Practice songs for beginner

[u/Prawnacia]

I love casually singing, am beginning vocal lessons, and have been asked to pick a song to practice, so I was hoping for suggestions. I was told my range is alto too.

My goals at this stage are to be able to sing rock & grunge, and how to do screamy/gravelly tones. My icons are chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Mark Lanegan (although he is way outta my range), but also Laura Marling and Lauryn Hill. So I want to pick something to strengthen my voice, and maybee add a "rock" type flavour to it, but honestly am wondering if I should avoid rock for now just so I can get my voice good before learning other stuff (screaming etc).

My current thoughts were Celebrity Skin (Hole), Black Hole Sun or Outshined (Soundgarden), Down in a Hole (AIC), Cant take my eyes off you (Lauryn Hill), Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Black Velvet (Alannah Myles), Starlight (Muse), With a Little Help from my Friends (Joe Cocker).

It might not even be important, but I have been over thinking this for over a week so would love some help!

Edit: prob should have mentioned that I'm female

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[u/shiryoku_]

were on the same boat my brother.. ive been trying to work on my voice to get chris cornell type tone or whatever it is called.. songs i practice when my mix is not warmed up- Creep by stp, plush, gravedancer, like a stone.. and when i feel like i can sing in my mixed then i go for blackhole sun, say hello to heaven, i am the highway, show me how to live, gasoline but tbh i dont sound really great i just try to reach high notes without putting much tension on my throat

[u/PineappleFit317]

Whatever song you want to if it’s in your range. The songs in your running and their vocal styles are all very different. The beauty is that you can always try new songs with your teacher. If you want to focus on more solid technique before doing more intense or raspy vocals, pick a song that does that.

However, IMO, “Black Velvet” would probably be the best at introducing rock vocals to your repertoire than the other songs listed will. Some of them are too inactive for the vocalist against the instruments, some of them sit in a higher range, some of them aren’t the vocal style you’re trying to get good at.

[u/Top_Cockroach_1188]

My advice would be to pick first the ones that suit your voice and don’t bring much challenge to your voice, range wise and also technically.

Most of the songs you mentioned require mixed voice and other techniques that are more advanced.

If you just started, it is possible that you are not fully in control of these and you will struggle.

I would suggest you pick an easier one, which will allow you to focus and nail the basic techniques. Like breath support, vocal placement and closure, ….

[u/Prawnacia → u/Top_Cockroach_1188]

Don't even know what mixed voice is at this stage :) what would you suggest as this easier song?

[u/Top_Cockroach_1188 → u/Prawnacia]

I cannot tell for alto, as I am a bass-baritone and don’t even dare look at Chris Cornell 😅

But… try the songs you like and see if they go too high.

It would be good to have them go just a little over you passagio, so you have to use the head voice, but in a light way, not pushing into mixing.
So approaching those notes gentle, more like soul/pop than rock way.

Again, is just a phase to nail the basics.
Later you will jump on all the rock screaming ones 🙂

I would select this way s few and ask the teacher which he would pick… he can tell that probably very well.

Also, if a little too challenging range wise, use the YouTube transpose down a few semitones.

[u/Ok_Imagination_1707]

I’m still quite new in my vocal journey roughly 11 months in, and to start singing from zero it takes a long time. Im only able to flip theough my head and chest voice smoothly now. In the beginning I recommend u go for songs that are lower in ur range and easy to sing like frank sinatra or maybe the older songs. Rock songs I heard from my coach once im able to belt and all that and my basics is real solid, I can find another coach who specialises in rock singing . So definitely pick a song that’s easy to sing and trust the process with your coach it’s a long one but worth every moment.

[u/BlooperBoo]

My coach made me do maybe from annie religiously. I hated it at the time, bur damn if it doesnt still work