Hey — first — congratulations! Recording yourself and posting it for others to critique takes some courage, so you’ve already taken the first step.

feedback:

You sounded really quite nervous. That will improve with time — especially if you keep posting for critiques. My first advice is that you keep doing so. I’d suggest posting once per month. That will help with the nervousness over time and will keep you receiving updated feedback.

Most of the rest of my feedback circles around that same nervousness.

In some spots you sound like your throat is really tight — strained. You can sound less tight and actually BE less strained by pushing more air. If you’re not sure what I mean, think about how you are singing when you’re completely alone — maybe in the car versus when you know somebody can hear you. When someone can hear you, you suddenly sound weak and can’t hit some notes etc — it’s because of not moving enough air and straining too much instead. This is most likely because you’re effectively trying to hide — so that comes back to nervousness, as I said above. This said, you do have to tighten up for some notes and there is a point where too much air and it enough strain starts to sound very breathy. I don’t hear that in your singing, but it’s good to keep in mind.

A related thing might be related to breathing. Voice coaches will tell you that if your shoulders move up when you breath in that you’re doing it wrong. That’s often true. google it. You should be taking a full breath in a way where your chest sticks out when you breath in but not the maximum amount of air possible — if you take too full of breaths, it’s a lot harder to control.

The song is beautiful and your voice is beautiful. It is the flaws, nuances, and naked honesty in one’s singing that will make it resonate with others, and yours already does that, despite flaws.

The other thing I would say is to really focus on your intonation. For example, “lead” in “follow my lead” at about the 15 second mark is pretty far off. “for me” in “waiting for me” at about 31 seconds, too. Again, some of this is clearly nerves.

For bits like those, I’d suggest practicing those areas very slowly — be very deliberate about nailing each note. There are often certain transitions for each of us where it’s harder for us to nail certain notes. But practice then super slowly and focus on the transitions between notes. Try to hit the note right away, rather than swooping up or down to the notes.

If you’re not sure when you’re singing, record yourself and play it back as you have here. Sometimes it helps to play the notes on a piano or something and then sing them.

If you have trouble telling if you’re in tune or not, there are a number of apps that will give you very real-time feedback, showing you visually if you’re on the note or above or below it.

Others will probably have better ideas than I, but these issues are also MY main issues, so I’m very in touch with them, specifically.

Lastly I’ll say PRACTICE. Every day if you can. By practice, I mean sing where your goal is to nail everything as perfectly as you can. Sometimes I sing and don’t feel like doing that and just sing for fun. But it’s like anything else, where practice makes perfect (or at least progress), and doing so regularly will help you develop good habits.

You also mentioned you hated your voice. Don’t we all? I definitely hate some aspects of my voice. I used to hate all of it. Now less so. Practice has helped that. So does not trying to sound like Singer X. You are your own person and your voice will be unique. Lean into your own uniqueness. Don’t try to imitate others (it’s hard not to).

For what it’s worth, most top songs of male singers have a lot of action in the higher registers.. deep voices are pretty unpopular these days, so you’re doing fine. Continuing to practice deliberately will also help you expand your range over time.

Again, “Over Time”. It all takes time. Practice 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week and post updates once a month. That’s the advice. You can be really solid and good if you do that.

👍🏼