Become a Professional Singer - Three Core Skills You Must First Master

Many people consider taking their singing hobby and turning it into a career. Most people just don't know how. In this article I will be explaining the three core elements you need to make it as a singer.

Professional singers can broadly be divided into two categories - Popular or classical. Whilst many of the principals I will outline below apply to both worlds, there is much more emphasis on vocal training in the classical world. The rest of this article is therefore written with popular music singers in mind.

Pro singers in the popular music world can be divided once again into those who perform original material and those who perform cover versions of already popular songs. These singers maybe solo vocalists, or perform as part of a band. Successful singers in both groups usually have the following three core elements in common.

1. Voice
   
2. Performance
   
3. Music
   

These may seem obvious, but please read on as I develop these ideas

Voice

You don't need to have an amazing voice to become a professional singer, but it sure helps. Neither do you need to have any formal vocal training, although having a few lessons with a vocal coach can certainly help you learn the basic key principles that can help you improve much faster. The most important thing to do as a budding professional singer is practice. Only through practice will you develop the vocal strength, stamina and lung capacity you need to be a performer.

It will pay to be honest to yourself about your singing abilities at this early stage. Get some friends opinions, ask them to be honest, and be prepared for the worst. At least if you find out that you only sound good in your own head now, you won't waste years of your life.

Performance

The first thing must have for a professional singer is confidence. Don't worry if you haven't got this yet, singing is a great way of developing your self confidence. You need to get out to some karaoke nights, open mic nights and talent competitions to overcome your fear before you can start getting paid to sing.

You must also work to develop your own style as a musician. Once you've mastered your tracks, play around with the phrasing and melodies and take time to try new things. You need to stand out from the crowd.

Your on stage image is very important. Even if you're in a band that just wears jeans and tee shirts on stage, make sure they are clean and fit well. A poor image makes a bad first (and lasting) impression on your audience.

Music

The final element is the music. You can have a great voice and excellent presentation, but if your music is awful you won't get very far.
There are three ways to get music to sing:-

• Cover Versions - download backing tracks off the internet
  
• Original material - write your own music
  
• Original material (2) - find someone else to write music for you
  

The most important thing that you need to remember, until you're famous is that you must keep the music you perform appropriate for the audience.

In conclusion, you must master three core elements can you start to think about getting paid for your work as a singer. Why not try and offer your singing services to a charity night for free, so you can test out your skills in front of a live audience, and get some experience of what it's like to be a professional singer.

Best of luck!