the melodies are simple, and the notes evenly paced. Many teachers will use hymns and traditional American songs because they are well-known.
Simple Lyrics: Simple lyrics are the second thing to watch for when working out which songs you should get started with. As you will be working on your pronunciation and enunciation – you don’t want something that is going to make you stumble. Love songs and kids songs are great examples of songs that don’t take too much work when it comes to the lyrics.
Simple Timing: Straightforward timing will carry you far at this stage – you want your notes to be falling on the beat, not sending you all over the show. You also want the songs to have a short range – its too early in the game for beginner singers to be thinking about leaping from low to high notes.
Simple Message: Finally, look for a song that holds a universal message and is easy to relate too. Musical theater songs, love songs, worship songs or even the Star SpangledStar-Spangled Banner- when you understand the message you will find it easier to throw yourself into the delivery. Picking songs that are subversive or need some unraveling will affect your delivery – so save the symbolism, metaphors or Spanish songs (unless you speak Spanish) for later in your career.
A few examples of easy songs in different genres can be as following;
Build me up Buttercup – The Foundations
These Boots are Made for Walking – Nancy Sinatra
500 Miles – The Proclaimers
Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley
I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
Funny Honey from Chicago
Mamma Mia from Mamma Mia
Do re mi from Sound of Music
So This is Love from Cinderella
Of course, there are thousands of songs out there that work well for those who want to start simple and build their way up. It also helps if the song has been covered by several different artists as you will be able to find a version that best matches the style of your voice. For those working with piano accompaniment or guitar accompaniment, these simpler styles of songs are also easy to learn on an instrument.
Finding the right style of songs for your own unique voice is part of developing your talent and skillset. Along with ensuring that you are selecting songs that you can sing well, the exercise will also help you to get to know your own voice better.
One of the best things to look for when finding which songs suit your voice is to choose something that feels natural. If you find that you are needing to force your pitch to go too high or too low and its causing your voice to strain – this probably isn’t the right song for you at this stage.
The aim is to find songs that sit in the closest range to your natural speaking voice. Not only will this keep your voice healthy as you aren’t having to strain, but it will also communicate the message of the song clearly to your audience.
Part of being a singer is learning that your body is your instrument and you need to learn to listen to that instrument. If a song leaves you feeling out of breath, of or you feel your neck muscles tightening, then maybe you need to reconsider if this is the right song.
Certain types of voice can be best suited to different types of songs. Softer voices tend to be matched with acoustic and love songs, strong voices work great with musical theater or Broadway, and gravelly voices are amazing when married to rock songs.
The ability to pick perfect songs for yourself is all about knowing your voice intimately and being able to correctly assess your own ability and reach. Working with a vocal teacher can be a great journey that helps you to understand your own voice and talents better. If you prefer to stick to karaoke for the time being, then at least start considering whether the song you are blasting out is working with your natural voice.
Whether you are blasting out the karaoke for a fun time or if you are using it for more serious practice, the aim is to use this trusty little machine to help build your voice and confidence. While most people rely on lashings of booze to get their karaoke confidence up, this isn’t a great idea.
Singing while drunk, especially at the early stages, makes you careless with your voice. You may recall an eve on the karaoke where you woke up with a hoarse or sore throat. This could be because the alcohol prohibited you from listening to your body, you didn’t realize that you were screaming out the chorus to Adele, you thought you were singing gently, now your vocal chords are suffering.
If you are going to sing karaoke songs, try and be aware of picking a song that works well with your voice, that way you don’t have to push and strain and risk damaging your vocal cords.
Another great tip for beginners when it comes to karaoke is to pick a song that has well known chords and lyrics. Rather than standing on that stage alone and under full exposure, if you choose to sing an original version of a pop song, the audience are sure to sing along with you. Having the audience join in gives you a chance to build confidence and practice vocal tips and techniques with a microphone, on stage and without feeling completely naked. Plus, seeing people enjoying your performance works wonders for building the experience of the rewards of singing. Check out karaoke songs people will love right here.
Try to pick songs that are short and sweet, you don’t want to be warbling up on stage for a full fifteen minutes, the audience will get restless, you may hit your stride too early and struggle to finish, and for beginners it’s a lot of pressure to keep your performance level up that long. You may find by the 7th chorus round that you are exhausted, and your voice has fallen flat. With singing you should consider every performance like training, as though you were training to be a mountaineer. You don’t head straight for Kilimanjaro, you hit the hills first.
Scale back the ambition when you first climb on stage to sing karaoke. You may think that by picking that Paul McCartney song or Maria Careys greatest hits that you will be able to belt it out and be signed by a record company on the spot. That is probably not going to happen, mainly because record companies rarely hang around karaoke bars.
If you go too ambitious at first you are always going to fall short of the original artist. Your aim is to pick a mediocre song that you can sing well – maybe even better than the original! If you choose a great song that doesn’t require insane levels of skill and technical ability, you are more likely to shine than if you attempt something difficult.
If your child is just starting out in singing, it is also important to pick simple songs for them to practice. Fortunately, many children’s songs are designed to be simple in format, pitch, tone and lyrical complexity.
Children are often introduced to singing via simple nursey rhymes when they are small, by worship leaders in Sunday school, or from campfire songs. The trick with teaching children how to sing is to put a lot of emphasis on it being a fun time.
Songs with a slow steady beat, like Jingle Bells for example, are great first timers for children to sing. They are repetitive, simple, fun and don’t demand too much mentally or physically from the child which is an awesome way of building up confidence.
Songs for toddlers should have a limited range – it is said that for this age range children sing the most comfortably when they are in a middle C to a G. Choose songs that have lots of interactive moments weaved in, from pointing to body parts to wiggling around, little ones will find action songs much more memorable like the wheels on the bus.
For children, singing in D is said to be the most beneficial note. This is because D is neither too high or low and helps them to control the pitch. For those children that are just starting out in singing, learning to be pitch perfect and to sing in tune will be a valuable resource they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.
After mastering easy songs to sing and hitting all the basics, you can then look for songs that will to build your voice. Singing easy songs is amazing in so many ways – your confidence, stage presence and understanding of music can all bloom beautifully from warbling simple love songs, harmonizing on easy hymns, and hitting all the notes on Star Spangled Banner.
But part of the beauty, awe and wonder of singing is that it’s a skill you can build upon, its an art form that can evolve with you as a person, and it’s an outlet that keeps challenging and engaging you on your journey.
Finding songs to build your voice will contribute to you becoming a great singer and will keep you interested in what you do. Before you start exploring which songs will build your voice, you need to analyze and understand your own voice .
If you have been practicing with easy songs to sing, then you should have an idea as to what your parameters are. You will know how your comfortable chest voice feels, when you are struggling to reach a note, which pitch feels the most natural, and where your vocal strengths and weaknesses lie.
If you are struggling to pin down your strengths and weaknesses, this is where having a lesson with a voice teacher or vocal coach can come in handy. Having someone who can deliver an objective opinion based on fact rather than emotion will help to channel your energy in the right direction. If you can’t commit to a series of lessons for whatever reason, even just one lesson will give you a glimpse of the feedback you need from a third party.
No singer wants to be stuck in a rut, and this is where you can start to look for songs that will help to build your range. Pick songs that are close to your natural range, but that also push you a little bit further along in your development. A good example for a female singer with a low range and natural chest voice is Stay by Rhianna.
Working with a song’s range is also a great way to start building in more emotive performances. Songs with highly intensive emotions can nudge you to push the key a little higher. Those gentle and thoughtful songs invite you to bring your key a little lower. By injecting a little play into your range, you will bring a much deeper emotive connection to the words, and this can truly start to make a song your own.
Another musical aspect that will help you to build your voice is to start thinking about tempo. At the beginning, singers or those who are learning tend to stick to songs with a slower tempo. Ballads and love songs and even country songs are great for students at the beginning of their musical journey because they have a lot more time to find the right pitches, deepen their vowels, understand phrasing and to learn how to effectively breathe better when singing.
For those students who keep up their vocal practice and who sing slow tempo songs time and time again, you are training your muscles and reflexes. The stronger these muscles and reflexes become the more you can start to weave in songs that have a more upbeat and complex tempos.
Finding songs that will push and challenge you relies on singers having savvy knowledge about music and what’s out there. As a singer, you should make it your business – not just to listen to songs you like within your genre, but to listen to all kinds of different music, even if you just want to work on audition songs or Broadway you should still listen to all kinds of music.
The best advice authors give to young writers is to read as many different books as possible. The same is true of singers. If you are passionate about singing, the more different styles of singing you expose yourself too – the more creative choices, tips and techniques you will be able to take away from the experience.
As you move into more professional elements of singing, such as performing, you will need to start selecting songs based on your audience too. Of course, singers should always pick songs that work with their voice and their range but choosing songs to suit the occasion will work within your favor.
For example, if you are singing at a wedding – love songs are sure to go down a hit, whereas if you were singing at a rock concert, a soft slow tempo set will probably make your audience restless waiting for something a little livelier.
Another thing to consider when finding the right song to sing in a live setting is to consider the performance. If you fill your set list with upbeat fast tempo songs, then your audience is going to expect high levels of energy. If you know that after just 2 songs you will be ready to fall flat on your face then consider weaving some slower, lower energy songs into the mix. It can help to video yourself practicing a song so you can analyze the performance.
Singing is a journey, and everyone needs to start by taking just one step. You may dream of wowing crowds in live concerts, of having record deals, and hitting notes that would make other singers weak at the knees but first - you must start slowly, one foot at a time.
Finding easy songs to sing early on will equip you with skills you can carry for the rest of your life. It’s like learning to read – practice your ABC’s until you know the alphabet off by heart, start reading children’s books, before moving onto the classics. Study the dictionary and the thesaurus, before you know it you will be reading War and Peace. This is just an analogy for singing – start with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and in time you will be singing Michael Jackson’s greatest hits without pausing for breath.
Keep in mind that optimum vocal health is an essential ingredient on the journey. Quit smoking, keep yourself hydrated, and always do your vocal exercises before setting out to sing.
If the road seems long and arduous and you want to get there quicker, then investing in your voice can take a different angle. Working with a qualified vocal coach or singing teacher, or even taking lessons in an online setting can speed up the process. Tried and tested techniques, simple and sophisticated methods, and an awareness of how the voice works will all override raw talent. If you want to go hitch a ride on the long road to being a star – start with voice lessons.
The more work, commitment and willingness you invest in these early days of learning to sing, the more rewarding your journey will be.
Good luck and keep on singing.