How to become a great singer | Think Like A Musician

Not only am I humming on an airplane, I’m also the friend you’ll be walking with and I’ll be like, (singing) voo-zhhh.

The instruments on your body; you just play it all day, you know what I mean?

Hey, you! Yes, you. Is there music inside of you?

We’ve recruited working musicians from throughout the industry to help you hear it, hold it, and share it with this wild and wonderful world.

My parents met in a gospel choir, they’re both gospel singers.

And they always joke that, in the Breland family, if you can't sing, you'll get sent back.

My dad showed me a tape of a musical called “Les Miserables,” and I got hooked.

I was the new girl at a lot of schools, and I would just take my guitar to some beautiful location and sing myself into being okay.

The way that I came to singing was through school choir, and it didn't hurt that I was also surrounded by some of the most eccentric singer-songwriters on the planet through my family’s music shop.

A great vocal performance is first and foremost feeling.

Louis Armstrong does not have a huge range.

Nat King Cole— not a huge range. No acrobatics, but you could feel the emotion in the words.

Oftentimes, it’s not the best vocalist that’s going to win on a song.

It’s whoever’s voice is able to best convey whatever story it is that they’re telling and whatever emotion it is that they’re trying to convey.

Like Alison Krauss, I feel like she's not singing notes.

The notes of existence are emanating from her.

Someone like a Zach Bryan, who maybe isn’t the best vocalist in the world— and he would tell you that— but he’s telling these stories and you believe him.

And I love Leonard Cohen, who's got this baritone speaking, melodic spoken delivery.