Blues music is gritty and glorious, fun both to sing and to listen to. Although the the kind of music was born in the American South, the music brings with a universal message: Life is difficult, and we don’t have any choice in the matter.

Blues songs connect with anyone who has ever been depressed, downtrodden, or just plain badly off. The genre touches the hearts of people young and old from diverse social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

Here’s several helpful recommendation for anyone who wants to sing the blues:

Listen to Blues Performances

To really get a feeling for blues vocals, listen to some of the classic and modern blues professionals, like Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker, BB King, and Ma Rainey. You will notice that the great blues singers have a way of making you feel their pain.

Practice singing along with blues vocalists. Pay attention to the way they use their voice to tell a story and infuse it with emotion. You will find that a raw, rough voice works much better than a smooth, classically trained one.

Practice Singing in a Lower Key

Most blues songs are sung in a middle key or a lower. It’s rare to hear a blues song with soaring high vocals. That’s for the reason that blues music itself is strongly grounded in the misfortunes of life, and upbeat vocals wouldn’t communicate that message.

If you usually sing in a high key, work on fortifying your lower notes. You want to get heard over the horns, bass, and keys that feature in many blues songs. Work on your breath pressure, your chest voice, and the strain on your diaphragm.

You can as well try singing in the same tone of voice that you speak in. This speak-singing will enable you to put more power behind your words.

To improve your lung capacity, try lying on the floor and breathing in as strongly as possible to completely fill your lungs with air. Hold for 5 seconds, then put out. Do this every single day when you warm up.

Sing from the Heart

When you sing the blues, Overlook about putting on a happy face for the audience – you’d lose your credibility! Practice looking extreme, sad, or even surly to match the theme of your song.

Certainly, blues music has a lot of dark humor as well. Feel free to smile as long as you’re laughing at, or in spite of, the many obstacles of life.

Blues is all about emotion. The more feeling you put into your voice, the better. Don’t hold back, and don’t worry about being technically correct when you sing. Get down and dirty and really feel the music.

Forget Most of What You’ve Learned

Listen to a few great blues singers, and you will notice that they have incredible voices that are worlds apart from the sleek sounds of pop and opera. Blues singers tell a story with their words, and their stories are rough ones.

Forget about perfect pitch and clear affirmation when you sing the blues. You want to present your audience a performance packed with power, soul, and raw emotion.

Do your vocal warm-ups prior to a blues performance, but if your voice is a little scratchy, don’t sweat it. Those sounds actually add to the blues experience much more than a completely polished tone would.

If you neglect some of the words to the song, repeat quicker verse or make up new words. Just remember that blues songs are about living with life’s hard knocks, not about overcoming them.

Blues songs don’t usually have happy endings, but with a bit practice, you’ll give your audience some music to smile on.

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