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To be a great Karaoke artist you must love yourself, love your audience, but most of all, remember that friends don't let friends sing drunk! Not your REAL friends, anyway.

Karaoke is supposed to be all good fun, not all good music. In Japan, the more terribly that you sing, the more an audience will love and cheer for you. In America, well, it doesn't hurt to have a nice spin on a song. I can help you to make your voice sound better, but that is not truly the secret to good Karaoke.

It is not the best voice that wins over an audience. Think about what you enjoy when you are in the audience. It is more fun to watch someone stand with confidence and have a great time while they murder a song than it is to watch a statue of a person concentrate and hit each note with quality.

Think basic! A song is a story. A singer is a story teller. The audience is there to hear about your tale of love, of woe, of humor, or of a "Trailer for Sale or Rent." If "Your Boots are Made for Walkin'" then tell those people WHY!

As basic as it sounds, you need to practice. Pick a song that you know and enjoy. First, read it as a story to get the meaning in your bones, then belt it out acappella (no background music) and listen to the bald sound of it. If that is too rough on your ears, try singing in the shower. You'll get lots of reverb (the sound bounces off the tiles, which makes you sound better to your own ears). A little reverb can go a long way.

Now try making the story more interesting by changing the intensity and volume of your voice in different segments. Try channeling different emotions into the song. Sing the whole thing angry once, then sad, then happy. Then try mixing it up at different times in the song, at first be happy, then get angry and end the song sad. Feel how this changes your voice and your performance.

All of that said, there is music behind the story and you can do things at home to improve your singing voice to lend you confidence. Breathing is one of the most important things in singing. How much breath comes out with a note changes how your voice sounds. When you sing, make sure that your breath is coming from your abdomen (deep breathing) and not your chest (shallow breathing).

Take a book and hold it against a wall with your abdomen, push against it and sing a note. See how your voice becomes stronger? Then try to create that same feeling in your body without the book to help you. Also, try to relax and open your throat (think "yawn"). Open your mouth when you sing, a wider mouth can bring rounder tones. Now, add in the story thing and go have some fun.

To be a super star at Karaoke, remember:
1) Have fun!
2) A song is a story first and foremost.
3) Different emotions will color your voice in different ways.
4) Work on singing (and breathing) from your abdomen, not your chest.
5) Create round tones with a wide open mouth.
6) Have fun!

Learn more about this author, Lynne Jablonski.
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